North Carolina has completed a $3.7 million deal to protect nearly 1,500 acres in McDowell County that encompass nearly five miles of scenic views along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
CSX Corp. owns the 1,488 acres near Little Switzerland and will continue to operate its rail line. A conservation easement the state bought, however, will prevent development and logging of the site.
The nonprofit Conservation Trust for North Carolina, which brokered the deal and announced it Monday, will manage the easement and monitor the property after a six-year effort to protect it.
The property extends from mileposts 325 to 329.5 on the parkway and includes some of its best-known overlooks.
It also includes 1.5 miles of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, the route used by mountain militiamen during the American Revolution on the way to the battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina. That section of trail is closed, but the agreement allows improvements that will make it publicly accessible.
The site's mature forests connect habitat in Pisgah National Forest to the parkway. The tract includes all or part of two state-designated Significant Natural Heritage Areas and seven miles of Catawba River streams.
Pitching in
Donors of the Conservation Trust, which has protected more than 30,000 acres along the parkway, provided $1.6million of the easement purchase price.
The N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund paid $1.1 million, the state Clean Water Management Trust Fund $868,000 and the state parks trails program $75,000.
The National Park Service, Altapass Orchard Foundation, Overmountain Victory Trail Association and Salisbury's Fred and Alice Stanback and Bill and Nancy Stanback also contributed.
