Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve

Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve is a joint project between the North Carolina state park system and Cary, Wake County, North Carolina in the United States. Located in Cary, it covers approximately 140-acre (0.57 km2) in the Research Triangle region of the state. The state owns 97-acre (0.39 km2) of the preserve, known as Hemlock Bluffs State Natural Area. The Town of Cary owns approximately 42-acre (0.17 km2) of the preserve, and the town leases the state's land for management. The preserve protects a population of Eastern Hemlock trees and other vegetation more typically found further west, in the Appalachian Mountains. The tall, north-facing bluffs of Swift Creek provide conditions similar enough to the mountains to have allowed the plant communities to have survived there since the last ice age. The Stevens Nature Center is a nature center located on Cary's portion of the preserve, which provides the preserve's core visitor facilities. It provides information about the natural history of the area and the plants and animals that live in the Nature Preserve.