Calling him “an inspirational advocate for conservation and the protection of natural resources,” North Carolina Land Trusts this week bestowed its prestigious Stanback Volunteer Conservationist of the Year award on Louis Moore Bacon. The award is named after Fred Stanback, who, with his wife, donated millions to the preservation of thousands of acres of wild lands in North Carolina.

The North Carolina Land Trust award recognized Mr. Bacon’s long-standing relationship with North Carolina’s treasured coast, an area that is to the coastal state in the U.S. what the Family Islands are to The Bahamas, each with islands and coastline featuring unique and fragile features.

“Louis Bacon’s philanthropy has had a great impact on North Carolina,” said the Trust. “The Coastal Land Trust and Mr. Bacon’s Ocracoke Holdings, LLC, previously worked together to preserve 31 acres at Springer’s Point at Ocracoke Island on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

More recently, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced in January 2014 that Orton Plantation Holdings, LLC, owned by Bacon, had donated a conservation easement on approximately 6,442 acres at Orton Plantation, one of the largest conservation easement gifts received in the Trust’s history. The conservation easement was granted in December 2013 and followed the expansion of the historic boundary of Orton Plantation by including the woodlands, agricultural fields, restored rice fields, water courses and gardens on an adjacent 1,100 acres that are part of a new nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.”

That conservation easement includes creeks, streams, ponds and forests which are home to increasingly threatened longleaf and Loblolly pine and cypress-gum swamp. Among the wildlife being preserved are federally endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker, quail, wild turkey and other upland game birds.

In its nomination for the state award, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust called Mr. Bacon ‘inspirational.”

“Louis Moore Bacon is an inspirational advocate for conservation and the protection of natural resources,” said Camilla Herlevich, Executive Director of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

“Raised with an appreciation for the outdoors, Bacon developed a respect for the natural world, which has driven his enthusiasm for land and water conservation. In 1992, he created the Moore Charitable Foundation to support organizations that preserve and protect wildlife habitat.

The Foundation has provided significant funding to more than 200 local, national and international conservation organizations. Louis Moore Bacon is uniquely qualified to be recognized as one of the inheritors of Fred Stanback’s conservation legacy. His donation of a conservation easement over approximately 6,442 acres at Orton Plantation is one of the most significant conservation donations in the history of the Coastal Land Trust.”

Mr. Bacon was among several honourees for the state’s top environmental awards. One of those was a program called Muddy Sneakers involving students from 18 schools who receive academic credit for hands-on experiences in fields, woods, forests and rivers that aid conservation efforts. Similar programs, though not for academic credit, are supported by grants from the Moore Bahamas Foundation in conjunction with Save The Bays in The Bahamas.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina protects land along the Blue Ridge Parkway, assists 23 local land trusts, and connects people to nature. North Carolina land trusts have protected 400,473 acres in more than 2,473 places across the state. North Carolina land trusts preserve land and water resources to safeguard your way of life. We work in local communities to ensure critical lands are protected for clean drinking water, recreation, tourism, and working farms and forests.

North Carolina Land Trusts bestows prestigious Stanback Volunteer Conservationist of the Year award on Louis Moore Bacon (centre). Bacon is flanked by Dillon Epp (left) and Dan Ashe, Director of US Fish and Wildlife Service (right).