ALABAMA
The Nature Conservancy established a new 770-acre preserve in the heart of Alabama last year. In its first phase, with the goal to grow to 1,500 acres, the site is located at the Appalachians’ southernmost peak, Flagg Mountain, and is home to one of North America’s rarest habitats: montane longleaf pine forest. The new preserve’s official name will be Fenvkvcēkv Creek Preserve at Flagg Mountain. The name honors the Muscogee People, the original caretakers of the land, and is the original Muscogee name for the nearby, ecologically rich Finikochicka Creek, which borders the land. Fenvkvcēkv is pronounced finuh-guh-jee-guh. Together, conservation partners have protected over 4,000 acres around Flagg Mountain and are working to reintroduce fire and restore habitat for endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. This land is a protection priority for TNC and essential to TNC’s vision of building a resilient and connected network of lands from the Gulf of Mexico into the Appalachian Mountains.
The Fenvkvcēkv Creek Preserve will expand an existing network of protected lands around Flagg Mountain and will serve as an important demonstration site to guide management and restoration of the neighboring protected lands.
CONNECTICUT
Land donations given across two generations to The Nature Conservancy are making a lasting contribution to Connecticut’s Appalachian corridor. Holley Atkinson and Stephen Plumlee recently donated 330 acres—adding to a previous 70 acres given in 2002—that have more than doubled the size of the existing Silas Hall Pond Preserve in northwest Connecticut. The preserve was originally created through donations from an earlier generation of the family. It is part of the Berkshire Wildlife Linkage, a critical corridor of the Appalachian Mountains that includes the most intact forest ecosystems in southern New England. The Appalachians are a migration pathway and breeding habitat for migratory birds and many wide-ranging iconic mammals such as black bear, bobcat, fisher and moose. “Silas Hall Pond Preserve is part of our family legacy," say Atkinson and Plumlee. “We’re happy to be able to significantly contribute to its expansion.”
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