SPRUCE PINE, N.C. (AP) - An apple orchard along the Blue Ridge Parkway in McDowell County has been permanently preserved.
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports (https://avlne.ws/1QjkSJK ) that people who worked to protect the Orchard at Altapass gathered there Saturday to celebrate conservation easements signed in March.
Reid Wilson, executive director of the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, says the easements on 125 acres cost $620,000. The state Clean Water Management Trust Fund contributed $181,000 of that.
The nonprofit orchard near Little Switzerland draws some 50,000 visitors yearly. The property contains part of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.
In 2001, the Conservation Trust bought 132 acres of the orchard and donated it to the National Park Service to include in the parkway’s official boundary.
The trust has conserved 55 properties on the parkway, totaling 31,543 acres.
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Information from: The Asheville Citizen-Times, https://www.citizen-times.com
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