Protecting Scenic Views, Historic Lands, and Clean Water at Hickory Nut Gap

View from recently protected parcel at Hickory Nut Gap.

We love the tranquil drive through Fairview along the Drover’s Road Scenic Byway. At the crest of Hickory Nut Gap, the sight of Sherrill’s Inn overlooking this scenic route recalls the 1800s, when the Flying Cloud stagecoach carried mail and passengers from Rutherfordton to Asheville, and herd drovers stopped here to rest before journeying on through the gorge.

Recognizing the historic and natural treasures of this area, we were thrilled to protect 173 acres along the Drovers Road Scenic Byway (US 74A) this past December, through conservation easements on three adjoining parcels. These conservation easements ensure that the land will be preserved forever, securing important views, habitat, and water resources right on the Eastern Continental Divide.

The three adjoining parcels are located on the Hickory Nut Gap section of the Drovers Road Scenic Byway (Highway 74A) in Fairview and are visible in the distance from the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The parcels also share a long boundary with our Hickory Nut Gap Forest conservation easement, and are close to and visible from the publicly accessible Florence Preserve and Bearwallow Mountain.

“Two sources of public funding plus private donors made this project possible,” said Michelle Pugliese, SAHC’s Land Protection Director. “We also very grateful to the landowners for their commitment to protect this incredible area on the Scenic Byway — an intersection of cultural, historical, clean water, and scenic resources.”

New conservation easements protect views along the Drover’s Road Scenic Byway (74A), right at the Eastern Continental Divide.

The project was one component of a North Carolina Scenic Byways Land Conservation Initiative grant awarded to land trusts throughout the state to protect significant scenic, cultural, and historical assets along scenic byways. These new conservation easements reflect SAHC’s ongoing commitment to preserve resources along the Drover’s Road Scenic Byway.

The new conservation easements together preserve Tater Knob, one side of Ferguson Knob (the other side is protected by a previous SAHC conservation easement), and both sides of a section of Ashworth Creek, a beautiful, healthy stream passing through Fairview.

Preservation of Ferguson Knob, center, is complete with this project.

High quality Appalachian rich cove forest is located on a portion of the recently protected acreage.  Rich cove forest is a type of plant community found in narrow valleys, broad ravines and slopes where rich soil and abundant rainfall foster a diverse mixture of moisture-loving trees and herbaceous plants. The deeply shaded, rugged terrain associated with this plant community type is characterized by steep slopes, fallen logs, and scattered boulders, supporting a dense canopy of tall, mostly deciduous trees.

The second public funding source for this project was the North Carolina Department of Justice’s Environmental Enhancement Grant (EEG) program, which funded seven conservation projects in western North Carolina through Blue Ridge Forever’s Conserving North Carolina’s Mountain Headwater Steams Project.

“With two miles of headwater streams running across this property and flowing into the French Broad River basin, the long term impact of this conservation project on water quality is undeniable,” said Valerie True, coalition coordinator for Blue Ridge Forever. “Our mountain streams serve as a sort of water-fountain for the region, and projects such as this will have a lasting impact on clean drinking water across the southeast for generations to come.”

In the future, sections of these new conservation easements will become part of a regional trail being planned to connect public trails in the Fairview Valley and Hickory Nut Gorge area.

Fairview Bottom Lands – Local Farmland for Local Farms

View of the Fairview Bottomlands project area in the foreground, with the Drovers’ Road Scenic Byway.

In early December, we closed on three adjoining projects in the lush Fairview valley, securing 28 acres of prime farming bottom land for agricultural use in the future. The parcels lie alongside the Drovers’ Road Scenic Byway, below a twisting ascent up the Hickory Nut Gap. Together, these projects help ensure the protection of the scenic quality of this rural landscape, as well as the availability of rare prime soils for present and future farmers.

“It was important to us to ensure the agricultural future of this land and scenic value of the valley,” said Annie Louise Perkinson of Flying Cloud Farm. “Protecting the land means it will continue to be available to provide fresh vegetables and flowers to local communities in the future.“

Self-service stand at Flying Cloud Farm, located just off the scenic byway.

Flying Cloud Farm, managed by Annie Louise and Isaiah Perkinson, operates on a large portion of the recently protected land. These new bargain-sale conservation easements protect parcels that contain 100% prime or state important soils. The tracts are contiguous with 400+ acres of already protected conservation land, and include vital portions of full-time, successful working farms operated by young farmers of Flying Cloud Farm and Hickory Nut Gap Farm.

Flying Cloud Farm fall crops.

“Preserving the use of this part of the valley for farmland and for beauty is important to us as a family, and we would not have been able to do that without the help of SAHC,” said Dr. Will Hamilton, owner of a portion of the protected acreage.

