“As a wildlife conservationist and habitat manager, Bill Webb is a great model and leader in conservation efforts in this area,” said Crystal Cockman, Uwharrie Conservation Specialist with The LandTrust.
“The LandTrust is very excited to have closed its first easement in Richmond County, and couldn’t have asked for a better landowner to work with or a more ideal project,” she said.
“From the conversion of a tobacco farm into a recreation-based hunting preserve, to the restored longleaf and excellent management practices, this easement has everything you could ask for in a project,” Cockman said.
The easement involves 115 acres which are part of the Webb Farm Quail Grounds west of Ellerbe.
The land is described as possessing both Uwharrie-type ecosystems, with mountain-like streams and sandhills ecotones with longleaf pine and flat lands.
Cockman said Webb was raised in a hunting tradition and has “worked hard to manage his historic family farm as a hunting preserve.”
In addition to restoring longleaf pines, he actively manages a quail habitat with prescribed burns, she said.
“I am an ardent proponent of conservation easements,” Webb said, “and would hope this easement would encourage others to do the same thing.”
Cockman said, “Not surprisingly, his excellent wildlife management efforts garnered him the title of N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission Small Game Conservationist of the Year in 2004.”
The farm has been featured in several publications and on television shows.
The easement protects current uses of the property and restricts development, allowing no home sites.
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