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The Nature Conservancy Protects 9,000 Acres Adjoining Historic Homestead Resort

Conservancy completes its single largest land purchase in Virginia with $6 million acquisition on Warm Springs Mountain

HOT SPRINGS, VA — March 14, 2002 — The Nature Conservancy today announced it has acquired more than 9,000 acres on and around Warm Springs Mountain adjacent to The Homestead, the famed National Historic Landmark resort in the Alleghenies of western Virginia.  In its single largest land purchase ever in Virginia, the Conservancy will acquire the land for $6.2 million from Virginia Hot Springs, Inc. (VHS).

“Warm Springs Mountain is as steeped in American history as it is rich in scenic beauty and ecological resources,” said Michael Lipford, Virginia state director of The Nature Conservancy.  “This acquisition allows us to protect and restore rare natural communities on the mountain, but also affords us the opportunity to partner with public land managers and the local community in maintaining a huge intact area of critical habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife.”

Through its conservation planning process, the Conservancy identified Warm Springs Mountain as one of the largest and most biologically significant privately-owned forest blocks in the Central Appalachian Forest Ecoregion.  This 23-million-acre landscape of wooded mountains and pastoral valleys encompasses large portions of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

The Conservancy property helps stitch together surrounding undeveloped public lands, including 170,000 acres in the Warm Springs District of George Washington National Forest.  The tract shares its eastern boundary with the national forest for approximately 13 miles.  Large private forests like Warm Springs Mountain have become increasingly scarce in the East.  This habitat supports wide-ranging animals such as migratory songbirds and raptors, as well as black bears.  Other common animals on Warm Springs Mountain include bobcat, wild turkey, ruffed grouse, timber rattlesnake, wood frog and red-spotted newt.

Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation has documented three rare plants, eight rare invertebrates and three rare natural communities on the mountain.  One of the most visually-striking landscape features is a globally-rare montane pine barren.  Here, in Virginia’s only substantial occurrence of this arid, fire-dependent habitat, the common hardwood forest suddenly gives way to dense, head-high thickets of stunted pitch pine, catawba rhododendron, mountain laurel, scrub oak and other shrubs.

“We are looking forward to a successful partnership with The Nature Conservancy of Virginia and towards working together to preserve the natural beauty of the Warm Springs Mountain,” said Gary K. Rosenberg, president and chief executive officer of The Homestead.  “The rural landscape, scenic rugged forest terrain and abundant wildlife found in this valley are an essential part of the resort experience here at The Homestead.  This partnership will ensure that the natural beauty and wild environment is both preserved and enhanced for many generations to come.”

Guests of The Homestead have enjoyed the natural beauty of the Warm Springs region for over two centuries.  Flag Rock, near the northern end of the mountain, overlooks the quaint town of Warm Springs, where Thomas Jefferson bathed frequently in the thermal springs that today bear his name.  Looking eastward across Virginia’s Blue Ridge, or toward the western horizon deep into West Virginia, visitors may identify with the Native Americans who gazed across these blue mountain ridges and proclaimed them Allegheny—Algonquin for “endless.”

In addition to VHS’s transaction with the Conservancy, its shareholders approved an acquisition and merger agreement on February 28 that clears the way for Celebration Associates, a North Carolina community development firm, to acquire all the outstanding shares of VHS and to develop property in the Warm Springs Valley adjoining the Conservancy’s property.

“The fact that The Nature Conservancy was already working with VHS to purchase the Warm Springs Mountain tract was a primary driver in our decision to acquire the remaining VHS property holdings,” said Charles Adams, the managing partner for Celebration Associates.  “Our direct experience with the Conservancy over the past decade gives us the utmost confidence that the stewardship of the mountain and other tracts could not be in better hands.  We look forward to working alongside them.”

Former VHS President Fay Ingalls acquired Warm Springs Mountain in the 1920s due largely to concerns about inappropriate development on the ridgetop towering above The Homestead.  The Ingalls family formed VHS approximately 130 years ago and established The Homestead as a premier resort destination. 

“I cannot think of a better combination of partners in this transaction,” said Wiley B. Kling, Jr., president and chief executive officer of VHS.  “Celebration Associates’ thoughtful approach to development and The Nature Conservancy’s commitment to the conservation of our mountains bode well for the environmental and economic well-being of this valley.  I believe that future generations will be proud of what we did today.”

Warm Springs Mountain and lands stretching for miles to the east originally were part of the Douthat Survey, a huge land grant dating to colonial times.  Other significant portions of the Survey now are part of George Washington National Forest and Douthat State Park.