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HCLT History at the Peggy
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: September 2024 | Photograph By: Mary Gilian
Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust’s tenancy at the Peggy Crosby Center has been a boon to the fortunes of the entire Plateau.
Left to right: Lance Hardin, Hope Corbin, Stephanie Contreras, and Andrew Renfro
(Not pictured, Julie Schott)
The tenant currently with the longest tenure in the Peggy Crosby Center is the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust.
One of the oldest nonprofits in the area, and the oldest organization of its type in North Carolina, HCLT found a permanent home in PCC in 1997. Starting out with a single office, the land trust now occupies four suites in the southern wing of the upper floor. During this period the lands conserved by HCLT increased from less than 1,000 acres to more than 4,000 acres, and as a PCC tenant HCLT has had the ability to scale office space as needed to meet the growth in their land protection responsibilities.
In terms of staffing, when HCLT first became housed in the PCC Mike Cavender was the Executive Director. When he moved away, his replacement, Dr. Gary Wein, served in the role for 17 years and oversaw a period of growth. Wein retired in 2023 and Lance Hardin was chosen to be the current director.
With 16 years of service, the longest-serving staff member at HCLT is Julie Schott, the Development and Outreach Director. Andrew Renfro serves as Director of Land Conservation and is tasked with identifying potential land and conservation easement acquisitions, and Stephanie Contreras as Stewardship Manager cares for the more than 130 properties already under HCLT protection. In a recently expanded role, Hope Corbin, the Environmental Education Coordinator, oversees a multitude of events such as hikes, book clubs, lecture series, foraging events, and so on.
Hardin shares that being a PCC tenant directly benefits the land trust’s mission to protect valuable natural resources for all generations, stating “because of the community’s support of the PCC, we are able to allocate more of our resources toward saving our area’s special places. Every dollar saved on rent is a dollar that can be put toward conservation.”
And Schott says that the benefits of being a PCC tenant aren’t just financial, sharing “there is a collegial atmosphere at the PCC between the resident non-profits and other small businesses, it’s great to so easily be able to walk down the hall and bounce a question off a peer.”
HCLT protected its first property, the summit of Satulah Mountain, in 1909, and with the support of the PCC looks to many more years of land conservation. Follow HCLT on Instagram or Facebook or check-out hcltnc.org for current events.
