Answers to all the following questions are detailed below:

1. If I have questions other than those below, where do I go to get the answers?

2. If I make a pledge, how much time will I have to turn it into a gift?

3. Is my gift tax deductible?

4. What costs does the $1.5 million campaign cover?

5. If this campaign does not succeed and I give money to it, where does that money go?

6. Will Wild Rock Canyon be open to the public?

7. What is the Arc’s long-term vision for wildlands preservation in West Virginia?

8. You keep referring to a natural OH-WV connection. What do you mean by that?

9. Will the Arc ever end up in Kentucky?

10. Does working in WV affect the Arc’s commitment to Ohio?

11. Where do the waters of Wild Rock Canyon go?

12. How do I know the Arc will steward Wild Rock Canyon into perpetuity?

13. What is most impressive about Wild Rock Canyon’s natural history?

1. If I have questions other than those below, where can I go to get answers?
   If you have questions, please call or text us at 937-365-1935, or email arcpreserveinfo@gmail.com. If you wish to speak to Nancy Stranahan, Arc of Appalachia Director, about a large donation or other matter of importance, you can reach her directly at nancyoftheforest@gmail.com.
   

2. NOTE: We are no longer taking pledges.
   We are now 100% committed to sitting at the closing table in Hinton, WV on September 9, 2024 and by the time you read this, we may have already closed on the property. We were still $360,000 short when we wired the money to the closing, but that amount was temporarily covered by a generous “gap loan” donor. Our campaign is still very much alive and fundraising continues.
   

3. Is my gift tax deductible?

   Yes, we are a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and gifts to our organization are tax-deductible to the extent of the law. Please take note that you can direct a check to either the Arc of Appalachia or the Highlands Nature Sanctuary, as we are one and the same. The Highlands Nature Sanctuary is our original name under which our IRS forms are filed. The Arc of Appalachia is a dba, a “doing business as.” Just remember, if you report a donation
   

4. What costs does the $1.5 million campaign cover?
   The $1.5 million campaign covers our sale price, our closing costs, and a new land survey and deed description. Surveying Wild Rock Canyon’s twelve miles of boundaries will cost at least $50,000, and is budgeted into the campaign. The current deed description is transferable but it is very old, one of those descriptions that refers to trees as land markers. Because we know there will be times in the future that we will have to defend our boundaries, getting a new survey is essential. We will still need to fundraise in the future for the ongoing operational expenses of providing stewardship. All the campaign money will do is buy the land, but we think that’s a very good start!
   Another thing that the sale price doesn’t include is subsurface rights. It is very common in WV and southeastern Ohio that mineral rights have been previously severed from the surface rights and thence follow a separate chain of title. This is the case with Wild Rock Canyon. Whenever one buys surface rights only, it is up to the buyer to research the likelihood of mining and drilling on the parcel. We have done that geological and market research diligently with the help of local WV conservation experts and we are fully satisfied that the risks are extremely low that the subsurface of Wild Rock Canyon will ever be mined or drilled. There is no marketable coal, oil, gas, or limestone on the property to extract, and given the challenging topography of the landscape, Wild Rock Canyon is almost impossible to get into other than by foot.
   

5. If this campaign does not succeed and I gave money towards it, where does that money end up?
   No worries. We are DEFINITELY closing on Wild Rock Canyon.

6. Will Wild Rock Canyon be open to the public?
   Wild Rock Canyon will be an Arc of Appalachia Forest Reserve. Arc Forest Reserves are dedicated primarily to habitat protection for native plants and animals and providing a forest with the opportunity to mature into old-growth forest status - a once common but now rare forest condition. Forest Reserves are not developed with hiking trails but are left completely undisturbed. Wild Rock Canyon is not a good candidate for hiking access in any case. The canyon is too steep-walled to install walking paths, and there is not enough level ground to build a trailhead parking lot. In any case, because our staff headquarters is in Ohio, it is not feasible or affordable at this time to develop any public services that would require weekly maintenance For the time being, we will concentrate on providing visitor services at our Ohio preserves, which, as you probably know, we do a very good job. The Arc currently maintains over 80 miles of breathtakingly beautiful hiking trails in our home state. If we remain active in West Virginia, which we hope we will, we trust the philanthropy will eventually follow that will support Arc staff members in residence. Once that happens, if there is enough public demand, it is likely we will develop certain West Virginian holdings with hiking trails, just as we do in Ohio, However, given the expenses of such projects, this is not in our immediate future.
   What we DO plan to do is host special events and hikes into Wild Rock Canyon so that others can see it firsthand. It is an ideal location for fall hikes, for instance, and for education field trips to explore moths, botanicals, fireflies, and herpetology. The nearby county seat, Lewisburg, has to be one of the most beautiful and historic little towns in the nation, and it offers a wealth of dining and lodging opportunities.
   And then there are Wild Rock Canyon’s magnificent fireflies! We can’t wait to explore them next summer - we were a little late for them this year. We recently received this hope-filled note from an Arc supporter:
   
