
	Triangle Land Conservancy 1101 Haynes Street Suite 205 Raleigh, NC 27604 919.833.3662

Newton Tract Adds to Piedmont Oasis at White Pines

by Beth Wickham
(from TLC News, September 2004)

| Download TLC News, Sept. 2004 pdf file (701 kb) |

It is July in the Piedmont of North Carolina. The predicted high for the Triangle area today is 95°F. Two nights ago, the humidity was palpable.

A powerline cut on TLC’s new White Pines acquisition offers a view across the Rocky River and several miles beyond.
(Photo by Doug Nicholas)

The power went out twice in our neighborhood, and the hardiest of us ventured outside to make sure someone called the power company. We sweated and commiserated and finally determined that it was not a squirrel that had chewed down too far or the storm in the distance. The lights began to blink back on, and that all too familiar drone of our air conditioners said it all. Our demand for relief from the heat was greater than the power available to relieve it.

The addition of the Newton Tract to TLC's White Pines Nature Preserve should be some comfort, physically and psychologically. With the closing on June 21 (ironically, the first day of summer and the longest day of the year), TLC has incorporated a much-coveted 17-acre tract into the now 275-acre preserve.

Located in Chatham County between Pittsboro and Sanford, the White Pines preserve is nestled at the confluence of the Rocky and Deep Rivers with frontage on both. This “flat-out amazing area,” as TLC stewardship specialist Tom Craven reverently calls it, can be as much as 10 degrees cooler than the average regional temperature. Featuring atypical plant species like rhododendron, mountain laurel and white pine, Craven says that being at White Pines is like “visiting the mountains without having to go.”

An old barn gives the Newton tract a rustic feel. (Photo by Doug Nicholas)

The White Pines Preserve has been a work in progress, with several expansions over its approximately 20-year history with TLC. The latest expansion, the Newton Tract, is adjacent to the preserve and has 800 feet of frontage on the Rocky River. The property lies in the Deep River corridor, one of TLC's priority areas for land protection. There are two ponds and several limited outbuildings on the property. Visitors can stand at the top of a 100-foot bluff overlooking the Rocky River and see at least two miles into the distance.

TLC purchased the property from longtime owner Jeff Newton for $170,000. The funds came through the state's new Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP). Created in July 2003, this program attempts to offset development impacts on streams and wetlands by enhancing and preserving natural areas. The February 2004 issue of TLC News describes EEP in detail, noting that there will be greater emphasis on “high-quality preservation.” It is no surprise, therefore, that the Newton Tract was one of the first properties to be funded under this program.

TLC staff is working diligently to finalize plans for making the White Pines Nature Preserve even more attractive to visitors. The increased size will make it more appealing as a recreation area and destination for hikers, and the addition resolves a long-standing problem related to road access to the property. Other improvement plans include upgrading old logging roads for hiking trails and eliminating some of the invasive plants.

My grandfather was a medic in World War I and was stationed at Camp Mills, N.Y., before going to France. In a letter dated July 1918 to his father, who was living in Gulf, NC, he writes, “Please, you all go to the mountains and get away from the heat.” I wonder if my great-grandfather knew about this special place, only five miles away as the crow flies, where it was like “visiting the mountains without having to go.”