They Go Together Like Cookies and Milk—Conservancy and Girl Scouts Protect Beloved Campground

Boiling Spring Lakes, NC—March 2, 2005—Caring for the Earth and caring for future generations often have a lot in common—you could say they go together like cookies and milk. It definitely is true in the coastal plains of North Carolina where more than 625 acres, including a Girl Scout camp, are now permanently protected from development, thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, the Girl Scout Council of Coastal Carolina (GSCCC) and the Plant Conservation Program of the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

It’s a win-win deal for all organizations, providing a safe haven where everyone—girls, plants and animals—can grow and thrive. At 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 5, the organizations will hold a media event at Camp Pretty Pond to celebrate. Dozens of Girl Scouts will attend and several of them will earn their Mass Media Badge by covering the event.

The Girl Scout Council is thrilled with the arrangement. For more than 60 years, girls have come to Camp Pretty Pond to canoe, swim and ride horses on its 135 acres just outside of Wilmington, NC. While at the camp, the Scouts become more creative, responsible and independent.

“It was definitely a huge relief to us to learn that the land adjacent to Camp Pretty Pond would be protected,” says Debbie McDowell-Tate, Executive Director of the GSCCC. “Not only will our girls be able to continue enjoying the beauty of Camp Pretty Pond, but the Conservancy has agreed to let us expand our trail system into this property, so we’ll be able to do more birdwatching, hiking and other nature-related activities. We see this as an exciting new frontier for Girl Scouts in North Carolina.”

Camp Pretty Pond, which was bought with the proceeds of Girl Scout cookie sales in the 1940s, is the only Girl Scout camp that serves southeastern North Carolina. More than 11,000 girls and adults visit Camp Pretty Pond each year, making it the most heavily utilized campground owned by the Council.

The land also has important ecological value, supporting numerous rare plant and animal species. In the past decade, however, the once isolated Camp Pretty Pond had become increasingly threatened by residential development along its borders, which could degrade the wilderness quality of the camp and its natural resources. Preliminary proposals to develop the adjacent tract of land, known as Hog Branch Ponds, spurred this conservation partnership into action

The North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy had identified the area around Boiling Spring Lakes, including Camp Pretty Pond, as one of their conservation priorities in the state. Working with the Conservancy, the Plant Conservation Program secured the funds to purchase Hog Branch Ponds, the 500-acre tract next to the campgrounds. Hog Branch Ponds will become part of the Boiling Spring Lakes Preserve. As part of the arrangement, the Girl Scout Council has granted the Conservancy a conservation easement for the Camp Pretty Pond property.

“I can’t overemphasize Hog Branch Ponds’ importance to our conservation goals,” says Dan Bell, project director with The Nature Conservancy. “It contains eight limesink depression ponds, one of which gives Pretty Pond its name. Limesink ponds are an extremely rare geologic feature in North Carolina. Along the ponds’ margins are at least fifteen rare plant populations, some of which exist nowhere else in the state.”

In order to purchase Hog Branch Ponds, the Conservancy worked with the Plant Conservation Program to secure funds from the Natural Heritage Trust Fund and the state’s Ecosystem Enhancement Program.

“Thanks to our partners, the Conservancy will be able to incorporate Hog Branch Ponds and Camp Pretty Pond into our existing management plan for the Boiling Spring Lakes Preserve. We’ll use tools like prescribed burns to maintain the ecosystem and restore upland areas to longleaf pine,” says Bell. “We’ll also monitor the health of the limesink ponds and will work with the Girl Scouts to care for Pretty Pond, for example by designating ponds and marshes that should remain unaltered. The goals of the Nature Conservancy and of the Girl Scouts matched up really well here, and we’re all excited about our new relationship.”

The North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and its 23,000 members have protected more than 577,000 acres in the Tar Heel state. Its mission is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. For more information, contact the NC Chapter office at 919.403.8558 or visit us on the web at www.nature.org/northcarolina.