Published: January 12, 2009 09:40 am      

9:42 a.m. Land Trust Donation

HOLLY SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) — The North Mississippi Land Trust has received a donation of 50 acres of land in Marshall County.

The donation by Andy Callicutt is the second shot in the arm for the trust, established with a mission of conserving, promoting and protecting open spaces in the area. The land trust's board was formed in October.

The land is off Mississippi Highway 309 between Byhalia and Collierville, Tenn., near the Coldwater River.

"This land needed to be protected, and this donation was the best way I can rest assured that it is — even after I'm gone," Callicutt said in a written statement.

The property was donated to the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, which will in turn give the land to the North Mississippi Land Trust once it receives nonprofit status.

The gift was the second in recent weeks for the land trust. Brothers Bill and Gerry Austin deeded the trust approximately seven acres of land along Johnson Creek in DeSoto County just before Christmas.

"We are a very fledgling organization," said NMLT president Shelly Johnstone. "To have two back-to-back donations this early on is tremendous. We intend to manage the land the way the donors intended it to be used."

The Austin donation would be used to complete a 10-mile leg of the DeSoto County Greenways project, but Johnstone said there are no plans for the tract of land in Marshall County.

"Part of the conservation value of the land is that it is just there as undeveloped, open space," Johnstone said.