   “I’m thrilled that Arc of Appalachia is pursuing land in Greenbrier county! I wanted to let you know that my husband and I had a long weekend getaway there last summer and had a spectacular experience. We saw a lot of fireflies in the green areas of the town we stayed in, and thought.. if they are like this in town, maybe they are better outside of town. So we drove about 5-10 miles out of town, and drove into a hillside. I have never in my life seen so many fireflies!!! It was as if we were movie stars and the paparazzi was going crazy! Truly, millions of fireflies throughout the mountain in front of us. I will never forget that experience!”
   

7. What is the Arc’s long-term vision for wildlands preservation in West Virginia?
   If we succeed in establishing our nonprofit’s mission in West Virginia, by combining our geographic canvas of Ohio and West Virginia, we believe that over time we will be able to attract the attention of donors currently out of our reach - even donors as far away as New York and Washington, D.C. When a nonprofit land trust works only in one state, most (although not all in our case) of its donor audience is limited to that state. If the Arc becomes a multi-state land trust, we have the potential to attract donors from broader territories, especially if we buy larger and larger acreages of land. Only in West Virginia is large-scale preservation of the Appalachian heartland - on the scale of thousands of acres of forest - possible. This fact makes our work one of regional significance.
   According to the counsel of our West Virginia conservation colleagues, most of the large tracts of land that dominate the landscape of West Virginia are currently owned by coal and timber interests. With market prices dropping for both coal and saw logs, they told us that there is a very good chance large properties will be coming up for sale in West Virginia in the next few years at relatively low prices. Our colleagues urged us to position ourselves now in the state, and ready our nonprofit for land opportunities none of us will want to miss.
   It is important to note that large private foundations interested in land preservation are usually attracted only to large-scale projects, the larger the better. Over time, we believe, our OH-WV preservation work may have the capacity to draw a portion of the dollars dedicated to wildland philanthropy dollars in the West - where large acreage acquisitions are more easily negotiated - to the East. In the East, West Virginia holds THE key for affordable large-scale conservation.
   If we can combine the large tracts of land available in West Virginia with our 30 years of stellar preservation accomplishments in Ohio, we believe our donor audience will continue to grow - both in numbers and in geographic breadth. If that happens, we will become a stronger preservation force in the Eastern Heartland of Appalachia - a region of the nation that we are deeply committed to and one that is greatly underserved by current levels of wildlands philanthropy. We think it is time the Eastern Forest gets the preservation attention it deserves.
   

8. You keep referring to a natural OH-WV connection. What do you mean by that?
   If state lines had been drawn based on physiography instead of political history, southern Appalachian Ohio and West Virginia would have never been separated. They would be combined into one big forest state with the Ohio River running through the middle of it. With that in mind, consider that the political boundaries of the state of Ohio are mental constructs of our minds, and have no reality on the ground. With this endeavor, we are asking our readers to think of this project as one that dissolves boundaries and reconnects two forests, one north of the Ohio River in southern Ohio’s Appalachian counties, and the entire state of West Virginia south of the Ohio River. We aim to see the Ohio River as no longer a boundary, but a steppingstone.
   

9. Will the Arc ever end up in Kentucky?
   Someday the Arc of Appalachia will likely end up preserving land in Kentucky. Our work in Ohio began with one particularly compelling property - that of 7 Caves back in 1995. Our first 47-acre purchase of 7 Caves became the cornerstone of what is today the 3000-acre Highlands Nature Sanctuary. Our work in West Virginia, if all goes well, will go down in history as beginning with the quest to save another compelling property - Wild Rock Canyon. If an equally charismatic property comes up for sale in Kentucky that no existing conservation group in the state has the resources to buy, and we think we might be able to do save it, then that’s the day we will likely take the leap into Kentucky. It would take a very special property for us to cross over the state line into Kentucky. Right now, we need to concentrate on West Virginia!
   

10. Does working in WV affect the Arc’s commitment to Ohio?
    No, quite the opposite. If our plan for going forward succeeds, our work in WV will strengthen our work in Ohio. Ohio is our home headquarters and nothing in our future will diminish our commitment to buying lands in Ohio. No other neighboring state has the grant resources or the number of citizens with a conservation commitment as does Ohio. We have been working very hard in Ohio for 30 years and have no interest in stopping. Note that even in this year’s relatively flat real estate market, we’ve closed on TEN Ohio properties, and are currently working on ELEVEN new projects in various stages of unfolding.
    

