Inside Landfall, 39 acres will remain undeveloped as a result of a property swap recorded this week in New Hanover County.

The Landfall Council of Associations granted the land to the Northeast New Hanover Conservancy, an organization that works to preserve natural resources in the area, in exchange for about 5 acres over which the conservancy had a conservation easement. The COA plans to use the smaller parcel to expand parking around its offices and maintenance facility, said Steve Hughes, the COA's director of operations.

“It also gives us a nice buffer around our offices and our shop area so we won't be affecting any conservation area. It's very important to me and to the company that we protect our conservation areas,” Hughes said Thursday.

The 39 acres, off Spanish Wells Drive in Landfall, serves as a link to another 98-acre tract over which the conservancy has an easement, said Andy Wood, an environmental consultant for the conservancy, who called the new acquisition a “very compelling habitat.”

He said, “What we're trying to do is bridge as many of these conservation areas, as stepping stones if you will, for wildlife and plants to move around through the Landfall community, and all of this fits in with the Northeast New Hanover Conservancy's goal of creating a network of conserved areas in the northeastern part of New Hanover while time allows.”

The organization has been able to conserve about 2,000 acres of land in northeastern portions of the county, including at least 500 acres in and around Landfall.

“We're trying to essentially create urban oases within New Hanover County that are protected from development so that community members will have green space to look upon,” Wood said.

The Landfall acquisition, which includes old-growth long leaf pine trees, some more than 100 years old, will directly benefit several animals whose numbers are in decline: the eastern box turtle, eastern chicken turtle, spotted turtle and fox squirrels, Wood said. Some songbirds use the habitat in various parts of their life cycles as well, Wood added.

In the past two or three years, home construction has been on the rise in Landfall, as in other parts of the county, with nearly 50 homes a year added to the community and 47 under construction currently, Hughes said. Landfall's amenities include nature trails through the conservation areas of the 2,200-acre neighborhood.

“We know that none of that land in Landfall will ever be touched," Hughes said, referring to the land recently turned over to the conservancy. "It will be left natural, which is kind of a thing that we're running short of here in New Hanover County.”