Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990 TAG: 9007010104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LIGONIER, PA. LENGTH: Long
The land was quietly purchased in seven Eastern and Southwestern states over the last two years for $21 million - sometimes from under the noses of eager developers - for the Richard King Mellon Foundation of Pittsburgh.
The foundation's president, Seward Prosser Mellon, said in an interview at the family estate here that in some cases the lands were being threatened by growing urban centers in densely populated parts of the country.
One such property is the Cornfield, a tract on the Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland where 23,061 Union and Confederate soldiers were killed, wounded or listed as missing between sunrise and sunset on Sept. 17, 1862.
The largest single property is a 93,000-acre tract of wildlife wetlands at Alligator River, N.C., where conservationists hope to reintroduce the endangered red wolf.
The parcel was bought with other tracts for $8.8 million.
Other smaller properties are in New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, Maine and Pennsylvania.
A symbolic deed to the lands will be turned over in a private ceremony Tuesday to Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan
Management of the lands will be taken over by the department's agencies, including the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.
"These properties I know are worth more commercially, but several owners accepted bargain prices because they want the lands to go to the government and so be preserved in perpetuity, rather than risk acquisition by developers," Lujan said.
Mellon said the foundation, one of country's 15 wealthiest, hoped that its gift would inspire others to buy and preserve properties, particularly in the historic areas near Washington that have been threatened by the capital's expansion.
Mellon is not expected to attend Tuesday's ceremony, but in a rare interview here in western Pennsylvania's rolling hill country where the Mellon family maintains offices on a 10,000-acre estate, he told of how the foundation, with $860 million in assets, embarked on a two-year effort to obtain the properties.
Mellon, at 47 the youngest of the four children of the financier and philanthropist Richard King Mellon, said he shared his late father's appreciation for the outdoors and concern for the environment.
In part, he said, the foundation's trustees, who include a number of environmentalists, decided on their course because of the rising alarm in recent years among preservationists about unchecked encroachment on historic Civil War landmarks.
Among the most controversial such instance was the recent purchase of land surrounding the Manassas National Battlefield in Northern Virginia where construction was begun on a sprawling shopping mall.
Congress eventually intervened and halted the building, but the unresolved question of restitution could cost the government as much as $100 million.
The uproar over the affair focused the attention of government officials and conservationists alike on other such battle sites, and efforts then turned to protect the unspoiled rural setting surrounding the Antietam battlefield.
The clamor to protect Antietam, as well as Gettysburg and other battlefields, worked in the foundation's favor, said Mellon.
"We lucked in because we saw the opportunity and seized it."
The six trustees agreed to devote a third of the foundation's annual budget for land acquisition and related conservation, while continuing to spend half its income for social services and other benefits in western Pennsylvania.
Recognizing that word of the Mellon Foundation's interest could inflate property prices, it asked the Conservation Fund, a little-known non-profit organization in Arlington, Va., to make the acquisitions quietly.
Under the direction of Patrick Noonan, the fund's president, the organization inspected more than 100 potential sites identified by the Department of the Interior, which recommended priorities.
In the final analysis, the most important point to remember is that this land next month or next year could be turned into a shopping mall or a railer park. You have to keep thinking, `Tomorrow.' "
Before the transfer of the 10 parcels, Mellon said, he plans to visit each tract.
"The excitement for me is the warm feeling of stepping on land, floating downriver or walking through the wilderness and saying, `We've preserved this.' "
These are the sites and the donated parcels:
Alligator River, N.C.: 93,000 acres between the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, for more habitat for waterfowl and wildlife.
Antietam National Battlefield, Md.: three tracts totaling 280 acres, including the Cornfield.
East Cavalry Field, Pa.: 266 acres, includes the site of a crucial Civil War cavalry engagement.
Five Forks, Va.: 930 acres of farmland near the Petersburg National Battlefield, known as the Waterloo of the Confederacy.
Forked Lightning Ranch, N.M.: a 5,556-acre ranch, encompassing 100 Indian and Spanish archaeological sites and the site of the Union's Civil War headquarters during the battle at nearby Glorieta.
Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge, N.C.: a 130-acre area adjacent to a major migratory waterfowl refuge.
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, Maine: a 122-acre property on Cutts Island, for guarding the integrity of the refuge.
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo.: two tracts totaling 468 acres, for protecting elk migration.
Shenandoah National Park, Va.: two parcels totaling 1,287 acres, for guarding the park from encroaching residential and industrial growth.
Wilderness Area of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania Memorial National Military Park, Va.: a 135-acre property near a Civil War battlefield.
by CNB