THOMASVILLE — Greenwood Plantation, the plantation home of the late John Hay “Jock” Whitney, will return to family foundation management Sept. 1.

An operating agreement between Greentree Foundation and the Nature Conservancy, a national land-conservation organization, ends Aug. 31.

The operating agreement, entered in 2002, was designed to give both entities strategies for future use of Greenwood Plantation, which is owned by Greentree Foundation.

The foundation was established in 1982 by Betsey Cushing Whitney, widow of Jock Whitney.

“It’s a special place,” Richard Schaffer, foundation president, said Tuesday from his New York City office, describing Greenwood.

The 5,200-acre plantation is off Cairo Road. Virgin long-leaf pine stands cover about 1,000 acres of the tract, which, until recent years, was an operating plantation.

As foundation officials, which include Whitney family members, consider appropriate future use, they also will ensure the buildings are in good repair, Schaffer explained.

Education and research are among possible future uses of the land. The Whitney family no longer visits Greenwood.

“There’s complete continuity,” Schaffer said. “Everything’s going to be the same.”

Eight of the 11 employees who worked for the Nature Conservancy at Greenwood will remain. Five, who previously worked for Greentree, will return to Foundation employment; three will continue to be employed by the Nature Conservancy. Three will lose their jobs.

An Atlanta-based spokesman for the Nature Conservancy said the organization worked with Greentree Foundation to manage Greenwood land and to protect the long-leaf pines and the wiregrass ecosystem.

The Nature Conservancy is confident Greenwood will be managed as it has been for more than a century, said spokesman I Ling Matthews.

The Nature Conservancy prescribed-fire team will remain in Thomasville. Matthews said the team is committed to preserving the natural diversity of the Red Hills Region.

At a Tuesday board meeting, Thomas County commissioners expressed concern about the Greenwood situation.

In addition to its historical significance, Greenwood plays a role in air quality, and long-leaf pines provide a habitat for the flora and fauna the forests generate and protect, said Commissioner Mary Jo Beverly.

The forests also provide a habitat for quail, Beverly said after the meeting.

The commissioner would like to see an educational center established at Greenwood.

“It was a way for the people and the children here to be educated about the virgin long-leaf forest and the importance it plays in the community,” Beverly explained.

Whitney, diplomat, philanthropist and sportsman, died in 1982. He and family members were frequent, popular Thomasville visitors.

Among Greenwood guests have been U.S. presidents, European royalty and Hollywood’s early movie moguls, among others.

The late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis visited Greenwood several times, including during her period of mourning following the 1963 assassination of her husband, U.S. President John F. Kennedy.