Pondberry trail project progressing in Roseboro area

Following the successful launch of the Roseboro Heritage Trail back in September 2023, an announcement was made during its ribbon cutting ceremony at the time of another new trail that would soon be coming to town. After many years of planning, that project is finally coming to fruition at Pondberry Bay Reserve.

“Finally, after seven years of hard work by our organization, local leaders, including Roland Hall, Alice and Greg Butler, Bill Scott and so many others,” Ben Jones, Coastal Crescent Project Manager at Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, said during last year’s ribbon cutting. “We are finally on track to have a trail at the Pondberry Bay Preserve, or what you may know as the White Woods not far from here across the little Coharie Creek.”

It was noted then that the trail is planned to be a 5-mile long nature trail and hike that’s meant to “showcase an example of what was here before Roseboro.”

“That’ll be the first trail of its kind, natural surface, nature hiking trail, open to the public and all off Sampson County,” Jones said last year. “It’s a shame it took that long, but I’m glad we’re here now — a place for everyone to go and experience that communion with nature, and this place that we all call home, whether we live here or not.”

While the trail project is finally off the ground, it was stressed by all entities involved that it’s far from completion and, more importantly, not open to the public.

“The trail will not officially open to the public until an off-site trailhead parking facility is built, signage is installed, and the trail itself is completed in compliance with the cooperative agreement,” Jones said. “However, the partners on this project are working hard to move things forward and are hopeful that work can be completed before the end of 2024. Updates on the status of the trail can be provided by the Plant Conservation Program (PCP), Friends of the MST, and the Sampson County Department of Parks and Recreation.”

“It is very important to reiterate that the preserve is not currently open to the public, except through planned/permitted visits scheduled with the PCP staff.”

The history of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) in Sampson County dates back to 2016 during the creation of what is now known as the Coastal Crescent route of the MST. It was around that same time, while MST was looking for more trail opportunities, that Pondberry Bay Preserve was first broached as an ideal location.

“During that time, our organization was looking for any and all existing opportunities to get the new trail route off of roads and onto public land,” Jones said. “In Sampson County, the only large piece of public land along the route where we saw an opportunity to anchor the trail off-road and provide people with an immersive natural landscape was at the Pondberry Bay Preserve.”

“This 2,103 acre preserve was once part of Governor Holmes’ historic mill lands, known locally as the White Woods, and was purchased from the Timber Company Canal Holdings by The Nature Conservancy in 2001,” he added. “This was three years after one of only two known naturally occurring populations of the federally endangered Pondberry (Lindera melissifolia) was found there by the botanist Steven Worth Leonard.”

He also noted that, in 2002, the land was deeded to the state of North Carolina, where it’s managed by the Department of Agriculture’s Plant Conservation Program before then being designated as a natural heritage area.

According to the Friends of Plant Conservation, their goal for the preserve is to protect “a diverse longleaf pine ecosystem with uncommon to rare natural communities and several uncommon to globally very rare plants and animals” and “to conserve in perpetuity the rare plant species and plant communities currently and historically found in the area.”

The project has been in the works for several years now and faced its difficulties reaching this point. That began to change in 2017 following the negotiation of a partnership that put things in motion.

Jones touched on how that came to be in greater detail and the partnership they formed that made all this possible.

“Because this public land has so much sensitive natural and cultural heritage within it, the PCP was very concerned about how the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and public access could impact it,” he said. “So, in 2017 Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail and Roseboro residents Roland Hall, Greg Butler and Alice Butler began the process of negotiating a partnership that could support both the MST and the goals of the PCP.”

“After years of negotiation and consultation that included the formation of a special task force at the request of NC Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler, an agreement was reached,” Jones said. “In the Fall of 2023, the Plant Conservation Program, Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, and Sampson County signed a memorandum of cooperative agreement that outlined the terms of a partnership that will allow the creation of a public hiking trail through the Pondberry Bay Preserve.”

Now that the makings of the trail are becoming a reality, all parties involved that brought this to light are quite ecstatic. It was a feeling they all shared, best echoed by Jones’ words in his final thoughts.

“This represents the creation of the very first public nature trail in Sampson County, providing important new recreational and educational opportunities for the community,” he said. “The PCP has shown great trust in agreeing to open the preserve to the public and we look forward to showing that the public will respect this sensitive and special place, help to protect it, and celebrate it as well as the amazing work done by the PCP for many years to come.”

While no projected date for the completion of the trail are set yet, members of the MST are currently planning to share updates on the project in February.

For a more in depth look at the history of the Pondberry Bay Preserve, a preserve spotlight by Friends of Plant Conservation can be found at www.ncplantfriends.org/pondberry_preserve.html.