Current Events

Webb Family Protects 600 Acres in Jackson County

A 600-acre Jackson County property containing significant headwater streams is protected from development forever through a conservation agreement with Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. The landowners finalized the agreement today in Asheville. Purchased generations ago as a retreat for the Webb family, the Cedar Creek property near Cashiers includes clean water sources for Lake Glenville and, further downstream, the Tuckasegee River.

“In this period of drought when we are feeling water scarcity on a daily basis, the protection of miles of clean, flowing water is quite a triumph,” said Carl Silverstein, Executive Director of Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

The property is the site of natural heritage areas of national and state significance. It adds to the protected landscape of the Tuckasegee basin, including the Nantahala National Forest and Panthertown Valley and privately conserved lands of the Clarke family totaling more than 850 acres. At its southwestern boundary, the Webb property is directly connected to the Big Sheep Cliff conservation easements, which totals 102 acres.

The property encompasses waterfalls, rolling hills, scenic views and abundant springs and headwater streams, including Cedar and Sheep Cliff creeks. Webb has visited there since she was a child and was determined to see it protected.

“My real partners in this victory, of course, are my family members who had to come to agreement and work through obstacles that came up over the course of this process,” Laura Webb said. The property is owned by Cedar Creek Realty, which is owned by four Webb Families. The negotiations included Laura Webb's brother John; her parents Chic and Jean Webb of Asheville; her sister Julia Gaskin of Hull, Georgia; Amy Webb of New York City; Stephan Webb of Seattle; and Billy Webb and Jimmy Webb, both of Statesville. “None of us got exactly what we wanted; we all moved from our original positions,” explained Webb. “But we managed to conserve as much as possible and get about half of the value out.”

Through the process, family members had to examine their attachment to their childhood vacation spot, their individual financial objectives and their collective desire to protect the property. They used a variety of conservation techniques to protect the parcel, originally 1,000 acres. The 400 acres adjacent to the 600-acre conservation easement will be owned by family members and other conservation buyers, with specific deed restrictions to conserve the qualities of the properties. Among those conservation minded buyers is broker Beth Townsend who shares the family's deep love of the property.

Webb drew on available expertise to identify what is special about the tract and to craft an arrangement that would protect its important features and meet her family's needs. In addition to Townsend, she lists as important resources: Lee Mulligan, an estate planning attorney and CMLC Trustee; John Witherspoon with Conservation Advisors in Brevard; David Tuch with Equinox Environmental Consultation and Design; Attorneys Kim Coward and Richard A. Wood; CPA Michael Rauchwarg with Dixon Hughes; Surveyor Eric Lorenzen with Sylvester and Company; and appraisers Tom Steitler and Rick Robson.

According to Laura Webb, the signing of the conservation easement is one of the crowning achievements of her life. “I hope others interested in exploring conserving their land will learn from our experience that it is possible to find common ground and to realize your dream,” she said. Local and regional land trusts can provide the guidance and expertise to landowners interested in protecting their land.

High-priority 246 acres in the Black Mountains protected forever

A 246-acre Yancey County tract that conservationists named as one of the highest protection priorities in the region is now permanently protected. Susan and Jim Wilburn signed a conservation agreement last week with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, ensuring the 2.5 miles of headwater streams on their land will remain pristine forever.


U.S. Forest Service land surrounds the property, which is in the Black Mountains region, a very ecologically rich area. The landowners access the property from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

“This property is a critically important piece in ensuring an unbroken landscape – to maintain wildlife habitat, scenic views near the Parkway and clean water of the South Toe watershed,” said SAHC Executive Director Carl Silverstein.

Little Whiteoak Creek and 18 tributaries flow through the property into the South Toe River in Celo, where the river gains a NC Natural Heritage Program designation of national significance. The US Fish and Wildlife Service have also named the South Toe as critical habitat for the endangered Appalachian Elktoe mussel.

To Susan Wilburn, this important conservation land is just home. “I always felt I was at home as soon as I drove in the gravel road off the Parkway,” she said. From her house, she watches the sunset fall over the entire Black Mountain range. She and her husband Jim keep a knob mowed, and the rest of the property is hardwood forest.

Wilburn inherited the land from her father, George Wentzell, who purchased the property in 1962. “I love it just like my daddy did,” she said. “I'm sure he would want to keep it this way.” Wentzell is now 97-years-old.

She has fond memories of visiting the property since she was in elementary school – hiking to Crabtree Falls, viewing a wide array of birds, and spotting bobcat, fox and black bear. “It's in my blood,” Wilburn said. When she retired 14 years ago and started living at the property year-round, she wrote to her friends, “I've moved to paradise.”

