Landowner Profile

Harris Farm sits on 3,200 acres in Franklin County, where the Harris family has managed it as a productive agricultural land for over two hundred years. The land supports one of the last large blocks of unprotected farm and forest land remaining in the rapidly growing area northeast of Wake Forest.

The Harris family is committed to keeping the land, but faces financial pressure to sell pieces of it for development. Clyde Harris recently reassembled the farm under single ownership, and he now must plan for future management of the property.

Unique Places’ Expertise

Mr. Harris hired Unique Places to develop a long-term conservation strategy that would protect the property as working farmland and forestland and provide a sustainable source of revenue. After balancing Mr. Harris’ financial goals with his sentimental connection to the farm, Unique Places created a plan that can adjust to real estate and conservation funding markets. Unique Places is now helping the Harris family implement the plan on a timeline that meets their long-term financial goals and objectives.

• Unique Places has worked closely with federal, state, county and local organizations to secure appropriate technical assistance and funding.
  
• The conservation planning process involves wildlife and farmland experts from a number of public agencies. Unique Places is managing relationships with these stakeholders.
  
• Acting as a liaison for the client, Unique Places submitted grants to federal, state and county agencies to fund the purchase of forest and farmland easements protecting over 1,382 acres.
  
• The land offers opportunities for ecotourism. Unique Places is helping the Harris family consider appropriate options and connecting them with other local ecotourism endeavors.
  

Conservation Benefits

• Nearly 2,000 will be protected, restored, and maintained as working farm and forest land. The conservation easement abuts over 2,000 acres of permanently protected riparian buffers and working farmland within Franklin County’s Voluntary Agricultural District.
  
• As a result, Harris Farm and the surrounding areas will provide a significant wildlife and working farmland buffer for the existing water quality buffers along Jumping Run Creek and the Tar River, a regionally significant natural heritage area home to a host of federally and state endangered aquatic species.

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