Folks in Valley Center, Julian, Palomar Mountain and other backcountry areas who want to keep their area's rural character intact might look to Fallbrook for guidance.

Admittedly, that might sound a bit doofy at first blush, given how much development has taken place in Fallbrook in the past couple of decades -- to the point that Fallbrook is about as "rural" as Ramona anymore.

Sure, there are still farms and ranches on the outskirts of both burgs, but Fallbrook and Ramona are more towns than villages these days, with suburban sprawl seeping into the pasturage.

But some folks in Fallbrook are trying to save as much of their town's country ambience -- and way of life -- as possible. For the past 20 years, the Fallbrook Land Conservancy has been collecting money and using it to buy undeveloped land around town -- with the goal of keeping that land in its wild state in perpetuity. Other swaths of land have been donated in wills or by developers looking to mitigate environmental harm in nearby construction projects.

The Fallbrook Land Conservancy now has almost 2,000 acres it is preserving for future generations. It's a nice example of putting your money where your mouth is, and some 1,000 members of the conservancy are taking part.

Even the most ardent members of the property-rights crowd, who argue that any zoning is inherently a "taking" of their land, can't argue with what the conservancy is doing. Whenever there is a proposal to use zoning laws to help preserve the rural characteristics of the back country, the property-rights folks always grumble that if we're going to deny them the right to pave over their land as they see fit, we should have the decency to buy it from them.

Well, the conservancy is doing just that.

And it's not alone. For more than a half-century, the international Nature Conservancy has been doing the same thing: buying wild lands to preserve in their natural state.

If the Fallbrook's 2,000 acres seem paltry in comparison to the 117 million acres the Nature Conservancy has protected, consider this: The Fallbrook Conservancy has preserved more than 5 percent of the entire Fallbrook area, with a goal of surpassing 10 percent.

Combine that with the working farms and ranches and county preserves, and you've got a situation where Fallbrook is likely to remain at least semirural for the foreseeable future.

While County Supervisor Bill Horn has never seen an undeveloped parcel he didn't think would look better with a convenience store or fast-food joint on it, and while the county's record on rural preservation is spotty at best, the Fallbrook Land Conservancy shows how ordinary citizens who want to keep at least some of our local landscape free of concrete can successfully work toward that end.

With real estate prices currently depressed from the go-go heyday of just a few years ago, folks in other backcountry areas who worry about urban sprawl intruding on their rural lifestyle may find this a good time to start their own preservation efforts.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at jtrageser@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5408.