Skip to content
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Menu
  • Happy Health
  • Happy Mindset
  • Animal Wonders
  • About Us
    • Team
  • Subscribe
Happy News

The Billionaire Buying Land To Give It All Away

Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, has quietly become one of North Carolina’s largest private landowners, but his goal isn’t what you might expect. Over the past decade, he has purchased at least 56,000 acres stretching from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the coast, not for development or profit, but for permanent conservation. His mission began with a painful childhood memory: watching his grandmother’s Virginia farm sold for timber after medical bills mounted, destroying the land he loved during family vacations.

Now Sweeney is using his fortune to prevent similar losses across North Carolina, strategically buying foreclosed and undervalued wilderness after the 2008 economic crash to create biological corridors where rare species can thrive. He has already donated thousands of acres to conservation groups like the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, including a historic 7,500 acre gift in the Roan Highlands and the entire Hutaff Island barrier island off the coast. His Box Creek Wilderness protects over 7,000 acres of rare plant species, while his work has more than doubled the size of Mount Mitchell State Park. Sweeney’s vision spans decades, focusing on three major conservation corridors that will allow vulnerable wildlife to migrate freely as climate change forces species to seek new habitats in the mountains and foothills of North Carolina.

PrevPreviousThe Wildlife Photographer Whose Quick Call Saved A Life
NextWhen Horror Royalty Showed Up On HalloweenNext

Recent Articles

Happy News

The 98th Academy Awards May Be The Most Exciting In Years

March 15, 2026

This is it. The 98th Academy Awards are upon us, and if you’re not buzzing with anticipation, you haven’t been paying attention. This year’s race has everything: a genuine underdog story, a record-shattering frontrunner, and zero certainty about who walks away with the big prize. At the center of it

Read More
Happy News

Artist Builds Reinterpretation of Mona Lisa From 100,000 Pieces Of Trash

March 15, 2026

Standing four stories tall on the side of an apartment building in El Salvador, a massive new mural is stopping everyone who walks by dead in their tracks, and not just because of its enormous size. The artwork is a reimagined Mona Lisa with a distinctly Latin American face, and

Read More
Happy News

The World’s Tiniest Pacemaker Ever Made That Dissolves

March 15, 2026

For the small percent of babies born with a heart defect who need a pacemaker in the fragile days after surgery, the current solution involves wires, a device strapped to the outside of the chest, and a removal procedure risky enough that it has killed patients. A team of engineers

Read More
« Previous Next »
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Notice
  • Accessibility Notice
  • Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
  • Unsubscribe
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Copyright © 2026 HappyNews.