High Country Conservancy Hosts Successful Wine Tasting and Auction

Story by Katrina Benton

Redwood Creek winery sponsored the wine tasting at the High Country Conservancy’s annual fundraiser last week at The Gamekeeper. The event brought in more than 20 new members and raised more than $10,000. Photo by Katrina Benton A crowd of High Country land lovers gathered at the High Country Conservancy’s 8th annual Wine Tasting and Auction fundraising event last Wednesday, August 13, at The Gamekeeper restaurant to raise money and share the High Country Conservancy’s success stories.

The event was $75 for HCC members and $100 for nonmembers, a fee that included a new membership. The evening brought in more than 20 new members, bringing the HCC’s membership total to more than 1,100. The HCC raised more than $10,000 this year at the event, above $2,000 more than last year’s fundraiser.

Redwood Creek winery sponsored the wine tasting part of the event. Guests sampled both red and white wines.

More than 30 local donors contributed items to the auction, including Melanie’s, Imprints, Stick Boy, Storie Street Grill and Mast General Store.

The most expensive items sold included a pair of custom-made diamond sapphire earrings by Gaye Luaces for $1,500; a two-night stay at the Mills House Hotel in Charleston, S.C., for $600; and a full day of fly fishing with Ollie Smith, owner of Blue Ridge Anglers, for $500.

Music on the Mountain festival co-founder Jimmy Hunt donated eight tickets to the live auction that sold for $500. Music on the Mountain will take place at the High Country Fairgrounds on Saturday, August 23, and will donate 60 percent of its profits to NC Green Power, Appalachian Energy Conservation and HCC.

To date, HCC has saved 2,254 acres of land in Watauga, Ashe and Avery counties. “We’re saving the land that makes this area unique—Valle Crucis, Snake Mountain, Howard’s Knob,” Michelle Leonard, co-founder of HCC, said.
Leonard explained that landowners approach HCC for help on estate planning and land conservation. Once the HCC agrees to work with the landowner, HCC contacts the state government to ask for funding. State trust funds, like the Natural Heritage Trust Fund, hold millions of dollars for North Carolina land protection.

“North Carolina is one of the best places to live to preserve land,” Leonard said.
HCC works with landowners to establish an easement, a permanent document that lays out the owners’ wishes for the land that will be obeyed forever.

Carol Coulter, executive director of HCC, thanked all contributors for making her first event with HCC so incredible. “The Gamekeeper is the perfect spot for this benefit because you can almost see HCC’s protected land on Snake Mountain from here,” Coulter said.

The HCC hopes to continue to preserve land and link already-saved lands to create even bigger natural areas. “We are all doing it,” Leonard said in reference to HCC employees’ and local landowners’ hard work. “[Our success] is something to celebrate.”

Leonard welcomes visitors to the HCC’s new office in downtown Boone at 290 Queen Street.