Conservation Communities Living in Balance with Nature
By John Myers and Jane Lawson
[New Life Journal, August 8, 2006] Around the globe, human societies are engaged in activities that have reached the limits or are exceeding the capacities that many natural systems can support. There are reports of lowering water tables, soil erosion, expanding deserts, depleted fisheries, droughts, global warming and melting polar ice caps, oil shortages, loss of rainforests, over-grazing of ranchlands and famines. As the basics of life become scarcer, more wars are fought to control the remaining limited supplies. It is a bleak picture indeed.
At the same time, another trend is occurring: people are working together to create sustainable models of living in balance with the earth’s systems. For many, this requires some major shifts. Living in a sustainable way means using only as much as is needed. It means living within the limits of the ecosystem, so that it can replenish itself without irreversible harm. It means allowing people, animals, and plants to co-exist and thrive together. It means giving equal consideration to economics as well as ecology when making business and political decisions. It means understanding how the choices one makes affect the earth and all its inhabitants. It is a shift in perspective toward realizing the interconnectedness of every living being in this world and finding a deeper joy in taking actions that benefit all.
The southern Appalachians are one of the most biologically rich regions in the Northern Hemisphere, home to over half of the species of flowering plants and ferns in North America. Currently, North Carolina is losing over 100,000 acres of land each year to development, with the biggest threat being new development. Conservation development takes the approach that the highest priority is the protection of the land. It aims to create communities without destroying rich habitats, water quality and scenic vistas. Its goal is to use good ecological designs that enable the existing natural environment to sustain itself in a healthy manner
What is the incentive for developers to follow the conservation guidelines listed in our sidebar? There is a need to establish a systematic scale for rating developments with recognition and rewards for those who design according to conservation principles. For example, a development with fifty percent of the land left in forest would score higher than one that protects only ten percent, as would those that protect ridgelines, streams, and habitats. A conservation design may result in fewer lots, but because there is significantly more protected land, these lots will typically be more valuable.
An obvious big advantage of living in a community in the midst of conserved land is being able to walk out one’s door and immediately enjoy the serenity of living in nature. Perhaps even more important though is the quality of life that comes from developing friendships and cooperating with people who share similar conservation and sustainable living values.
As more and more people choose to live sustainable lives on a local level, it does make a real difference. Our actions are part of a powerful transformational trend of personal and planetary healing. The more that people cooperate and share with each other, the more everyone is empowered to live and love in a sustainable way. As the understanding deepens that all beings are connected and that it is in everyone’s best interest to help each other, the movement toward communities and societies based not on dominance and fear, but on cooperation, love and respect, is brought to life.
Sustainable Land
Guidelines
How does one design a conservation development that is truly sustainable
for the environment? The following guidelines and principles are a good starting
point:
• Explore the land frequently and get to know the plants and animals that
make this their home.
• Save the areas you love most instead of building on them.
• Protect streams and water quality by maintaining wide plant buffers on
both sides.
• Cluster home sites on a portion of the property rather than spreading
them all over.
• Avoid ridgeline sites that disrupt scenic vistas.
• Maintain large contiguous blocks of undeveloped forest as a healthy habitat
for plants and animals; and if possible, connect these areas with adjoining
natural lands.
• Use minimally disturbing timber practices and selective tree cutting
rather than clear cutting, especially near streams, mountain slopes and ridges.
• Use native plants in landscaping.
John Myers has worked for eighteen years with non-profits and land trusts protecting over 20,000 acres of land for parks and trails, including Hickory Nut Forest: www.hickorynutforest.com. John can be reached at 828-252-6258 or john@hickorynutforest.com
Jane Lawson is grateful to have lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina for most of the last thirty years. She is a writer and psychotherapist in private practice in Asheville and specializes in energy work with women. She can be reached at: janelawson@skyrunner.net or 828-252-6258.
Putting Nature
First– Green
Designs for Mountain Development
Asheville, NC, June 27, 2006 -
We are losing forestland in Western North Carolina at an alarming rate to
new housing and commercial developments.
With the dramatic increase in popularity of our area for retirement and
second homes, developments are rapidly carving up the mountains to create “homes
with a view.”
