Conservation Fund Buys Jimmy Carter’s 2,458-Acre Georgia Farm for $8.5 Million

The Conservation Fund has purchased former US President Jimmy Carter’s historic 2,458-acre family farm near Plains, Georgia, for $8.5 million, moving to fold the sprawling agricultural property into a protected state wildlife corridor.

The acquisition expands the adjoining Lanahassee Creek Wildlife Management Area to nearly 7,000 acres. Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources will take permanent ownership of the tract in 2028. But the public will not have to wait that long. An interim lease agreement will open the property by mid-2027 for fishing, hunting, birdwatching, and public recreation.

Deep Roots in Southwest Georgia Soil

The red clay and pine timberland defined Carter’s life long before he entered the Oval Office. His family acquired the initial parcels in the early 1900s after settling in Plains. Carter’s father, James Earl Carter Sr., farmed peanuts, corn, and sugarcane across the acreage, putting his young son to work clearing rows and navigating the timber brakes.

Carter returned to the soil in 1953. Leaving behind a promising career in the US Navy following his father's death, he took over the family peanut warehouse and agricultural operations. He kept coming back. Through the Georgia state senate, the governor’s mansion, and his presidency from 1977 to 1981, the farm served as an untouchable sanctuary. He walked the wooded trails with his wife, Rosalynn Carter, stalked wild turkeys, and cast fishing lines into the property’s freshwater pond.

His daughter, Amy Carter, recalled that her father visited the land regularly until age robbed him of the ability to walk its perimeter on foot. Even then, he arranged for caretakers to drive him through the woods.

The Secret Service gave him wide berth. Agents regularly stayed deliberately out of sight among the trees, ensuring the former commander-in-chief could experience complete silence.

Restoring the Longleaf Pine and Coastal Plain Ecology

Beyond presidential pedigree, the acquisition anchors a critical ecological corridor in southwest Georgia. The property feeds into the Flint River watershed and preserves fragile longleaf pine habitat. Once blanketing millions of acres across the southeastern United States, native longleaf pine forests collapsed over the past century under heavy logging, urban development, and agricultural clearing.

Carter took active steps to reverse that destruction. In his final years of direct land management, Carter instructed his family to preserve an established stand of mature longleaf pines and systematically replanted vast tracts of the property with young longleaf seedlings.

That restored forest landscape provides vital sanctuary for the gopher tortoise, an officially threatened keystone species whose deep subterranean burrows shelter more than 350 other animal species. The Conservation Fund originally partnered with Georgia wildlife authorities to establish the Lanahassee Creek Wildlife Management Area in 2019 specifically to safeguard tortoise colonies. Adding the Carter tract secures surrounding creek beds that house rare freshwater mussels and critical migratory bird flyways.

State officials and conservation planners are now finalizing interim management protocols to handle access logistics. Under the transitional operating framework, controlled public entry for seasonal hunting and outdoor recreation will commence by mid-2027 before the deed transfers permanently to the State of Georgia in 2028.