The Coastal Land Trust closed Tuesday, December 18th, on the acquisition of a 421.36 acre Tract that lies along the Meherrin River in Northampton County, North Carolina – our first project in this northern coastal county. This project permanently protects this ecologically significant property - a State Significant Natural Heritage Site and a Regionally Significant Aquatic Site, as designated by the State Natural Heritage Program.  This project created the unique opportunity for the Coastal Land Trust to strike up a partnership and work with The Nature Conservancy’s Virginia Chapter on a two–state effort  to promote complementary conservation projects on the Meherrin River in North Carolina and within the Chowan River headwaters region in Virginia. 

According to a Natural Heritage Program Site Survey, the ecological significance of the Tract is characterized by, “excellent examples of Coastal Plain Levee Forest, Cypress-Gum Swamp and Coastal Plain Bottomland Hardwoods [that] are among the best in the Northern Inner Coastal Plain Region.” A timber inventory and appraisal completed for the Coastal Land Trust reflects the exceptional quality and quantity of merchantable forest products now permanently protected from the threat of logging. Additionally, this acquisition protects over 1.5 miles of frontage along the Meherrin River and the extensive network of tributaries originating and running throughout the property, which lies in the Chowan River Basin.  The Coastal Land Trust will continue to own, manage and steward this lovely property.

The Coastal Land Trust has been working to purchase this property for four long years! This project demonstrates that there are actually some advantages to the slow real estate market, which provided the Coastal Land Trust the extended opportunity to piece together the funding needed worked with the land owners, Goodwood Virginia LLC and Conservation Forestry, LLC, to permanently protect this property

Fortunately, Goodwood Virginia, LLC and Conservation Forestry, LLC worked with the Coastal Land Trust as it worked to find funding for the acquisition.  Goodwood Virginia, LLC and Conservation Forestry, LLC are conservation-oriented timber investment firms based in Exeter, New Hampshire. Conservation Forestry’s impact investments have helped to permanently protected over 173,000 acres and 390 miles of rivers and streams since 2006. 

 Kent Gilges, the managing member of Goodwood Virginia, LLC and Conservation Forestry, LLC, said yesterday that, “The permanent protection of this stretch of the Meherrin River and bottomland forest is a great complement to our business strategy to promote and practice conservation and sustainable forestry.” Kent also expressed that, “North Carolina Coastal Land Trust has done a wonderful job in protecting this parcel during a very difficult economic period. This project is a model for partnerships between for-profit companies with an ‘impact’ mission and conservation groups. NCCLT may have helped put together here the conservation approach of the future.”