SUPPLY, N.C. -- A family that put 259 acres along the Lockwood Folly River into conservation trust now wants to share that land with others.

The Hewett family is seeking grants totaling $113,000 to put in about a mile of trails, parking and restrooms, said Bernest Hewett, president of the Brunswick County National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a member of the family.

A conservation easement on 143 acres was purchased through the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, and the Hewetts gave easements on an additional 116 acres to the N.C. Coastal Land Trust, which arranged the entire easement package.

The land in easement has 1.4 miles on the edge of Lockwood Folly River downstream from the Riversea development and 2 miles along the Sandy Branch, a tributary of Lockwood Folly.

The easements mean the land won't be intensively developed like much of the other land along the river, and it will therefore not contribute to the pollution that has closed much of the lower river to shellfishing.

The family owns another 40 acres of land adjoining the easement property where several people have homes.

Hewett said he hopes a picnic area that can be rented to groups or individuals will be included in the plan for trails and parking.

The land was purchased by a family patriarch who twice walked round-trip to Florida, where he worked to get the money to buy the land.

"I'd like this finished as fast as I can" Hewett said Monday.

He's still developing the specific plan and searching land titles to satisfy the two private individuals from whom the family hopes to get grants. Hewett didn't want to name either person, but said both have foundations that give grants to the kind of project he envisions.

Both live in North Carolina, he said.

"The Hewetts have been wonderful, wonderful, wonderful landowners," said Jessica Blake, stewardship director for the Coastal Land Trust.

She said the easements limit what can be done with the land, but she thought that what the family is planning would be acceptable. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund, she explained, imposes a buffer area between any development and the waterfront, but she felt that at least one viewing platform on the river would be allowed.

Blake said the family also is restoring a longleaf pine forest on a part of the land.

Neither Hewett nor Blake could give a timetable for the trail and parking work.

"You should see some signs of what's happening this year, for sure," Blake said.

Contact STEVE JONES at 910-754-9855.