Residents band together to protect 138 acres of scenic land
Hundreds of Biltmore Lake residents helped protect 138 acres known as Scott's Ridge next to Pisgah National Forest and Bent Creek Wilderness.
By Anjali Patel
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BUNCOMBE COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — Hundreds of Biltmore Lake residents have come together to protect 138 acres of scenic land next to Pisgah National Forest and Bent Creek Wilderness.
The tract of land, known as Scott’s Ridge, was recently up for sale by Biltmore Farms.
Many Biltmore Lake residents were worried it would be bought by developers. They were afraid a sale to developers would not only impact the beautiful views the land provides, but also the environment and wildlife there.
Biltmore Lake resident Phillip Murphy spearheaded the effort to buy the land and protect it before it could be potentially developed.
“The ridge is really special. There’s not a lot of that left around here. You look around and development is going on everywhere,” Murphy said. “We felt like that property, when it got developed, was going to be covered with a hundred homes, probably hundreds of homes, condos, apartments, roads, and all of that is going to create erosion as it goes down to Enka Lake.”
Murphy said more than half of Biltmore Lake’s approximately 800 residents donated to the cause, pooling together money to purchase the land, which they then donated to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.
“We had a huge effort, doing everything from putting flyers out to a website. We did some street corner presentations. This was all in the middle of winter,” Murphy said.
SAHC executive director Carl Silverstein said the community helped raise $1.8 million toward buying the property, which was a “real first for SAHC in terms of crowdfunding.”
“It’s a property that the community out in Enka cares about a great deal, partly because it’s a real prominent ridgeline and the view, you see it from Enka High, you see it from A-B Tech,” Silverstein said.
Silverstein said SAHC is excited about conserving this property in perpetuity. SAHC sees the land as a great addition to the more than 75,000 acres of local mountains it has been able to protect and steward since the organization began in 1974.
“The fact that that land will not be getting developed helps with avoiding sedimentation in the streams, because if you had put roads or buildings on those steep slopes, it certainly would’ve contributed to sedimentation,” Silverstein said.
“With the development pressure we’re seeing close to town and really realizing the impacts that the warming climate is having, it’s really making us realize that protecting large tracts like this, close to town that people enjoy when they drive by and see them, and help avoid flooding really is worth our attention,” he continued.
Murphy said this was a cause the community there truly united behind.
“Most things, where a community gets involved, oftentimes turns divisive. This was just the opposite. It was such a community-building event,” Murphy said.
Allen Tate/Beverly-Hanks announced that SAHC closed on the property on Aug. 3, with Allen Tate-Beverly-Hanks agents handling both sides of the transaction, which closed for $2.5 million.
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