Appalachian Wildlands Wildlands Corridor – Parsons Tract
The effort to secure funds for this project continues. Appalachia Rising has secured partial funding from a generous donor.
The ~1,120-acre tract is in Harlan County on Little Black Mountain within the Appalachian Highlands Wildlands Corridor (AHWC), a forested ridgeline spanning 125 miles from Tennessee through Kentucky to Virginia. The tract protects a large contiguous forest that is essential habitat for thousands of plant, animal and fungi species as well as known summer and swarming habitat for rare species.
Little Black Mountain is within the Central Appalachians, a landscape that is highly resilient to climate change. Species and natural communities along the mountain are better positioned to adapt and persist in the face of a changing climate, thus ensuring the structure and function of ecosystems are maintained.
The Parsons tract also stores resilient carbon reserves that will continue to sequester carbon as well as buffer against hyper-charged heavy rainfall. Additionally, Little Black Mountain and Black Mountain are notable parts of what has historically been term “Appalachian Coal Fields” due to the coal-laden sedimentary rocks and associated coal reserves.
The tract protects the headwaters of several tributaries of the Poor Fork of the Cumberland River, part of notable aquatic systems with extraordinary biodiversity. Freshwater communities of this region are the most biodiverse temperate freshwater ecosystems in the world, with a globally notable number of mussels, fishes, crayfish, and invertebrates. The headwaters originating on Pine Mountain are part of the Mississippi River Watershed, the fourth largest watershed in the world.
Safeguarding the tract will establish the first conservation preserve on Black Mountain and Little Black Mountain, conserving thousands of acres of valuable ecosystem home to vital freshwater, aquatic and terrestrial species, and carbon stores.