Carter's Family Farm Becomes Public Land: 2,458 Acres of Conservation Legacy Preserved

The Conservation Fund acquires Jimmy Carter's southwest Georgia farm, converting private agricultural land into permanent public wildlife habitat — a rare case of a presidential legacy becoming physical commons.

The Conservation Fund has acquired Jimmy Carter's 2,458-acre family farm outside Plains, Georgia, with plans to open it for public hunting, fishing, and recreation by 2027 before transferring it to Georgia's Department of Natural Resources in 2028. The land will fold into the Lanahassee Creek wildlife management area, expanding it to nearly 7,000 acres.

The acquisition traces a clean line from biography to policy. Carter grew up working this land alongside his father Earl, growing peanuts, corn, and sugarcane. The Conservation Fund draws a direct connection between that upbringing and Carter's later signing of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980, which protected over 104 million acres — still the largest 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. The farm itself bears marks of Carter's conservation instincts. He requested that a stand of mature longleaf pine be maintained, and in one of his final land-use decisions, had much of the farm replanted with young longleaf pine — an effort to restore the native forest that once covered the region. The habitat supports gopher tortoises, which conservationists are fighting to keep off the endangered species list, and the adjacent creeks harbor rare freshwater mussels. Jason Carter, the former president's grandson, described the land as more than a farm: "It was home — a place my grandparents treasured." Carter and his late wife Rosalynn walked the property throughout their lives. He fished in the pond into his final years. The family bought the land in the early 1900s. The Conservation Fund's Stacy Funderburke framed the acquisition in terms of habitat and access: "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." The farm is distinct from Carter's boyhood home, which is separately maintained by the National Park Service. Carter — a Democrat, former Georgia governor, and one-term president who defeated Gerald Ford in 1976 before losing to Ronald Reagan in 1980 — won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his post-presidential humanitarian work. He died aged 100 in December 2024, about a year after Rosalynn's death. The structural significance here is modest but real: private agricultural land with ecological value is being permanently converted to public commons. The mechanism — nonprofit acquisition followed by state transfer — is a well-established conservation playbook. The land gains legal protection, the public gains access, and a longleaf pine ecosystem gets a chance at restoration. No extraction, no displacement, no controversy. Just land moving from private to public in a way that benefits habitat and citizens alike.