The Plan

Preservation & Community
Development Plan

Working with a natural resources consulting firm, historic preservationists, Native Americans,
and an architectural landscape company (all from Georgia), the Harris Neck Land Trust has formulated a plan for the re-creation of the Harris Neck community on 2,687 acres in northeast McIntosh County. This environmentally sensitive and comprehensive plan has been voted on and approved by all family representatives of the Trust.

When implemented the Community Development Plan should accomplish the following:

1. Protect, in perpetuity, all the ponds created by US Fish & Wildlife and the habitat these ponds provide for different species of fauna and flora
2. Provide additional protection of the ponds and habitat via large buffer zones surrounding the ponds, including a 700-foot buffer around the main migratory bird nesting pond
3. Protect the creeks, rivers and marsh of Harris Neck
4. Protect all endangered and threatened species on Harris Neck
5. Preserve, in perpetuity, more than 50 percent of the total acreage of Harris Neck via permanent Conservation Easements
6. Provide further protection of the land and waters of Harris Neck through comprehensive land use covenants to be enforced by the Trust
7. Protect and preserve all cultural sites
8. Provide continued public access to the ponds and nature trails on Harris Neck
9. Use of a substantial number of acres (communally) for organic farming, forest protection and management, parks, and community centers
10. Distribute four-acre lots to all each of the original, surviving families (Black and White), regardless of how much property each family originally owned. (A few White families owned property on Harris Neck, but only one of these ever lived there.)
11. Use a portion of Harris Neck to create a totally “green” commercial sector
12. Use of alternative energy systems throughout the community
13. Add, significantly, to the tax roles of McIntosh County

  In effect, what this plan should accomplish is the protection of all wildlife in Harris Neck, especially the migratory wading birds and endangered and threatened species such as the Wood Stork. At the same time the plan will permit the people of Harris Neck to return home and recreate – in modern terms and with new technologies – the thriving and self-reliant community they once had. Homes will be built; green businesses will be created. Some families will live in Harris Neck permanently; others will just visit. The wildlife and natural beauty will be forever preserved and protected, the general public will still have access, and a model of sustainable development will be created. Long-deferred justice will finally be achieved, and nothing in the present Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge will be displaced or adversely impacted.

Documentary Film

Contact Us:

Harris Neck Land Trust
PO Box 42
Townsend, GA 31331
(480) 200-1497
dkelly91@hotmail.com