Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT) is proud to announce the establishment of the Arnow Woodland Preserve. The 139 acres are in Pulaski County on the Cumberland Plateau along the South Fork of the Cumberland River. The land is the former homestead of Kentucky author Harriette Arnow and her husband Harold. Their niece, Pat Arnow, donated the old farm to KNLT over the winter to be forever wild. The donated land was one of several projects in late 2025 that brought KNLT to the mountainous milestone of having safeguarded more than 64,000 acres (100 square miles) of wildlands since 1995.
“I promised my family I would find a way to preserve the land as a wilderness. Over the years I’ve been seeing the work KNLT does right in this area of Kentucky. They earned my respect and trust,” said Pat Arnow. “Our beautiful hilly old farm has been reclaimed by nature. It feels just right to have KNLT keep it that way.”
The Arnow Woodland Preserve is within one of the most biodiverse temperate regions on Earth. The rugged landscape of the Cumberland Plateau is habitat for thousands of species of plants, animals and fungi, some that are considered rare and a few are found nowhere else on the planet. The preserve protects contiguous forest that is known habitat for endangered northern long-eared and Indiana bats.
This area of the Cumberland Plateau is comprised of a matrix of public lands. The new preserve is adjacent to the Daniel Boone National Forest along the South Fork of the Cumberland River. The tract was donated with an existing National Resource Conservation Service conservation easement.
Harriette Arnow: Brief Biography
Harriette is the author of celebrated Appalachian novels including The Dollmaker (1954) and histories of the region including Seedtime on the Cumberland (1960). The Arnow Woodland Preserve is the setting of Hariette’s novel Hunter’s Horn (1949) which is an American masterpiece. Harriette was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2013. She grew up in Burnside, Kentucky, in Pulaski County. She and her husband Harold were writers who met working on the Works Progress Administration Writers’ Project in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1939, Harriette and Harold purchased the land in Pulaski County that is now the preserve. They intended to be subsistence farmers and write in their spare time. They found farming arduous and precarious. In the run up to World War II they moved to where the jobs were in Detroit. After moving to Michigan, the farm remained uninhabited and over time has grown back into forest. They cherished the land so much they were both buried in the family cemetery that the new preserve surrounds.
KNLT Partnership with Arnow Family
Harriette’s niece Pat Arnow and her husband Steve Giles have cared for the land since it was passed to Pat from Harold and Harriette’s daughter Marcella. KNLT has partnered with Pat since 2011 when now board member Bethany Baxter connected her with us for advice on protecting their family land. Former KNLT Director Hugh Archer and KNLT Operations and Finance Director Donna Alexander assisted Pat in the lengthy process of gaining a National Resource Conservation Service Healthy Forest Reserve easement on the property. This past December Pat donated the land surrounding the family cemetery to KNLT to ensure it will be forever wild. We’re grateful to Pat and Steve for their partnership and commitment to conservation.
About Kentucky Natural Lands Trust
KNLT is a nationally accredited nonprofit working to protect biodiverse and climate resilient landscapes in ways that benefit communities. Through partnerships with individuals, nonprofits, government agencies and businesses, KNLT has safeguarded more than 64,000 acres of wildlands throughout Kentucky and Central Appalachia.
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Cover photo: Arnow Woodland Preserve ~ Pat Arnow
Indiana bat ~ Mark Gumbert, Copperhead Environmental Consulting
Harriette Arnow, at typewriter, undated, Box 135, item 32, University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center