news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The Piedmont Land Conservancy closed out its land-saving efforts for 2008 with the purchase of a mountainous site of statewide importance near the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The nonprofit conservancy spent roughly $1 million this week to save 413 acres of Fisher Peak in northwest Surry County, near where the parkway crosses into Virginia.

The acquisition capped a year during which the Greensboro-based conservancy protected about 1,500 acres in its Piedmont Triad domain that stretches across Guilford and eight other counties.

As the group moves into the new year, the nation’s moribund economy might slow fundraising, but it won’t curtail continuing efforts to preserve the region’s best natural resources, PLC Executive Director Kevin Redding said.

“The interest in protecting land is still high,” Redding said. “In our business, (the tough economy) is not necessarily a bad thing because land prices hold steady or start to become more reasonable.”

Major projects the group completed in 2008 included conserving a small nature preserve in Rockingham County, two working farms in Alamance County, and land in Randolph County acquired in partnership with the N.C. Zoo.

The conservancy also added to its holdings in Forsyth County by protecting tracts in historic Bethania and along the Little Yadkin River.

Like many conservancy  projects, the Fisher Peak land won’t be owned forever by the group. Its goal is to hold property until it can be bought for permanent safeguarding by some other nonprofit or public agency.

The conservancy then uses proceeds from these sales to fuel additional land deals that protect new sites from commercial development.

The land bought this week is part of the larger Fisher Peak Natural Heritage Area, identified by North Carolina government as a natural feature of statewide significance, Redding said.

The conservancy bought a nearby, 350-acre property in the heritage zone in mid-2007.

Redding said that protecting the rest of Fisher Peak is one of PLC’s highest priorities.

The land is important because it includes the headwater of 13 streams that drain into Fisher River, a tributary of the Yadkin River. The largest of the feeder creeks are believed to be home to native brook trout.

The conservancy’s most recent land purchase was made from a Davie County resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, Redding said.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com