James Coman was well pleased last winter when he set up an event at Roaring Gap’s Olde Beau Country Club for this August, an event he hoped would be a successful fund-raiser for his effort to save Bullhead Mountain. On Saturday he was more like overjoyed; the fund-raiser had turned into a victory celebration. More than 100 people, including many contributors to the campaign, joined Coman at the Alleghany County resort to celebrate the extraordinary effort that will preserve the site adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway forever.

    Bullhead Mountain rears out of the landscape at Parkway Milepost 234; because of the topography and pattern of updrafts it attracts hawks; during migration times tens of thousands of hawks.   Coman, a local farmer, conservationist and expert birder, thought the mountain could rival Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain; not only a critical natural area, but one of the leading eco-destinations in the eastern United States. The problem was, the more than 200 acres along its flank were going to be turned into residential development.
     Working with the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust, based in Sugar Grove, and the Raleigh-based Conservation Trust for North Carolina, Coman assembled volunteers for what looked like at least a two-year effort to raise half a million dollars to buy the land. “We started November 6 (1999) and went over the top on March 23 (2000),” Coman said.    They rapidly ascended another peak as well; the state’s Division of Parks & Recreation has agreed to take over the project to turn Bullhead into North Carolina’s newest Natural Area, to be managed by the North Carolina State Office of the National Audubon Society.
     Coman introduced many of the key people in the campaign; including State Senator Virginia Foxx and Representative Rex Baker, “who helped tremendously” in getting the state park measure approved by the North Carolina General Assembly. 

     Also in attendance was Dan Brown, newly appointed Superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, who said “this tremendous accomplishment is a perfect example of the growing partnership between the community and the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It insures that our children will have the same experience of the Parkway that we have had.” 
     Conservation Trust for North Carolina Director Chuck Roe also stressed the growing power of cooperative efforts between his statewide land trust, local land trusts, agencies, and citizens.  “There has been just phenomenal growth in the eight years of our existence of grassroots citizen efforts like this one,” Roe said.   North Carolina Audubon Society Sanctuary Director Walker Golder said Bullhead Mountain “is not only one of the most spectacular places to observe hawks, but will be a great wildlife research site for North Carolina.”

     The Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust was formed just two years ago with a mission to preserve farmland and critical natural areas in a seven county region, Coman said.  The group had already acquired easements on many sites in the High Country, including Blowing Rock, Vilas, and West Jefferson, and was in active negotiation for purchase or conservation easements on an additional 2,000 acres, Coman said. Conservation Trust Assistant Director Ed Norville said the statewide group had also secured the preservation of numerous sites throughout the High Country, as well as successful campaigns like an easement on the entire 17,000-acre Asheville Watershed. 
    The land trust movement has caught the imagination of the public, Coman said, because so much of their rural heritage and way of life has come under threat. "It is just neighbors helping neighbors work to preserve rural communities and culture in northwestern North Carolina through the protection of the land resource upon which they depend."