The Cumberland Gap is a natural trail across the Appalachians. One little piece just got protected.

The Appalachians span 2,000 miles from Alabama to Canada. At the Kentucky and Tennessee border, there is a natural break in the mountains called the Cumberland Gap.

The Nature Conservancy acquired about 700 acres of private land this week near a waterway called Fern Lake, which sits inside the boundary of the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Nearly all land in the park is now considered public land. 

“The protection of Fern Lake and the surrounding watershed is a huge win for Tennessee, Kentucky and the region,” Gabby Lynch, director of protection for the Nature Conservancy in Tennessee, said in a press release.

The Cumberland Gap sits near the tripoint of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

The Appalachian landscape is a critical carbon sink and biodiversity hotspot, containing as many as 80,000 species, and only about 25% of the land is protected, according to the Nature Conservancy.

The Cumberland Gap is considered historically significant as a manageable pathway through the difficult terrain of the Cumberland Mountains, which are part of the Appalachians. The National Park Service calls the area the “first great gateway to the West.” 

Courtesy Cameron Davidson

The Cumberland Gap contains “Fern Lake,” a small waterway that provides drinking water to Middlesboro, Kentucky.

The Nature Conservancy acquires varying amounts of land in Tennessee each year. In 2019, the Nature Conservancy helped protect about 250,000 acres of land as part of the Cumberland Forest Project — though a part of that land has since been sold to the state. This year, the group has obtained about 2,500 acres. 

The plan is to give this latest land acquisition to the National Park Service.