The Black and Craggy Mountains, twenty miles northeast of Asheville, in Western North Carolina are where Mt. Mitchell (the highest peak in the Eastern United States) is located and the area contains an extensive amount of old growth forest. This area vied with The Great Smokey Mountains region earlier this century for National Park status and lost out to the Smokies. The Blacks' and Craggies' Spruce-Fir Forests and rugged topography are unparalleled

End of winter at Craggy Gardens. Copyright Ben Walters

in the Southern Appalachians.

The land which makes up the Blacks and Craggies is a conglomeration of National Forest, watersheds, a state park, the Blue Ridge Parkway and privately held land. The area is increasingly under the pressures of the rapid growth of the surrounding region and the looming United States Forest Service revision plans for Pisgah National Forest. All the other Southern National Forests have seen a drastic increase in proposed logging in their recently revised forest plans.

January 21, 2007 - Buncombe County Considers Zoning

Buncombe county is once again considering zoning. The tide of unbridled development is finally taking its toll on residents who have seen ridge after ridge developed with high end homes and condominiums over the past five years. Proposed major developments in the Swannanoa Mountains will be highly visible from the peaks on the Black and Great Craggy Mountains. Concerns about steep slope development are also on the forefront as they should be. Will the tax payers end up footing the bills when slopes become destabilized resulting in lives and property lost and an increasing degradation of water quality down slope from these developments?

 Mountain Xpress has an article with timetables of public forums for discussion of the proposed zoning and what it will mean to individual property owners. The Asheville Citizen-Times also has an article about how public attitudes have been changing with the rapid development.

Buncombe county has several maps on its website, one showing proposed zoning areas and the other showing undeveloped land within the county. You'll need a version of adobe acrobat to view these. The areas in Buncombe County which most significantly impact the Black Mountains region are the Shope Creek, Bull Creek and Riceville Valleys along with the I-40 corridor through the Swannanoa Valley. The Swannanoa Mountains unfortunately are in private hands, and are scheduled to be the site of a mammoth housing development, The Cliffs of High Carolina, offering homes from $600,000 to 4 million dollars. The development is expected to engulf close to 2,500 acres according to an article in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Buncombe County should look at the feasibility of protecting as much of the Swannanoa Mountains as is possible and using it for a regional type park to draw in tourism for soft recreation.

Last Updated 02/04/07.


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