Water quality protection was another important factor in the recent project. In creating the conservation easements, landowners also took additional steps to protect a significant riparian area along Ashworth Creek. These landowners voluntarily agreed to exclude livestock from this portion of the creek, which will help protect stream life and water quality.

Jammin’ at the Gott Farm

Gott Farm with White Rocks and Camp Creek Bald in the distant background

Last Thursday, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) staff members enjoyed another sensational day at Peter and Polly Gott’s idyllic farm. Tucked away deep in Madison County, the 218-acre Gott Farm is surrounded by Pisgah National Forest on two sides, there are abundant springs, wet coves full of wild edibles, viable soil for farming, and breathtaking views. Their farm is truly an ecological gem.

Peter and Polly Gott with dog Katie

Our visit started out with a tour of the Gott’s log cabin, which Peter meticulously made using hand tools and historic methods. The precision and perfection of Peter’s craftsmanship was exhibited in every other building on their property as well. Peter’s tools were impeccably organized and the woodsheds were stacked so systematically, you would think the logs were books in a library. After a tour of Polly’s old art studio (which Peter also made) and their sauna by the river, the staff headed to the top of their property to enjoy a picnic lunch overlooking White Rocks and iconic Camp Creek Bald.

The real fun began after lunch when the instruments were pulled out for some old-fashioned music making. Peter led the charge on his banjo, while SAHC’s Emily Bidgood and Margot Wallston piped in on the fiddle, Jamie Ervin played the guitar, and Hanni Muerdter strummed on the mandolin. Peter’s daughter and grandsons brought it altogether with a rendition of “Bury me Beneath the Willow.” The celebration culminated with SAHC staff dancing their socks off. Peter called each dance and his daughter Susie played on the fiddle. It was a grand ol’ time.

Peter and SAHC crew playing some tunes

Visiting the Gott Farm has become a tradition that all the staff look forward to every year. When the trees start blooming and the flowers are out, everyone knows it is time to visit the property again. “Peter and Polly are two of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Their generosity towards others and love for their land is pervasive in everything that they do.” Said SAHC Membership Director, Cheryl Fowler.

“It was also nice for our staff to see and experience the fruits of our labor firsthand. Because we do much of our work sitting in front of desks everyday, it’s easy to sometimes lose track of the bigger picture and forget why we protect these pieces of land.”  Said SAHC executive director, Carl Silverstein. “After a trip like today, it reaffirms for SAHC staff on a personal level, why we continue to protect land that has so much conservation and sentimental value.”

AmeriCorps has Service Days on Two SAHC Properties

End of the day group shot at Anderson Farm

Last week, SAHC hosted  work days with Americorps Project Conserve Members on two of our significant properties in Minneapolis and Alexander, North Carolina.

Americorps Project Conserve Members have had an integral role with SAHC for the last six years, helping to accomplish goals and fill positions that SAHC would not normally have the resources for. While SAHC has four members who work full-time for eleven months, there are also 28 other Project Conserve Members who work in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee at land trusts and other non-profits. The two workdays enabled SAHC to work with almost all of the talented and passionate individuals within the Project Conserve program.

Americorps members moving brush on Little Hump

The workdays on SAHC easements were great opportunities for almost all of the Project Conserve members to see some of the beautiful pieces of land that have been protected and for members to participate in making a physical difference in the ecological landscape of western North Carolina.

As many SAHC members are aware, the golden-winged warbler, found in the Highlands of Roan, is facing the possibility of extinction.  In response, the workday in Minneapolis, NC was devoted to creating additional habitat space for this incredible bird. Americorps members hiked up to Little Hump mountain under the leadership of SAHC’s seasonal ecologist, Chris Coxen, to restore the endangered grassy bald habitat. The golden-winged warbler relies on these early successional environments, such as abandoned farmsteads at high elevations, like that found in the grassy balds in Minneapolis, NC.

Americorps members worked hard to move timber and chopped down limbs, creating “windrows,” which provide a microhabitat for insects and small mammals. This process helps protect all organisms involved in this particular ecosystem as insects get eaten by wildlife, small mammals receive cover from predators and the elements, and the wood gets neatly stacked instead of spread across the mountain.

“It is great to work with like-minded young people who are so dedicated to conservation. They selflessly give to improve the world around them, injecting much needed excitement and new approaches to ongoing problems in the process,” points out the workday leader Coxen.

The other Service Day was led by former Americorps member and current SAHC employee, Allison Kiehl and SAHC Farmland Protection Director, William Hamilton. The goal of this project was to begin the cleanup process on a run-down but still functional farm  in Alexander, NC.

The property lies just 15 minutes to the north and west of Asheville and is within the Newfound Creek watershed, an impaired waterway as identified by NC DWQ. Years of timbering and mismanaged cattle grazing have severely degraded the pastures, forests, and waterways of this property.  SAHC has begun restoring the agricultural and conservation values of the property and are undertaking a large stream restoration project that will result in significant habitat and water quality improvement.  SAHC is also working to improve agricultural management of the land and will eventually establish the property as a model farm for educational purposes.

