Not Out of the Woods Yet : Rocker Don Henley has helped raise almost $4 million to save the land surrounding Walden Pond from development. But there’s still more to do.

It’s nearly 4 p.m., Don Henley’s already done three interviews today, he hasn’t had a thing to eat and, frankly, he’s starting to feel a little dizzy.

But lack of food and an overwrought media schedule won’t stop the singer-songwriter from inviting a reporter into his Southwestern-style Los Angeles home and talking up his cause one more time. The cause is saving Walden Woods.

The fate of portions of the 2,680-acre Massachusetts refuge that was once home to “Walden” author Henry David Thoreau hang in the balance, with developers on one side and Henley, conservationists and Thoreau scholars on another.

“We’re gearing up. It’s a madhouse here because we’re having these two benefits coming up,” says Henley.

“Then in April I’ve got to go back to Boston for a 10-kilometer walk for Walden. The Massachusetts Historical Society has just named me Person of the Year, so I have to accept that award. And what else? Just stuff.”

A lot of stuff. The two benefits are concerts Tuesday and Wednesday at the Universal Amphitheater; the first will feature country music (with Clint Black, Trisha Yearwood, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Billy Dean), the other rock (with Henley, John Fogerty, Neil Young and Roger Waters). Both are to raise funds for the Boston-based Walden Woods Project.

The project is Henley’s most visible endeavor du jour, although he is fighting and has fought other environmental battles. He started the Walden Woods Project two years ago after he heard that one of the parcels of land surrounding Walden Pond was slated for development. (The famed pond itself is on protected land.)

Now working with groups such as the Trust for Public Land and the Thoreau Country Conservation Alliance, the project seeks to buy the land back and preserve the area’s ecosystem for wildlife and for humans who want to bask in the country Thoreau found so inspirational.

So far, the Walden Woods Project has raised almost $4 million from fund-raisers, grants and sales from the book “Heaven Is Under Our Feet,” edited by Henley and Dave Marsh and containing essays with environmental themes from an eclectic group, including Tom Cruise, Robert Bly, Paul Tsongas and E. L. Doctorow.

Early this year, the Walden Woods Project purchased 25 acres of land; it plans to close on another 25-acre parcel (cost: $1.25 million) at the end of this month. This land contains a Georgian-style mansion, which will be renovated and turned into a Thoreau center.

Remaining elusive is an 18.6-acre parcel owned by Boston Properties, with an asking price of $8.3 million. Henley says the price is inflated beyond reason.

James C. Rosenfeld, senior vice president of Boston Properties, says the figure is fair and reflects the costs of roadway improvements, interest, real estate taxes, construction drawings and the hiring engineers and architects. “We would be willing to sell it,” he said, “as long as we can recoup our losses. We’ve met with representatives of the Trust for Public Land and the Walden Woods Project to discuss relative positions, and that’s as far as it’s gone.”

Boston Properties has until June 1 to start construction on the site; after that, a special permit issued by the zoning board in Concord expires. Boston Properties asked for but was denied a two-year extension. Another building permit expires June 19, and without both no construction can be done.

Rosenfeld says his company hasn’t decided what action to take on the land.

The project “keeps me scrambling to raise funds all the time,” says Henley, shaking his head and laughing wearily. “I spend eight to 10 hours a day putting all these things together, and it’s getting a little tiring. I’m not going to quit, but I could use a week or two off, and then I’d like to write some songs and make an album--the thing which makes all this possible.

“I didn’t think we’d get this far this fast,” he continues, “but on the other hand, it’s more complicated than I thought it would be. . . . We need to raise another five or six million bucks, and I think we’d have it pretty much under control.”

Despite Henley’s diligent stumping for funds, he sees himself as a good salesman only “sometimes.”

“I’m getting better,” he concedes. “I’m learning. I’m really not a salesman by nature and I don’t like asking people for things. It’s very difficult for me to go to my peers and ask them to do these benefit concerts, but I have to say that the rock ‘n’ roll people, the music industry and some people in the film industry have been incredibly generous and supportive, and I couldn’t have done it without them.

“It’s been more work than I anticipated, and I anticipated a lot. But it’s OK,” he says, massaging his face, which is covered with a three-day growth of beard. “I’ve learned a lot. You can’t get this kind of education in school. I’ve learned a lot about human nature, about New England politics, some things about national politics that I didn’t know. I’ve learned more about how the system works.

“And I’ve learned the depth of my capacity for perseverance, my downright orneriness. I’ve learned a lot of my faith in human nature that I had lost has been restored from traveling around autographing these books. People come out and line up in the rain and cold for hours just to get my autograph. I think that’s ridiculous, but it’s touching.”

The bright light at the end of Henley’s tunnel is the people he comes across who “do care about what happens to this planet. It’s just that a lot of them don’t know what to do about it. A lot of people feel helpless, they don’t see themselves as part of a collective whole. . . . People have to understand that their voice makes a difference.

“Walden Woods is symbolic of all the little battles that are going on in every community.” While his commitment to this project is unshakable, Henley acknowledges that the responsibility can take its toll.

“If anything,” he says, “this stuff can be damaging to your career. I mean, I should have started an album six or eight months ago. I run the risk of being ubiquitous, I run the risk of wearing out my welcome, I run the risk of people being sick and tired of me and my mouth and what I have to say.

“So it’s not something that enhances my career. It takes away from it. But I feel very strongly about it, and I feel that it is something that has to be done, and I feel like I can do it. I am doing it.”