Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 1029: How You Can Help Save 4000 Acres of Prime Public Hunting Ground with Travis Morehead

Transcript

Ep. 1029: How You Can Help Save 4000 Acres of Prime Public Hunting Ground with Travis Morehead · Wired To Hunt Podcast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast, your guide to
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the White Tail Woods, presented by first Light, creating proven
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: versatile hunting apparel for the stand, saddle or blind. First
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Light Go Farther, stay Longer, and now your host, Mark Kenyon.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt podcast. This week on
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: the show, we are discussing an exciting project ongoing right
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: now to save four thousand acres of prime hunting ground
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: down in the southeastern United States and to make a
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: public imperpetuity. All right, welcome back to the Wired to
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Hunt podcast, brought to you by Moultrie. Today, we've got
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: a fun episode, a different kind of show, but one
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: full of I think, a promise in good news and
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: an opportunity. You know, if you've been paying attention to
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: public land related news and an update and proposals and
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: government policy over the last year or so, give or take,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: you're probably overwhelmed. There's been a deluge of changes and policies,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: shifts and bad bills and concerning headlines and it's a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: lot to take in. And many of these things have
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: been you know, of worry to hunters and anglers who
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: depend on public lands all across the nation. You know,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the public lands sale proposals last summer being an exhibit A.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So with all of that kind of negativity surrounding us,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: it is a great and welcome privilege to get to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: talk about an opportunity to save some public land, to
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: hopefully increase our public land. And that's what we're here
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to discuss today, a really cool project that we are
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: involved in a mediator along with our partners on X
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: to try and help save four thousand acres down in
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  Speaker 2: North Carolina, a big chunk of public land, or land
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: that could be public land that is open to deer
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: hunting and turkey hunting and all sorts of good stuff
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: that I know that many of you would enjoy, could enjoy,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: or if nothing else, appreciate having out there. And so
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: today we're going to break all that down for you
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: and explain exactly what's happening. But I'm going to first
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: give you the thirty thousand foot kind of cliff notes
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: view right now, and then we will break down the
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: details with my guests. So at a very high level,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: as I mentioned, there's four thousand acres down in North
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Carolina that have been historically open to public land, hunting
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: and fishing in access, but they've been owned privately. Now
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: those lands are being put up for sale, so that
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: four thousand acres will be wiped off the table for
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: public access. We are trying to help change that stop
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: that we're partnering with as I mentioned on X, but
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: then also a local land trust called the Three Rivers
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: Land Trust to try to raise money to buy back
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: these lands, give them to the stay of North Carolina,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: and make them public well into the future. So that's
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: the high level plan here, that's what we're trying to do.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: On X and Mediator have both put up one hundred
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars each to form a matching pool, which we
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: can then match any donations until May fourteenth to try
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: to raise these money. These these funds to try to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: put rocket fuel on this initiative. So that's what's going
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: on right now. It's part of Mediator's Land Access initiative.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: We're really excited about it. There's already been incredible progress
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: that the campaign kicked off about a week ago and
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of momentum has been gained. We're going to
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: get into all of that here in just a few
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: minutes with my guest, and that guest is Travis Morehead.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: He is the executive director of the Three Rivers Land Trust,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: and he's going to help us break this whole thing
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: down and then understand exactly. You know what this piece
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: of ground is. It's kind of known as the Tuckertown
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Game Land. So what's the story of this swath of ground.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: How did it come to be publicly accessible? What have
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: people been.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Doing out there?
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  Speaker 2: What kind of hunting, what kind of fishing, what kind
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: of opportunities people enjoyed? And then what's happening now? Why
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: is this ground being sold? What's the threat of losing
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: this land? And finally, what can we do about it?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: How can this campaign help? How can you the listeners,
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  Speaker 2: be a part of this. And you know, whether you
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: live in North Carolina or the southeast, or anywhere else
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: across the nation, I would point to this being an
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: exciting opportunity for all of us, no matter where you live,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: to stand up and do something right now, at the
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: time when it seems like a lot of public land
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  Speaker 2: decisions are outside of our control and outside of our influence,
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  Speaker 2: here's an opportunity that each and ever one of us
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  Speaker 2: can do a little something to try to help keep
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: a public I was, you know, felt really good to
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  Speaker 2: be able to do that myself. I've been so excited
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: to hear friends and family doing the same thing, and
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: I'm excited and appreciative of all of your support too.
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  Speaker 2: So that's what we're going to discuss here today. I
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: will not belabor the point anymore. We're going to get
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to my chat with Travis Morehead very briefly. A quick
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: plug though for another podcast on the media or network.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Just recently, the new Blood Trails podcast season two just launched.
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: Brave reviews for this show.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: If you are into true crime, this is the show
• 5:02
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• 5:04
  Speaker 2: fishing in the outdoors, so that's the setting for these
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: dramatic stories and explorations that are pald Jordan Sillers hosts
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: their stories from Montana to Maine and a whole bunch of.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Points in between.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I think there's eight episodes in this upcoming season, so
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: search out Blood Trails. Check that out if that's your
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: cup of tea, and otherwise, also go to save Tuckertown
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: dot org to be a part of this campaign that
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: we're about to discuss. So here's my chat with Travis Morehead,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: thank you in advance for participating, for being a part
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: of this and helping just keep the public.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: All right.
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  Speaker 2: Joining me now on the line is Travis Moorhead from
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  Speaker 2: Three Rivers Land Trust.
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  Speaker 3: Travis, thanks for being here.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: Mark, thank you so much. We're looking forward to this conversation.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, me too.
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  Speaker 2: This is, you know, in a kind of a current
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: moment where there's so much news laid to public access
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: and public lands, a lot of it concerning news. This
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: is an opportunity for some good news and that excites me.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: So if you're willing, Travis, I'm going to kind of
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: throw you into the deep end and ask you to
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: share a whole bunch of stuff. And first I want
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: to start pretty basic though, all right, what is this place?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: What are the tucker Town game Lands? What's the story
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: of how this place came to be and kind of
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: become this important hub of outdoor access in North Carolina?
