The natural beauty of North Carolina will be preserved for future generations after a conservation group accepted a historic 7,500-acre donation of land.
In May, WJHL reported that the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy created the South Yellow Mountain Preserve in Mitchell and Avery Counties after receiving the donation, celebrating the park's formation along with its 50th anniversary.
"We live in a place where there is so much diversity of trees and wildflowers, fish, salamanders, migratory birds, and to enable those species to thrive, we do need large intact areas that are preserved for the future," SAHC executive director Carl Silverstein told the news station.
According to the preserve website, plans for the park have been in the works since 2021, when landowner Tim Sweeney announced his intention to gift the acres to SAHC.
The donation is the largest in the history of the conservation organization, helping to protect waterways (safeguarding drinking water for residents), threatened and endangered animals and plants, old-growth forests, and educational opportunities.
"This is the largest single gift in SAHC's history, and the largest gift of land to a land trust in NC," Silverstein said in a statement. "Strategic acquisition of large parcels of land is increasingly important for climate resilience and protection of water sources — and increasingly hard to accomplish as privately owned parcels continue to be subdivided and developed."
The public will be able to access the area only through SAHC-guided hikes, per WJHL. Preserve manager Park Greer told the station that one of the stipulations for completing the donation was that the land would be used for private scientific research.
To that point, the preserve notes that a project to restore the American chestnut tree has been underway on the land since 2016. Conservationists have planted more than 70,000 hybrid trees, and they are evaluating their health and resilience throughout the park.
Rewilding efforts around the world have boosted local ecosystems, and helping to revive the chestnut could do the same in North Carolina. According to the American Chestnut Foundation, the trees are "beneficial not only for the humans of an ecosystem, but for every level of the food chain," with their leaves and nuts packed with essential nutrients.
Greer has also brought students from Mayland Early College High School to the area, teaching them about a range of topics including invasive species removal, per the preserve. Now, the manager is partnering with Roan Stewardship staff to formulate a long-term management plan.
"This project is a conservationist's dream come true," SAHC Roan Stewardship director Marquette Crockett said in a statement for South Yellow Mountain Preserve. "Pristine, roadless land that has not been timbered over is almost impossible to find in the Southern Appalachians at this point in time, but this assemblage contains so much that we value."
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