ASHEVILLE, N.C. — A Helene recovery nursery run by Asheville GreenWorks wants donated acreage so it can leave the Buncombe County Sports Park and keep growing native saplings for western North Carolina.
Sand Hill Native Tree Nursery turns out as many as 6,000 native trees a year and has already spilled past the Candler sports-park plots it uses today.
County leaders want the first indoor recreation center on that Sports Park land, and although the nursery lease stretches into 2028, GreenWorks is already shopping for a replacement site.
Director of Operations Eric Bradford said buying land is costly and that each of the nursery’s four greenhouses runs about $10,000 to build, so the group is asking for donated acreage or a free long-term lease.
The wish list is flat ground out of the floodplain in Buncombe County, preferably with power the current site lacks, plus room to grow toward as many as 10 greenhouses and a small teaching office where neighbors can learn urban forestry.
Bradford said the move is also a chance to expand plantings for Helene recovery sites across the mountains, and GreenWorks frames reforestation as core climate resilience work for Asheville.
GreenWorks has partnered with Buncombe County for decades and has used the Sports Park site at no charge since 2017, and Bradford said the group fully supports the planned indoor recreation center for Candler.
County parks leaders have said they are working with the nonprofit on a path to a new site while the recreation project moves ahead.
Neighbors who want more shade canopy after Helene have a direct stake in whether the nursery finds dry, powered ground quickly enough to keep seedling production on track through 2027 and beyond.
