Giving Back, Southern Appalachian Highlands Concervancy, Appalachian Trail Conference

Giving Back

10% of any profits I receive from these communities resulting from a closing generated from this website will be donated to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, one of the country’s oldest and most respected land trusts. And you, as buyer, will be given the option of receiving a complimentary membership as a closing gift.

The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy is a non-profit organization (a land trust) working to conserve the unique plant and animal habitat, clean water, and scenic beauty of the mountains of North Carolina and east Tennessee for the benefit of present and future generations. This is achieved by forging and maintaining conservation relationships with landowners and public agencies, owning and managing land, and working with communities to accomplish their conservation objectives. This Conservancy is the oldest and most accomplished land trust based in the southern Blue Ridge.

Its roots date to the early 1950’s, when the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) decided to replace 26 miles of AT road-walking in Tennessee with 72 miles of new trails in the mountains. This ambitious trail relocation was championed by the Tennessee Eastman Hiking Club under leadership of Stanley A. Murray.

The new AT route crossed the seventeen-mile chain of grassy balds in the Highlands of Roan, one of the most remarkable places on earth. The grassy bald mountaintops, red spruce / Fraser fir forest, and granitic cliff ecosystems of Roan are among the rarest of rare biological communities, and are of global – not just national – significance.

In November 1966, Stan Murray convened a meeting of seven people, with the objective of identifying and contacting landowners on Roan to discuss safeguarding AT lands and views. From this nucleus of committed citizens grew The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy we know today.

Since then, the conservancy has safeguarded over 40,000 acres of important lands in western North Carolina and east Tennessee.

Photo courtesy of Witt Langstaff, Jr.