Published: September 06, 2006 08:07 am         

Couple finds a niche in Stanly County

3 Eagles Sanctuary takes flight

Tuesday, September 5, 2006 — Love of the environment and preservation of open farmland has led a couple to put down roots in Stanly County.

A trek that began with a prayer for guidance ended with a tract of land on the Pee Dee River that will be protected with a conservation easement.

Even the name comes from the environment with a spiritual meaning.

The land will be under a conservation easement in collaboration with the Land Trust for Central North Carolina in Salisbury. After year of praying, looking, a near false start, Ron and Nancy Bryant found out their bid had been accepted on the former Braswell property.

Coincidentally, the bid was accepted on the very day they’d set as deadline for their quest.

“We had prayed and thought of what to do,” Nancy Bryant said.

“We made several bids on the property - we had put this up to God whether we would find what we were looking for.”

Director of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute Jeff Michael suggested the Bryants look in Stanly County. Michael knew of their desire to find land along the Yadkin or Pee Dee rivers. Nancy Bryant’s grandmother was from the area and her husband was born in Winston-Salem so the couple has roots in the central Piedmont region.

“Ron impressed me as a person who really lives what he talks,” Michael said. “He walks the walk.”

Michael has known the Bryants for a long time. He met them through his work at the Land Trust for Central North Carolina in Salisbury and other conservation organizations. He is one of the persons they consulted with when they made their decision to move to the country.

Elaine Hollins, a real estate agent with Century 21 realtors in Albemarle, helped the Bryants search for land after a bid for land in Davie County failed.

“They told me they were looking for 200 acres of land,” Hollins said. “When they saw this tract, they fell in love with it.”

Hollins said each time the Bryants returned to Stanly County, they were more enthralled with the property south of Norwood.

The Bryants are devout Lutherans and part of their plans for the land is a retreat for Lutheran pastors. They want it to a place of quiet retreat - available for reflection and sabbaticals. Pastors would be able to roam the land as they wish and stay in the guest house.

The Rev. John Futterer of the First Lutheran Church of Albemarle visited recently to get to know the couple better. They have been attending his church in Albemarle since moving to Stanly County. He spent hours there visiting and was fortunate to see some of the bald eagles on the Pee Dee River.

“I really think what Ron and Nancy is doing is an outgrowth of their faith,” Futterer said.

“They have a strong sense of stewardship - this is God’s world and have expressed their want of taking care of and protecting it.

“This is a great witness of their faith to be able to do what they are doing. I think besides what they are dong at their place, they will be a great addition to the community, they are concerned about the Uwharries in general, they bring a lot of expertise and they bring their experience to the area.”

Last week, Nancy Bryant had Shannon Braswell of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service to talk about farming practices on their land, they plan to keep most of the fields on the land in production. She told Braswell of her concerns about planting what is best for the land, using as little of chemicals as possible and implementing “best practices” for crops.

After years of environmental work on clean water, establishing the Catwaba River Keeper and a push for clean air, the couple decided a deeper commitment was needed.

“All of our environmental work in Charlotte was great,” Ron Bryant said. “It will be recorded in the history books as a success.”

Both helped to revive the local Sierra Club chapter in Charlotte.

But the couple felt they needed to do something that was more tangible.

“This is measurable,” he said. “When correcting a beaver dam mistake - that is measurable.”

Hew smiled when talking about his struggle with a beaver dam and the winding road through the property ending up at viewing spot on the river.

The couple met in 1986 in church. They married in 1987. At the time, she was an innkeeper, owning and operating the Moorhead Inn.

He was a fiber physicist at Hoechst Celanese.

Prior to meeting, she taught on and off for 30 years. The couple also had a side business of a video production company and had some low-income housing units.

The Bryants are building an energy-efficient Deltec round home with an attached smaller round guest house. Their original plan was to build an earth sheltered home, but changed to the energy efficient design developed in Asheville.

A barn has already been erected and will have photo cells on the roof to supply electricity. She discussed where to place a their personal garden and greenhouse during Braswell’s visit.

The solar cell panel he is designing will supply seven kilowatts of power for the home.

“Five or six is normal for most homes,” he said. “I am trying to allow for cloudy days and any other contingency.”

The land they are preserving has several beaver ponds, all kinds of wildlife and many varieties of birds. The property is the first in Stanly County to have a North Carolina Natural Heritage Foundation natural heritage inventory conducted.

Moni Bates, from the foundation, explored 3 Eagles along with Jane and Mark Lewis. Together, they compiled lists of birds and animals found there. Jane Lewis is expert birder and Mark Lewis is a herpetologist respectively.

The inventory can be found on the Bryant’s Web site www.3eagles.net.

Nearby neighbor Chester Lowder knew Ron Bryant from the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission.

“I got to observe Ron when he was on the commission,” Lowder said. “I would say that I knew him better from a distance better than he knew me.”

Lowder said the Bryants will be doing things differently from the norm.

“What they are doing I much prefer to scattered housing,” Lowder said.

“They are building an economic system for that piece of land. What the Bryants have decided to do with the property is much better than mini-ranches or home sites.”