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

Get To Know Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development

Story by Sam Calhoun

If a stream needs restoration, who do you call? If you need funding to fight the hemlock woolly adelgid, where do you go? If a greenway or park is short on funding, who can help?

The High Country has a federal organization that provides answers to such seemingly dead-end questions. Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is a local federally funded organization that helps locals obtain grants and other funding for research-based projects; it is a public/private partnership program designed to help communities develop, while protecting and sustainably using their natural resources. The organization serves Wilkes, Ashe, Avery, Watauga, Alleghany, Mitchell and Yancey counties.

Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development has provided funds for methane gas reclamation projects at the Yancey, Avery, Wilkes and Watauga landfills, helped to write grants that enabled a local entomologist to travel to the West Coast to learn more about how to fight the hemlock woolly adelgid on the East Coast and found funds for multiple streambank and riverbank restorations.

Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is one of 13 resource conservation and development councils in North Carolina serving 66 North Carolina counties, or 66 percent of the counties in the state.

According to Cliff Vinson, coordinator for Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development and the organization’s only paid federal employee, resource conservation and development councils were established nationwide by the U.S. Congress decades ago, and the federal government spends $51 million annually to fund them. All 50 states and each of the U.S. territories have resource conservation and development councils, and 368 authorized resource conservation and development councils currently operate in the nation.

The councils, though, have to be established by respective regions by sending an application to the government, so not all counties or regions in the country have one. For instance, Watauga, Ashe and Avery counties were part of New River Resource Conservation and Development—based in Virginia—for many years. In 1997, however, representatives from Yancey, Wilkes, Alleghany and Mitchell counties decided they wanted a resource conservation and development council, applied and Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development was established on June 30.

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service administers programs at the national level by providing technical assistance and support. Resource conservation and development councils, however, administer their own programs locally.

Vinson took over the coordinator position for Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development on December 9, 2007, from Julie Elmor who held the position for six months. Prior to Elmor, Stan Steury held the position for about a decade. Vinson, a native of Franklin, comes to Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development with 31 years of experience as a district conservationist, having worked in Surry, Yancey, Mitchell and Avery counties.

Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is comprised of Vinson and 21 board members representing the seven High Country counties. Each county furnishes three board members who serve 3-year terms. One of each of the three board members is appointed by the county’s board of commissioners, one is appointed by the county’s Soil and Water Commission and one is appointed by the entire 21-member council. The 21-member council meets quarterly.

Five council members serve on the executive committee with Vinson—a committee that also meets quarterly and keeps up with the implementation goals of the organization.

Local councils, such as Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development, develop their own programs or projects. The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development council creates a 5-year plan, according to Vinson, identifying projects that they want completed. Vinson’s job is to make sure the projects are implemented on time.

To create the plan, county managers or concerned citizens bring a one-page proposal to the council detailing work they need completed—stream restorations, methane reclamation, greenway construction or similar projects. At the Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development council’s quarterly meetings, the board members discuss the proposals and vote on them. Approved projects are put on a priority list. When it comes time for a project to be implemented, the council then begins to seek the money needed to complete the project.

“We’re basically grant writers,” said Vinson.

Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development raises its own money by grant writing, fees for services, grant administration and project income. The USDA provides professional training for coordinators such as Vinson in grant writing and fundraising, as well as partnering and networking, nonprofit management and project development.

Before obtaining funds, the council determines a percentage of the project cost to be paid back to the organization to cover additional personnel aside from Vinson, office rent and liability insurance. The fee is usually 10 percent for smaller projects, said Vinson.

Currently, Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is working on five projects that cost more than $5 million.

Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is currently restoring the North Fork Linville River in two phases, both of which cost $950,000 each. The North Fork Linville River was badly damaged when Hurricane Ivan came through the High Country in 2004, so Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is replacing the sediment, log veins, cross veins and rock veins on two one-mile sections of the river. As with most projects, Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development secured the funding, while other people or organizations contribute the physical labor.

Also, Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is helping to find funds to build a greenway in Sparta, to restore a section of river beside Grandfather Mountain Country Club and to find funds to restore the headwaters of the Watauga River near Grandfather Mountain.

The office for Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development is located at 1081-2 Old Highway 421 in Sugar Grove. For more information, call Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development at 828-297-5805.