One Beautiful Project! Richardson/Morton Land Preservation and the Mountains to Sea Trail in Our Backyard

Back in May the N&R reported on the possible creation of a huge new land conservation project. The Richardson/Morton project created and brokered by the Guilford County Open Space Committee is now very close to becoming a wonderful reality for the citizens of Guilford County.

This project will help protect our community’s water reservoirs, help recharge our groundwater, and provide protection for air purifying trees and plant species. It will protect large beaver ponds, waterfowl and substantial numbers of other wildlife.

Thanks to efforts of all involved the cost for this important project was shared, gifted and reduced by all the players. With a price tag of initially over $6 million the Guilford County part of this will be no more than $2.56 million and possibly with a Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant as little as $1.5 million. We on the Guilford County Open Space Committee urge your strong support for this project and you can help by contacting the county commissioners.

More news articles should follow soon but these are some of the current facts about this project:

· The N.C. Division of Parks, the Guilford County Open Space Committee and the Guilford County Parks & Recreation Commission have all approved our parts of this project. The Board of Guilford County Commissioners at their Dec. 11th meeting at 5:30 p.m. in the Old Court House at 301W. Market St. should give final approval for this project.

· 443 pristine, natural acres of land will be preserved north of Lake Townsend, north just off Plainfield Rd. about one mile west from Church St., west of Spencer Dixon Rd., and running to the back of Northern High School property off of Hwy 150.

· This project will provide much of the land needed to connect our Greensboro Watershed Trails to the Mountains to Sea Trail section running between Greensboro and the Haw River State Park.

· The Morton family (of Grandfather Mountain fame) has agreed to sell, at 25% under the current appraised value, 193 acres at $2.82 million. And the N.C. Council of State just approved on Nov. 4th the purchase of this section of the Mountains to Sea Trail for the N.C. Division of Parks. Thus this entire 193 acre tract will be purchased by the State of N.C.

· The Richardson family (of Vicks Vaporub fame) has agreed to sell, at almost 40% under current appraised value, 250 acres at $2.56 million. This conservation land purchase (and use of this land in part for the Mountains to Sea Trail) will require the use of Guilford County Open Space bond funds that were approved by voters in 2004. And the use of county bond funds requires the approval of the BOCC.

· The Greensboro Parks & Recreation Department has agreed to partner with Guilford County and the State of N.C. to help maintain this section of the Mountains to Sea Trail.

· The Guilford County Open Space Committee will apply for a grant from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund to reimburse around $1.3 million of the $2.56 million that will be spent by Guilford County for this project. Since the Richardson tract includes significant wetlands along Long Branch that feed into Lake Townsend this is a very realistic possibility. Thus this entire project may only draw down the approved bond funds by around $1.5 million.

**Click on map of Richardson and Morton property and photos above to enlarge. 1st photo of beaver pond on Richardson property, 2nd photo of huge Willow Oak on Morton property and the 3rd photo is of a trail on the Morton property. More photos to follow.