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31 The Rayburn Farm, Perquimans County conservation easement purchased by the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust The first conservation easement in the coastal region purchased with grant funds from the NC Preservation Trust Fund is located along southeast of Hertford, on Yeopim Creek in Perquimans County. This is a "Legacy Farm" in the same single family ownership for more than three hundred years and was part of an original King's grant to ancestors of the present owners. The present owners have years of agriculture experience and their professional careers have been in agricultural and natural resource management. The northeastern North Carolina counties are experiencing development pressures spilling over from the Norfolk - Virginia Beach metropolitan growth area. Although in a primarily rural area, there have been several recent residential developments in close proximity to this farm. The population of the county is rapidly increasing. The property is an active working farm and forest. It consists of 143 acres devoted to row crops, 53 acres of pasture, and 182 acres of forest land mostly devoted to loblolly pine timber production. The farm supports a large sheep herd, as well as rotating cotton and soybean crop production. The owners live on this farm. The Raybums work with local forestry, wildlife, and soil conservationists to implement agricultural, forestry and wildlife management plans for their farm. The farm also has considerable scenic and water quality enhancement values. It has about one mile of frontage along the beautiful blackwater Yeopim Creek,. and more than another mile along Barrows Creek and another tributary stream. The adjacent bottomland and upland hardwood forests along these creeks provide a diversity of habitats for abundant wildlife, and the owners have employed many wildlife enhancing management practices. Yeopim Creek is classified as an anadromous fish spawning area, supporting many economically important fish species. The Raybums wish eventually to place all 378 acres of the farm under conservation easement. They begin by accepting a bargain sale of non - agricultural development rights over 130 acres for one -half of the estimated appraised value of the easement. This first phase of the conservation easement includes the highest farmland and water quality values. Protection of this farm should create a fine regional demonstration of conservation easements on privately -owned agricultural and forest lands.