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: Sure, so, just for some general reference, the.
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: Yakin River Game Lands, which Tuckertown is a part of,
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  Speaker 5: is in the central part of North Carolina.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: It's almost in the dead middle of the state. In fact, eighty.
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: Percent of the residence of North Carolina live within an
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: hour and a half or one hundred miles of this location,
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  Speaker 5: So we're a little east to Charlotte, a little south
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  Speaker 5: of Greensboro, and a little west of the Raleigh area.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: This for some general parameters.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: What it is really goes back to the early nineteen
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  Speaker 5: hundreds when aluminum smelting was relatively new.
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  Speaker 4: There were four dams.
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  Speaker 5: Eventually constructed along the Yakin River, and Alcoa owned and
• 7:14
  Speaker 5: operated those dams, and they had an aluminum smelter in Baden,
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: North Carolina that powered these dams. Hydro electric power the
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: smelter and the power needs for the plant and many others.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: But that's where the power came from. And so as
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: a part of that, they had to buy a large
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: swath of land along the Yakkin River so they could
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: make sure they could control the dam, the waters and
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: all that. So there were thousands upon thousands of acres
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  Speaker 5: that were bought from really in North Carolina terms, from
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  Speaker 5: Davy County up along the Ayakin River north of Salisbury
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  Speaker 5: all the way down to right at More Mountain State
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  Speaker 5: Park or album Warl and there were four dams constructed.
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  Speaker 5: The Tuckertown Dam was constructed in the nineteenth sixties, and
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: so these dams along with them came additional lands. And
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  Speaker 5: what Alcoa did was they allowed public access on those
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  Speaker 5: dams from the from the sixties for hunting, fishing, hiking, birding,
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  Speaker 5: whatever kind of public uses they were. And uh and
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: so folks got used to having at one point over
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: eight thousand acres publicly accessible lands along the river and
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  Speaker 5: it just became ingrained in the local community that these
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: are these are public lands. In fact, I still have
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: a hard time people. People still don't understand that Alcoa
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  Speaker 5: owns those lands and they're not owned by the Wildlife
• 8:38
  Speaker 5: Resources Commission. So what has transpired is in twenty nineteen, uh, well, actually,
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: let's back up. In two thousand and seven, Alcoa had
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: to get a new license to operate the dams, and
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  Speaker 5: so when they did that, they had to they offered
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  Speaker 5: up four thy seven hundred acres and seventy six miles
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  Speaker 5: of shoreline for sale to either the Land Trust or
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  Speaker 5: the North Colina Wileland Resources Commission. And they offered in
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  Speaker 5: two phases at a predetermined price of about thirty three
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  Speaker 5: to thirty five hundred dollars an acre. So we worked
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  Speaker 5: in twenty nineteen to serve the land on High Rock,
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  Speaker 5: which is roughly forty five miles of shoreline and twenty
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  Speaker 5: three hundred acres of game lands. And so we worked
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  Speaker 5: with the commission and we ended up securing that. Then
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  Speaker 5: that started a time clock. We had two years to
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  Speaker 5: take down an additional eastern side of the Tuckertown Reservoir
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  Speaker 5: of froughly twenty four hundred acres and thirty one miles
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  Speaker 5: of shore line, and so we ended up doing that.
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  Speaker 5: So we conserve forty seven hundred acres and seventy six
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  Speaker 5: miles of shore line that was required. That was a
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  Speaker 5: requirement for Alcoa to get the license, and they had
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  Speaker 5: said during the negotiations that the lands on the western
• 9:42
  Speaker 5: side weren't going to be offered in the negotiations. They
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  Speaker 5: wanted to save those for another licensing period fifty years later,
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  Speaker 5: is what they were expecting.
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  Speaker 4: That turned out not to be the case.
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  Speaker 5: Alcola ended up selling the dams and so they don't
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  Speaker 5: have that primity anymore, and they have these extra lands
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  Speaker 5: on the western shoreline now four thousand plus acres that
• 10:05
  Speaker 5: are not tied to a license, that are only the
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: open market that have been there since April of last year,
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: and really, what's it threat or what's its stake is
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: four thousand acres of publicly accessible lands that that folks
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: sometimes think are public and they're not. They're publicly accessible,
• 10:21
  Speaker 5: but not publicly owned. So we're working.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: To close that gap.
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: And you guys have been tremendous and sort of spread
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: the word about this and we're we're so grateful for
• 10:28
  Speaker 5: the for the efforts from both you and on X
• 10:30
  Speaker 5: to do that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Well, it's a it's a privilege to get to be
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: a part of something where you know, what could what
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: what is a very real, concerning threat could be turned
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: into a something worth celebrating, which is which is an
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: excessiing opportunity. Now, one thing I want to double check
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: on if am I right that when this all started
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: that Alcoa was was it a requirement that they made
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: it publicly accessible as part of their terms with the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: whole damn situation or was that a just something they
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: decided to do on the you know, out of the
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: goodness of their hearts.
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: So the first two sections at twenty nineteen and twenty
• 11:08
  Speaker 5: one were the forty seven hundred acres that was a requirement.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: Now these lands were not a part of that agreement,
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: and so that's why it's not a part of the
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: requirement for them to do that. And they have the
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: flexibility to sell these lands on the open market right now.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: They could do with them. They could keep them, or
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: they could sell them. Previous lands were required.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: But what I meant was was the access that they
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: gave for the last sixty years. Was that access just
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: like a voluntary thing on their part or was that
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: required as part of them being granted some of those lands.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: So that's a great question.
• 11:39
  Speaker 5: We I don't have the nineteen fifty eight license to
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: be able to tell you for sure, So I would
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: say that it was it was likely a requirement, but
• 11:46
  Speaker 5: I don't know that for sure.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Okay, all right, So for sixty some years, though folks
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: have been using this land, it has felt like it
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: has seemed like in use and experience it has been
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: public land. What is this land actually like like?
