Group buys another 1,400 acres in Appalachian Kentucky to protect habitat
A group working to preserve a 125-mile long wildlife corridor in Eastern Kentucky has added another large piece of land to the effort.
The Kentucky Natural Lands Trust bought 1,368 acres on Pine Mountain, in Harlan County. The land joins another large tract that KNLT bought in 2017, and will establish the Warbler Ridge Preserve.
In Kentucky, Pine Mountain runs along the southeastern edge of the state from Pine Mountain State Resort Park in Bell County to Breaks Interstate Park in Pike County. It provides habitat for many rare and endangered species and protects the headwaters of the Kentucky and Cumberland rivers, water sources for hundreds of thousands of people.
KNLT has been working for 25 years to buy land on the mountain to conserve it.
The latest acquisition cost $1.36 million, plus another $200,000 for expenses such as surveying. The trust used money from individual donors, philanthropies and a fund to protect imperiled bats.
The trust bought the land from Southeast Education Foundation, the fundraising arm of Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College.
The foundation, which has struggled to raise money, plans to use proceeds for scholarships and special projects, and to stabilize the foundation, said Ed Harris, who heads the organization.
The region has been hit hard by a collapse in coal jobs.
Money from selling the land will be a tremendous boost in helping people get educated for new careers as the region works to diversify and rebuild, Harris said.
“The money will just be a blessing to us,” Harris said. “It will really help the community.”
The trust, which buys land from willing sellers, is piecing together what it calls the Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor, a migration route for several species and a refuge for birds, animals and plants.
The work is one of the largest conservation projects in the state.
The total area that could be protected on the ridge is about 180,000 acres, according to Greg Abernathy, executive director of the trust.
Of that, 68,500 acres is protected from development through ownership by federal and state agencies and non-profit organizations such as KNLT, Abernathy said.
With the latest acquisition, the trust has conserved 14,900 acres of that total.
The latest purchase builds on the benefits of the conservation effort, which include protecting natural habitat, preserving one of the most biologically diverse places in North America and mitigating climate change, according to the trust.
“An understanding and appreciation of these wild places is vital to the human species because we all depend on them,” Abernathy said in a video.
The preservation effort holds the promise of economic benefits as well by boosting tourism.
“If they can keep Pine Mountain in a mostly natural state . . . it provides this really vast natural space for people to enjoy,” said Ivy Brashear, Appalachian transition director for the Mountain Association.
KNLT is an affiliate of the association, which is among the groups advocating for an equitable economic transition in Eastern Kentucky.
The Pine Mountain corridor is the site of Kentucky’s portion of the Great Eastern Trail, an 1,800 mile route from Alabama to New York that is in development.
KNLT’s new preserve will allow completion of several more miles of the trail in Kentucky.
The trail will bring more visitors to Kentucky, said Shad Baker, a Letcher County resident who represents Kentucky on the Great Eastern Trail board.
About half the trail is done in Kentucky, Baker said.
“This is part of building that foundation of nature-based tourism,” he said. “We view this as an economic driver.”
This story was originally published December 2, 2020 at 10:42 AM.
