The High Country Conservancy has donated property that both expands the
Cone Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway and protects old-growth habitat.
The HCC donated the 21-acre tract after several years of work, with the
project originating through a private fund donation.
HCC purchased the land in 2002 from Mary Alice McLean and added it to
the parkway’s already-preserved 3,600 acres of park land.
The donated property creates a permanent protective buffer for some of
the national park’s most significant trees and stream habitat.
“It buffers some old growth Canada hemlock trees,” said Eric Heigl, HCC’s land protection director. “It’s entirely wooded and protects a stream.”
Heigl said the tall trees were important in shading the creek and protecting the aquatic habitat.
The forest also protects water quality by keeping the soil intact and
fulfills the HCC’s mission of helping provide buffers for the parkway.
Heigl said HCC is working on a conservation easement for an adjoining
property, trying to add more territory to protect parkway views and
create larger tracts of preserved habitat.
He said such donations protect the areas near the parkway from
development and road infrastructure that have been encroaching on
forest around the park.
“We knew there was that old-growth hemlock forest there so we made sure we went to those adjoining landowners,” Heigl said.
“This is the first HCC project to expand the parkway.”
The old-growth trees are primarily Canada hemlock, or Eastern hemlock,
growing in a contiguous, unbroken 20-acre stand.
Older Canada hemlocks can grow to enormous size, reaching more than 150 feet in height and five feet in diameter.
The largest Canada hemlocks found are in western North Carolina, and
the Grandfather Mountain area is especially well-known for its hemlock
stands.
Shawn Oakley, a botanist with the North Carolina Natural Heritage
Program, said the tract offered rare plants in addition to the hemlocks.
“The tracts are, in part, included in the North Carolina Natural
Heritage Program’s Moses Cone Park-Rich Mountain Significant Natural
Heritage Area,” Oakley said.
Conservationists say protection of this tract will also provide habitat
for area wildlife, and potential habitat for more uncommon species. The
property offers suitable habitat for the rare saw-whet owl, among other
species.
Based in Boone, the HCC has helped protect more than 2,100 acres of
significant farmland and natural land in Watauga, Avery and Ashe
counties. In 2007, HCC purchased a number of properties through grants
and private donations, and then transferred them to Elk Knob State Park.