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: What does this place? What does it look like? What
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: does it feel like?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: What kind of opportunities are available out there? How have
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: folks in North Carolina been enjoying this place?
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: Well? For me, it's home.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: I grew up here, is so it's uh, I sort
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: of get goosebumps when you ask what it's like.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: It's just home to me. What it's like.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: From a topographical perspective a hunting perspective, we'll cover both
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: of those. These lands are part of one of the
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: oldest mountain ranges in North America, I called ures and
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: so famili with you Auri National Forest. You know, geologists
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: say that these are some of the oldest mountain ranges
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: in the world.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: And so.
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: The peak height of some of these we call them
• 12:43
  Speaker 5: mountains here in the social part of North Carolina.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: They're not mountains throwing to the Rockies, but they're mountains
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: to us.
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: If you stand at the bottom Ofvem, you got about
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: on thy twelve hundred feet to the top.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: But for us, that's a that's a mountain. Around here
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: again in the.
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: Central part of the state, it's a river corridor. So
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: you have a great hardwood buffers on the rivers. You've
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: got some planet pines in between gigantic rock out croppings.
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: The history that goes back along this river mark is
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: just unbelievable. I mean, I know the video touched on
• 13:11
  Speaker 5: sort of the the Daniel Boone early settlements aspect of
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: what we have here in North Carolina and in this
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: part of the state, and all that's entirely accurate, you know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: So from looking at it, it's, uh, it's just some
• 13:23
  Speaker 5: really old, rugged mountains that have a wide species of games,
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: got great fisheries. The fishery there is is unbelievable from
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: a bass and catfish. And in fact, some folks will
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: probably get mad because I said that it's it's really
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: got a great local fishing following uh that not a
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: lot of folks go to. So it's it's giving a
• 13:44
  Speaker 5: spot up, I guess, is what you'll say. And then
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: turkey and deer. Uh, you know, for public land hunters,
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: it's as good as it gets. And I think I
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: shared with some staff earlier that these game lands are
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: a part of a series of game lands along the
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: Yakin River in the southern Peton to get over one
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: hundred and seventy one thousand users on an annual basis,
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: and so it can be crowded because public lands there
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: certainly can be that. But I just can't imagine if
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: we lose them, then we have four thousand acres we
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: don't have anymore. The game lands we do have are
• 14:15
  Speaker 5: going to be even more crowded, So it's got an impact.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Well, this area, you know, it's correct me if I'm wrong,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: But this is not like Montana or even you know,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: some parts of the Upper Midwest, where there's hundreds of
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: thousands of acres of public land all around. Right, there's
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: relatively little public land in this part of the state.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: Is that correct?
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: That's correct.
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: So you have a lot of public land in the mountains,
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: and you have a lot of public land on the coast,
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: but in the middle of the state there's not a
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: lot of public land. I think the North Colina Wildlife
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: Commission manages about two million acres total in.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: The state of North Carolina, which in the.
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: Southeast that's a paint pretty high. But as far as
• 14:52
  Speaker 5: in the center of the state, within that sort of
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: driving distance we talked about, being within one hundred miles
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: of most folks who live in the state, there's not
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: that much publicly accessible hunting land for sure.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Speaking of public hunting in this process right now, while
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: those lands are for sale, are they still open to
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: the public during this period?
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: They currently are open to the public?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Okay, So are people out there turkey hunting right now
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: as we speak?
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: They are Turkey hunder if you speak.
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: We were doing an interview with a local television station
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: and people were bank fishing and joining them just like
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: they always have, and so they are still in use
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: and hopefully we'll keep them that way.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, what what folks do folks know is as well
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: known in the community. Are Are there local hunters and
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: anglers who who are equally as concerned about this?
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: Or is this a surprise to some people.
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: I think it's both a surprise, and I think folks
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: are beginning to become aware of what happened.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: When they first went on the.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: Market, we got a lot of calls from folks asking us,
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: what are you doing about it? I thought you already
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: can serve these lands, and these lands again weren't part
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: of the negotiations for the re licensing agreement, so they
• 15:58
  Speaker 5: weren't on the table. So we would have to tell
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: folks that, you know, we agree with you, we think
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: they should be, but there weren't, and so now we're
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: gonna have to do something about it. But as far
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: as local hunters, there's sort of a you can imagine
• 16:11
  Speaker 5: there's chat rooms everywhere about local hunting and fishing, and
• 16:14
  Speaker 5: stories are being told. But there are people that see
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: the importance of this campaign specifically, and I'll be quite
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: frank you know it is we were expending some negative
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: pushback on the campaign from people that maybe don't understand
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: what we do as a land trust, but because of
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: your name on X and met Eatter, you know, we
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: haven't seen that and it's been really refreshing to see
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: that people understand what's at stake and that you guys
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: are in it to win it as well. And so
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: we're just excited about that and the fact that that
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: people were recognizing that, you know, we're into expanding public lands,
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: that's one of our calls as far as our mission goes,
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: and so your organization, meat Eatter and ONEX have really
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: helped that.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Well, how did you guys get involved, like what, what
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: does where did this begin for for Three Rivers Land
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: Trust and what has your role been through this process?
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: Well, that's a great question. We we started when when
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: they first came on the market, we started receiving calls
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: and asking what we were.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Going to do.
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: So we thought the numbers were sort of high, frankly
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: for the purchase prices they were asking for, and so
• 17:21
  Speaker 5: we did some due diligence and got some appraisals to make.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Sure that financially we could we could do that.
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: Once we did that, we partnered with the Wildlife Commission
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: to come up with a plan to see which ones,
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: which parcels are most important to them, which ones they
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: want to see and served, and.
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: So they prioritize those of those parcels for us.