William (left) and Allison (right) showoff their hardwork

The work day started with Americorps members arriving to a huge burn pile and plenty of wood to be split. The group worked hard all day, chainsawing and splitting wood, moving  brush and downed branches to the burn pile, and transporting the firewood into a protected area for future use. By the end of the day, Anderson Farm looked in much better shape and is now well on its way to becoming a model for educational purposes.

Kiehl explains, “The AmeriCorps work days are a huge help to SAHC staff and the organization as a whole. At the Anderson Farm, we were able to get done in a matter of hours what would have taken a few days to accomplish without the volunteers.  It was not easy work, but they all kept a positive attitude and were helpful throughout the entire day.”

The Gott Farm – Preserved Forever

Conservation Easements as a Tool for Preservation

The Gott’s 218-acre farm in Madison County is an icon of responsible land management and sustainability.

Peter and Polly Gott standing in front of their cabin.

Peter and Polly take seriously their responsibility of stewarding the land. Being able to hand their property down to their children intact is one of their highest priorities. To do that, they decided to put their land into conservation easements with Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC). The first conservation easement was completed in 2002 and protected 210 acres. The farm is now protected in its entirety; the second easement was signed on April 1st, 2011, and protects the remaining eight acres, which are adjacent to Pisgah National Forest. These conservation easements assure that the land where Peter and Polly live and raised their family will be here, relatively the same, for generations to come.  “Without the conservation easements, who knows what could happen to our farm when we’re gone? said Polly. “The conservation easements ensure that nothing will happen.” The property is also within the viewshed of the Appalachian Trail and adds to the large contiguous area of protected lands in Madison County.

Their Story

Newlyweds Roderick Shelton and Sarah Briggs were the first people to migrate to the rugged wilderness of Madison County, North Carolina in the late 18^th century. They and their thirteen children began the community that is now called Shelton Laurel. Almost two hundred years later, Peter and Polly Gott, also newlyweds searching for land, beauty, and of course good banjo music, were drawn to the southern mountains.

Former students at Cornell University, Peter and Polly piled their possessions in their Volkswagon bug and traveled to the place on the map where the mountains looked the most rugged, right on the North Carolina and Tennessee state line, in 1961. Their plan was to buy some land, learn to farm it, and Peter would make banjos to sell in his friend’s folklore shop for money. They drove back and forth between Virginia and the Smoky Mountains for two months, looking for land and camping in farmers’ fields. One April morning they were driving over the mountain into Shelton Laurel and the grass was green, the apple trees were blooming, and it just looked so beautiful that they knew it was their place. “We wanted to find a place way back in the holler with nobody behind us, a beautiful view of the mountains, a stream big enough to turn a water wheel and at a price we could afford,” Peter explained. “We never found it.” That is, they didn’t find it until later.

The Gott’s first home in Madison County was one of Delph Kimball’s old shacks where she used to hang tobacco. When they asked how much the rent would be, she just shook her head. So they moved in with their sleeping bags and Coleman stove and stayed there for two years. Delph gave them a gallon of milk each day until they got a cow, as well as food from her garden. Eventually, they acquired an assortment of animals. When they got a horse they knew they would have to move because they didn’t have enough pasture. Peter asked a neighbor if he knew of someone he could rent pasture from. He told him, “Well, I’ve got another farm a few miles from here, its got plenty of pasture, a big house, two barns, a hog pen, chicken house, and out house; you can live there as long as you want and it won’t cost you a cent.”

After living on their neighbor’s farm for two and a half years, they bought thirty-seven acres from Lisha Shelton, a banjo player and ballad singer, and a descendent of those first pioneers of the Laurel. They paid $1,500 total, forty dollars an acre, plus a hundred dollars for a patch of fifty trees that Peter used to build their house. He had learned to build log homes using hand tools and historic methods.

“I didn’t build any more banjos after that because my neighbor asked if I’d build him a log house.” After Peter built his second log cabin, he built houses for four more people in the community. That drew the attention of several reporters who wrote articles about his work, and then people began to call him from all over the country to build their homes. Polly learned to make pottery and all types of baskets, including the impressive Adirondack traditional pack baskets. She also learned to paint, which is now her primary focus. Both took part in the job of growing, harvesting, and preserving their own food.

Eventually, their neighbor passed away and his farm came up for sale. It was exactly what they had been looking for; Pisgah National Forest surrounded it on two sides, there were abundant springs, wet coves full of wild edibles, viable soil for farming, and breathtaking views. That farm, combined with the first property they bought, became their home where they raised their two children and live today.