Unfortunately too many developers prefer to clear trees and squeeze in as
many lots as possible, leaving little or no forested open space. While this
may typically be appropriate in more dense urban settings, here in the mountains
it can disrupt scenic vistas and destroy the delicate ecological balance
of plants and animals requiring large areas of forest to survive.
In the Hickory Nut Gorge just 17 miles southeast of Asheville near the continental divide, an entirely different approach is being taken. John Myers has spent the past 18 years protecting over 20,000 acres of land for public parkland, forests and trails. Over the past two years, he and a small group of friends have purchased four adjoining properties totaling over 240 acres. Rather than subdividing as many lots as possible, their intention is to preserve as much of the forest landscape as possible. They have come up with a design that creates a small number of new homesites along the edges of this land, while keeping the interior as a healthy forest. In fact, overall 90% of the land is planned to remain undisturbed forest, including nearly a mile of Hickory Nut Creek left as a wild mountain stream flowing through mature rhododendrons and hemlock groves.
As part of the project, a new community called Hickory Nut Forest is being created which will only have 17 homesites, all with covenants and restrictions to protect the forest. A conservation easement will protect adjacent forestlands and streams and provide trails for hiking. None of the homesites will be placed on the ridgelines or on the higher steep slopes to preserve the magnificent views of Little Bearwallow Mountain for the continued enjoyment of travelers through Hickory Nut Gorge.
Three historic buildings will be restored on the adjoining parcels: a rustic creekside cabin, an old house overlooking an apple orchard, and the stone ruins of an old waterwheel/gristmill originally built in the 1800’s. Plans are envisioned to turn this into a retreat site for community activities and educational events.
In places like Western North Carolina, where there are few land-use regulations that protect ridgelines, steep slopes and scenic vistas, our only hope is that more developers and landowners will choose designs that preserve our mountain environment and natural heritage rather than sacrificing them for greater profits.
One of the goals of this project is to demonstrate that small scale, conservation-minded developments are feasible and viable. John believes that all it takes is good design and a strong passion that protecting the land comes first! “We need more people to pursue conservation–development, who have a primary goal of leaving behind a green legacy of healthy mountain lands. “For me personally, it is much more satisfying to create something of lasting beauty that is both good for my community and for the health of our planet. If we leave this task to those who care more about bottom lines than the sacred beauty around us, we are likely to lose the very thing we love most."
John and his wife Jane Lawson invite anyone who really care about these special mountains to join them in working to design a better future for our mountain landscapes.
For more information about getting involved in helping protect our mountain landscapes or about Hickory Nut Forest community you can visit www.hickorynutforest.com or contact John at 828-252-6258 or john@hickorynutforest.com. Reservations are currently being taken for the remaining lots in Phase 1 at special, pre-July 29th Grand Opening discount prices.
Bio on John
Myers
John has worked for 18 years with non-profits and land trusts
protecting over 20,000 acres of land for parks and trails.
His current project
is protecting land in Hickory Nut Gorge. He has also been a
rock climber for 40 years and
recently helped the Carolina Climbers Coalition complete a
successful purchase of the highest granite dome in the East, 1200-foot
high
Laurel Knob in
Cashiers, NC. He lives in Asheville with his wife, Jane Lawson,
and their
calico cat
Bella. He can be reached at (828) 252-6258 or john@hickorynutforest.com.
The website for their project in Hickory Nut Gorge is www.hickorynutforest.com.
Hickory Nut Gorge:
My Vision to Preserve This Precious Jewel in our Mountains
by John Myers
June 6, 2006. An amazing
thing happened as I was driving back to Asheville in the late summer of
2003. My wife Jane and I had spent four months living out of a
camper on the back of our truck while traveling across the country.
When Jane returned to Asheville, I continued for three more months rock
climbing in the High Sierras in California. On the drive back home, I stopped
to visit
a family friend in Denver. There I met her son-in-law, who was also in
transit, leaving 30 minutes later for six months of work in Australia.
During that
brief, chance encounter I learned that his family had owned a tract of
land for generations in the tiny hamlet of Gerton, and might be willing
to sell
it. Since neither one of us knew where Gerton was, we pulled out a road
atlas and discovered it was only 15 miles from Asheville.
