The Conservation Trust for North Carolina has saved 12 acres near the Blue Ridge Parkway and Linville Falls from development through a $100,000 purchase. The property contains a small waterfall, below, and the headwaters of Honeycutt Creek in McDowell County.
The 12-acre tract adjoins the parkway at Bear Den Mountain Road and is visible from Milepost 325, according to the Black Mountain News.
The Honeycutt Creek property and 208 acres purchased by Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina below Bear Den Overlook in 2016 will eventually be donated to the National Park Service for inclusion in the Blue Ridge Parkway.
“It could have easily been developed,” Chris Canfield, executive director of the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, said of the land. “Proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway is the key reason we look at conserving land, and this fit a key piece of puzzle in Bear Den Overlook property. It’s a special little gem.”
The project was funded by philanthropists Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury.
The Conservation Trust has now protected 12 properties totaling more than 3,700 acres in the area around Altapass and North Cove between Linville and Little Switzerland along the parkway, and more than 34,000 acres along the entire parkway.
Newly acquired property along the Blue Ridge Parkway in McDowell County will conserve the headwaters of Honeycutt Creek.
(Conservation Trust for North Carolina photo)
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