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: And then we sort of strategized about how best to
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: start a campaign uh to do this, recognizing that no
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: one had stepped forward from a bigger organization perspective.
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: We're we're the local land Trust.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: We cover fifteen counties in North Carolina, but nobody seemed
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: to be picking up the mantel and we decided that
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: was that was too big a bottle that dropped. So
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: we as a staff collectively decided we put our shoulders
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: into it to see what we could do to conserve
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: and allow public access on as many acres as we
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: can buy. And you know, our mission has four fundamental tenants.
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: First is expanding public lands, the second is is saving
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: family farms, the third is protecting wildlife habitat and local waters,
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: and the fourth is nationally fenced conservation. And so this
• 18:24
  Speaker 5: bit a majority of those tenants for us, and so
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: we just jumped on it and said we got to
• 18:28
  Speaker 5: do something.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: We'll see what.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Happens when you guys had the Resource Commission do that
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: kind of audit of the landscape to help you guys
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: understand where the highest priority parcels were and what you know, what.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Made those high priority?
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: What are they find like the what were the criteria
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: that they were looking at when determining, Hey, this region
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: is particularly important. We really need to focus here or
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: there or elsewhere. What are some of those things A
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: that they were looking at and B that that just
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: make anywhere on this property to stand out. Because we've
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: been chatting a few days ago, maybe a week through
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: or so about some of the standout wildlife hair habitat
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: characteristics too, and I thought that was interesting.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: Yeah, So they did take that into account. So they
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: have several things. One I think the first criteria they used,
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: I think was proximity to other conserved lands. So there's
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: a parcel that's on the eastern side that ranked really
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: well because it's contiguous to another twenty three hundred acres
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: and so that ranked really well. The other parcels were
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: ranked because of the natural species or the natural heritage
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: will referred to it on the site, so they have
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: I know that folks, some folks won't like this, but
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: timber rattles, snakes are threatened around here, and so this
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: had good habitat because of the rock out croppings, and
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: so that was a criteria. The access to public lands
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: and we have a boat launch, a public boat launch
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: that's near one of the parcels. And so they came
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: up with the criteria and they've vetted it through their fisheries,
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: through their local biologist positions, and they came up with
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: all that. But I would tell you at a high
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: level that was some of the key cructery was was
• 20:05
  Speaker 5: the location to conserve lands and then what species were
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: either threatened or state threatened or endangered, and then the
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: habitat types that you know, the rocky outcroppings, the hardwoods.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: It was just after doing someone from resoarch analysis, they
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: came up with the top four or five parcels that
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: we jumped on.
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: Okay, so what is the timeline on all of this.
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: You said that that came up for sale or was
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: the process began last year? At some point our involvement
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: began here in April.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: How fast is all this moving? How you know?
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: How much?
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: You probably don't know, but how much time do we have?
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: What's what's all of that look like?
• 20:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: We so I did mention they started they were for
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: sale last March April. We didn't officially launch our campaign
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: until after doing the due dillings was a sort of
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: homework on it. We launched it January first, sort of
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: kick off a new year, so it was quite a
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: while sort of a lead time after the analysis that
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: came back from the Wildlife Commission is really when we
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: sort of picked out which parcels we're going to go
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: after and set a launch date.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: So in the fall last year we.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: Were coming up with a campaign and sort of getting
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: things in place, blocking and tackling ready for a launch
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: on January first. Had a great launch, But the question
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: is how long do we have You know, that's a
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: great question because theoretically these lands are have four sale
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: signs on them to day and they could go away
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: tomorrow if you had the right buyer come in and
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: have the money that they could buy them. So that's
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: the threat mark is that you know that alcohol will
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: not sign an option that propert owners have to let
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: to not just sign an option.
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: We've gone down that path.
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: To say give us, you know, twelve months, give us
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: eighteen months to raise money around this, and they're in
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: a business mindset saying no, they're going to wait and
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: whatever comes forward, glad to come back to the table
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: and you have the money. But until then, we're not
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: locking anything down. So that's really emphatans is to raise
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: money quickly. Once we get a certain amount to take
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: down a parcel, we're going to take it down and
• 22:08
  Speaker 5: we'll continue to do that time after time again as
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: parcels remain available and as funds are raised.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Is there any kind of, for lack of a better term,
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: gut feeling or premonition or vibe or energy level that
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: you guys have internally when you look at the prospects here.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Is there is there some optimism that that this is
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: possible or some of this is possible, or does it
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: feel like we're facing down the barrel of a gun
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: and at any moment you're gonna lose this place.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: Well, I think I think all those things are true.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: Is some days of the.
• 22:45
  Speaker 5: Week, the the fact there's threats out there to this land,
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: publicly accessible land.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: It's certainly something that keeps me and the staff awake
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: at night.
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: We have heard of folks sort of kicking the tires
• 22:59
  Speaker 5: looking at these lands to uh to purchase them for
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: private reasons, whether a corporation or a private individual, and
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: public access will be lost.
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: So that is what we sort of go to bed with.
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: Are we optimistic? Yes, I mean it's it's.
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: A we're definitely gonna get uh some of this land
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: conserved with your support and on X, I think we're
• 23:19
  Speaker 5: definitely gonna get some of it's just how much will
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: we get? And so you know, it's it's battling the elements.
• 23:25
  Speaker 5: It's it's working with a capital society and on an
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: open market and we're proud of that and we will
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: gladly compete. Uh, But we need folks who hear this
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: message to say, you know what, it's important to have
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: public lands in the East. Maybe ought to support this
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: campaign no matter where I live. And we've seen that
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: so far. Mark, it's been amazing. Yah.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Yes, So well, I guess we'll hold off on that.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about the progress so far on
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: the campaign and project, but but I want to circle
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: back on a couple other specific things. One thing I'm
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: wondering about, and I don't know how much insight you
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: guys have into this or if it would just be
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: pure guesswork, but what kind of person or what kind
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: of interests would buy these lands? Like do you is
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: it could there be like housing developments there or would
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: this be for some kind of resource extraction or what
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: are the possibilities here if a different entity were to
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: purchase it?
