The Nature Conservancy in North Carolina - Faces of Conservation-Julian Johnson

Faces of Conservation
Julian Johnson
, Hoke County landowner and Safe Harbor participant

Julian Johnson, Hoke County landowner
and Safe Harbor participant
© Susan Miller/USFWS

Julian Johnson, his wife Margaret, and their two grown sons feel a deep connection to their land in Hoke County. That’s not surprising, considering the Johnson family has lived there for four generations.

Johnson is a pine straw farmer by trade. He became an advocate for conservation by necessity. He is a member of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Safe Harbor Program. His family sold a conservation easement on 540 acres of timberland to The Nature Conservancy. He works with the North Carolina Sandhills Conservation Partnership and the Lumber River Conservancy, and most recently was elected to the board of Sustainable Sandhills, an organization dedicated to preserving natural resources and enhancing quality of life in the region. That’s a lot for one man to take on, but Johnson feels called to do so.

“I have become active in the last few years because I’m increasingly alarmed by the way green space is being gobbled up in the Sandhills. The places where I grew up and where my family has lived for more than 100 years started changing very rapidly from rural to developed. I decided that I’d better do something before it was too late.”

As someone who makes a living from his land, Johnson is a strong believer in the rights of property owners.

Because of the way his family has managed their timberlands over the years, the land is in excellent ecological health. Several years ago, Johnson attended a meeting of the NC Pine Needle Producers Association, where the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service explained the benefits of the Safe Harbor Program. In learning to care for the old-growth trees on his land and to reduce hardwoods, Johnson is making prime habitat for federally-endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and a host of other plants and animals. But that was just the beginning.

“My family and I took the notion of creating a conservation easement very seriously. We agreed that we didn’t ever want our property to become a housing development, and we wanted to make sure that it would be protected forever. The Nature Conservancy granted us limited rights to build a house on the land for my sons and also to retain the economic benefits I get. It’s a great solution. Landowners, even in a rapidly developing part of the state, have a lot more options than they realize.”

For Johnson, the Safe Harbor program and a conservation easement with The Nature Conservancy provide the best of both worlds: a way to earn a living on his land while protecting it for future generations of his family.