SALT Pitches Plan for Preserving Scenic Byways

As of Saturday, December 1, 2012

Farmers, ranchers, shopkeepers, potters and others who live and work or whose land lies along N.C. 24 and 27 gathered Thursday night at Clyde Maness’ Music Barn for barbecue, bluegrass and a proposition.

This was the third meeting by the Sandhills Area Land Trust (SALT) for one of its latest initiatives, the Sandhills Heritage Scenic Byway.

“We work in six counties that define the Sandhills to protect land through conservation easements,” said Candace Williams, executive director of the nonprofit, as she welcomed guests. “Today I am thrilled to say that we are right at 12,000 acres that we have conserved in this region. That is just one of many things we do. We are very excited about one initiative we are here tonight to celebrate. That is our scenic byway project.”

SALT’s Gateway will include three different roads as state-designated scenic byways. Designating roads that pass through lovely, interesting parts of North Carolina as “scenic byways” is one way the state is hoping it can spur economic life in those areas.

Its Sandhills Heritage Gateway will promote N.C. 73 as “Indian Heritage Trail,” N.C. 705 — already designated as “Pottery Highway” — and now N.C. 24/27 as “Pineland Trail.”

“It is quite unusual to have three,” she said. “We feel really fortunate about that.”

SALT has now hosted three events at places it sees as local “must-see” stops along these byways. Indian Heritage Trail brought people from its area to the Little River Winery between Ellerbe and Mount Gilead. Next, SALT invited folks from the Pottery Highway area to the Village Theater in Robbins. Its third event was this one, at Maness Music Barn on 24/27, the Pineland Trail.

Jesse Wimberley is SALT’s community outreach director and manages the byway project. Wimberley is a fifth-generation farmer in West End, where his family started out as turpentiners, then went into free-range cattle and a little tobacco farming.

“People ask me what I do, and I do tree farming, but I also grow water,” he said. “Drowning Creek heads up around my farm, and that’s the water supply for all of southern Moore County. My family has transitioned over the years from one agricultural product as times have changed.”

How to take advantage of changes is one focus of the byway, an endeavor whose greatest value is the legacy it will leave.

“I want to introduce you to a concept,” Wimberley said. “You’ve probably heard of a ‘watershed,’ where all the different water comes together, and by the time it gets to southern Moore County it is the drinking supply — but it comes from a lot of different creeks that come together. There is another term called a ‘viewshed.’”

SALT is bringing together all who own land along these three scenic byways and introducing them to different programs that could help them see what they want to do.

“The reason it was designated a ‘scenic byway’ is because it’s nice,” Wimberley said. “If any of you have been down around Aberdeen or Southern Pines and you ride along what I call ‘french fry alley,’ it just gets you real nervous. Just to get in to get some french fries you feel like you are taking your life in your own hands. It makes you tense.

“But when you ride along 705 or 24/27 or 73 it gives you a good feeling. That’s because most of the land is working land: farmland or forestry land. That has a value not only to the people who own the land, but to all who travel along it.

“How can we bring all that together into a program where not only landowners benefit, but businesses and other people?”

By 2030 the state is expecting a 50 percent population increase, Wimberley said.

“I am also the manager of the Sunrise Theater, and you can’t even find a parking place in Southern Pines anymore,” he said. “It is so crowded down there. There are people now coming from the Triangle, Charlotte, the Triad because we have such a pretty place.”

The Sandhills Gateway, with its three scenic byways, can bring communities of people along those routes together in cooperative efforts, he said.

The crowd at Thursday night’s event included people who raise crops, cattle and chickens. There were innkeepers and potters. A film writer and director from Los Angeles is back in North Carolina to care for his aging mother and looking for a way to keep the family land. A town commissioner from Carthage was lamenting the loss of a proposed antique car dealership, victim of zoning rules. A photographer said she had started a studio here, because this was where she wanted to live.

