Easley’s Outdoors Legacy is Exceptional
published in the Asheville Citizen-Times November 30, 2008

I moved to Asheville almost eight years ago. I’m certainly not a new North Carolinian but I’ve known only one governor – Mike Easley.

I’ve watched with admiration as our North Carolina state public lands have increased under his watch.

With all the federal land around us in Western North Carolina such as the Smokies, Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway, state parks and forests are still very important because they offer easy, manicured, well-signposted trails. It’s a great place to go for your first camping or backpack trip.

Grandfather Mountain

Gov. Easley engineered the sale of Grandfather Mountain backcountry to become the 34th state park. I don’t want to say the newest state park - there might be more in the works right now.

In September the state agreed to purchase the 2,601-acre undeveloped portion of the private park, where the hiking trails are located, from the Morton family. The Nature Conservancy already owned the conservation easements on that land so it was unlikely you’d see houses around MacRae Peak, but outright buying it is always the best protection.

The remaining 604 acres, including the nature center and swinging bridge, will be operated by a nonprofit entity managed by the Morton family. This change will give even greater protection to the rare habitat and unusual rocky and challenging trails. Hopefully the trail system, with its ladders, will be maintained.

Chimney Rock

In 2006, the Morse family put Chimney Rock Park up for sale originally for $55 million.

Most of the time the public, and even conservationists, don’t get irate until they can see the first house being framed on a mountaintop. Then they blame the developer whose job is to develop, but by then it’s too late.

In this case, the public told Easley that they wanted the state to buy the property and he listened. Less than eight months later, the State of North Carolina and the owners came to an agreement.

A combination of money from the state and several conservation groups now protects the steep cliffs and caves as well as the Indiana bat and crevice salamander, known to live only in this gorge.

Lake James

Lake James State Park, located between Marion and Morganton at the base of Linville Gorge, offers flat hiking and safe lake swimming, both hard to come by in WNC.

In 2004, the park acquired almost 3,000 acres on the north side of the lake where the Linville River enters the lake; 30 more miles of hiking trails are promised.

This is a very popular park, with most visitors coming from Asheville and Charlotte. On summer weekends, the rangers sometimes need to close the park by 11 a.m. because all the parking spaces are taken.

The best way to save land is for our government – local, state, and federal - to buy it outright and let the public play on it. We, the people of North Carolina, can buy all those hillsides before they become dotted with houses.

Dupont State Forest

You can reach six outstanding waterfalls in Dupont State Forest, between Brevard and Hendersonville, without miles of walking.

In 1958, the Dupont Corp. opened a plant to manufacture medical films in the center of what is now the forest, attracted by clean air and water. The company created a private retreat with picnic shelters, barbecue pits and wide dirt roads.

When Dupont left the area in 1996, it sold the bulk of the forest to the state at a cut-rate price. The rest of the land went from one company to another until it landed in the hands of Jim Anthony, a developer.

When the public woke up to the fact that the state was going to lose these outstanding waterfalls to a gated housing community, it petitioned the state.

Then-Attorney General Mike Easley threatened that the state would use its power of eminent domain to acquire the waterfalls. By this time Anthony had improved a few roads, built a covered bridge and started several houses – all still standing.

After lawsuits, editorials and many letters and faxes to the governor’s office, the waterfall tract was opened in December 2000, and the future of Dupont State Forest and its waterfalls was now secure.

These are only a few examples of land bought under Gov. Easley’s watch in WNC.

He’s also used his influence to protect federal land: he came out against the North Shore Road in the Smokies and petitioned the federal government to protect pristine national forest land in North Carolina from development.

As I say goodbye to Gov. Mike Easley, I’d like to send a message to Gov.-elect Bev Perdue. I hope she follows Easley’s lead and Will Rogers’ advice: Buy land; they ain’t making any more of it.

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