Apples and their land preserved

ALTAPASS — Three thousand people turned off the Blue Ridge Parkway this past weekend to visit the historic Orchard at Altapass, drawn by the valley and ridges covered in burnt orange and red, yellow and green.

Most of what they saw from the orchard and this stretch of parkway is included in 1,488 acres that will be protected from development forever through a conservation easement announced last week by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, which brokered the $3.67 million deal.

A subsidiary of railroad company CSX Corp. will continue to own the land. About 30 trains a day will continue to roll along the tracks, but the vast forest will never be developed or logged.

via Apples and their land preserved.

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