PFAFFTOWN, N.C. — More than 1.5 million acres of land is protected in North Carolina helping animals and people enjoy nature. The Piedmont Land Conservancy has helped protect close to 32,000 acres alone since 1990.
What You Need To Know
- North Carolina is a leader is land conservation
- Over 100 acres of land was donated to Piedmont Land Conservancy in a once-in-a-lifetime donation
- The land, which would have become a neighborhood, will now house a walking trail and provide a home for the extensive wildlife
- North Carolina has over 900 miles of walking trails, with over 100 miles on conserved land
Kevin Redding grew up in Faith, North Carolina, a small country hometown that soon developed into a bustling suburban area.
He now is helping preserve land in its current state for wildlife and residents to use and live in, something that has been dwindling within the state.
“We're really lucky in North Carolina. We've had great locals, we've had great funding, and we've got the prettiest state in the country. We have the mountains and we have the coast and we have this wonderful Piedmont to live in. So the more we can do to preserve it so that my kids and grandkids and people like that can have the same experience, the same opportunities that we've had,” Redding said.
Redding is the executive director of Piedmont Land Conservancy (PLC) and has been in the field for over 20 years. Despite working in conservation for decades, he received a once-in-a-lifetime phone call for a donation of 127 acres to PLC.
The land was donated by retired neighbors and Drs. Peter and Ann Weigl, professors from Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State University who have ties to the outdoors and did not want to see this land turned into a subdivision.
“We've just seen so much growth in North Carolina over the last 30 to 40 years. And having a chance to preserve a piece of property like this that will always be open. It's going to have trails. It's going to be open to the public. It's going to be open for wildlife to live on, to have habitat on,” Redding said.
North Carolina has over 900 miles of walking trails with over 100 miles of those trails on conserved land, and the future Bashavia Creek Preserve will be no different. It will feature walking trails located just outside of Winston-Salem that will be laid out by 2025, along with homes for turkeys, quail, foxes, turtles and native plants such as dogwood trees to flourish.
“Over the last five years, the mental benefits of being out in nature, the physical benefits of being out in nature, the spiritual benefits of that. And people are just craving it and they need a chance to get outdoors and look at the birds just to exercise,” Redding said.
The Land Trust Alliance says 91% of land conserved in N.C. has community engagement, including activities for visitors to learn about the land.
Not only will North Carolinians get to see nature up close, they can learn about it with the Bashavia Creek running through the property, providing drinking water and feeding into the Yasmin River.
“The more people that move here, whether they're coming from the north or from the south, that our state is exploding. If you live in North Carolina, you need to know where your water comes from. You need to know where the recreational resources are,” Redding said.
Most of all, it's important to him to preserve the land for generations to come before it’s too late.
“We have to do it now, because in 20 years, you're almost not going to be able to find a 130-acre parcel anymore because we're just going to get subdivided so much," Redding said.