Coastal Land Trust Takes Fresh Approach To Save ‘The Point’

Tell the public about a contract to buy land? This isn’t business as usual for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

But this time around, the prospective buy is a 150-acre tract of barrier island that has been written about in media outlets across the state and, and on occasion, in national publications on and off for years. And it’s going to take some very public fundraising efforts to make the purchase possible. So, pursuing the pristine, undeveloped expanse of land at the southern tip of Topsail Island affectionally named “The Point” has the Wilmington-based nonprofit established in 1992 breaking precedent. “Our normal approach is we work privately with the sellers and we go through all our work and then, when it’s all done, we announce a deal. So, this is very different for us,” said Harrison Marks, the trust’s executive director. “This is a tight budget year for the state and we depend on state funds typically for projects. We don’t have a formula (for public fundraising) because this isn’t something we normally do.” He’s hoping the state will come through on giving at least some money toward the purchase.

Read more at Coastal Review, coastalreview.org.