Travis Morehead has several months of experience under his belt and an ambitious goal on his mind as he enters 2017 as the executive director of the LandTrust for Central North Carolina.

Morehead aims to raise enough money for the LandTrust so it can purchase 4,700 acres of property currently owned by Alcoa. The property is scattered across the length of the Yadkin River’s banks in tracts of different sizes. Once purchased, the organization hopes to conserve the land and prevent commercial development on the various tracts.

He joined the LandTrust as executive director in early 2016. Previously, he was the operations director for the Catawba Lands Conservancy. Before that, he was a land use planner. He is also a U.S. Army veteran.

For Morehead, the biggest goal and hope for 2017 are the same — preserving the Alcoa land. With a purchase price of more than $16 million, it will be an ambitious goal.

There’s another goal, too, for Morehead.

“We have different goals, and for project goals the Alcoa land is at the top of the list,” he said. “What I would like to see, as my ultimate goal, is to make conservation more mainstream. There are so many people in the counties we serve that don’t know they are actually contributing or can contribute to conservation.”

The challenge for the LandTrust in 2017 is different. Morehead said the organization needs to be better-known to the people it serves. He said the LandTrust is fairly well known in Rowan County and Salisbury, but lacks name recognition in other counties served by the organization. He specifically listed Anson, Richmond and Stanly counties. There are 10 total counties served by the Landtrust.

— Josh Bergeron