Who we are
The Long Branch Environmental Education Center, Inc. is a small educational institute in Buncombe County's Newfound Mountains, about 18 miles northwest of Asheville, North Carolina. Set aside in 1974 as an ecological sanctuary and land trust, it has developed into an educational center for sharing positive strategies of sustainability and local self-reliance in the areas of environmental design, organic food production, renewable energy, shelter design and construction, appropriate technology, resource conservation, recycling, wildlife protection, ecological restoration, and improved environmental quality.
Founders and residents, Pat and Paul Gallimore, have lived and worked at Long Branch since 1974.
The land itself is over 1400 acres of wilderness and farmland ranging in elevation from 3,000 to 5,152 feet in the Newfound Mountain range between the Black Mountains to the east and the Great Smoky Mountains, 9 miles to the west. Over 1200 acres are mostly eastern hardwood forest, with several mountain springs and streams inhabiting rare, threatened, and endangered native plant and animal species. Five acres are managed in a Permaculture design of small scale organic gardens, crops, orchards, and rainbow trout aquaculture in an integrated edible landscape.
THE LAND
Structures on the land include a passive solar office and staff residence, a passive solar cabin, two attached solar greenhouses, three composting toilets, one passive solar conference center, a traditional 1917 farm house with an energy conservation retrofit, an old tobacco barn, and a retreat cabin.
STRUCtures
Long Branch is open to the public daily. General visitors come to hike the trails, bird-watch, visit the passive solar residences and greenhouses, and to observe and/or participate in activities, including gardening, building, or a migratory bird census.
Long Branch offers spring and fall workshops and longer programs on topics ranging from organic gardening, fruit and nut tree grafting, wilderness survival skills, permaculture, environmental design and edible landscaping, citizen environmental action, Appalachian geology, aquaculture, beekeeping, small animal husbandry, recycling and waste utilization, solar food drying and preservation, masonry wood stove construction, solar greenhouse and low-cost solar hot water system design and micro-hydro-power.
Throughout the year, visits by schools and college classes are welcomed. Volunteers and internship programs are offered year-round. Long Branch staff speak in the greater Southern Appalachian area on topics including environmental action, resource conservation, alternative energy, and coalition building with other groups and organizations to further public awareness for environmental integrity.
programs
means of support
Means of support for all programs include private donations, seminar and workshop fees, grants, and consulting services. Long Branch is a private, non-profit educational organization with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, tax-deductible status.