Thirst for Good Partner Highlight: The NC Arboretum

Future

There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over the Southern Appalachians in autumn — cool mornings, sugar maples catching fire along the ridgelines, creeks running low and clear through forested coves. It’s the kind of quiet that The North Carolina Arboretum has spent the last 40 years helping people find, protect, and fall in love with. This fall, that mission gets a boost from an unexpected but fitting partner: Highland Brewing, whose “Thirst for Good” program is sponsoring the Arboretum’s signature autumn celebration, Fall for Arb. 

A Legacy Nearly a Century in the Making 

The story of The North Carolina Arboretum actually begins long before its official founding. Frederick Law Olmsted — the father of American landscape architecture, the mind behind Central Park and the grounds of the Biltmore Estate — envisioned a research arboretum as part of his broader plan for George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore property. That vision sat dormant for nearly 100 years before it finally took root. 

In 1986, the North Carolina General Assembly established The North Carolina Arboretum as an affiliate of the University of North Carolina System, finally bringing Olmsted’s idea to life. Today, the Arboretum spans 434 acres within the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, just south of Asheville and adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 393 — a setting crisscrossed by forested coves and meandering creeks in one of the most botanically diverse regions in the country. 

The land itself belongs to the Pisgah National Forest, and the Arboretum operates there under a special use permit issued by the National Forests in North Carolina. It’s a reminder that the Arboretum isn’t just a garden — it’s a careful, decades-long collaboration between conservation, research, and public access, all set inside a working national forest. 

For four decades now, the Arboretum has carried out its mission under a simple but powerful idea: cultivating connections between people, plants, and places. That mission shows up in its display gardens, its research programs, its trails, and its year-round calendar of nature programs, art, and education — including the season’s centerpiece event, Fall for Arb. 

 

Fall for the Arb: A Season-Long Celebration 

Throughout September and October, Fall for the Arb turns the Arboretum into a hub for everything autumn — nature programs, live music, art, and hands-on education, all set against a backdrop of changing leaves and mountain views. It’s the kind of event that captures exactly what the Arboretum does best: giving people a reason to slow down, get outside, and connect with the landscape around them. 

In Partnership with Highland’s Thirst for Good 

This year, Fall for the Arb carries the support of Highland Brewing, Asheville’s original craft brewery and the largest family-owned brewery native to the Southeast. The sponsorship comes through Highland’s “Thirst for Good” initiative — a triple-pronged commitment to Good Flavor, Good Future, and Good Feels that reflects the values instilled by founder Oscar Wong, often called the godfather of Asheville craft beer, and carried forward today by his daughter and current CEO, Leah Wong Ashburn. 

Thirst for Good touches everything from the beer in the glass to the brewery’s environmental footprint to its role in the community it calls home. Highland’s approach to sustainability runs from repurposed shipping containers on its campus to one of the largest solar arrays in the craft beer industry, all part of an effort to care for the land and water the brewery depends on. 

Sponsoring Fall for Arb extends that same spirit of connection and celebration to one of the region’s most treasured natural spaces, pairing Highland’s community-first values with the Arboretum’s mission of connecting people to the plants and places around them. 

It’s also a partnership rooted in a shared sense of place. Both organizations are deeply woven into the fabric of Western North Carolina, and both have leaned on that community bond in recent years — Highland notably converted portions of its own property into a staging ground for relief efforts after Hurricane Helene in 2024, and its Thirst for Good program continues to channel resources back into the region’s recovery and resilience. 

    Come Experience It Yourself 

    Whether you’re drawn by the fall foliage, the live music, the art, or just an excuse to spend a crisp afternoon outdoors, Fall for Arb offers a little bit of everything — and this year, a Highland Brewing beer in hand feels like the perfect way to toast 40 years of the Arboretum’s story. 

    Learn more and see the full schedule of events: ncarboretum.org/fall 

    Fall for the Arb runs throughout September and October at The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, NC. 

     

     

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