DuPont State Recreational Forest continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with Conserving Carolina announcing an additional 402 acres added to the forest Tuesday.

The addition will help conserve key headwater streams along the Eastern Continental Divide and link the forest with more than 100,000 acres of existing conserved lands along the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

In a news release Wednesday, Conserving Carolina announced the new Continental Divide Property, located south of the forest in Transylvania County and extending across the Eastern Continental Divide, which separates waters that flow east toward the Atlantic and west toward the Gulf of Mexico.

“In a region blessed with an abundance of public and conserved natural lands, DuPont State Recreational Forest is already one of our greatest conservation gems,” Conserving Carolina Executive Director Kieran Roe said in the statement. “The incorporation of the Continental Divide tract will enhance it further by protecting water quality, preserving an important wildlife corridor and creating future opportunities for public recreation.”

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The announcement follows on the heels of last month's news that another 778.5 acres near Cascade Lake will be added to the forest, bringing the forest's new total to 12,192 acres, according to Rose Jenkins Lane with Conserving Carolina.

And according to the release, Conserving Carolina aims to purchase the remaining 314 acres of the Continental Divide tract and add it to the forest by the end of the year.

In November, the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund announced a grant that provides most of the funding needed for that final purchase, and Conserving Carolina is working to raise an additional $100,000.

DuPont State Recreational Forest is a treasure recognized both locally and by the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of annual visitors, Roe said.

Vital funding for the 402 acres recently conveyed to the state came through grants from the Open Space Institute and the N.C. Forest Service, as well as generous private donations from Fred and Alice Stanback, Marilyn Westphal and Mark Simpson and Maurice Loiselle and Karen Topol, the release says.

“DuPont State Recreational Forest is an incredible natural resource that we are fortunate as a state to have,” said N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler in the release. “I am proud this new tract will add to the N.C. Forest Service’s continued efforts to protect and improve renewable and valuable natural resources, including critical headwaters. Water quality affects us all, and now this resource will be there for future generations as well.”

The addition will help link DuPont to more than 100,000 acres of existing conserved lands along the border with South Carolina, including Jones Gap State Park, Caesar’s Head State Park, Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area, Headwaters State Forest, Greenville Watershed, Jocassee Gorges and Gorges State Park, and farther west, Sumter and Nantahala national forests. The Continental Divide Property also borders thousands of acres of private conservation land, including two summer camps.

Where it's located, being part of a larger corridor of conservation along the state line among both public and private lands, is a large part of what makes it such a special property, Roe said. It will add to and create a public land connection from the main body of DuPont down to the South Carolina line, where it will meet more public lands like Jones Gap State Park.

While the Continental Divide Property doesn't adjoin the main portion of DuPont, at its closest it's only about .2 miles away, he said. What Conserving Carolina is now working on is a trail right of way that would connect the northern edge of the Continental Divide property to DuPont, crossing through some private property to connect to the two.

Last fall, Conserving Carolina was able to purchase a total of 415 acres in two phases, the release says, beginning with 13 acres of land in Henderson County it conveyed to the adjoining Green River Preserve, adding to the existing 2,600-acre conservation easement already protecting the summer camp property. The remaining 402 acres were transferred to the N.C. Forest Service.

Streams on the property form the headwaters of Reasonover Creek and the Green River, and the extended conservation area where the land is located allows wildlife access to a vast migration corridor, enabling fauna to see out food, shelter and mates.

The location of the corridor along the Blue Ridge Escarpment also creates vital opportunities for plant and animal species to shift their range as the climate changes, the statement notes, and some species may adapt by moving to higher elevations or farther north.

Conserving Carolina, which helped protect DuPont starting in the 1990s, identified the tract as a priority more than a dozen years ago. The land has had a succession of ownerships over the past decade, including a post-recession bank foreclosure.

Fortunately, the release says, Gwinnett Industries, which purchased the tract in 2016, partnered with Conserving Carolina to protect the land and agreed to a phased series of purchases which gave Conserving Carolina the opportunity to acquire portions of the tract as it raised needed funds. The company sold the land as a generous bargain sale, at a price well below appraised fair market value.

Learn more or become a member at conservingcarolina.org.