The Wilburns own a personal residence, several guest cottages and a barn on the property, and they will reserve the right to maintain and upgrade those. Beyond that, the property will not be developed further. The conservation agreement also prohibits logging, commercial agriculture, mining or other activities that could degrade water quality.

The purchase price of the conservation easement is $1.1 million. The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund approved a $611,000 grant to SAHC toward the purchase price of the conservation agreement. Private philanthropists Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury made a donation to leverage the CWMTF grant and enabled SAHC to purchase the conservation agreement.

A South Toe River Conservation Plan funded by CWMTF that SAHC completed in June 2007 identified the Wilburn tract as one of the four highest-ranked priority properties in the entire watershed.

This decade is viewed as the last chance to protect large tracts of undeveloped land in Western North Carolina. The region's population continues to soar with three million more people living in North Carolina than in 1970, and the mountains are predicted to lose another 500,000 acres of forests, farms, stream banks and wildlife habitats by 2022 — a size almost as large as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Sandy Mush farmland providing local food protected forever

Asheville, N.C. - The SAHC recently finalized two Buncombe County-funded conservation projects - raising the number of acres in Sandy Mush that are permanently protected for clean water, scenic views and farming to 6,000 acres. Joseph Allawos and Eva Scruggs, owners of the 80-acre Sugar Creek Farm that grows produce for local markets, and Ray Hearne, owner of a 62 acre-tract containing a native plant restoration site, completed conservation agreements with SAHC.

To cover the transaction costs for the Sugar Creek project, Buncombe County contributed $12,100 to match an $11,500 grant from the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. The value of the conservation easement, which Allawos and Scruggs donated, is approximately $182,000.

The county compensated Hearne $120,000 —50 percent of the appraised value of the conservation easement. The county's Farmland Preservation Fund donated $30,500 for transaction costs to complete the project.

“The county has opened up several doors for landowners who want to protect their land forever and keep the character of our rural areas, but don't have the resources to pay the expenses associated with conservation transactions,” SAHC Executive Director Carl Silverstein said. In the last two years, the county has allocated $3.9 million for land conservation. Of that, $3.5 million has been committed so far.

“These two properties are important pieces of the larger Sandy Mush community — the most intact agricultural area in the county, and an incredibly scenic area,” said William Hamilton, SAHC Farmland Protection Coordinator. The ring of mountaintops was at one time all open pasture because farmers would drive their cattle from the valley to the mountain pasture for the summer. Several balds still exist today.

The headwaters of Sugar Creek flow through the Allawos property, which provides habitat for a wide range of wildlife, including bobcat. The tract is one of the first recorded deeds in the area (ca. 1700) and has the chimney remains of a historic log house (ca. 1890).

For 10 years, Allawos has operated a small market garden on the land. The farm's organically raised vegetables are sold at local tailgate markets and restaurants. Allawos also propagates and markets perennial plants, manages an orchard and blueberries, and raises heritage breed turkeys. Allawos' partner, Eva Scruggs, keeps bee hives, a craft of growing importance with bee shortages. Allawos hopes his land can further benefit the public this spring, as he plans to host a Farm to School workshop, an 8-week intensive course on market gardening.

The property came close to being developed 13 years ago. The land came up for sale, and two landowners who had plans for intensive real estate development made offers higher than Allawos' bid. But the guardian of the estate, Candler Jones, chose to sell to Allawos because he intended to protect the land for agriculture use.

“Having lived here for 13 years of springs and falls, it has become special to me,” Allawos said about his land. A professor of biology at Asheville-Buncombe Technical College, he traipses through the hardwood forest on the northern-facing slope looking at the unique forest floor growth. The property has more than 30 springs, rare plants and old growth and second growth trees.

In a cove of Yellow Mountain, visible from all around the Big Sandy Mush Valley and Newfound Mountains, is Ray Hearne's property. It contains 1,921 feet of headwaters of Sandy Mush Creek, and uniquely forms its own small watershed. Due to its good road access and fairly gentle topography, the tract would be desirable for real estate development.

But Hearne has different plans. “I've been distressed about development eating up the mountains,” she said. “It's changed so much since when my parents moved here in the 1960's. I'm dismayed for the loss of land for farming, clean air and clean water.”

Without coordinated efforts in conservation, the mountains will lose a predicted 500,000 acres of forests, farms, stream banks and wildlife habitats by 2022 — a size almost as large as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Hearne worked for about three years to solidify the conservation agreement, consulting the Buncombe County Agricultural Advisory Board the entire time. “This is one of the biggest contributions I can make to this Earth,” she said. “I'd like to think I'm part of a movement in Sandy Mush that's so vital to this region.”

