By Morgan Simmons/ Knoxville News Sentinel

JONESBOURGH, Tenn. (April 12, 2016) -- Two leading nonprofit conservation organizations have become joint owners and managers of a 488-acre forested tract on Buffalo Mountain in upper East Tennessee.

The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund purchased the Buffalo Mountain Camp and Retreat Center near Johnson City that had been owned and operated by the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church since 1947 as a summer camp.

The sale of the Buffalo Mountain Camp has raised money for the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church to establish a new camp site called Camp Bays Mountain, in Kingsport, that's expected to open in time for the 2017 summer season.

"Personally speaking, I'm very pleased with the outcome," said Rev. Jeff Wadley, executive director of the former Buffalo Mountain Camp. "I'm a conservation-minded person due to my faith, and I was thrilled to learn this property would be placed into the public trust, and that it will be available for the public to enjoy for generations to come."

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