Kentucky Natural Lands Trust
Pine Mountain, Kentucky
The Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor, is a 125-miles ridgeline stretching from Tennessee through eastern Kentucky to Virginia totaling 180,000-acres. The mountain is one of the largest tracts of intact contiguous forest remaining in Kentucky and represents a critical migratory corridor through a region of intense resource extraction (e.g. coal, timber, natural gas). Pine Mountain is an important refugium and wildlands corridor that provides habitat for thousands of species of plants animals; nearly 100 of these species are considered rare, some found nowhere else on the planet.
KNLT works to connect existing protected areas along Pine Mountain. Creating contiguous protected habitat is essential to safeguarding and sustaining functioning ecosystems and ensuring the health and resilience of local, regional and global communities.
The Forecastle Foundation’s contributions have helped KNLT purchase and protect:
•Line Fork Preserve, Hurricane Gap Preserve and Kingdom Come Preserve nearly 2,000 acres – October ‘17
•Narrows Preserve 2,403 Acres - purchased March ’16, addition in June ‘17
•Salt Trace Gap 982 Acres - Additional to existing preserve purchased June ‘15
•Hyslope Preserve 46 Acres - purchased April ‘14