June 5, 2008 issue
Mast General Store Celebrates Land Trust Day on June 7
The Mast General Store celebrates Land Trust Day on Saturday, June 7. Recognized for the sixth year at Mast Store, Land Trust Day is a friend-raising event encouraging new memberships in local land trusts, as well as an educational opportunity to learn how these groups unite the past and future by preserving our land heritage.
“According to the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, the state has lost 2.8 million acres of cropland and forest land to development over the last 20 years. By 2022, it is projected that certain areas of North Carolina will experience an additional 50 percent decrease in their forests and cropland,” said John Cooper, president of the Mast General Store. “With those statistics in mind, it’s more important than ever to have an active plan to protect our open farmland, scenic vistas and significant landmarks for future generations to enjoy and benefit from, not just in North Carolina, but throughout the Southeast. Our annual Land Trust Day helps highlight local organizations that are working hard to do just that.”
Representatives from High Country Conservancy, Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust and the National Committee for the New River will be on hand at the Mast Stores in the High Country on Saturday to share with guests the activities they are undertaking to conserve the open spaces in the region. The Mast General Store will donate 20 percent of that day’s sales to the organizations.
The three land trusts in the High Country area have different focuses that translate into many of the same goals—preserving our land heritage.
The National Committee for the New River (NCNR) is the oldest organization, founded in 1974 to stop two dams proposed for the free-flowing New River. Although its land trust arm is not as old as the organization itself, it is quite active in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. NCNR envisions a permanently protected New River as a treasured natural resource. The mission of NCNR is to advocate for successful protection of the New River, to restore eroding river and stream banks, to enhance riparian habitat and to permanently protect land along the river. Over the last 31 years, the organization has protected nearly 5,000 acres of land important to the river’s water quality and scenic and natural values and has restored more than 56 miles of river and stream bank.
High Country Conservancy (HCC) was founded in 1997 with a focus on protecting the natural resources of Appalachia by conserving land with significant ecological, cultural, recreational and scenic value in Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties. Most recently, HCC helped expand Elk Knob State Park with two easements totaling almost 100 acres. The easements were pulled together in a record four months with help of the North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust, the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund and the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, as well as private donors who pledged to support the project. Elk Knob now totals more than 2,600 acres.
Active for 11 years, Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust (BRRLT) has protected more than 8,300 acres at 69 sites in northwest North Carolina. Currently, BRRLT is working on several properties totaling more than 4,500 acres and spread throughout its service area. Former BRRLT Executive Director James H. Coman was presented the Governor’s Award as Conservationist of the Year for 2007. This award recognizes his extraordinary ability to protect the state’s farm and forest lands. Much of the land preserved by BRRLT is a part of the “working landscape,” with its barns, fields and homes still serving their intended uses.
The land trust movement is not new. Some land trusts have been in place for more than a century. In the past five years, the amount of land protected by local and regional land trusts has doubled nationwide. Currently, more than 1,600 land trusts are active across the nation. These organizations are extraordinarily successful in their missions, having protected more than 37 million acres of land, according to the National Land Trust Census.
“We are excited about providing this opportunity to the land trusts in our local areas,” said Cooper. “President Theodore Roosevelt said in 1912, ‘There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.’ Those words still ring true today. The preservation activities in our area are beneficial to the quality of life for residents and go a long way to further the sustainability of the tourism industry, a mainstay of our economy.”
For more information on land trusts, stop by the information tables on Saturday, June 7, at all Mast Store locations. For more information on the land trusts, click to www.highcountryconservancy.org, www.brrlt.org or www.ncnr.org.
Footsloggers Hosts Land Trust Day Saturday
In addition to the Mast Store, Footsloggers is celebrating Land Trust Day this Saturday, June 7, at its location on Depot Street in downtown Boone. Twenty percent of both stores’ sales will go to support High Country Conservancy, Blue Ridge Rural land Trust and the National Committee for the New River. For more information, call 828-262-5111.
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