NEW BERN, N.C. – The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization, in partnership with the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources recently purchased a landowner agreement on approximately 181 acres owned by the Whitehurst Family LLC along Upper Broad Creek in Craven County. The Coastal Land Trust and State Division of Forest Resources purchased the landowner agreement on May 29, 2008 with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Legacy Program.

The Federal Forest Legacy Program was established through the 1990 Farm Bill with a goal to protect environmentally sensitive forest lands. The program was specifically designed to encourage the protection of privately-owned working forest lands with grants directed to state forest service agencies. The Forest Legacy Program is entirely voluntary.

“To date, we have closed on a total of five Forest Legacy projects conserving over 6,696 acres of valuable working forest land in North Carolina.” “Obtaining a Forest Legacy grant is an achievement since there is very limited funding and projects compete nationally. The Whitehurst Forest project is certainly worthy of federal funds due to the properties’ ecological significance and its strategic location immediately adjacent to the 2,700-acre Neuse River Game Lands owned by the State of North Carolina,” stated Janice L. Allen, Deputy Director of the Coastal Land Trust.

The Whitehurst Family owns over 2,000 acres of mostly undeveloped and mature longleaf pine and mixed pine hardwood forest between N.C. Highway 55 and Broad Creek Road near the Town of Bridgeton in Craven County. Mr. Samuel Latham Whitehurst, the patriarch, grew up on the property, which has two historic homes that qualify for listing under the National Register of Historic Places. Much of the property has been in the Latham/Whitehurst Family since a King’s land grant.

“It is our honor to work with federal, state and private conservation organizations such as the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust in being a partner in setting aside forestland through conservation easements that will be in perpetuity so that it might be an important part in saving our forestlands for generations to come. On behalf of the Whitehurst family we are grateful for this opportunity,” said Mr. Whitehurst.

The Coastal Land Trust continues to work with the Whitehurst Family to purchase in fee title a 133.5-acre tract of land along Upper Broad Creek just south of the Forest Legacy tract scheduled to close this August. In addition, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission received a state grant to purchase another 430 acres of the Whitehurst property to add to the existing game lands. “Thanks to the Whitehurst Family, we hope that by this fall over 745 acres of the Whitehurst Family property will be forever conserved,” stated Ms. Allen.

The Whitehurst family is also working with The Conservation Consultant (TCC) to identify and implement their long-term conservation and land management objectives. Jeff Fisher, the TCC Whitehurst Project Manager, has a long history of working with land trusts like NCCLT to achieve conservation success. This year TCC will merge with Unique Places LLC, a conservation driven real estate company that utilizes private investments to purchase and protect land with high conservation value.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust works with private individual and corporate landowners in North Carolina to conserve special places along our coast, like the Whitehurst Family property, for the future enjoyment of all North Carolinians. Since 1992, the Trust has helped conserve over 40,000 acres of land in 21 coastal counties of the state. The Coastal Land Trust is based in Wilmington, N.C., and has a local office in New Bern, which serves the central coastal region of the state. If you would like more information on North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, or would like to support its land conservation work, please contact Janice Allen at 252-634-1927 or visit www.coastallandtrust.org.

The North Carolina Division of Forest Resources is directed to protect, manage and develop the forest resources of the state. The agency is directly involved with forest management assistance to private landowners, reforestation services, forest fire prevention and suppression, insect and disease control programs and many other working forest related programs. For more information on the Division of Forest Resources, or on the Forest Legacy Program, please contact Les Hunter at 919/857-4833 in Raleigh or visit www.dfr.state.nc.us.

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