Supported by a US Fish and Wildlife Service grant, Hearne is restoring native vegetation to the property in hopes it will provide habitat for migratory birds. She has spent many days removing exotic plants such as multiflora rose and is quickly seeing the pasture return to native grasses.

Allawos and Hearne remarked how Hamilton and the rest of the SAHC staff helped them feel at ease during the drafting of the conservation agreement, guiding them through the various documents and giving forethought into the future of their land.

“The incentives are there to do it,” Allawos said. “If you're interested in conservation, it makes sense from a financial point. Plus it just feels good that the land will be protected into the future.”

Spring Creek community rallies around land conservation

New interest in private land conservation is quickly spreading in the western corner of Madison County. The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy recently partnered with three landowners in the Spring Creek community to protect nearly 165 acres of scenic views, agricultural land, clean water and wildlife habitat.

“Spring Creek is an area where many important features that lead us to protect land all converge,” said Carl Silverstein, SAHC Executive Director. “A Scenic Byway, the Appalachian Trail, rich farmland, economic development. All of these reasons make Spring Creek a spectacular place to conserve.”

Farmland Protection Coordinator William Hamilton points to larger picture of preserving agriculture communities like Spring Creek.

“Many land trusts have realized that with the world changing so fast and local foods awareness gaining momentum, it's a smart move to work with landowners in healthy intact agriculture communities.” Hamilton said. “We see a lot of value in preserving mountain valleys that are the sustainable communities for the future. Healthy plants and healthy animals lead to healthy people.”

To most effectively protect the landscape, SAHC staff relies on landowners who can spread their conservation stories to their neighbors. As is the case with Josh Kelly, an Asheville resident and biologist with Wildlaw, an environmental law firm. He encouraged his father, Ned Kelly, owner of 47 acres in Spring Creek, and Dory Brown, the owner of the adjacent 75 acres, to donate conservation easements on a portion of their land. In exchange for donating their development rights, landowners receive some income tax benefits.

These properties can be seen from Max Patch, the Madison County grassy bald near the Tennessee border where the Appalachian Trail crosses.

Josh Kelly spent his first nine years in Spring Creek, and most of his summers there until he was 17. “That land represents home to me,” he said. “It's my most specific connection to the landscape in the Southern Blue Ridge. It's the part of the world where I learned about myself as a part of nature, through hiking, fishing, and viewing plants and animals.”

The property contains 40 acres of mostly rich cove forest with high botanical diversity, including rare plants such as goldenseal. The Meadow Fork of Spring Creek, a trout stream, runs next to the property. Bobcats, bear and songbirds like the black-throated blue warbler pass through the property.

SAHC crafted the conservation agreement to allow for multiple uses in the future. A part of the land can be used for agriculture, a small portion allows for two future home sites and a good portion will remain forever wild. “It's a great example of how we can custom tailor conservation easements to the landowner's needs,” Hamilton said.

Becky Anderson, Executive Director of Handmade in America, also signed a conservation agreement with SAHC, preserving a 42-acre historic farm that has been in her family's hands for generations. The property contains a 100-year-old farmhouse and barn. The portion of Baltimore Branch that runs along the boundary of the property is forever protected from sedimentation.

With the support of Spring Creek landowners, SAHC is gearing up for more protection work in Spring Creek. Landowner and advocate Maxine Dalton, who is almost synonymous with conservation in Spring Creek, lead the creation of a Spring Creek fund through the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina to help Spring Creek landowners pay for transaction costs associated conservation agreements.

SAHC also recently received a $25,000 Scenic Byways grant in conjunction with Conservation Trust for North Carolina and nine other land trusts across the state. This grant will support SAHC's conservation work on Route 209 and US 25-70, coined “The Appalachian Medley,” which offers scenic views of Pisgah National Forest and the surrounding blue-grey hills.

SAHC continues to work with Appalachian Trail Conservancy to protect views along the famous footpath, including those near Max Patch. The countryside around the AT contains some of the most important biodiversity hot spots, pristine drinking water sources and unique scenic and recreation treasures in the Southeast.


Many conservation professionals in North Carolina view this decade as the last chance to protect large tracts of undeveloped land, critical to maintaining wildlife habitat, scenic views and water quality. To learn more about the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, to volunteer or to make a donation, visit www.appalachian.org <http://www.appalachian.org/> or call 828-253-0095. SAHC is part of Blue Ridge Forever, a coalition of 13 local land trusts and conservation organizations with a 5-year goal to protect 50,000 acres in Western North Carolina by 2010. Visit www.blueridgeforever.info "