More than 950 acres of wetland, hardwood swamp forest and enormous Bald Cypress have been purchased in Camden and Currituck counties for conservation by the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

The 648-acre Indiantown Creek Tract includes about 3 miles of undeveloped frontage along the creek and Run Swamp Canal, and the 303-acre Pasquotank River Tract has 1.65 miles of undeveloped frontage along the river.

“These are not lands that were necessarily being threatened by development,” said Lee Leidy, northeast regional director at the land trust’s Kill Devil Hills office. But they are now protected from being timbered, she said. The river tract is situated on the Camden County side of the Pasquotank River, near the Elizabeth City Shrine Club property and White Hull Shores subdivision. The Indiantown piece is about four miles from the Camden County Courthouse, off U.S. 158 and Gregory Road.

The sale of the two tracts for $400,000 from Plum Creek Timberlands was finalized March 27. Leidy said they were sold below market value.

Funds were provided by the state Clean Water Management Trust Fund, which awarded $528,000 for the land and the transaction costs.

“The significance of it is in the size and character of the swamp forest,” Leidy said. “It’s a very old-growth mature forest. It serves as an excellent filter to preserve water quality.”

The land trust, a private, nonprofit conservation organization, now owns a total of 41,000 acres throughout the state’s coastal plain, Leidy said.

Other recent Coastal Land Trust acquisitions include:

- The Enochs tract on Roanoke Island, a donation of 2.3 acres on the Croatan Sound bordering Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, was completed in November. The National Park Service, Leidy said, has expressed interest in acquiring the land. According to the donors, who Leidy said prefer to remain anonymous, the property includes the location of Fort Blanchard, a Confederate earthwork constructed in 1861. The land trust is working with the Park Service to transfer the tract to the park.

- The White Conservation Easement on Roanoke Island, 6.5 acres from U.S. 64/264 to the Roanoke Sound, was donated in December by Thomas White Jr.

White had owned the property for more than 30 years and wanted to ensure that the maritime evergreen forest was preserved, Leidy said. The only rights he reserved was passive use of the property, such as walking and hiking.

Situated on the north end of the island, the property lies on ancient ridge dunes and is one of the highest points on Roanoke Island. It is in the area believed to have been used by members of the Lost Colony in the 16th century and of the Freedmen’s Colony after the Civil War.



Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com