Cataloochee Ranch: A Success Story in Haywood County

In the 1990′s, 67-year-old Maggie Valley resident Tom Alexander realized that he would have to do something to be able to hand down his beloved land, 1,000 mostly undeveloped acres adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, intact to his children. The land had been in his family for 60 years, but development in Haywood County had greatly increased over the past few decades and the value of his land was doubling in value about every three to four years. When it was valued at $10 million, Alexander saw little chance his children would ever be able to receive the land intact because his estate would have to pay about $4 million in taxes, which would be impossible without selling portions of it. When development seemed inevitable, he called the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy for help. SAHC was able to put a conservation easement on Hemphill Bald, 222-acres of his property, which blocked future development from ever being able to take place and reduced the land value by 78%.

“We have a strong sentimental attachment to the land, and we didn’t want to see it sold off or go into the hands of developers,” Alexander said in a July 1998 article in the Wildlife in North Carolina magazine.

After the initial Hemphill Bald easement, Alexander and the other owners, Judy Coker and Alice Aumen, went on to put five more sections of their property into conservation easements with SAHC. Because of the easements, Alexander was able to will his land to his children just the way it was a century before.

Cataloochee Ranch Property: Hikers, Views, and Seasons

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Prime Farmland Soils Producing Local Food Preserved Forever

Buncombe County, NC- The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC) has advanced its conservation work in the Fairview farming community by protecting 28 more acres that includes Hickory Nut Gap Meats and Flying Cloud Farm, two notable farming operations. These enterprises provide local food to 4 tailgate markets, Greenlife Grocery and Earth Fare Supermarkets, and over 100 families through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares.

The land adjoins the 290-acre Hickory Nut Gap Farm conservation easement, which SAHC closed in December 2008. The new easement furthers SAHC’s vision of protecting agricultural soils and working farms to secure our region’s local food production for the future. Since 2005, SAHC has protected over 3,000 acres of working farmland through its Farmland Preservation Program.

The six heirs of Jamie and Elspeth McClure Clark equally own the 28 acres and want to make certain that their land will be used for responsible farming in the future. Because the land is now held in a conservation easement for perpetuity, it cannot be developed for any purpose other than farming.

“We want to honor the legacy of our parents and grandparents and ensure that our viable land will be farmed for many more generations. We thank SAHC and everyone who helped make the easement possible,” said Dumont Clarke, one of the landowners.

Hickory Nut Gap Meats and Flying Cloud Farm lease this property from the Clarkes and produce a huge variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers and canned goods, as well as grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, and free-range pork.

The property includes scenic working farmland, open space, a variety of forest types, wildlife habitat for mammals and birds, abundant water flowing in Ashworth Creek and its tributaries, and prime agricultural soils. Both Flying Cloud Farms and Hickory Nut Gap Meats prioritize the health of the water, air, and land in managing the farm.

SAHC secured a $281,400 grant from the North Carolina Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund (NCADFPTF) and a $346,100 grant from the Federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program (FFRP), part of the United States Department of Agriculture, to purchase this easement. The landowners also generously gave a $22,000 stewardship gift to cover the cost of maintaining the easement.

This is the first FFRP grant that SAHC has received and the first FFRP project in Buncombe County. The FFRP awards grants to purchase conservation easements on land with prime, unique and productive soil for the purpose of protecting topsoil from conversion to non-agricultural uses, so this project fits the bill.  One hundred percent of the soils on the tract are classified as prime and state important soils, meaning soils that are superb for growing crops.

“As professionals in the conservation community we recognize that prime bottomland soils are formed over millions of years and are rare in nature. In order to eat locally these are the soils we have to preserve, ” said William Hamilton, SAHC’s Farmland Preservation Director.

Often, farm and ranchlands are under heavy development pressure because they are usually flat, affordable, and well drained, making them obvious targets for parking lots and other development. According to the American Farmland Trust’s website we are losing more than an acre of agricultural land to development per minute each and every day.

Agricultural conservation easements like this one help to prevent our prime bottomland soils from being developed and preserve them so that present and future generations can have access to healthy, local food.

“SAHC is so excited and proud about being able to preserve prime bottomland soils on a working farm that provides a significant amount of food to local consumers and a successful partnership with the FFRPP and NCADFPTF to permanently set this land aside for healthy agriculture,” notes Hamilton. “Working with the employees of the US Department of Agriculture and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture to make this happen was a great experience. We are eager to duplicate this throughout our service area.”

SAHC is a non-profit, charitable organization whose mission is to protect the world’s oldest mountains for the benefit of present and future generations. The land trust works with individuals and local communities to identify, preserve and manage the region’s important lands. SAHC and its 1,500 members have protected close to 50,000 acres throughout the mountain region, including key sites adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, in the Highlands of Roan and in the Sandy Mush farming community. The SAHC headquarters are in Asheville. To learn more about SAHC and how to join the effort to protect the future of the southern mountains visit http://www.appalachian.org.