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The Nature Conservancy Protects Critical Longleaf Pine Habitat in the Georgia Red Hills

Landowner Donates Conservation Easement in Thomas County

Atlanta, Ga.—January 9, 2004—As longleaf pine forests continue to disappear from the Southern landscape, one family is taking steps to preserve a treasured part of Georgia's natural heritage. Karen and Phil Leabo recently donated a conservation easement on 61 acres of longleaf pine forest in Thomas County, Ga., to The Nature Conservancy for permanent protection.

Located in the biologically diverse Red Hills region of southwest Georgia, the protected property contains high-quality examples of the longleaf pine and wiregrass ecosystem and provides critical habitat for numerous rare and endangered plant and animal species.

"The longleaf pine forest is rapidly disappearing. If we want it remain part of our landscape, we have to do something to protect it," said Karen Leabo, whose family has owned the property since the early 1950s.

In addition to the longleaf pine forest, the Leabo's property contains wiregrass woodlands and an ephemeral pond  The property supports the threatened gopher tortoise, the rare Bachman's sparrow, the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, and the rare yellow fringed orchid, as well as an array of other plant and animal species characteristic of a longleaf pine and wiregrass forest.

"We are fortunate that the Leabos saw the value in conserving this property and chose to donate an easement on this tract to The Nature Conservancy," said Tavia McCuean, vice president and Georgia Chapter state director for The Nature Conservancy. "Conservation easements are valuable land protection tools that the Conservancy and other conservation groups use when working with landowners."

Conservation easements have been used to protect millions of acres of wildlife habitat and open space A legally binding agreement between a landowner and a private organization or public entity, conservation easements enable the landowner to retain ownership of the land while restricting certain rights associated with the property—usually the right to subdivide or develop the land.  The terms of each conservation easement are unique based on the ecology of the land and the needs of the landowner. The agreement with the Leabo family, for instance, does allow for selective timbering and recreational hunting. In all cases, the terms of the easement are forever attached to the property and apply to all future owners. Of the 15.3 million acres protected by the Conservancy in the United States, more than 2 million acres have been protected through conservation easements granted to the Conservancy. The Conservancy has also assisted other U.S. land trusts and public agencies with conservation easements on an additional 984,000 acres. Their use by land trusts across the country and increasingly in Canada, Latin America and Australia has escalated dramatically in the past decade. Today conservation easements are one of the most popular conservation tools employed by land trusts. 

The protected property is located in close proximity to the approximately 4,900-acre Greenwood Plantation tract, a major conservation project for the Conservancy's Georgia Chapter and one of the reasons the Leabos chose to work with the Conservancy.

"Knowing that the Conservancy is managing Greenwood made us realize how important it was to protect our property and create a greenway that would always be there," said Mrs. Leabo.

Greenwood is one of the world's best examples of the longleaf pine forest. Abundant with wildlife, the property contains a 1,000-acre old-growth section of longleaf pine known as the "Big Woods," where trees range in age up to 500 years old.

"Greenwood has been ecologically managed as a hunting estate for over 100 years.  The Conservancy recognizes and values Greenwood's history of land stewardship and intends to continue the high standards of management practiced there," said Todd Engstrom, southwest Georgia conservation director for the Georgia Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "By protecting critical sites surrounding Greenwood, such as the Leabo tract, we are helping to create a vital conservation landscape and ensuring the permanent protection of an important part of Georgia's natural heritage."

A diverse ecosystem supporting more than 300 rare, threatened or endangered species, the longleaf pine forest has been identified as a conservation priority for The Nature Conservancy. Once covering 90 million acres from southern Virginia to Florida to eastern Texas, only 3 percent of the original forest remains. The Georgia Red Hills, located in the East Gulf Coastal Plain ecoregion, contain outstanding examples of the longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem and support the largest remaining population of the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker on private lands. The Red Hills region has been identified as a priority site by the Conservancy.