NC Mtn Treasures 2011

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Blue Ridge Parkway

Mt Mitchell State Park

WSA

Mt n

Woodfin Watershed

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Craggy Mtns

Big Tom Wilson Preserve to S

Dobson Knob

Black Mtns

Woods Mtn

Trail

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Asheville Watershed

Mackey Mtn

Jarrett Creek

Montreat Wilderness Blue Ridge Parkway

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Black Mountains Conservation Area Craggy Mountains (Big Ivy) Black Mountains Jarrett Creek Mackey Mountain

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ven in the Southern Appalachians, generally regarded as the nation’s most biologically significant region, the Black Mountains Conservation Area of western North Carolina stands out as exceptional. As we define the conservation area, it includes the Black

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Mountains themselves, the Craggy Mountains and mountains on the edge of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. The conservation area combines a wealth of unfragmented roadless areas, high peaks and a multitude of clear, pure streams that drain its intersecting ridges. These factors combine to provide a splendid array of habitat types that support black bears and neotropical birds and such a diverse assortment of other plants and animals that the Black Mountain Conservation Area is essentially one big biological hotspot. High mountain ridges dominate the Black Mountains, making the range the highest east of the Rockies. Mt. Mitchell is the highest peak in the Black Mountains at 6,684 feet, and is North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures

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