•The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust
Since 1992, the North Carolina
Coastal Land Trust (www.coastallandtrust.
org/index.jsp) has worked
tirelessly to protect ecologically significant
tracts of land and waterways from the
Virginia border to the southern tip of
Brunswick County, with 22,046 acres in
southeastern NC — including 67 acres
at Airlie Gardens, 104 acres of Indigo
Plantation marshes and almost 40 acres at
the Alderman Nature Preserve. “We think
of ourselves as being in the land banking
business,” says executive director Camilla
Herlevich. “We facilitate protection of
properties and then turn them over to local
government.”
Though the Land Trust’s approach to
conservation bears some similarities to The
Nature Conservancy’s, Herlevich points out
that there are some crucial differences as
well. “We use the same tools, but their projects
are narrower,” she says. “We have very
few nationally significant projects … we’re
more likely to do things that are important
to the local community, and many of them
are specifically geared to public access.”
A good example of this type of project
is the Brunswick County Nature Park, on
Highway 133 in Town Creek Township.
The Land Trust was able to secure the 911
acres of land on which the park sits via a
state Clean Water Management Trust Fund
grant. They then transferred ownership to
Brunswick County. Today, the park features
a kayak landing with a wide range of
existing and upcoming amenities, including
a kayak launch with handicapped access,
picnic shelters, horseback riding trails and
an environmental education center. The
Land Trust is also collaborating with the
town of Navassa to revitalize a park in the
area’s Phoenix community.
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WBM october 2010
Green Swamp
Preserve
In order to fulfill their mission, the Land
Trust has forged some unlikely partnerships.
“We received a big grant from Walmart
to protect family farms,” Herlevich says.
“Often family farmers want to donate a
portion of the land, but there hasn’t been
a survey done of the property in years, plus
we have to catalogue the condition of the
property first. There’s staff time, surveying,
legal expenses … the conservation easement
alone is a 20-30 page document, and
there’s $10,000-$20,000 involved in every
conservation stewardship endowment, so
we can monitor the land in perpetuity.”
Other partners include the Military Growth
Task Force and the Department of the
Navy, which, in partnership with the Clean
Water Trust Fund, holds a conservation
easement on the land surrounding Craven
County’s Cherry Point air station — now
the Magnolia Farm Preserve.