Conservation From the Ground Up

From TLC News, August 2007

Katherine Wright

Katherine Wright has distinct memories of a place where she first sensed a real affinity with the natural world.  As a child, the Raleigh native often visited her grandparents at their house near Fort Macon State Park in Morehead City.  She remembers becoming mesmerized by the natural rhythms of a salt marsh.   

“My grandparents lived on a tidal river and I remember sitting on their dock, watching fiddler crabs come out of the mud, periwinkles crawl up and down the marsh grass and great blue herons flying over the marsh,” she recalls.  “I was just fascinated by those images when I was little.”

Katherine’s love of the outdoors was strengthened during several summers when she attended camp in the North Carolina mountains and at the coast, learning to sail, rock-climb and spelunk.  Katherine attended N.C. State University and majored in Horticultural Science with a concentration in sustainable agriculture.  After college, she relocated to San Francisco, where she worked as a gardener on a private estate and championed the use of organic gardening methods. 

Feeling a pull back to her home state, and an interest in expanding her ecological knowledge, Katherine then attended the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University and graduated with a master’s degree in Environmental Management in 2007.  A rewarding summer internship as a planning project intern for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust in Wilmington convinced her that she wanted to work with a local land trust. 

“I knew that a position with a land trust would allow me to balance working with landowners and other community members to figure out creative ways to save land, while staying connected to the landscape by being outdoors and working on the areas that we’re protecting,” she says.

One of Katherine’s primary responsibilities at TLC is monitor all of the properties to which the land trust holds a conservation easement.  TLC monitors eased properties once a year by visiting the property and noting any changes from the previous year, such as nearby construction sites or new buildings.  Katherine particularly enjoys working with landowners, saying that “We have a good relationship with our partner landowners and they are eager to work with us to protect the conservation values of their property.”

TLC currently holds 35 easements on properties that range in size from 1 to 320 acres.  Placing a conservation easement on property can be a beneficial option for landowners who want to continue to own the property but want to place certain restrictions upon it to protect its conservation features.

As she continues to familiarize herself with TLC holdings, Katherine is gaining a new appreciation for the Piedmont’s natural diversity.  “Even though I grew up here and am familiar with the landscape, there are so many interesting places I’m learning about like Endor Iron Furnace and the New Hope Creek area,” she explains.  “There are natural resources and recreation opportunities in the Triangle that a lot of people don’t know about.”

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