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: Do you have any sense of that?
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Like I guess I'm trying to imagine what the future
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: could if this project doesn't work, If you guys are
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: not able to succeed with this campaign, what's the alternative future?
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: Well, that's that's the reality we're dealing with.
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: And what we've seen so far and what we've heard
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: so far is there have been mining companies have expressed
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: an interest in these lands.
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: From what we've found.
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: Out, we've also had national and local development interest for
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: housing developments. Obviously, when you talk in riverfront folks locally
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: see this is the next Lake Norman from North Carolina
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: Lake Tillery where homes and second homes and docks and
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: piers come out, But this is really a secluded lake.
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: The lake does not really benefit that kind of walk,
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: that kind of honey or that kind of use. It
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: is much better because it's relatively shallow at points in
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: stump Field that it's really a fishing lake, a waterfowl
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: lake in fact, a local waterfowl hot spot. So it's uh,
• 25:28
  Speaker 5: it will dramatically change the use of that land if, if,
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: if more homes are added. It has a few homes
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: on it now maybe less than ten total, but it's
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: the potential there to put homes on it, have community piers.
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: The current shoreline management plan mark you know, they have
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: a plan because it was a part of the Federal
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: Industry Regulatory Commission process. It has a shoreline management plan
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: that calls for not individual docks, but it calls for
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: if they do it, community docks. But that could be
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: changed at any time. And then then when we opening
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: up a whole ban of a whole different sort of
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: can of worms, if we had that come.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: Up bout yeah, what what when when a project like
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: this comes comes to your table as a land trust,
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: what options do you typically have at your disposal? Like
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: I know, I know one of the options is what
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: you're what we're trying to do now, right, which is
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: raise funds from private individuals in the kind of capacity
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: that we are with this fundraising campaign.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: But you know, how often.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Are there ways to leverage other tools like federal grants
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: or I don't know, land and Water Conservation Fund dollars
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: or partnerships with other programs out there is any of
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: that possible with this project or or in other alternative
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: or other alternatives in addition to that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: I would love to say they were, They are available,
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: There are programs available more. But as you know, if
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: you ever navigated the grant the federal grant process, it's
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: it's not a quick one. So we can't meet the
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: timeline that I'll cut a cold want to meet for
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: a closing date and apply for these grants because the
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: timing just doesn't it's not compatible the timing to get
• 27:16
  Speaker 5: a grant approved to get funding. I mean, it's it's
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: a several year process and and they're not willing to
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: tie the land up for that amount of time. So
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: we're really looking at one option from a conservation perspective.
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: The other option that would be available to maybe other
• 27:31
  Speaker 5: landowners that they had a similarly UH space project would
• 27:34
  Speaker 5: be a theoretically a conservation easement. They could donate and
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: receive tax benefits. But in this case, our cool was
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: very quick to say that that's that's not a it's
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: not an option for them. They did not want to
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: do that. To to make sure the land stays undeveloped,
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: we could they could donate a conservation easement, but that's
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: that's not something they were interested in. They're they're looking
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: to be taken out.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: So what happens on the Let's imagine the positive future.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: Let's imagine that we're able to raise these dollars that
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: you guys need, and you get enough to make an
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: offer on a first parcel or however much land that
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: we can afford, and you're able to get an offer accepted.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: What happens then, So, once.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: We get an offer accepted and we're under contract, we'll
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: do the due diligence that is required as.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: An accredited land trust.
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: We'll look at the title, we'll do a survey, and
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: once we get to a closing, we'll close the project
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: and the project. This is important for people, especially in
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: North Carolina. Understand these lands will remain in the game
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: Land program. There's gonna be no the end user will
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: not be able to distinguish the difference between who the previous.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: Owner was and the land Trust.
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: So the folks that are using the land today as
• 28:47
  Speaker 5: game lands, if the Land Trust owns that land, they'll
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: be able to use it at the same time, same
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: way they've always used it until we can transfer it
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: to the State of North Carolina and the ownership category.
• 28:57
  Speaker 5: We're glad to transfer it. We don't want to be
• 28:59
  Speaker 5: the end owners of this. We want to make sure
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: this gets transferred. But in the interim, while there's still
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: a gap there, these lands will be publicly available just
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: like they are today, and we're proud to do that
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: as a part of our mission.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: So that will be how the land is used.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: And then once it's transferred and the Wildlie Commission while
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: it's in the interim phase and then in the permanent phase,
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: you know they're going to manage those lands from a
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: timber harvest perspective, prescribed fire perspective, from a habitat perspective.
• 29:27
  Speaker 5: So that'll be all about the Wildlife Commission doing that,
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: and and they're ready to step forward and do that.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: What does that like, What what does that look like?
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not familiar with the degree of management that that
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: North Carolina State Commission there does can you can you
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: give me some broad strokes to what that is.
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we have broad strokes is they are have a
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: very until recently and we have a burn band in
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: North Carolina due to a drought. But until then we
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: have a very active prescribed fire capability both at the
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: at the land thrust level but also u at the
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: local while if Rechurch's commission depot which is in Troy,
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: North Carolina, so they make sure that they maintain public
• 30:08
  Speaker 5: hunting grounds or game lands as best they can with
• 30:11
  Speaker 5: prescribe fire, with public access, with putting in parking lots
• 30:16
  Speaker 5: or parking areas that that folks can ascess that having trails,
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: whether they're they're not really foot paths. There are, there
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: is one footpath, but just general access to get in
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: and out of game lands. So that's what they do
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: and they do a fantastic job. They're great partners to
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: work with and they're definitely committed to the mission.
• 30:35
  Speaker 4: Awesome.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: I got to believe that all that or a lot
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: of that habitat stuff especially helps with of course the
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: hunting opportunities that so many listeners are interested and exciting about.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: Right, that's that's a prescribe.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Fires and various projects are probably why deer and turkeys
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: love it so much.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: That's right, and I'll be honest with you, brag them
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: a little bit more.
