Mount Mitchell State Park is putting down roots — well, putting down more roots than the ~4,800 acres worth it already has. The NC Division of Parks and Recreation, The Conservation Fund, and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney’s LLC, 130 of Chatham, announced a $3.58 million acquisition of 238.14 acres of high-elevation land to expand the park.
This conservation-focused acquisition has been 50 years in the making, as the land was long ago identified as crucial for the park’s land protection plan. The spruce-fir forest that covers it is a haven for species like the Carolina northern flying squirrel and spruce-fir moss spider, which are federally designated as rare, threatened, or endangered.
The new acreage is situated southwest of the main public area and along Yancey County’s southern border, offering further connections to the Asheville Watershed, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Pisgah National Forest.
