Family conserves Lake Norman land granted by the British Crown before NC was a state
A Lake Norman-area family has donated to a land trust property that the British Crown granted them before North Carolina became a state on Nov. 21, 1789.
The 25 acres lie less than a quarter mile from the banks of Lake Norman, near encroaching development in Mooresville, officials with Salisbury-based Three Rivers Land Trust said Wednesday.
Apartment complexes and “sprawling subdivisions” directly adjoin the acreage, highlighting “the extreme development pressure surrounding the property,” according to a Three Rivers Land Trust news release.
A land trust spokeswoman declined to disclose the family’s name and the parcel’s exact location.
“This is an anonymous donation per the wishes of the landowner,” the spokeswoman told The Charlotte Observer in an email.
Conserving land is vital in one of America’s “most rapidly developing areas,” land trust officials said in the release, referring to Lake Norman. The body is the largest manmade lake in the state and spans parts of Mecklenburg, Catawba, Lincoln and Iredell counties.
Iredell County ranks 38th in the U.S. for farm land lost to development, land trust officials said, citing findings by the conservancy organization American Farmland Trust.
Iredell has at least 100,000 parcels, less than 3% of which are at least 25 acres, according to Three Rivers Land Trust.
“Once land is developed, it is almost guaranteed to never to return to its natural state,” land protection specialist Kyle Shores said in a statement.
“Protecting this land through a donated conservation easement will literally stop development in its tracks,” Shores said. ”This will ensure the protection of valuable wildlife habitat that is being lost at a record pace in Iredell County.”
The land trust prides itself on protecting family farms and natural areas in such a rapidly developing part of the state, Emily Callicutt, director of conservation for the trust, said in the release.
“Without the foresight of willing landowners, land like this would be lost forever to development,” Callicutt said.
The lake landowners donated a conservation easement to the trust that protects the property in perpetuity from development, officials said.
This story was originally published December 11, 2024 at 3:49 PM.