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: They they actually have active populations of quail. Quail in
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: North Carolina or becoming a thing of the past unfortunately,
• 30:59
  Speaker 5: but they're there's active populations of both quail and woodcock
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: on these lands because the management that takes place, and
• 31:06
  Speaker 5: so we're very happy with to partner with them, knowing
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: their good stewards of the resources.
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: So one question I've gotten from folks as they've started
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: hearing from us and everyone about this project stems from
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: some of the Western public land sale sale land transfer
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: issues we've dealt with out there, and one of the
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: major concerns on the western part of the United States
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: has been going from federal ownership to state ownership and
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: concerns about states selling their public lands. That's been a
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: noted thing in the Western United States because those state
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: lands are mandated to turn a profit and they fund
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: their school systems and all that. So I've had some
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: questions for people wondering, well, what if this campaign works
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: and you guys can buy some of these lands and
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: then the land Trust transfers.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: It to the state.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: What's keeping the state from just selling the public land?
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Can you speak to that at all?
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: I can't do it.
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: Certain degree is it's certainly not my area of expertise.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: I would say that that hasn't happened in North Carolina
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: to my knowledge, we've not had that happen in the
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: past where public lands, public honting lands were sold. And
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: part of that comes down to the grants that are
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: used to either purchase the land or in this case,
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: if there's any kind of Pittman Robertson money, obviously you
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: know what that is, federal tax money that comes down,
• 32:24
  Speaker 5: they have to sign some disclaimers about how that money
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: will be used and if if there would be a
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: payback if, as I understand it, if those dollars were
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: used on any of these land purchases. So there are
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: some internal to the Wildlife Commission sort of set ups
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: or call them checks and balances. But you know, this
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: also may have some conservation related dollars to.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: It from a.
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: Local grant agency that may say you need to record
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: a conservation easement, or you need to do X, Y
• 32:58
  Speaker 5: and Z and so those would all be things that
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: we can entertain. If those are concerns for folks, We're
• 33:03
  Speaker 5: glad to try to address those if we're not addressing
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: them appropriately now, If it helps folks feel more comfortable
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: and donating to.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: This, yeah, well, And I think it's also important to
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: note that the state land systems here as I understand it,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: in much of the eastern United States are very different
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: than the West, where there's that mandate and that funding
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: structure for funding schools and different things like that, where
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: they truly are looked at as profit centers those state
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: lands specifically, while in places like my home state of
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Michigan or I'm imagining in North Carolina, it's a different
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: setup in which these lands have been much more looked
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: at as a long term asset for the public good
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: from a current status use. So, yeah, it sounds like
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: it sounds like going into this game lens program, having
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: it managed by the state, having it continue to be
• 33:52
  Speaker 2: open to the public for hunting and fishing and all
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: these other uses, that seems like a tremendous outcome. So
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: it would what has the progress been so far? You
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: kicked off the campaign in January. Uh, we began our involvement,
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: you know, mid April. Where do things stand right now?
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: How are the how's the energy within within the staff
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: and everybody working on this, and and what are we
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: looking at so far?
• 34:18
  Speaker 5: So let's talk about two different time period. Let's talk
• 34:20
  Speaker 5: about January first, and then we'll come into a media
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: or no next joint, the joint the partner two.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: We had never had.
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: When people give a donation to the land Trust, we
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: get an email it's generated, and we'd never seen the
• 34:35
  Speaker 5: amount of support we'd had at a local level, and
• 34:37
  Speaker 5: by far a local level on any conservation project ever.
• 34:40
  Speaker 5: I've been here ten years as the executive director, almost
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: working on eleven and just never had the kind of
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: outpourt of support that they come in. So before Mediater
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: got started with us, we had raised about forty thousand
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: dollars and then in the past uh, let's fast forward
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: to April fourteen, anthemin on acid Mediator publicly joined the
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: fight in the stand. We've raised about fifty five thousand
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: dollars in seven days, and we've had donations from forty
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: nine states.
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: South Dakota. We're missing South Dakota. I need somebody from
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: South Dakota and we'll have all fifty states.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: We got to get that.
• 35:18
  Speaker 5: We got to Alaska, and we've got Europe, we've got Canada,
• 35:22
  Speaker 5: and you know, just the outpoint of support is really
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: a jolt in the arm. Recognized, it's a big number
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: we have to hit for a purchase, but just the
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: fact that people are supporting this from Kansas and from
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: really across the nation is just unbelievable. We feel so
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: privileged and honored to be a part of it, to
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: be leading the effort here locally on the ground, but
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: it would have gotten a national attention in the folks
• 35:46
  Speaker 5: that you all have and to bring to the table.
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: And they've been they've been you know, grassrooy level gifts.
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: I mean there's you know, six hundred over six hundred
• 35:54
  Speaker 5: gifts and almost fifty five thousand dollars, so you're looking
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: to right at ninety one hundred dollars a post on average,
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: but I know that's nine hundred dollars.
