THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994 TAG: 9406240566
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940624 LENGTH: Medium
Richard Shaw, assistant director of the N.C. Division of Coastal Management, said in Raleigh on Thursday the money from the N.C. Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Fund will be used to purchase 173 acres of the primitive seaside forests.
{REST} ``We hope to close on the 110-acre Kitty Hawk Woods property by the end of July,'' said Frederick Annand, associate director of the N.C. Chapter of the Nature Conservancy in Carrboro. Annand is working with Shaw in the maritime forests negotiations. About 63 acres will be purchased in Buxton.
Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. announced the grants earlier this week, along with $1.55 million in other Heritage Fund donations for natural resource preservation in the state.
``There are only five listed maritime forests remaining,'' said Shaw, ``and Buxton Woods and Kitty Hawk Woods are the largest of them.''
The major part of the $850,000 maritime forest money - $500,000 - is earmarked for the purchase of the Kitty Hawk Woods land. The remaining $350,000 will add to an existing Buxton Woods maritime tract with the purchase of the adjoining Hanes-Lassiter property, Shaw said.
The Hanes-Lassiter land is between the wellfield for Hatteras Island and the current Buxton Woods Environmental District. Shaw said the state eventually will own more than 800 acres adjoining 920 acres owned by the U.S. National Park Service on Hatteras Island.
Putting together the Kitty Hawk Woods deal has taken years of patient negotiating between the state, the U.S. Resolution Trust Corp., several Outer Banks developers and the town of Kitty Hawk.
Starkey Sharp, a Dare County attorney, has been a key player in the negotiations that now appear to be nearing a successful conclusion with the granting of the $500,000 Kitty Hawk Woods money.
Both Shaw and Annand credited Sharp with untangling years of complications that delayed purchase of the land as a maritime forest.
About 1,400 acres of the Kitty Hawk land was acquired by investors in the 1980s, Sharp said.
``Some of the loans involved were held by the Great Atlantic Savings Bank of Manteo and, when that institution was taken over by the Resolution Trust Corp., there were continued negotiations to convey certain of the Kitty Hawk Woods property rights to the town of Kitty Hawk, the state and the Nature Conservancy,'' Stark said.
Eventually, the town of Kitty Hawk got about 460 acres on the east side of The Woods Road that winds through the pristine forest acreage.
``The negotiations now involve about 110 acres on the west side of the road, which will consolidate much of the maritime forest in Kitty Hawk,'' said Sharp.
Funds in the N.C. Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust come from personalized auto license plate fees and a portion of the excise tax on real estate transfers. The nine members of the trust administration board, headed by William Joslin of Raleigh, approved the grants last month.
The Natural Heritage Trust Fund was created by the 1987 General Assembly to buy land displaying the natural diversity of North Carolina. The tracts are added to the state parks system and, in some cases, the preserves are operated in association with National Parks Service property.
Once acquired, the maritime forest properties on the Outer Banks will be improved with hiking trails that will allow observation of the ``diversity of barrier island habitats which support a great concentration of rare plants,'' according to Linda Pearsall, a spokeswoman for Hunt.
by CNB