Community News

Conserving Carolina reaches milestone of 50,000 acres protected

Conserving Carolina played a key role in protecting 6,730 acres of pristine forests with waterfalls, trout streams, and mountain bogs to create Headwaters State Forest. [CONTRIBUTED]

By Lightning Reports, Published: September 29, 2025

Conserving Carolina has reached a major milestone with more than 50,000 acres protected.

The Hendersonville-based land trust has helped to protect places including treasured parks and trails, restored wetlands, summer camps, family farms and working forests. These conservation lands are located primarily in Henderson, Polk, and Transylvania counties, the Landrum area and the Lake Lure area. The conservancy announced this milestone at its Conservation Celebration fundraiser on Sept. 20.

“We are deeply grateful to work with our communities to protect such special places," Executive Director Kieran Roe says. "We live in an area that is full of natural wonders, places that inspire awe. As we celebrate this milestone and look to the future, we know that conservation is more important than ever. With extreme weather like Helene, we need nature to make our landscapes more resilient. With so much development happening, we need to protect the natural areas that we love. And with more people coming to our region, we need to create more places for people to get outside.”

Conserving Carolina was formed by the merger of the Pacolet Area Conservancy (founded in 1989) and Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy (founded in 1994). Working in the region for more than 35 years, the conservation group has helped to create a legacy of land for future generations. The 50,000 protected acres include:

• Chimney Rock State Park: Conserving Carolina helped add thousands of acres to the park, including the World’s Edge property.
• DuPont State Recreational Forest: Conserving Carolina helped create the state forest in the 1990s and more recently added 717 acres linking it to a 100,000+ acre conservation corridor.
• Headwaters State Forest: Conserving Carolina played a key role in protecting 6,730 acres of pristine forests with waterfalls, trout streams, and mountain bogs.
• Bearwallow Mountain: This popular hiking spot with 360-degree views now links to 16 miles of connected, beautiful trails.
• Lake Lure trails: Thousands of protected acres north of Lake Lure will be home to Weed Patch Mountain Trail and new trails coming soon.
• 50 miles of rail trails: Conserving Carolina helped purchase the land for the 19-mile Ecusta Trail and 31-mile Saluda Grade Trail.
• Natural floodplain restorations: Just three of Conserving Carolina’s natural floodplain restorations stored 1.25 billion gallons of floodwater during Helene.
• North Pacolet River preserves: Beloved preserves including Melrose Falls and Norman Wilder Forest protect exceptional biodiversity.
• Little White Oak Mountain: Over 1,000 acres of new public land now include four miles of trails next to Polk County Middle School.
• Private conservation land: Tens of thousands of acres of family farms, working forests, summer camps, and other natural areas on private property are protected forever.

“Can you imagine if these places had not been protected?” Roe said. “Today, these conservation lands make up so much of what we love about this region—but they are only here because people saw that we need to protect the places that we love and they worked with Conserving Carolina to take action.”