Community-building combined with conservation were ingredients in the evening’s recipe. Neighbors were introduced or re-introduced to each other and conservation options offered through one-on-one talks with representatives about various conservation options in making the natural resources on their land more profitable.

SALT’s dream is a network of scenic working farms and forests conserving the vistas along the byways while bringing ecotourism dollars to the region. SALT believes these things will further benefit travelers by helping preserve the stories the byways tell about their history, culture, and land.

Contact John Chappell at (910) 783-5841 or jfchappell@gmail.com.

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tarheelborn 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Well, I typed a really nice commentary, but it's probably good it got lost before I could post... All I will say is as long as I live, When I see a DUCK, I'm going to call it a Duck and when I see a JACK A _ _ , I'm going to call it a JACK A _ _ ! These SALT folks are Very Few STUPID, feeling DISENFRANCHISED Jealous few, because they don't have the common sense or money to own a business which is creating jobs, so they want to try and STOP potential growth which WILL CREATE JOBS! If they don't like my post, than PROVE ME WRONG! Open a Business and Create 50-100 GOOD PAYING JOBS!
These people are a dozen or two at most, which play off the MEDIA like The Pilot Newspaper trying to Prohibit much needed growth and JOBS! One begs to ask, what the majority of these NUTS do for a living? I'd be willing to wager a couple HARD EARNED U.S.Dollars they have NEVER CREATED Jobs for anyone! They probably work for State, Local or Federal government and either receive Weekly or Monthly checks! The don't even know what the words, Entrepreneur , Business Owner, Contractor or Sub Contractor mean! If they are a Business owner, most likely they Inherited from someone which busted their Butts to build it and they are entitled by way of Given Rights... I've been to their meetings, listened to their supposedly protecting "Mother Earth", watched them "Picket" on the sidewalks of the Capital, while the TV cameras are filming "Shuffling" from one side of the camera to the other to make it appear there is this huge gathering, and the MEDIA enables them in doing so, JUST TO MAKE NEWS, seen them "Chain Themselves" to TREES, Set down in front of a Bulldozer and DARE them to drive over them! I'm so amused typing this post until my eyes are watering and hands bouncing up and down on the keyboard I'm laughing so HARD! These NUTS are DUMBER Than The DIRT they are saying they are PROTECTING!

If one notices, they are targeting the areas where the growth is moving... West of Pinehurst such as 7 Lakes, West End and not to mention the Hugh Sprawling property of Pineforest and Dormie Golf Club's... I see Jealousy ALL OVER THIS ONE Folks!
We better tell these NUTS where to get off, so we can get some JOBS IN HERE! THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT HIRE EVERYBODY! Some people actually have to WORK FOR A LIVING!

SALT, Shut you Mouths, UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO CREATE JOBS SO PEOPLE CAN FEED THEIR FAMILIES!!!!!!!

STUPID is all I can say!

tarheelborn 5 months, 2 weeks ago

"ecotourism dollars"... Ha HA, BULL S _ _ ! "tell about their history, culture"... History is for the Libraries, Schools, Internet, Museums, etc, etc... It DON'T PUT FOOD ON OUR TABLES WHEN OUR CHILDREN ARE GOING TO BED HUNGRY! Dumb A _ _ _!

JohnChappell 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Let us assume – charitably – that the bad grammar in these comments was intentional, and meant for emphasis. I've covered two of SALT’s three sessions, and my understanding is that promoting these roads is a way to advertise the area. Publicity brings visitors, and visitors spend money -- that's part of the Sandhills Gateway idea and why Jesse Wimberley is so excited about the effort to turn an old movie theater in Robbins into a show business magnet. He's excited about promoting the potters for the same reason. As for his own job, as the stories said, he's a farmer. I wish the folks who complain with such vitriol about starting businesses and hiring people would do just that: start one, hire some.

