TLC and Bryan Properties conserve 299 more acres in northern Durham County

Durham, NC – Triangle Land Conservancy’s conservation relationship with Treyburn developer Bryan Properties in northern Durham County continues to bear fruit. In late December 2007, three deals were completed to conserve an additional 299 acres. One of the deals will add 92 acres to the Stagville State Historic Site. Developer D.R. Bryan and his partners have now helped TLC to conserve 1,361 acres in the area.

Combined with several other new conservation projects across the six-county Triangle region, this deals helps push Triangle Land Conservancy’s protected land total to more than 10,000 acres. As TLC prepares to celebrate its 25-year anniversary in 2008, it reaches a major conservation milestone. The organization has done so by significantly increasing its pace of conservation. By the year 2000, TLC had conserved 2,000 acres in 17 years. In the last seven years, the group has conserved 8,000 acres to reach the 10,000-acre plateau.

Much of TLC’s success of the last seven years is attributable to increased funding opportunities through North Carolina’s conservation trust funds: the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the Natural Heritage Trust Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. One of the new northern Durham projects is funded by the N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund.

The three December deals in Durham County include:

Stagville Tracts

Bryan Properties subsidiary Arlen Park LLC made a bargain sale of three tracts totaling 92 acres to TLC for $300,000 (potential value $1.3 million). The Stagville tracts, located along Old Oxford Highway, Stagville Road and Jock Road, connect the Stagville State Historic Site to TLC’s Horton Grove Nature Preserve (see map - Note:  This is a large 3.8MB PDF download).

These tracts will eventually be turned over to the NC Division of Cultural Resources and added to the Stagville historic site, increasing the historic site to approximately 170 acres and reconnecting the once-linked properties. The existing state property protects a number of outstanding historic structures such as the Bennehan House (ca. 1787), four 1850s slave houses, a pre-Revolutionary War yeoman farmer’s house and the Great Barn (which was the largest agricultural building constructed in North Carolina before the Civil War).

The newly conserved property, which is a mixture of mostly mature upland pine and hardwood forests and small grassy fields, contains approximately 3,900 feet of high-quality streams at the headwaters of Falls Lake. The protection of this property will help safeguard drinking water quality for Falls Lake while also helping protect wildlife habitat, open space and historic sites.

TLC paid $300,000 for the land from its Land Opportunity Fund. In 2008, a grant from the North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust Fund is expected to reimburse TLC for the full cost, and the property will be turned over to the state. The Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative has awarded TLC $55,000 to cover transaction expenses.

Learn more about Horton Grove by clicking here. 

Learn more about Stagville State Historic Site by clicking here. 

Little River Sanctuary

Little River Sanctuary LLC, comprised of several Bryan Properties partners, donated a conservation easement on 140 acres to TLC. Wrapped around a bend in the Little River below Little River Reservoir to the west and tucked in by a railroad track to the east, this Florida-shaped parcel is part of the Little River Corridor Significant Natural Area. TLC’s 61-acre Little River Lowlands nature preserve lies directly across the river. Together, these lands connect a protected wildlife corridor between Little River Reservoir and Falls Lake.

The easement also helps to preserve a small but significant section of the historic transportation route known as the Indian Trading Path to the Catawba. This path, first documented in 1670, once stretched 500 miles from a trading post near Petersburg, Virginia, to an area near Augusta, Georgia. Currently a wide depression running through the woods, the Trading Path can still be seen on the Little River Sanctuary Tract.

Primarily bottomland hardwoods with small patches of pine forest, the property fronts approximately 8,000 feet of the Little River and contains an additional 1,250 feet of tributary streams. Protecting this property helps to safeguard drinking water quality for Falls Lake while also providing protected wildlife habitat, open space and historic preservation benefits.

The conservation agreement allows the owners to reserve hunting rights on the entire tract. They have also retained forest timbering rights on a small portion of the property. Any timber harvesting will be conducted under a certified management plan approved by TLC that follows best management timber harvesting practices in order to protect water quality.

The landowners who donated the conservation easement may be able to take advantage of conservation tax credits available at the state and federal levels. The Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative ($9,500) and Durham County ($4,000) provided funds to cover transaction expenses. The landowners also contributed $10,700 for long-term stewardship of the property.

Snow Hill Preserve, Phase 3

Bryan Properties subsidiaries Wanderlust LT LLC and Arlen Park LLC have donated five tracts totaling 67 acres to TLC. These tracts, bounded by Snow Hill Road, Vintage Hill Parkway and Sawmill Creek Parkway, continue Bryan Properties’ conservation donations down Snow Hill Road. These properties are located to the east of the Snow Hill Phase 1 and Snow Hill Phase 2 projects (a 350-acre assemblage consisting of a nature preserve, a future school site, a public park and a private conservation easement tract). TLC’s Little River Lowlands property is located nearby to the east. The properties contain two small intermittent streams, and are forested with stands of young loblolly pines and mixed hardwoods.

Bryan Properties may be able to take advantage of conservation tax credits available at the state and federal levels for the land donation. Bryan Properties also provided $4,000 to cover transaction expenses and $14,000 for long-term stewardship. TLC paid an additional $7,000 of transaction expenses out of its operating funds.

 Since 1983, TLC has helped to conserve 1,650 acres in Durham County, most of it (1,361 acres) in the Treyburn area from the relationship with Bryan Properties. Additional projects include assisting in the creation of the Little River Regional Park and Natural Area (255 acres in Durham, 136 acres in Orange), and assisting in the conservation of 34 acres on New Hope Creek.