New Hanover County residents are about to get a new wooded park, thanks to the state, a private conservation outfit and a Wilmington family that was willing to take less than market value for its land.

The Burnetts are only the latest landowners to take advantage of the tax laws and of the innovative cooperation of the private N.C. Coastal Land Trust, the state Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the county.

Family members will be paid something like half the market value of 109 acres near the river in the southern part of the county. In return, they will get tax benefits and the satisfaction of seeing land they love saved from development and opened to the public for hiking, picnicking, canoeing and kayaking.

Nearby, bulldozers are roaring and trees are falling to make way for more houses.

But in that lush little forest, residents will be able to see what much of their county was like in the days when Gil Burnett's daddy tromped his woods, toting a fried-egg sandwich, a banana and Pepsi.