As soon as I returned to the North Carolina mountains, I hiked into the
land. It was an overgrown forest nestled on the side of Little Bearwallow
Mountain
in the Hickory Nut Gorge with a beautiful, tumbling creek running through
it. I spent hours bushwhacking my way through briars and discovered the
old stone ruins of a farmhouse and gristmill on the banks of the creek.
It was
such a magical place, and I immediately fell in love with it.
Over the next year and a half, I negotiated with the sellers and with the
bank. While we were working on getting the financing, the neighbor above
offered to sell us her land as well, with nearly a dozen rocky cliffs and
a 100-foot waterfall. In December 2004, with the help of my wife, her sister
and brother-in-law, my mother and the bank, we were finally able to buy
it.
While we would have preferred to keep all the land wild and natural, the
arrangement with the bank required us to create a small number of home
sites on a portion of the land. Having spent the last 16 years working
with non-profits
and land trusts buying and protecting over 20,000 acres for parks and trails,
I had never before created home sites. I probably walked the land a hundred
times, getting to know it and listening to it, before finally deciding
to use only 25 acres of the total 230 acres for the home sites. Jane and
I sense
the land is charged with a powerful, sacred energy, and we feel a great
responsibility as its stewards. We want to keep it as beautiful as we found
it, while also
letting others enjoy it.
Since community and local history are important to us, we have reached
out to meet many of our local neighbors, who are wonderful people. Marjorie
and
her daughter Nita run the only store in town, Nita’s Grocery. They
have lived their whole lives in Hickory Nut Gorge and have shared many wonderful
stories with us. Hazel and Harold are our neighbors next door. Hazel actually
lived in the old farmhouse on our land when she was a little girl. She told
us about each room of the house, the gristmill, milking the cows, and the
pastureland that has since returned to forest. Another neighbor told us the
story of Furman and his pet ox, who were the last ones to live in the farmhouse
before it collapsed. Furman lived in one room and his beloved ox lived in
the other!
We made an interesting discovery that the hamlet of Gerton is surrounded
on three sides by the eastern continental divide. From the air these ridges
and this part of the gorge form the shape of a heart, and the location
of the old farmhouse is right at the base of this heart. We built a fire
circle
here with moss-covered stones between the two old stone chimneys, and use
this as a gathering place.
The more time we spend
on the land, the more we want to share it with others. An idea has been
growing to create a sacred
retreat site here, which could
be used for various events and workshops, and for educating children
and adults on ways we can all live more sustainably and peacefully on this
precious earth.
Our initial vision has expanded to try to maintain the natural beauty
of Hickory Nut Gorge as much as possible and create hiking trails running
the length of the gorge. With the help of several friends, we have been
able
to protect another 40 acres including 1000 feet of Hickory Nut Creek
and
an old apple orchard. I am also part of a coalition of non-profit groups
working to expand the new Hickory Nut Gorge State Park near Lake Lure.
We feel a sense of great urgency to act now to protect these uniquely
beautiful lands. So much unchecked development is already occurring at
Lake Lure
and beginning to spread into the gorge. We are reaching out to find like-minded
people to help in keeping these lands wild in this magnificent, mountain
gorge and further expand Hickory Nut Gorge State Park.
It is an amazing journey to be part of this process, and I have met so
many wonderful people. I am constantly surprised, as help has come from
unexpected
sources when we need it. Even the land just appeared to us, as it was
never for sale. If I had arrived to visit my friend an hour later, I
would never
have even known about it.
This project has become the core of my current personal/spiritual journey.
When the occasional doubts or fears arise, I just need to walk along
the stream to remember why I am doing this work. I’ve never worked harder,
learned more, had to solve more problems, or had more fun.
Every day I continue to watch in awe as this vision and dream unfolds,
and I get to see the power that comes from offering our work with as
much love
as possible.
John Myers has worked
for many years with non-profits and land trusts buying land for parks and
trails. His current project is protecting
land in Hickory
Nut Gorge. He has also been a rock climber for 40 years and recently
negotiated the successful purchase of Laurel Knob, a 1200-foot high granite
dome near
Cashiers, NC, by the Carolina Climbers Coalition. He lives in Asheville
with his wife Jane Lawson and his calico cat.
[hickorynutforest.com. (828) 252-6258]
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