After 11 years, the National Park Service (NPS) and the Town of Blowing Rock have completed an important land exchange that adds 192 pristine forested acres to the Parkway’s official boundary. In return, Blowing Rock received from NPS a 20-acre property that contains the town’s drinking water reservoir.

In 2001, CTNC kicked off the process by purchasing the 192-acre Johns River Gorge property before a developer could implement plans to build homes there. The tract, adjacent to Moses Cone Park and US Forest Service lands, contains healthy forests and wildlife habitat, and a beautiful hiking trail along the pristine waters of China Creek. (The trail will be available for public use).

The town of Blowing Rock and CTNC worked together to secure a grant from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund so that the town could purchase the property from CTNC in 2003. Since then, NPS and Blowing Rock have been working together to trade the properties. Federal land exchanges require congressional approval, and in 2010 President Obama signed into law the bill that both houses passed.

This is a huge win for the forest, creek, and trails. Thank you to all of you who communicated with your congressional offices and/or submitted supportive comments to the National Park Service.

CTNC donates more Blue Ridge Parkway property to NPS

The Blue Ridge Parkway just got a little bit wider: We donated a small but critical tract of protected land near Cumberland Knob to the National Park Service.

CTNC bought the Roaring Fork Headwaters II property with the intention of giving it to the park service for inclusion in the Parkway corridor.

In times when government has limited resources to protect critical land and water resources, the work of local conservation groups like CTNC is essential to our ability to safeguard the special charm of the Blue Ridge Parkway corridor,” said Phil Francis, Parkway superintendent.

CTNC purchased the 12.7-acre tract near Milepost 220.6 in August 2011 and transferred it to the National Park Service (NPS) early this month. It joins two more properties in the area that were also protected by CTNC and donated to NPS:

• Saddle Mountain Vista, a 201-acre property acquired by CTNC in 2004 with help from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund and donated to the NPS in 2007.
• Roaring Fork Headwaters I, a 49-acre tract purchased by CTNC in 2009 and donated to the NPS in 2010.

All three properties are highly visible from several Parkway vantage points including the Fox Hunters Paradise Overlook in the Cumberland Knob National Recreation Area. They all contain headwater streams of Roaring Fork, a tributary of the Fisher River, and headwaters of the Yadkin River, which provides drinking water for a million people in the North Carolina Piedmont, including residents of Winston-Salem.

The three properties are part of a growing landscape of protected land in the area. They lie north of the 3,400-acre Saddle Mountain Wilderness area and south of the 1,000-acre Cumberland Knob National Recreation Area.

Financial support for the purchase of Roaring Fork Headwaters II was provided by the Cannon Foundation, the John and Anna Hanes Foundation, the Tom and Elaine Wright Family Fund, the Park Foundation, other private donors, and the N.C. Environmental Enhancement Grants Program.

Undeveloped property will be urban oasis for Asheville

An eight-acre sanctuary of wooded beauty near downtown Asheville will be permanently protected from development thanks to a donation from CTNC.

We transferred the Falconhurst Natural Area to the city of Asheville this month in an agreement that will bar development of the site while allowing some improvements for public use, such as unpaved hiking trails and footbridges across tributaries to Smith Mill Creek on the tract’s eastern edge.

The property is named for the Falconhurst neighborhood in which it lies. It is a rare, unspoiled area of rolling hills and trees off busy Patton Avenue, just two miles west of downtown, and is adjacent to a city-owned property that will provide access. The undeveloped property has long been the focus of nearby residents’ efforts to preserve it in an unspoiled state and make it available for public enjoyment.

“The donation of the Falconhurst property is a great opportunity and example of partnership between CTNC and the city to preserve a significant natural area in West Asheville,” said Asheville Mayor Terry M. Bellamy. “I believe the property is an exceptional addition to our city and will become a popular attraction for area residents.”

The property was donated to CTNC in 1996 by Buncombe County. CTNC protected it from development, though it has not been open to the public. The Asheville City Council voted March 26, 2009, to accept the property from CTNC. In partnership with CTNC, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, Asheville’s local land trust, will conduct annual monitoring of the property to ensure compliance with the deed restrictions.

“When we talk about conserving our natural treasures, most people think about huge parks, forests or rolling farmland,” said Reid Wilson, CTNC executive director. “Many city residents and their families love those places, but don’t have easy access to them. Increasingly, land trusts are helping to build healthy communities by protecting small pocket parks, such as this one, that are easy for all citizens to enjoy.”

Foundation makes 3-year grant to CTNC

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation is continuing its generous support of our conservation efforts with a three-year, $225,000 grant.

The recent gift from the Foundation, based in Winston-Salem, will help us accelerate land and water protection, providing a strong foundation for healthy communities across the state through our support, promotion and representation of North Carolina’s 23 local land trusts, and our protection of land along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

By working with willing landowners to protect their properties, land trusts help protect drinking water supplies, parkland and trails, working farms and forests, wildlife habitat, and other natural areas. In North Carolina, they’re increasingly working with banks and the real estate community to protect foreclosed properties that have high conservation value; connecting more people especially children and their parents with nature; opening more land trust properties to the public; and creating alliances with people and communities who have not traditionally worked with or been served by land trusts.

CTNC helps their work by providing grants, making loans for land acquisitions, leading efforts to promote government funding and policy support for conservation, and building public awareness of the benefits of land conservation. We also work directly with landowners to protect properties along the Blue Ridge Parkway’s natural and scenic corridor.

“The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s generous grant is critical to helping CTNC and the land trust community adopt a new definition of shared success that includes not just acres protected but access for all people to conservation’s benefits,” Associate Director Margaret Newbold said. “The Foundation’s longstanding support of land conservation and building healthy communities has made a tremendous difference in quality of life for all North Carolinians. This grant in particular will allow CTNC to help North Carolina’s land trusts carry out new strategies in land and water protection during challenging economic times.”

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest son of the founder of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and has made grants totaling $484 million to recipients in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties. The Foundation currently gives special attention to projects affecting community economic development, the environment, strengthening democracy, pre-collegiate education, and social justice and equity.