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: It did not have to come here. You could go
• 36:04
  Speaker 4: something else, you know, can go to another project. You
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: go to the you know, the grocery store where you
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: go to gas.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: But folks felt it necessary to uh to join this
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: effort and I'm really I'm blessed and humbled that that
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: that folks see the need and have met that need,
• 36:18
  Speaker 5: and really looking forward to seeing how we're going to
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: finish out this campaign with some additional solicitations we're working
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: on right now.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and and and what's exciting is that you take
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: that fifty five thousand dollars so far, that's just in
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: the first six days of the campaign, right right. We've
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: got a whole another three plus weeks to continue on this,
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: and and a lot more outreach planned. And and then
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: you know, every one of those one hundred dollars donations
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: we're matching, right So that's that's one hundred bucks from
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Joe and Kansas that has become two hundred dollars thanks
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: to X and mediatre and that's you know, that goes
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: for all of those so dirrec So actually there's there's
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: a a whole lot more in the bank now on
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: top of that. So that's encouraging too, absolutely, And I
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: guess another hope of all of this, at least that's
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: been in the back of my mind. I'm sure it's
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: in the back of your mind as well, is that
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: we will hopefully have these contributions from all of these
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: different individuals and organizations like ours. But then my hope
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: and dream is that this helps generate enough attention that
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: there might be some larger institutional interest that maybe is
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: able to rally around this because of the platform of
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: this story and of this project, and right, I mean,
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: maybe that's where absolutely the next level of funding can
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: come from. Is if we can generate enough public awareness
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: of this, then there might be the folks who have
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: a whole other level of ability to be able to
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: come in and help in a in a big, big way.
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: Is that is that something that you guys have thought
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: about at all or is there ways to work towards.
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: That we've absolutely thought about it.
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: We're hoping that this is going to get in front
• 38:00
  Speaker 5: of the right folks that are going to have a
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: bend and have the capability to give a six or
• 38:04
  Speaker 5: seven figure gift to make sure this land stays publicly
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: accessible or maybe larger. We know there are folks on
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: the other side of the table who have that ability
• 38:12
  Speaker 5: to buy it and take it out of the public trust.
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: So certainly there's people that see the ability to keep
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: it in the public trust permanently.
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: But you know, your phone call the other day or
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: your email when.
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: You said, Hey, I have an elected official call in
• 38:24
  Speaker 5: and wanting to talk about this project.
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: What can you tell me in addition to some specific questions.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: You know, we're hoping that that happens.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: I'm hoping that through all this that local elected officials
• 38:35
  Speaker 5: and federal and state will will come together and provide
• 38:38
  Speaker 5: you know, federal money, unused federal moneys to the Wildlife
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: Commission that that they can do this on their own.
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: They don't, they don't need to have me, and I'm
• 38:45
  Speaker 5: glad to take it if I'm the only option. But
• 38:47
  Speaker 5: if they wanted to use a wildlife Commission from a
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: federal level to fund them so that they could they
• 38:52
  Speaker 5: could purchase these lands and maybe earmark them for that,
• 38:55
  Speaker 5: you know that what a wonderful outcome that would be.
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: That would lessen the burden on all of us to
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: be able to do that.
• 38:59
  Speaker 5: And frankly, it's something that after this past week sort
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: of bad news up north, that it seems like somebody's
• 39:06
  Speaker 5: do some good news and that'd be nice.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: That'd be a nice outcome, right, Yeah, that's for sure.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: We do need some good news.
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: Has there been any opportunity to get in front of
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: any of your state level officials or elected's you know,
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Senator Tillis or anyone like that.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: Are they aware of what's happening here.
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: That's a good question. We we do talk with Senator
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: Tillis's office. We've also talked with our local congressman. We
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: briefed him. His name is Addison mcdal and we've briefed
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: him on the project. He's aware of it. But we
• 39:34
  Speaker 5: need to do I need to do a better job
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: of reaching out to elected officials. It's just when we
• 39:39
  Speaker 5: talk about lobbyists and we talk about federal money, I
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: just know how tight things are and how scrutinized things are,
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: and you know, it'd be great if they gave it
• 39:46
  Speaker 5: to the Wildlife Commission to if they if they had
• 39:49
  Speaker 5: feral moneyes. I think I was told by one of
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: our consultants that last year in North Carolina, the largest
• 39:56
  Speaker 5: earmark gift was eight million dollars. Eight million dollars is
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: a lot, don't get me wrong, but it's not forty
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: that would need to sort of secure all this, So
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: you know it would be great. I did have a
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: congressman now say he would reach out to the.
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: Part of Interior.
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: I think we can reach out to to see there's
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: any unused grant funding that he can be reallocated to
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: this project, but had it heart back. So we're excited
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: about that opportunity and we welcome it certainly.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Is that is that an ask if someone is a
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: North Carolina resident and they've already donated to the cause,
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: They've they've contributed what they can financially so far, is
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: it worth North Carolina residents getting a hold of their
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: elected officials and talking about this too.
• 40:38
  Speaker 5: I think it's definitely worth it, and I would venture
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: to say that it's worth almost the same effort that
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: was happening last summer when Senator Lee was out in
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: Utah asking or trying to push through selling public lands,
• 40:49
  Speaker 5: and sportsmen in English from all across this nation, no
• 40:52
  Speaker 5: matter where they lived, got up in arms and said
• 40:54
  Speaker 5: not one acre. So I hope, while it's not exactly
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: the same, very similar, I hope that folks would, regardless
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: of where they live, call your local congression, call hours
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: here in North Carolina and advocate for this project because
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: losing four thousand acres in a state, this is going
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: to be the seventh most populous by twenty thirty.
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: We're going in the wrong direction, you know.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: Running a land trust like you do, how often do
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: you see these kinds of opportunities come up? Is this
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: is this like a once in a generation kind of thing,
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: or is this, oh yeah, every few years there something
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: like this, and and unfortunately they disappear and we lose
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: that access, and it's it's happening year after year. I
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: guess I'm just curious about this as far as that
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: historical timeline.
• 41:40
  Speaker 5: So scale wise, I would say that the only thing
• 41:42
  Speaker 5: is comparable or the other two phases of the project
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: without CoA. So we don't have large landowners like well,
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: I guess we do. We have power companies that have
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: large land holdings. There are some some some opportunities, I guess,
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: but these are pretty rare. For four thousand acres to
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: be for sale at one time in different parcels by
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: the same owner is pretty pretty rare, certainly in the
• 42:07
  Speaker 5: central part of North Carolina where the majority of folks
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: frankly live.
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: And what about just.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: Open space in general.