tarheelborn 5 months, 2 weeks ago

My Dear John. I love you and I AGREE with you on Most of your comment. However, if you believe my story is INCORRECT, you are not the person I thought you to be. I think you REALLY want to say what I'm saying here, """start one, hire some.""" (only in a more polite way)! Thanks for agreeing with me anyway... For all intent and purposes, I shall refrain from disclosing WHO I AM... I live in a Glass House as so many other. Call me a coward if they may, but that's fine... If I were to reveal who I am, you and the whole county would know, Then, my "cover would be blown"! I am a BUSINESS OWNER, own probably as many Corporations as ANY other single individual in this WHOLE COUNTY! I DO EMPLOYEE MANY and will be EXPANDING AGAIN SOON.... I am a JOB CREATOR and come from a family which have done what they PROMISED, not just TALKED ABOUT they WOULD do.... I will be the FIRST to Agree with anyone reading my posts, (just as my cohabiting partner) I am NOT posting in a Professional Manner, (as a politically correct person contemplating obtaining an elected position). I DO and can hold my own with ANY regardless of their Wealth or Public and Privately held Offices... I'M JUST MAD, John! You know exactly how I feel! We have talked about this sometime back! ! ! I'm never mad a god's creation, (albeit I'm sure he can get close to the threshold sometimes with his feelings), Hell even he (GOD) admitted once in the KJV of our Bible, "HE REPENTED THAT HE EVEN MADE MAN"! Thank goodness I didn't make his same mistake! But just like us humans he obtained forgiveness... You see, NONE of us are perfect, NO NOT ONE! I would just like for once, to see EVERYBODY GET ALONG, Stop trying to Put on a Show, work TOGETHER PRODUCTIVELY for the betterment of mankind. Enough. I gotta go to work to CREATE MORE JOBS! People are IN NEED John! I Love you. One day SOON, I'll set down with you again and you'll know exactly who has been writing all the distasteful Posts! MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! God Bless YOU and God Bless AMERICA!

emb6683 5 months, 2 weeks ago

When has anyone from SALT chained themselves to a tree or sat in fromt of a bulldozer or picketed the Capitol (that's with an 'o' not an 'a')? I think you are confusing a local conservation group, which consists of at least several local business owners, entrepeneurs and job-creators, with radical eco-terrorists.

Sorry, it doesn't wash.

tarheelborn 5 months, 2 weeks ago

@emb6683. You must be Too Young or Ignorant to Remember... Enough said.

Matt_Woodruff 5 months, 2 weeks ago

I can't stand it when posters randomly capitalize entire words in a comment. Do you think it makes you look more intelligent or your point more valid? It doesn't.

emb6683 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Sorry, I'm neither. Does it have to be in caps for you to understand?

JohnChappell 5 months, 2 weeks ago

What pleases me is seeing how many here are doing everything they can think of to make this a better home for us all. Amen to all the blessings of this Season that we've celebrated since Saturnalia (Dec. 25) in Roman times (and long before) to whatever you and yours celebrate. We are happy in all the joys received and happy to get more. As the old Irish blessing says: “God save all here.” As the Founders put it: “God save the United States.” and as Tiny Tim prayed: “…bless us, every one.”

JD 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Good article. The comments... Well i c wot yu dun did thar tarhole y soo angary?

tarheelborn 5 months, 2 weeks ago

@ MATT. It's as I stated, I'M MAD about these Nut's trying to control in their tiny little ways, and keep us Job Creators from helping the unemployed and then see and hear them setting around B I T C _ _ about "ah the economy sucks, China took all our job's, Mexico and those D A _ _ W E T _ _ _ , come over here AND WONT LEAVE! Man I gotta tell ya, I hear it ALL... I try and DO hire American workers, but if American born and raised citizens don't want to work, than I do just like the Resort. I'll hire Jamaicans, Mexicans and any other nationality, because I gotta get the job done!

thelastword 5 months, 2 weeks ago

Keep on typing Tarheel the more you type the dumber you sound ,would like to know what bussinesses you own, so I would be sure to stear clear of them.Sounds like your the kind of person that would kill there own mama just to put a dollar in your own pockets.