Karen Chávez

kchavez@citizen-times.com

MARION - Cary businessman and conservationist Tim Sweeney made good on his promise to permanently protect a large, unfragmented, undeveloped corner of Western North Carolina.

Sweeney’s recent donation is one of the largest conservation easements by an individual in the history of North Carolina, said Jeff Fisher, CEO of the land management and real estate consulting firm Unique Places LLC, which led the efforts to organize the permanent conservation.

“It may be the largest,” he said.

The easement permanently protects the 7,000-acre Box Creek Wilderness, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains south of Marion and Morganton, north of Rutherfordton, and west of South Mountains State Park.

Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, donated the conservation easement to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The easement came about through lots of conversations with potential partners,” Fisher said. "It’s one of the most diverse areas in North Carolina. It has such rare plant and wildlife species, it seemed a perfect fit with the Fish and Wildlife Service. This is a first step – there will be other places protected. The goal is to connect South Mountains State Park to Chimney Rock. This is one piece of the puzzle.”

Kevin Caldwell, a wildlife biologist with Mountains to Sea Ecological, said ecologists documented more than 130 rare and watch-list plant and wildlife species, and several new-to‐science wildlife and plant species, including three moths and a new spiderwort species.

Three new‐to-science natural communities were documented, including a vast hillcane (native bamboo) ground layer, and four natural communities never documented east of Murphy or Brevard.

Part of the reason for such high biodiversity is the wilderness’s location as a transition zone from the Piedmont to the mountain ecosystem. The Box Creek Wilderness ranks in the top 1 percent of Natural Heritage Areas in North Carolina and holds the highest possible rank for a property.

Sweeney said he started buying ecologically important lands across the state in 2008, when the real estate bubble burst. He has since amassed 40,000 acres across North Carolina from Chatham County west to Haywood. He has donated many other parcels to conservation, including 1,500 acres in the recent expansion to Mount Mitchell State Park.

He paid $15 million for the 7,000-acre Box Creek Wilderness.

“It’s still in private ownership but the easement ensures it can never be developed," Sweeney said. "It’s not open to anyone in the public at any time, but people can email and get a permission card and go and enjoy it.

“When real estate collapsed, it was an opportunity to buy the best and most biodiverse natural areas,” he said. “Box Creek had approximately 5,000 acres owned by developers. The next time there’s a real estate boom, we won’t be able to protect these lands.”

“From the beginning, he wanted to conserve landscape-scale parcels to create major wildlife corridors. He didn’t want to do it piecemeal," said Elly Wells of Asheville, who led community outreach for the project. "His goal was to find big parcels, with rich biodiversity and which were ecologically significant. The fact that this land helps to form natural wildlife corridors to the South Mountains, and very close to Chimney Rock State Park made ecological sense.”

One of the catalysts for the conservation easement – which allows Sweeney to own the land but forever restricts most kinds of development – was a utility condemnation lawsuit filed by Rutherford Electric Membership Corporation to build a power line, which would have bisected the property.

The lawsuit was settled following the Fish and Wildlife’s and Sen. Richard Burr’s involvement in protecting the site, Wells said.

Instead of cutting through Box Creek Wilderness, the power line will be built along an existing road corridor.

“I’m grateful for the efforts of Senator Burr to help protect Box Creek Wilderness,” Sweeney said. “And for the whole Fish and Wildlife Service team’s tireless efforts to preserve vital North Carolina natural areas in partnership with conservation-minded landowners like me.”

Fisher said the settlement was a huge win for protecting biodiversity and wildlife, as well as providing energy needs to the region.

“The cards are stacked against the private landowner in eminent domain litigation in many ways, so reaching a settlement required a lot of hard work and resourcefulness from many team members,” Fisher said. “Fortunately, we had a very determined landowner, and our team was able to demonstrate to important stakeholders that conservation and energy infrastructure can coexist responsibly.”

“When I learned about the wilderness that was great news because I live within 10 miles of Box Creek. Then we learned that that the power company was coming in, and being so close to our home, I knew we needed to stop that," said Nora Worthen, who lives in the community of Brackett Town in McDowell County.

“I stared a petition, we wrote letters and did whatever was necessary to keep power company from going through," Worthen said. "I’m so thrilled that Mr. Sweeney had the vision to put Box Creek into a conservation easement.”

Learn more

For more information about Box Creek Wilderness, visit www.boxcreekwilderness.com.