“Surpassing 70,000 acres of permanent land and water conservation is a major accomplishment for our land trust,” said FCNC Executive Director Andrew Kota. “We share this achievement with our donors, supporters and partners who worked alongside us during this 29-year journey, and we’ll soon share the land itself with the communities in this region when a section of the Wilderness Gateway State Trail is constructed.”

The land purchase was part of an ongoing effort to conserve lands connecting the South Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountains, allowing for the Wilderness Gateway State Trail to be developed as a long-distance public trail system. In early 2024, FCNC will convey a permanent conservation easement on the property to the state. The land, referred to by FCNC as Pinnacle Mountains West, adjoins 960 acres that FCNC purchased in 2022 using a North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant. This land connects to an assemblage of state and federal lands to the east.  Pinnacle Mountains West extends this string of conserved land west toward Hickorynut Mountain, another large aggregation of private conservation land. 

Preliminary work has also begun on FCNC’s pending acquisition of 1,686 acres adjoining Pinnacle Mountains West to the south, aptly named Pinnacles Mountains South, with funding from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.