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Blue Ridge Conservancy protects Wilkes County peak

This former site of a decommissioned communications tower has been protected by the Blue Ridge Conservancy. Photo courtesy of BRC.

This former site of a decommissioned communications tower has been protected by the Blue Ridge Conservancy. Photo courtesy of BRC.

The Blue Ridge Conservancy (BRC) recently moved to protect a 2,400-foot peak in the Brushy Mountains in Wilkes County. 

Two acres of land might seem small. But the mountain peak is the final puzzle piece in a conservation project dating back to 2011. 

The site, which previously housed a communications tower, is surrounded by land already owned by the BRC and increases the tract to a total of almost 100 acres that include the headwaters of Cub Creek.

BRC's Director of Land Protection Eric Hiegl says the area is a distinctive subchain of the Blue Ridge Mountains that remains relatively undeveloped.

"So, there's a lot of potential for land conservation in the Brushy Mountains," Heigl said. "They have a unique ecological significance and importance that we want to try to get ahead of the curve and conserve."

Earlier this year the BRC completed a roughly 1,100-acre conservation project in collaboration with the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina. That land includes portions of Wilkes, Alexander, and Iredell counties.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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