IP to sell land to Nature Conservancy

By LEE HINNANT

International Paper has agreed to sell 18,341 acres of forestlands in Columbus and Brunswick counties to The Nature Conservancy, a move that will eventually expand public games lands around Juniper Creek and the Waccamaw River.

The deal is part of one of the largest private land conservation sales in the nation. The Conservancy and The Conservation Fund will buy 218,000 acres of natural areas in 10 states – a $300 million purchase expected to close by June.

Conservancy Project Manager Dan Bell said the land includes about 4,000 acres in Columbus County and 14,000 acres in Brunswick County. Significantly, the tract adjoins the Conservancy’s existing Green Swamp Nature Preserve, just south of the Columbus-Brunswick border. Bell said the sale would also preserve about 13 miles of the Juniper Creek corridor, almost the whole watershed of the creek, a major tributary of the Waccamaw River.

“It brings a significant amount of public land to the area,” Bell said. “Since we acquired the Green Swamp Nature Preserve in 1977, this is the most significant conservation acquisition we’ve done here.”

The area is home to a diverse range of game animals and other wildlife, including rare species such as the Carolina pygmy sunfish and Venus flytrap. Juniper Creek is one of the most remote, undeveloped blackwater streams in the state. It is named after old, dense stands of Atlantic white cedar that line the banks. Locals call the trees “junipers.”

“The purchase in Columbus and Brunswick counties constitutes some of the most significant natural areas in the state, nation and in fact, the world,” said state Sen. R.C. Soles Jr., who met with the principals recently and encouraged them to go ahead with the sale. “We need to preserve the quality of life and preserve and enhance Nature.”

Three tracts totaling 9,377 acres comprise the Columbus County Game Land, including one area of Juniper Creek near the area being acquired. The Conservancy plans to eventually transfer the land it is buying from IP to the state Wildlife Resources Commission to expand the Game Land.

About 800 acres of uplands will remain in production as a pine plantation, but the rest will be protected from logging or other development, Bell said.

Two other Conservancy preserves are within a few miles of the new purchase – the Myrtlehead Savanna in Brunswick and the Old Dock Savanna in Columbus.

“This historic transaction demonstrates the compatibility of environmental, recreational and economic interests, and is a testimony to International Paper’s legacy of sustainably managing healthy, working forestlands and protecting special forestlands for 108 years,” IP Chairman John Faraci said in a prepared statement. “As we consider the sale of our U.S. land holdings, we saw this as an opportunity to protect in perpetuity many of our most ecologically significant lands.”

Earlier this year, IP announced it would consider selling all of its forestlands in the United States.