The Conservation Fund said it acquired approximately 2,458 acres of the farm and intends to hand the property over to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 2028. The group expects the land to open for public recreation as soon as 2027, while it remains under its ownership and management.

The acreage will be added to the adjacent Lanahassee Creek Wildlife Management Area, expanding that preserve to nearly 7,000 acres. Plans call for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation on the newly acquired land.

The farm carries deep personal history for Carter. His father, Earl Carter, raised peanuts, corn and sugarcane there, and the future president spent his boyhood laboring in the fields and exploring the surrounding forest. He returned throughout his life to hunt, to walk the woods with his wife, Rosalynn, and to fish in the property's pond, according to the Conservation Fund.

The land also holds ecological significance. It provides habitat for the gopher tortoise, Georgia's state reptile, a species that depends on open longleaf pine forests and whose burrows shelter other animals. The property supports deer, turkeys, quail and other native wildlife. Development and forest clearing have shrunk gopher tortoise habitat across the Southeast, the group noted.

At Carter's request, his family preserved a stand of mature longleaf pines on the property, and much of the land was later replanted with young longleaf pines as part of an effort to restore the native forest.

The Conservation Fund helped Georgia establish the neighboring Lanahassee Creek Wildlife Management Area in 2019, a step aimed at protecting longleaf pine habitat and gopher tortoises. The new acquisition builds on that work and keeps a piece of presidential history in public hands.

Carter's commitment to conservation extended into his presidency: in 1980 he signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protected more than 104 million acres.