You could say, quite accurately, that James Coman has been a North Carolina farmer for virtually his entire life.

Before the Executive Director of the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust finished second grade in Hillsborough, he had already assumed full responsibility for the sheep on his family's farm as a 4-H project. He single-handedly fed and cared for them for 13 years, until he was well into pursuing his two forestry degrees at Duke University.

Even as a commuting student at Duke, his farming blood came out: unable to start his car one final exam day, he chugged to school at 17 miles per hour on his family's old John Deere Model B tractor.

For the last 14 years Coman has been living in Alleghany County on the outskirts of Piney Creek. His 211-acre Stoney Knob Farm every year produces about 100 tons of mixed orchard grass and white clover hay, a small crop of ornamental gourds, and some pine-tree trimmings for use in making Christmas wreaths.

Not surprisingly, however, the farm's main enterprise centers on sheep -- especially fleeces for local craftsmen and lambs for meat.

Is it any wonder that his truck license plate is WOOLLY 1?

Coman moved to Alleghany from a farm in Caswell County which, over a number of years, he had restored into a real showplace listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

"But I was beginning to decide I wanted less show and more place," he says about his decision to buy Stoney Knob Farm. He also wanted a milder summer climate than the Piedmont offered after experiencing a serious bout of heatstroke.

No matter where he is or what he is doing, Coman also actively pursues his two other great interests in life: land preservation and birding.

His farm was "pretty well picked barren" from drought and overgrazing when he bought it in 1986. Now it is a model for land-friendly practices. "I'm managing a flock of sheep under a rough approximation of natural conditions. The farm has become much more biologically diverse than it was when I bought it."

Coman has been a long-time member of the Carolina Bird Club and holds the state record in an informal competition to identify the largest number of different bird species found in a backyard. His total is 172 species within 10 years -- although he does readily acknowledge his farm constitutes "a bigger backyard than most people have."

Not long after moving to Alleghany, Coman became active in the National
Committee for the New River. "Initially I was most concerned with the
water-quality and wildlife-habitat aspects of the river," he says, " but in the early Î90s we began to see a quantum increase in second-home development along the river. As this development juggernaut began to gather steam, the preservation of riverfront land came to the fore as a major concern."

For three years, from 1994 to 1997, Coman served as the Committee's executive director. He also assisted in forming the New River Heritage Task Force to promote the river's designation as a National Heritage River before becoming a founding member and Steering Committee Chairman of the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust.

When the Trust became an independent, self-sustaining organization last year, Coman was named executive director. His commitment to land preservation and his deep concern about the rapidly depleting open space made this an ideal assignment for him.

"I'm proud and happy with my land trust work," he says. "I've been very
successful at it because I can take a farmer's viewpoint and talk to other landowners in ways they understand."