Wildlife Resources Commission Acquires
Conservation Lands from International Paper

RALEIGH (April 6, 2006) – The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will acquire more than 65,000 acres of sensitive natural lands from International Paper Corp. as part of a multistate, multiagency deal.

“What we’re protecting is priceless,” said Gov. Michael Easley, who announced the land deal on March 28 at the Wildlife Resources Commission headquarters. The governor was joined by officials from other state agencies, International Paper and The Nature Conservancy, which brokered the transaction. “This was an opportunity we just could not pass up,” Easley added.

The North Carolina tracts, scattered across the northeastern and southeastern portions of the state, are part of a massive sale of International Paper land holdings in 10 southeastern states. The company is selling more than 218,000 acres — from Virginia to Arkansas and as far south as Florida — to The Nature Conservancy and other conservation groups, which will in turn sell much of the acreage to state conservation agencies such as the Wildlife Resources Commission.

The North Carolina properties consist mostly of bottomland forests, floodplains and wetlands, making it valuable for water quality protection. Several tracts also contain rare and endangered plants and animals.

Much of the North Carolina land, totaling 77,090 acres, is near or adjacent to state Wildlife Resources Commission game lands. About 66,000 acres that the Commission is set to acquire will enlarge existing game lands. The Commission currently owns or manages 2 million acres for public hunting, fishing, trapping and other outdoor recreation.

John Pechmann, chairman of the Commission, said the agency will “make the property accessible to all North Carolinians, regardless of whether you fish, hunt, watch birds or hike. We will maintain the integrity of the land in its natural form.”

The remaining tracts, about 11,000 acres in all, will go to the state Division of Parks and Recreation, the Department of Cultural Resources and private conservation buyers such as hunting clubs that agree not to develop the property.

The land consists of five broad areas:

• 15,464 acres along the Chowan River in Gates and Hertford counties near the Virginia line. Adjacent to Chowan Swamp Game Land, its natural attributes include a rare scrub oak and longleaf pine community, reminiscent of the Sandhills more than 100 miles away, which provides habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker as well as black bears, otters and migratory songbirds.
• 22,009 acres along the lower Roanoke River in Halifax, Northampton, Bertie and Martin counties. Located near state game lands and federal wildlife refuges, the bottomland hardwood forests provide habitat for game and nongame wildlife, including more than 250 bird species.
• 18,341 acres along Juniper Creek in Columbus and Brunswick counties. This tract is valuable not only for its natural features, but also because it will connect other conservation lands — Lake Waccamaw State Park, The Nature Conservancy’s Green Swamp Preserve and the Commission’s Columbus County Game Land. The area is one of the most biologically diverse along the Atlantic Coast, providing habitat for rare animals such as the red-cockaded woodpecker and plants such as the Venus’s-flytrap.
• 20,749 acres along the upper Tar River in Franklin, Warren, Nash, Edgecombe and Halifax counties, near Shocco Creek Game Land and Medoc Mountain State Park. The watershed’s exceptional biodiversity includes the globally endangered Tar River spiny mussel and more than 60 species of freshwater fish.
• 527 acres in Hoke County near Raeford, which the Commission will not acquire. The land is slated to become a community forest.

Total cost of the North Carolina land is between $80 million and $82 million, said Katherine Skinner, executive director of the state chapter of The Nature Conservancy. More than $70 million will come from public funding sources — including the state’s three land-acquisition trusts, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the Natural Heritage Trust Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. The remainder, about $10 million, will come from conservation buyers, easements and private fund-raising, Skinner said.

The deal, months in the making, pulled together a multitude of state agencies, environmental organizations and International Paper. David Liebetreu, a corporate vice president, called the agreement “an outstanding example … of the public, private and the nonprofit sectors working together.”

Gov. Easley emphasized that point, saying conservation of the state’s dwindling open lands, its clean water and air and its natural heritage would not be possible without a spirit of cooperation.

“It’s great to see the hunting community, the environmental community and the wildlife community all coming together,” he said. “Regardless of what clothing designers might tell you, green shirts and orange hats go well together.”

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