Middle Creek Easement Establishes Family Legacy

Dick and Gill Heywood live in a 120-year-old, meticulously restored, log cabin on Middle Creek in southern Macon County. Since the Civil War, the land has been farmed, producing corn, beans, cattle, and chickens. In 2001, the Heywoods conveyed a conservation easement on their 35 acres, with half a mile of Middle Creek frontage, to the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.  This was the very first conservation easement that LTLT received.

"People leave behind different things as a legacy, sometimes it's a family business or a record of community service. In our case, we'd like to leave behind our vision of what this land should look like over the next 100 years and beyond," said Dick Heywood, a retired marine engineer.

The Heywoods wanted to ensure that any future use of their land would maintain the agricultural integrity of the rural Middle Creek landscape. The conservation easement they conveyed to the LTLT allows for continued farming of the rich bottomlands, building small farm-related buildings, and harvesting the timber according to an approved forest-management plan. The easement limits any future subdivision of the land.

"With the rapid pace of change in this community, we think there is a great benefit in retaining the traditional, rural land uses that are disappearing so quickly", said Gill Heywood. Landowners who view their lands as part of their heritage and want to protect that legacy have the conservation easement as a tool to ensure that their land will remain intact into the future. LTLT is proud to partner with the Heywoods to establish their legacy on the land.