Conservation Fund buys Jimmy Carter family farm in Georgia

Former President Jimmy Carter’s family farm in Georgia has been sold to a conservation group for $8.5 million, with plans to preserve the land and eventually open it to the public.

The Conservation Fund announced Monday that it had acquired the roughly 2,458-acre land outside Plains, Ga., where the nation’s 39th president grew up and continued to return to throughout his life.

“We’re honored to help ensure this land remains [a] healthy habitat for wildlife, and we look forward to the day it is open to everyone who wants to experience it,” Stacy Funderburke, the organization’s vice president for the central Southeast region, said in a statement to WTVM.

In a separate statement to the outlet, Carter’s grandson expressed his gratitude for the acquisition.

“For our family, this land was always about more than a farm. It was home — a place my grandparents treasured. We’re grateful to The Conservation Fund and to everyone working to make sure it’s protected for generations to come,” said Jason Carter.

The nonprofit plans to transfer the property to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in 2028, expanding the nearby Lanahassee Creek Wildlife Management Area to nearly 7,000 acres. The land could open to the public for hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities as early as 2027.

“Long before Jimmy Carter protected millions of acres across America, he was a boy working the fields and roaming the woods of southwest Georgia,” said Funderburke. “This land has shaped him and his legacy, and he never stopped coming home to it.”

Carter, who died in December 2024 at age 100, spent much of his childhood working alongside his father on the family farm, growing peanuts and other crops. He returned to Plains in 1952 after leaving the Navy following his father’s death to take over the family business.

The acquisition also preserves a piece of Carter’s environmental legacy. During his presidency, he signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, which protected more than 104 million acres in what remains the largest expansion of protected public lands in U.S. history.