Landowner Stories - Jim Henson & Long Ridge Farm

His great, great grandparents came to Watauga County nearly 200 years ago. They loved the mountains where they lived and worked. The county seemed like paradise.

But in the last thirty years, Jim Henson and Mary Neal Henson have seen paradise under assault from rampant development. They didn’t want that to be the fate of Long Ridge Farms in historic Valle Crucis. Knowing that fragmenting the forest hurts the migratory birds who use the Blue Ridge Mountains to navigate, they wanted to ensure that their 130 acres (110 of it wooded) remained a haven for their feathered friends.

After meeting with the High Country Conservancy, the Hensons agreed to a conservation easement, which allows the Hensons to maintain their life on the farm while forever prohibiting all new construction, timber harvest and road building.

Jim Henson says, “In order to keep these mountains beautiful and to maintain a certain quality of life, there must be some land-use restrictions. The people who work with the High Country Conservancy have been very helpful with the intricacies that were involved in our easement.”