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: When I think about land trusts and easements and all
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: of these different tools within kind of the private side
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: of the conservation world. I think about how when I
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: drive through my old neighborhood where I grew up. I
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: was just back home in western Michigan and we were
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: driving around where I grew up, and all these places
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: that I used to go catch frogs and turtles and
• 42:39
  Speaker 2: drive around my mountain bike, or go build tree forts
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that, they're all neighborhoods now. Or there's
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: a Walmart here and there's another store here. And I'm
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: seeing right in front of my eyes just in a
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: handful of decades what used to be these wild, open
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: places that I was a little childhood Daniel Boonen, and
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: now they're a you know, I'm seeing this happen all
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: across you know, my home state in Michigan and elsewhere.
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: What's the status in North Carolina? Are you seeing similar development?
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: Are you guys losing these open spaces at the same
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: rate that so many other places are.
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 43:19
  Speaker 5: In fact, some interesting stats Mark again, one of the
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: stats for North Carolina is it's really talking about rural lands,
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: but it's specifically about farmland. So North Carolina, according to
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: a study, is the second most threatened farmland in the nation,
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: behind Texas. We lost seven hundred and thirty two thousand
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: acres of agricultural lands from two thousand and one to
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: twenty sixteen. And if you remember, the Great Recession was
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: in that time period, So I imagine that we're losing
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: lands at an even faster rate now. So I grew
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: up much like the place you just described as your hometown.
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: I grew up very similar right here in North Carolina.
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: My favorite show in the world is the Andy Griffiths Show.
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: And uh, I don't know if you've ever seen it,
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: but it's uh, you know, it's Mayberry. I grew up
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: where I can walk out in the front field that
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: a farmer planet, and I could look for airheads, and
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: I could go down to the neighbor's pond and go fishing.
• 44:11
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: And I could hunt dove or deer or whatever. And
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: it was really an ideal situation and it was rural
• 44:18
  Speaker 5: in nature. So our character in North Carolina is changing.
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: We're getting all the growth from a lot of growth
• 44:23
  Speaker 5: from California, from New York, uh, primarily from from other states,
• 44:28
  Speaker 5: and it's it's really changing the diamic in North Carolina
• 44:31
  Speaker 5: and putting a strain on rural lands. And this where
• 44:34
  Speaker 5: this is where we serve we we honestly, we don't
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: serve urban audiences as our biggest town maybe Fable outside
• 44:39
  Speaker 5: for brag or Concord outside Charlotte, but everything else is
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: very very rural from a from that perspective, and so
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: we're definitely seeing a change. We're feeling the pressure. And
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: that's really why these lands are so important, because there's
• 44:51
  Speaker 5: really a last bastion of four thousand acres that that's
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: consolidated and and really could be saved. And so hoping
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: that that stays the case with folks who want to
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: make sure that lands like this don't go away.
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: So what's your final ask? What's what do we want
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: folks to do to be aware of to take some
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: action on right now? If you could, if you could
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: kind of expand on on what we've been talking about
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: here and give one last call to action.
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: Sure, my call to actual would be simple.
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: It would be one, Please donate and regardless of the
• 45:25
  Speaker 5: amount everything goes to the project, please donate support it
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: at save Tuckertown dot org. The next thing would be
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: to ask your friend and your family to donate as well,
• 45:33
  Speaker 5: because you know, we really can't share this, share the videos,
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: share whatever you see on social media, get folks to
• 45:39
  Speaker 5: sort of see the importance of these lands, even if
• 45:41
  Speaker 5: you're never coming to North Carolina visa. Lands are important
• 45:45
  Speaker 5: for public access and they need that. And then I
• 45:48
  Speaker 5: would say one of the last things certainly is and
• 45:51
  Speaker 5: by no means disparenty call you relction to officials and
• 45:53
  Speaker 5: ask them to support efforts to keeping lands like this
• 45:56
  Speaker 5: across the nation, but certainly this case in particular, funding
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: them so that the public can have access to lands,
• 46:02
  Speaker 5: because our population is growing, not shrinking, and so we're
• 46:05
  Speaker 5: going the wrong direction if we If we lose four
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: thousand makers, that's a loss, that's not a win in
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: any case. You know, if we keep them, that's this
• 46:12
  Speaker 5: thing keeping status quo, that's not expanding. So you know,
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: we've got to keep what we got, uh, and we
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: can't lose any of it. So those are come to
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: mind first and foremost for me, Mark, and I really
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: appreciate again the spotlight that you and on X and
• 46:26
  Speaker 5: and media had brought to this issue.
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: Just greatly appreciated.
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, it's it's our honor, our privilege.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Uh, it's it's a terrific cause we're really helpful that
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: that this can help at least put some fuel on
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: the fire and get this ball rolling even faster downhill,
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: and help, of course, you know, fully utilize our matching funds.
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Hopefully we can we can meet that two hundred thousand
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: dollars goal that we've committed, and hopefully.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: Then it's just uh, to the to the moon and beyond.
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: And I'm counting on I'm counting.
• 46:56
  Speaker 4: On some big.
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: All barons, barons.
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: Of industry to step up and help out the cause
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: here as well and do what's right for the community
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: and for our public lands and wildlife and hunting and
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: fishing heritage. And I'm just so thankful for what you
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: guys are doing and leading the charge there on the
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: ground too. So thank you for that, Trevis.
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: We appreciate that. I'll pass that on to the staff.
• 47:19
  Speaker 4: I appreciate that.
• 47:19
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Well, let's touch base again in a handful of weeks
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: and hopefully have some great news to share.
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: Huh, I hope.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: So that's right, all right, Thanks for being here, Trevis,
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: All right, no problem morek take care all right, and
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: that's a wrap. Appreciate you being here.
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: As we mentioned, visit save Tuckertown dot org to donate
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: to be a part of this cause to help make
• 47:41
  Speaker 2: a difference in keeping these amazing lands public and accessible
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: well into the future. I appreciate you, thanks for tuning in,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: and until next time, stay wired to hunt.