About Gateway
A Neighborhood Initiative to Protect Vital Habitat
In 2008, a group of neighbors from Washington Park and West Salem formed the Gateway Environmental Initiative to protect a 19-acre site bordering Salem Creek from commercial development.
Thanks to the generous support of community foundations, individuals, and the City of Winston-Salem, the group raised $409,000 to purchase this land in 2014 and protected it in perpetuity under a conservation easement.
Now operating as the Gateway Nature Preserve, we enjoy a productive public-private partnership with Winston-Salem’s Recreation & Parks department.
Ecosystem Conservation and Education in the Heart of Winston-Salem
Through the years, Gateway has continued to develop and fulfill its mission–revitalizing the land in the nature preserve and creating forest trails, a pollinator garden, and natural playscapes. Today, this urban wildlife habitat supports a vibrant ecosystem that otherwise would have been destroyed. Our community educational programs highlight our connection to the complex beauty of the natural world.
Every new project Gateway develops, whether planting butterfly gardens, breaking down soil contamination, or assessing stream health, supports ecosystem resilience–nature’s system of checks and balances that sustains a healthy environment in the surrounding communities. In partnership with schools, local citizen groups, and environmentalists in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, we are creating a new awareness around the environment and climate change and finding ways we can work together toward a more sustainable world.
