Renewal at Deerwoode Reserve

What if a wedding venue took on a natural floodplain restoration? 

When they first saw Deerwoode Reserve near Brevard, Scott and Dionne Hodgson were looking for an investment opportunity—and that wound up taking a form they never imagined. 

They had no idea what a “conservation easement” was. They couldn’t have told you what a “natural floodplain restoration” was supposed to mean.  

Scott was in the business of rehabbing properties, where they lived in central Florida. But their life in Florida felt like a hassle—squeezed between two rapidly growing cities, managing a business while raising their family. They pictured a quieter life in the mountains—and they saw a way to get there with the right investments. 

Ultimately, they wanted to move to Brevard. So, they bought two houses there to rehab and they had a plan to get to ten investment properties. Then, Scott saw something different in the real estate listings. It was a 175-acre property, a former summer camp along the French Broad River, now used for vacation rentals. There were sixteen buildings, all in need of work. The land was under a conservation easement that made further development off limits. That made the property more affordable, but it also felt like a red flag—because if this place was going to be a business, they needed it to grow.  

Still, there was something about it. Well, everything about it. “It’s five minutes from downtown Brevard and it already had all these structures,” Scott says. “You have the mountains, you have the river, you have the streams, you have the pond, you have the meadows.” 

“We just fell in love with it,” says Dionne.  

What the Land Could Be

The price felt out of reach, and the sellers weren’t negotiating. But Scott and Dionne had a sense of possibility when they met with Tom Fanslow, the land protection director with Conserving Carolina, which manages the conservation easement. He had an idea.  

Tom said that the site would be ideal for a natural floodplain restoration. At the time, most of the land along the river was mowed grass and the riverbanks were steep, bare cliffs. In every hard rain, more of the banks collapsed and washed away, adding to sediment pollution in the river. 

What if, instead, they brought back the kind of floodplain that used to exist throughout the French Broad River valley? They could remake low areas of the property with wetlands and meadows and a riverside forest. 

For months, Scott and Dionne worked with Conserving Carolina on a new plan for the property. The easement would be amended to allow them to build some more cabins. In exchange, approximately 30 acres along the river would be restored to a natural floodplain.  

Tom says, “For us to amend an easement, it needs to be a win for conservation, and in this case it was very much a net gain. This change gave us a large area where we could re-create high-quality wildlife habitat, while also improving water quality and flood safety.” 

It took nine months to close, and Scott and Dionne had to sell everything they had to make it work—their investment properties, their business, and their family home—but they bought the land in 2021. Since then, they have been managing Deerwoode Reserve as a venue for weddings, retreats, and vacations.   

This year, the restoration happened. 

A Turtle Takes Notice

John Henry Nelson saw wildlife responding while the project was still under construction. He’s the owner of Stone and Spade, which did the restoration work. Part of the project was to stabilize stream banks. So, his team regraded the steep banks to a gentle slope and then lodged branches in the banks to hold the soil while plants grow in.  

John Henry knew that fish and insects would use the new woody habitat—called toe wood—but he also saw something that surprised him. “In the middle of installing the toe wood I saw a turtle swimming downstream,” he says. “It was on the far side of the river and I watched it raise its head out of the water and look at the new toe wood. It seemed to register the new habitat immediately and proceeded to swim across the river, some fifty feet or more to the toe wood and climb inside it and disappear. This reminds me of how fast nature responds to habitat creation.”

Completed this summer, the Deerwoode restoration has numerous benefits:

• 1,000 feet of bank stabilization prevents erosion, so the river runs cleaner.  
• 2 acres of wetlands act as a sponge for floodwater and provide habitat for salamanders, frogs, birds, and more. 
• A small slough gives fish much-needed backwater habitat, out of the pull of the current. 
• A breached berm allows the river to overflow onto the floodplain, reducing downstream flooding. 
• Meadows and young forests are growing along the river, adding to the rich wildlife habitat. 

Funding for this restoration came from the NC Land and Water Fund. The site plan was created by Jennings Environmental. And the land was originally protected by Bill and Liz Mays, who donated the conservation easement. 

The Deerwoode restoration is part of Conserving Carolina’s vision for a chain of restorations along the upper French Broad River—which has been gaining momentum. The land trust has completed nine restorations in Transylvania and Henderson Counties in the last seven years, with at least three more planned for this year.  

Wood Robinson, Conserving Carolina’s Restoration Manager, says that one unique thing about Deerwoode is the way people can connect with the landscape there. “A lot of people are going to see what can be recouped with a little bit of care and attention.” 

From Business Opportunity to Awe

In addition to their guests at Deerwoode, the Hodgsons find many ways to share their property with their new community. Each winter, they host a Christmas event called Festival of Lights that benefits The Family Place of Transylvania County, where Dionne serves as chair of the board. They hosted a banquet for the high school football team after they went to the state championship, as well as the high school prom and other community events. They also welcomed several guided walks led by Conserving Carolina, which showed the restoration before, during, and after the project. 

Running Deerwoode is not the slower life in the mountains they had pictured—at least not yet. “We’re working harder than we ever have in our lives,” Scott says, “but we’re happy.” 

Seeing the land through their guests’ eyes changes their own relationship with it. Some guests have been coming here since childhood, back when it was a summer camp. “We knew it was a special property,” Scott says. “Over the last six years, we’ve learned exactly how special.” 

“We bought it for our family, for a business opportunity, for income. Just like everyone, you’re trying to support your family,” he says. “So it was a pure business thing, but it turned into more than that because of the guests that come here. You can see them enjoy the property and just be in awe once they get here. In my mind, we’re no longer in the vacation rental business or the wedding business; we’re in the memory-making business.” 

He often finds himself talking to the men, who want to know his story and see his projects. He says, “You can see it in their eyes. We talk about it all the time—me and complete strangers—of how awesome an opportunity this is. We realize that this is an extremely special place. And we take pride in maintaining it now and creating that memory for new people to enjoy.”