The community created within Balsam Mountain Preserve is intended to evoke the adventure and joy many of us experienced as children during our first visit to a national park.  The instinctive response of being connected to nature is emphasized in this 4,400 acre preserve west of Asheville, North Carolina.  Having a home within such a vast preserve, enjoying the park’s stone-like security, its heavy timbered strength, and its natural beauty is the purpose of creating this community within a park.  Since having a home within a park is the theme, using sustainable practices to create that home is the mission.  The creators of Balsam Mountain Preserve intend to create a model for how to use the most current thinking in sustainable construction practices.  This nature-based mountain community includes a boarding house, mountain cottages, a gatehouse, equestrian facility, sports garden, nature center, and over 130 miles of mountain trails already in place on the property.