07-02-08: Craven land will be preserved

NEW BERN -- The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust will partner with the Whitehurst family in Craven County to conserve 181 acres along Upper Broad Creek.

It is one of three parcels totaling 745 acres on which the Coastal Land Trust is working to secure easements from the family led by Samuel Latham Whitehurst, said Janice Allen, deputy director of the trust.

This tract is across the road from the state's 2,700-acre Neuse River Game Lands. The tract has been owned by the Latham side of Whitehurst's family since a land grant from the king of England on the area between Upper Broad Creek, N.C. 55 and Broad Creek Road.

"It's a big project we are whittling away at," said Allen. "We hope to close on the 745 acres by fall."

The family's 2,000 acres is mostly undeveloped land with mature longleaf pine and mixed pine and hardwood forest on which Samuel Whitehurst grew up. It has two historic homes on it that qualify for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Whitehurst said: "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 forest land 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."  

The Land Trust is working with Whitehurst to get an option to purchase a 133.5-acre tract that could come under control of Craven County for an undeveloped nature park. The county included $30,000 to help with legal fees in its 2008-09 budget.

Another 430-acre tract is being considered for purchase with a National Heritage Trust Fund Grant through the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Allen said.

 The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust is a nonprofit conservation organization working in partnership with the North Carolina Division of Forest Resources on the current project. They secured a landowner agreement with a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Legacy Program.

"North Carolina had not gotten these grants before," Allen said. "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." 

Since 1992, the trust, based in Wilmington with a local office in New Bern, has helped conserve more than 40,000 acres in 21 coastal counties of the state. More information is available by contacting Allen at 252-634-1927 or at www.coastallandtrust.org.

More information on the Division of Forest Resources or the Forest Legacy Program is available from Les Hunter at (919)857-4833 www.dfr.state.nc.us.