11. Where do the waters of Wild Rock Canyon go?
    Wild Rock Canyon lies in the same Ohio River Watershed as all of our current Ohio preserves. In other words, a person could sit on top of the ridge at the Arc’s Ohio River Bluffs Preserve outside Manchester, Ohio, and watch the waters of Wild Rock Canyon drift by as a component of the Ohio River. The waters of Wild Rock Canyon journey as follows: Pigeon Hollow to Renick Creek nearly wholly contained on the property), to Kitchen Creek, to Muddy Creek, to Greenbrier River, to the New River, to the Kanawha River, to the Ohio River, to the Mississippi River, and onto the Gulf of Mexico.
    

12. How do I know the Arc will steward Wild Rock Canyon into perpetuity?
    Once the property is acquired and safely in our name, it is part of the Arc’s policies and procedures that if no outside granting source places deed restrictions on our properties on our behalf, we voluntarily place environmental covenants on the property’s deeds ourselves. Those deed restrictions prohibit the development of roads and houses, protect the forests from any commercial harvesting or private use, prohibit any disturbances of the soils or waterways, and prevent partitioning of the property. The covenants specifically state that the sole purpose of the property is to exist as a perpetual nature preserve. In essence, any activity counter to managing the property as a nature preserve is prohibited.

    Our board is committed to protecting our lands at all costs. Never in our 30 year history have we sold ground or harvested trees, and we have no plans to start! If for some reason the Arc of Appalachia (the Arc is our dba, The Highlands Nature Sanctuary is our official name), were to disband, which is unlikely given our our growing endowments, our lands would remain nature preserves and would be transferred to the stewardshiop of another nonprofit land trust.
    

13. What is most impressive about Wild Rock Canyon’s natural history?

    We have just finished up a summer bioblitz at Wild Rock Canyon that was attended by sixteen Ohio field biologists and naturalists. They seined the creeks, turned over stones, keyed out plants, set up mist nets for bats, launched drones, and set up 18 game cameras to catch glimpses of mammals.
    Highlights from that weekend include the mist-netting of an Eastern Small-footed Bat, a bat that is very rare throughout its range. It is so tiny it weighs only 6 grams, one gram less than a ruby-throated hummingbird! Biologists also netted a Hoary Bat, bringing us to a total of four observed bat species over the weekend. Hoary bats are large bats, boasting up to a 16-inch wingspan. They fly so high they are seldom netted and are poorly studied, but they are very handsome, if enigmatic, creatures. Thirteen species of amphibians were recorded, most of them salamanders. Salamander species include the Cave Salamander (an endangered species in Ohio), Seal Salamander, and Allegheny Plateau Salamander.
    Mothing light stations were set up each night and the number of moths swarming around those lights was exhilarating to behold. At one station alone we drew in over a dozen Luna Moths in one night, just some of the many stunning silk moths we witnessed that weekend. But the most thrilling of our wildlife finds were the mammals that were captured in video on our game cams. There were so many black bear videos!! And those bears loved smashing our cameras! We recorded multiple females with cubs. and several solo boars.
    We inventoried hundreds of plants during the event. We won’t be able to definitively identify some of the wildflower foliage until we return next spring, but the floral density in the lower elevations is exceedingly rich. Among the most notable botanical finds was that of the Tree Lungwort Lichen, Lobaria pulmonaria, a lichen that is an indicator of rich, moist forests, ones that are often old-growth in character. Finding Tree Lungwort Lichen was a very good endorsement for the health of this medium-aged forest. Another interesting plant find was Meehan’s Mint, Meehania cordata. The only place we have found this species in our Ohio preserves was at the bottom of an incredibly steep-walled deep ravine at Rock Run Preserve, located on the banks of the Ohio River
    The most outstanding feature of Wild Rock Canyon, however, is its sheer size. In Ohio, in order to build up the Highlands Nature Sanctuary to 1200 acres in size (that was back in 2003) required 30 separate acquisitions plus multiple houses! That’s the difference between doing wildlands preservation in West Virginia and doing wildlands preservation in Ohio. Wild Rock Canyon is not known for any particular feature. It doesn’t have say, an outstanding cave, or grove of old-growth trees, or one particularly awe-inspiring lookout. What it does have is just as spectacular - 1200 acres of uninterrupted forest - a forest that is healthy, naturally aging, dominated by oaks, and filled with a diversity of other tree species that support an impressive community of animals - everything from insects to bears. How gratifying is that! Imagine this, if purchased, Wild Rock Canyon - in one simple purchase - will be the second largest preserve in the Arc of Appalachia, and the ONLY preserve over 600 acres that is composed of just one land acquisition.