Editor’s Note: The Technician originally reported that the final sale date is Sept. 23. In an email to the Technician, University Spokesperson Fred Hartman said there is no closing date set for Sept. 23.

Demonstrators will gather on the Brickyard today beginning at noon to protest the sale of the Hofmann Forest.

In a press release, opponents of the sale have cited a Sept. 23 closing date which they attribute to a “reliable source.”

The 79,000-acre forest was purchased in 1929 as a research forest, and last year, Jerry Walker, a land developer who founded Hofmann Forest LLC, bought the forest for $150 million.

Opponents of the sale cited a manifesto released last year as evidence that the developer may bulldoze 45,000 acres of the forest into farmland and another 9,000 acres into golf courses and strip malls, according to a statement released by Ron Sutherland, a conservation scientist at the Wildlands Network.

In an email to the Technician, University Spokesperson Fred Hartman said despite what opponents of the sale have said, “the land is zoned for certain uses and the majority of the land is protected from development.”

Simultaneously, protesters will also be meeting at Deppe Park, which is located in the Hofmann Forest in Maysville, North Carolina.  

Sutherland started a petition to protest the land development of the coastal forest. The petition, which was posted July 28, has garnered 9,789 signatures as of press time.

Opponents of the sale have also emphasized the importance of the forest’s watershed to the ecology of surrounding areas.