The Nature Conservancy Protects Ecologically and Geologically Significant Sandhills Property

DURHAM—Today, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) purchased a 305-acre tract near Fort Bragg in Moore County. The tract, known as Paint Hill Farm, hosts well-managed and frequently burned longleaf pine stands, red-cockaded woodpeckers, a population of the state-threatened sandhills pyxie-moss and other at-risk species, such as Bachman’s sparrow and loggerhead shrike.

In the coming months, the property will be acquired by the North Carolina (NC) Division of Parks and Recreation to expand Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve, increasing the park’s acreage by about one-third. Weymouth Woods is one of the 25 state natural areas of the NC state parks system.

The landowner, Alison Ives, made a generous bargain sale of the property to TNC for $4 million. Her father, Timothy Ives, conveyed 115 acres to Weymouth Woods (now Paint Hill Tract) with the help of TNC back in 1996.

This project will conserve nearly 60% of the remaining unprotected portion of the Paint Hill Significant Natural Heritage Area, which the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program considers exceptional.

“Under Ms. Ives dedicated stewardship, the property has blossomed from a farm focused on pine straw and hay production into a healthy, diverse and resilient example of longleaf pine forest, evidenced by the listed species and fox squirrels which reside on the property,” said Matt Greene, TNC’s Sandhills land protection specialist.

“This property is a wonderful example of the role private landowners can play in preserving working lands and of the value of public-private partnerships.”

Last year, the NC Division of Parks and Recreation received a grant from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund (NCLWF) to fund the addition of this property, with the project being the highest-scoring application in last year’s grant cycle. The state General Assembly allocates taxpayer dollars to NCLWF each year to support conservation projects across the state.

Additional funding for this acquisition was provided by the U.S. Army via the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program. The property lies less than a mile from Fort Bragg and was at risk of development. In addition, supplemental funding from the Readiness and Recreation Initiative (RaRI) was awarded through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), leaving more NCLWF funding available for additional priorities across the state. TNC has partnered with Fort Bragg to help conserve nearly 25,000 acres since 1999, much of it in public ownership, in and around Fort Bragg and Camp Mackall to prevent incompatible development from affecting the military mission.

At 618 feet in elevation, Paint Hill Farm features one of the highest topographic features within the county and affords views of drop zones at Fort Bragg and signal flares used in night training exercises on Camp Mackall.

"We look forward to working with The Nature Conservancy in the next few months to coordinate resource protection activities and to officially add Paint Hill Farm to Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve," said State Parks Director Brian Strong. "We are grateful to have a longstanding partner in the Sandhills like TNC that has supported us on so many incredible acquisition projects such as Paint Hill Farm and facilitated their addition to our beautiful state parks system.”

Paint Hill was also recently discovered to contain deposits from an asteroid impact that struck the ocean in the current Chesapeake Bay area 35 million years ago. Ejecta, ash-fall and tsunami deposits are stratigraphically preserved in an ancient paleo-channel, and the site also has important marine fossils. These findings are described in a paper in the forthcoming Volume 55, Issue 1, of the journal Southeastern Geology.

The conservation of Paint Hill Farm ensures this ecologically and geologically significant land is protected for all North Carolinians to enjoy.