This land will be a farm forever

WILLOW SPRING — The Triangle Land Conservancy has partnered with a Johnston County family to conserve 50 acres of farmland, forest and wetlands.

Other partners in the effort were Johnston County and the state’s Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund.

“The Stephenson Farm has been in my family for over 100 years,” said landowner Lola Delbridge. “I was born in the beautiful farmhouse my father, Leonard Stephenson, built in 1923 with stone and timber from the land. We celebrated the centennial of the house just last year.”

Her father farmed the land, growing food and money crops using mules and plows, Delbridge said. He willed the farm to her and her siblings.

“My husband and I visited the farm often with our own three children, and they grew up learning themselves to love the barn, fields, animals, pond and woods,” Delbridge said. “Currently, my granddaughter and her husband live in the farmhouse.”

The farm shrank over the years.

“This 50 acres is all that remains of the original 275-acre Stephenson Farm my parents owned,” Delbridge said. “I am overjoyed to be able to protect this last piece of the farm so that it can bring joy and sustenance to future generations.”

Delbridge placed the farm into a conservation easement with the Triangle Land Conservancy. The farm has a mix of hay fields, pine, hardwood bottomland forest and wetland where it borders Middle Creek.

This diversity of habitats provides a home for a variety of wildlife, and the property contains about 30 acres of prime soil.

This conservation easement is the second land-protection project the TLC has completed with the Delbridge family. Last year, the TLC purchased 17 acres of forested floodplain on Middle Creek with support from Johnston County.

Butch Lawter is chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners. “Farming remains the number one industry in Johnston County, and as county commissioners, we believe it is essential for us to continue safeguarding farmland as creatively and efficiently as possible,” he said. “We know that agribusiness in Johnston County is not only vital but also a fundamental part of the fabric of our community.”

“We need more places for people to live, but we also need to invest in preserving farms like this one that are so essential to Johnston County’s agricultural economy, heritage and quality of life,” Lawter added. “We are proud to partner with the Delbridge family, Triangle Land Conservancy and the Ag Trust Fund to preserve this land. ”

Over the past two years, Johnston County has committed nearly $1.5 million to local land-protection efforts, helping TLC and its partners secure farms, forests and streams.

Leigh Ann Hammerbacher is a TLC director of land protection and stewardship. “Funding from Johnston County has enabled Triangle Land Conservancy to conserve nearly 400 acres in the county over the past year, including three farms protected with conservation easements and two properties TLC will own and manage to protect water quality,” she said.

The TLC uses dollars from the county to bolster its chances of winning grants.

“By this time next year, we expect to have protected nearly 1,000 acres across the county and will have leveraged Johnston County’s funding with a 9:1 match from state grant programs and landowner donations,” Hammerbacher said. “These local funds are critical to Triangle Land Conservancy’s ability to complete projects like this one, and we commend Johnston County’s Board of Commissioners for investing in farmland conservation at this pivotal moment when farms are being lost at an unprecedented rate.”

The TLC couldn’t do such work without willing landowners, Hammerbacher added. “We are immensely grateful to Lola Delbridge and the entire Delbridge family for deciding to preserve this beautiful farm for future generations,” she said.

While the property will remain in private hands, the conservation easement with the TLC will restrict the ability to develop the land. Conservation easements are binding and stay with the property even if it is sold to another owner. That means the land’s natural resources and conservation values are forever protected. The TLC will hold and continue to monitor the easement in perpetuity.

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