The Conservation Fund has acquired Jimmy Carter's family farm in south-west Georgia, with plans to open the land to the public for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation as soon as 2027, the non-profit organization announced on Monday.
The farm, covering about 2,458 acres (995 hectares) outside Carter's home town of Plains, is slated to be transferred to Georgia's natural resources department in 2028. The Conservation Fund said the property will ultimately become part of the state's Lanahassee Creek wildlife management area, expanding it to nearly 7,000 acres (2,833 hectares).
Conservation Legacy
The Conservation Fund said the purchase ensures the protection of a property that was dear to Carter, who served as US president for four years beginning in 1977 and later won a Nobel peace prize for his humanitarian work. Carter, who was raised on the family farm, signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in late 1980, protecting more than 104 million acres in what remains the largest protected public lands expansion in US history.
He also established 39 national park system units, including the Martin Luther King Jr national historic site and the Chattahoochee River national recreation area in Atlanta, Georgia.
A Deep Connection to the Land
The Conservation Fund traced a direct link between those accomplishments and Carter's upbringing on the farm, where he worked alongside his father, Earl, in their peanut, corn and sugarcane growing operations. Carter explored the surrounding woods and returned to the land, which his family bought in the early 1900s, throughout his life – to hunt, walk with his late wife, Rosalynn, and fish in the property's pond, including toward the end of the couple's lives.
Carter successfully requested that his family maintain a stand of mature longleaf pine trees, and in one of his final land conservation decisions, had much of the farm replanted with young longleaf pine. That move aimed to help restore the native forest once covering the region, a vital habitat for tortoises, which conservationists have been working to keep from becoming an endangered species. Creeks adjacent to the farm are also home to rare freshwater mussels.
Official Statements
“Long before Jimmy Carter protected millions of acres across America, he was a boy working the fields and roaming the woods of southwest Georgia,” said a statement attributed to Stacy Funderburke, vice-president of the Conservation Fund's central south-east region. “This land shaped him and his legacy, and he never stopped coming home to it.”
“We're honored to help ensure this land remains a healthy habitat for wildlife, and we look forward to the day it is open to everyone who wants to experience it,” Funderburke added.
The former president's grandson, Jason Carter, said in a separate statement: “For our family, this land was always about more than a farm. It was home – a place my grandparents treasured. We're grateful to The Conservation Fund and to everyone working to make sure it's protected for generations to come.”
Carter, a Democrat and former governor of Georgia, defeated incumbent Republican president Gerald Ford to win his lone presidential term. He lost the presidency to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election amid the Iran hostage crisis. After his presidency, Carter won the 2002 Nobel peace prize for his work seeking peaceful resolutions to global conflicts, advancing human rights and democracy, and promoting economic and social development. He died in December 2024 at the age of 100, a little more than a year after the death of Rosalynn Carter.
