Preserving Habitat Along the Central Coast
The federation closed on the 204-acre Morton Farm property near Swansboro in Onslow County, completing a conservation corridor of over 1,100 acres on the rapidly developing White Oak River. The land, along with two other tracts owned by the federation, will be turned over to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. The agency will manage it as public game lands, protecting it for future generations.
View Morton Property in a larger map
The one thing Rachel Morton didn’t want was other people’s houses on the land where she and her husband raised their family.
“We’ve owned this farm for 55 years, and I’d hate to see it in houses,” she said, referring to her decision to sell the farm to the federation for preservation. “We like it open. My boys (her two sons) are in agreement: Keep it natural, and the state will take good care of it.”
These sentiments are ones all partners in the project to protect Morton Farm can agree on. With money from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we bought the farm and will turn it over to the state Wildlife Resources Commission to be managed as public game lands.
The land adjoins an existing waterfowl impoundment that the commission bought from the Mortons in the late 1980s and ties together with the Huggins Farm, another tract that federation bought and put into conservation. With the addition of the Morton Farm, nearly 1,100 acres on the White Oak River will be protected for the public, and water quality will be preserved. Also saved will be some of the natural beauty of a rapidly developing watershed.
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