Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

January 25, 2007 issue

Banner Year for Land Conservation in Western North Carolina

Story by Celeste von Mangan

In 2006, 13 land conservation organizations—collectively known as Blue Ridge Forever—worked with public partners, voluntary private landowners and mountain communities to safeguard approximately 11,000 acres of land in 64 locations. Three organizations operating in Avery, Ashe and Watauga counties conserved and protected 1,465 acres of land.

Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust—538 Acres

According to Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust Executive Director James Coman, the organization completed 12 projects in 2006. Eleven of those projects involved donated conservation easements, for a total of 538 acres.

“Though several of these easements were small,” Coman said, “we think that they were each important in preserving the communities and culture of northwest North Carolina.”

Two of the projects protected historic farmsteads: the Tate and Clark-Burleson farm in Ashe County that includes the 1880 Swansea Shepherd House and the 1916 Carender House in Watauga.

Three projects buffer parklands and greenways, and the Faithbridge United Methodist Church easement protects a bog in Watauga on Aho Branch, a portion of the South Fork of the New River subbasin. Another project completed in 2006 was the production of the Big Laurel Creek Riparian Corridor Conservation Design. This study by E’nV Environmental Consulting Services, Inc. ranked all properties in the Big Laurel Creek subbasin for either prioritization or restoration.

Plans for 2007 include the Laurelmor Conservation Area 1 easement project in Watauga and Wilkes counties that will protect approximately 700 acres along Elk Creek and the South Fork of Laurel Creek.

Coman said that BRRLT, established in 1997, will seek funding to hire an assistant executive director and secretarial support, as well as expand the office to include a Watauga or Wilkes location. BRRLT is currently housed in Piney Creek, Ashe County.

For more info, call 828-263-8776.

National Committee for the New River—795 Acres

According to National Committee for the New River Executive Director George Santucci, “2006 was NCNR’s biggest land protection year—795 acres in North Carolina. We also made the biggest addition to the New River State Park, 638 acres.”

NCNR’s area of operation is the New River watershed that includes Allegheny, Ashe and Watauga counties in North Carolina and counties in Virginia and West Virginia. NCNR partnered with the Division of Parks and Recreation to purchase the 638 acres of property from the Bower Farm in Ashe County to add to New River State Park. Also protected in 2006 was a conservation easement of 38 acres of the Kemp family farm in Creston. A 20-acre holding that includes the Tater Hill Bog Preserve was acquired in June 2006 in partnership with the Plant Conservation Program and the National Heritage Trust Fund. Home to 13 rare plant species, hardwood forest and headwater stream, the bog is located in the Amphibolite Mountain Range at the headwaters of Howard Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of the New River.

In 2007, NCNR hopes to stop the development of 1.5 miles of riverfront property in Grayson County Va., an area that borders Ashe County. Commonwealth Corrections Solutions, a private developer of prisons, plans to build a 1,024-bed facility on the New River, the same area of river that was saved from a proposed hydroelectric dam more than 30 years ago.

For more info, call 336-846-4871.

High Country Conservancy—132 Acres

High Country Conservancy conserves land with significant ecological, cultural, recreational or scenic value and protected 132 acres in 2006. The High Haven conservation easement in Newland encompasses 100 acres and includes a Southern Appalachian bog containing rare, threatened and endangered plant and animal species. The property also protects water quality along the North Toe River—a water supply for Spruce Pine. In Valle Crucis, HCC protected 32 acres of land known as Mission Ridge.

“The stakes could not be higher, as North Carolina’s number two economic engine—tourism—depends on the state’s unspoiled natural beauty,” said Executive Director Teresa Buckwalter.

For more info, call 828-264-2511.