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17 Years of Conservation
Written By: Gary Wein, Executive Director, Highlands Cashiers Land Trust | Issue: June 2023
Our friend Dr. Gary Wein leaves the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust with a long list of accomplishments and an even longer list of friends and beloved coworkers.
Dr. Gary Wein
It’s with a conflicted heart that I write this last Laurel article.
I officially retire as the Executive Director of the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust on June 30 after 17 years of running the oldest Land Trust in North Carolina.
When I came to the Plateau in 2006, the HCLT had conserved 1,066 acres in 36 places led by a volunteer Board and two part-time executive directors, Moyna Monroe and Michael Cavender. As I leave, we have conserved over 4,000 acres in 130 places. While I am the public face of HCLT this 400 percent increase in conserved lands is the work of 58 different Board Members, six staff members, and the donors that support the work of the Land Trust.
There have been a couple of changes in the Land Trust in the past 17 years – we have increased awareness about how folks can conserve land here, the staff has grown to four with nine different AmeriCorps Members over the years, a truck donated by Lawrence and Vevie Dimmitt, and I got older.
I will be 69 this fall and it’s time to hang it up and head to the hollers of Kentucky with my wife Dr. Beverly Collins while we are both in good health. We still have lots of things to do.
I am particularly proud of all my time and accomplishments while serving at HCLT, but I really want to brag on a couple of special projects including: Kelsey Hutchinson Founders Park; Brushyface Preserve; Rock Mountain/ Chimneytop; Edward Baker Preserve; Laurel Knob; McKinney Meadow; the seven conservation easements in Horse Cove; and the increased public access to many of HCLTs lands.
There are a couple of partnerships I am proud of as well, including the Friends of Founders Park, Highlands Plateau Greenway, Cashiers Community Development Committee, Highlands Biological Station and Foundation, and the Consortium for Nonnative Invasive Plant Management to name a few, and all the donors and grantors that have fueled the growth of the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust.
Now that the Land Trust is in such good shape is not the time to stop supporting them, we still need the fuel to keep conserving these special places.
To learn how you can help conserve our wild places, visit hicashlt.org.
