Archived Outdoors

Southern Highlands Reserve honors volunteers

The Southern Highlands Reserve is honoring two mountain residents as its volunteers of the year. 

  • Molly Tart, of Brevard, works in SHR’s nursery complex repotting young red spruce and is an avid supporter in the community. She is a member of the Waightstill Avery Daughters of the American Revolution and worked with that group to find the long-forgotten red spruce forest originally planted by the DAR in the 1940s, near Devil’s Courthouse off the Blue Ridge Parkway. 
  • Paul Cooper, of Lake Toxaway, is a long-time volunteer at SHR. Every year, he logs more volunteer hours any anyone else, and his love of storytelling makes him a natural fit as a docent on visitors’ days. 

SHR is located near Lake Toxaway at 4,500 feet and works to sustain the natural ecosystems of the Blue Ridge Mountains through preservation, cultivation and display of native plants and by advocating for their value through preservation, cultivation and research. www.southernhighlandsreserve.org.

Smokey Mountain News Logo
SUPPORT THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND
INDEPENDENT, AWARD-WINNING JOURNALISM
Go to top
Payment Information

/

At our inception 20 years ago, we chose to be different. Unlike other news organizations, we made the decision to provide in-depth, regional reporting free to anyone who wanted access to it. We don’t plan to change that model. Support from our readers will help us maintain and strengthen the editorial independence that is crucial to our mission to help make Western North Carolina a better place to call home. If you are able, please support The Smoky Mountain News.

The Smoky Mountain News is a wholly private corporation. Reader contributions support the journalistic mission of SMN to remain independent. Your support of SMN does not constitute a charitable donation. If you have a question about contributing to SMN, please contact us.