Robert and Betty Balentine, an Atlanta-based couple, not too long ago acquired the Backyard Membership of America’s highest distinction within the type of its Cynthia Pratt Laughlin medal. The medal, which acknowledges excellent achievement in environmental safety, was awarded to them for his or her work because the founders of the Southern Highlands Reserve. The 120-acre reserve, primarily based on high of Toxaway Mountain in Lake Toxaway, N.C., is a non-public arboretum and analysis middle that focuses on preserving crops native to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Robert’s historical past with the Backyard Membership of America spans three generations: His mom was a member of the Peachtree Backyard Membership and Backyard Membership of America horticultural decide; his spouse, Betty, has been a member of Peachtree Backyard Membership since 1992; and his daughter, Emily Barbour, is a present member. “We’ve large respect for the group, and we’re humbled,” he says.
The Balentines purchased property in Western North Carolina that backed as much as a nationwide forest within the Nineteen Nineties. (Robert grew up climbing and tenting within the space as an Eagle Scout.) Through the years, they purchased extra adjoining property to guard it from growth. “It’s a brilliant fragile web site,” Robert says. “It sits at an elevation of 4,500 toes on the Jap Continental Divide. That is essentially the most numerous assortment of crops discovered wherever on this planet exterior of a tropical rainforest, and we needed to maintain it perpetually wild.” They formalized their efforts in 2002 by creating Southern Highlands Reserve.
The inspiration is a founding associate of the Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, which aids in restoring the area’s spruce-fir forests. (America’s second-most endangered ecosystem.) “They was once thought-about the ‘Redwoods of the East,’” Robert says. “There’s an entire ecosystem supported by this spruce, which is underneath assault from logging, acid rain, fires, and extra. Southern Highlands Reserve is now the one supply of pink spruce timber for the U.S. Forest Service.” The reserve has planted greater than 6,000 mature spruce-fir timber with a survival charge of 95 %.
These efforts have been significantly impactful given the devastation the broader space has seen after Hurricane Helene. “The work that we have been doing prior was vital, and it’s much more vital now,” Robert says. “We solely have one probability at this, however even little organizations like us could make a distinction.”
Southern Highlands Reserve is open to the general public the primary Tuesday of the month, April by means of October. Non-public excursions are additionally obtainable.
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