Thousands of acres of “incredible habitat” near Lake Lure in Rutherford and McDowell counties are set to be protected and opened to the public, part of a planned forest corridor connecting public lands across the region called Hickorynut Mountain.

“It’s just a huge win for conservation in North Carolina,” Katie Hall, a board member at the NC State Park Partners Foundation, one of the groups behind the project, told the Times-News Nov. 17.

A handful of nonprofit groups and donors joined forces with the state to safeguard 3,700 acres of land in Rutherford County, the first phase in conserving 12,000 acres of forest, she said.

Those 12,000 acres make up one of the largest remaining unprotected, undeveloped stretches of privately-owned land in Western North Carolina, she said.

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