Land Purchased for Fairview Community Forest
Conserving Carolina has purchased land for the future Fairview Community Forest, surrounding the campus of the WORX Project, which supports Asheville and Buncombe public schools. The WORX Project offers career-focused education in an outdoor environment—giving students opportunities to connect with nature as well as explore career paths. The WORX campus will be surrounded by a community forest that will be open to the public for hiking, biking, and fishing.
Conserving Carolina’s land protection director, Tom Fanslow, says, “We are excited about this unique partnership that supports public schools while offering a new place for outdoor recreation in Fairview and also protecting valuable woods and water. This project serves our community on multiple levels.”
In July, Conserving Carolina purchased 226 acres of a former Presbyterian camp. Camp Grier—a nonprofit that includes the WORX Project—will own an additional 27.5 acres including the WORX Project campus. In all, over 250 acres will be protected forever with conservation easements.
Camp Grier will lease the land from Conserving Carolina and manage it as the Fairview Community Forest. The forest is expected to open to the public by next year, including the first three miles of hiking and biking trails. The long-term vision is to develop more than ten miles of trails. The forest will also offer fishing in the lake.
In addition to its benefits for education and recreation, the newly conserved property offers important water quality and wildlife benefits. It is located in a basin that encompasses an entire sub-watershed, with ecologically rich seeps and 1.3 miles of headwater streams. The forest also provides important bat habitat.
Sara Jarell, director of the WORX Project says, “There’s a lot of research that backs up the benefit of doing education outdoors. Now we have this whole protected forest for students to learn in. At the WORX Project we introduce students to skills and trades that are relevant to the economy in Western North Carolina, including outdoor recreation, environmental education, sustainable agriculture, and building trades. The kids also get to be out in nature, swim in the lake, and enjoy the trails. It’s a free camp for anyone who wants to come.”
The WORX Project was founded in 2023, and has served over 700 public school students between the ages of 11 and 18. In addition to supporting local public schools, the WORX Project also partners with other youth programs, including wilderness therapy programs.
The property that is now home to the WORX Project and future Fairview Community Forest, was originally a Presbyterian summer camp. Then, it served as a base camp for young people in the state’s juvenile corrections system. Instead of spending their days confined in a detention center, youth who had earned the opportunity did wilderness-based service work on trails and public lands.
Jason McDougald, now the director of the Camp Grier, worked with this program for a decade as the education coordinator, until the state ended the program in 2011. He taught the students and helped to prepare them for adult life. McDougald wanted to conserve this camp that had played a positive role in so many lives and reached out to Conserving Carolina. Ultimately, it took fourteen years to protect the land!
McDougald says, “It seemed like this land needed to serve kids and serve the community. It’s a great little micro-watershed and it had such good memories. Our vision for this property is connecting people to the land—and we’re really excited to finally get the property conserved.”
In the end, it was possible to buy the land thanks to the generous support of numerous partners. These include the NC Environmental Enhancement Grant Program, NC Land and Water Fund, US Forest Service Community Forest Program, Buncombe County Land Conservation Program, Fred and Alice Stanback, Conservation Trust for North Carolina, Fernandez Pave the Way Foundation, James G. K. McClure Educational and Development Fund, Hathaway Family Foundation, and the Presbytery of Western North Carolina.
With the support of all of these partners, the newly protected forest will expand opportunities for local students and provide a new place for people to enjoy the outdoors.
