Conway leaders, environmentalists want 490-acre tract along Waccamaw marked for conservation

Stand on Conway’s Riverwalk and stare across the Waccamaw.

On the other side of the dark water lie nearly 500 acres of forests and wetlands, property that Conway leaders and environmentalists hope to soon earmark for conservation.

The Nature Conservancy, an international organization dedicated to protecting key lands and waters, is in negotiations to purchase the 490-acre tract, said Maria Whitehead, a project director with the conservancy.

“We feel really confident,” she said of the land sale. “We have pretty much 100 percent of the funding secured to move forward on the protection of that property. I’m hoping within a matter of months that we might have more good news.”