Foothills Conservancy is dedicated to working together with you and others to preserve and protect the places we all love across the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains and Foothills, including watersheds, environmentally significant habitats and forests and farm lands for this and future generations. Read more »
Box Creek Wilderness Ranked Among the Rarest of the Rare
Endangered species inhabit its woodlands and over 50 miles of pristine streams flow freely through its forests.
Among North Carolina’s 2,400 Significant Natural Heritage Areas (SNHAs), the privately-owned 5,800-acre Box Creek Wilderness on the Rutherford-McDowell county line is now ranked among the rarest of the rare.
Recent rankings announced by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (NCDENR) Natural Heritage Program, place the Box Creek Wilderness in the top 1 percent of the state’s SNHAs – at 24th.
The ranking is based on the collective value index, which sums all the different rare species and communities weighted by their rarity.
Burr urges Congress to increase conservation efforts
BY J. REYNOLDS HUTCHINS
MORGANTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) joined Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) on Tuesday to introduce new legislation on the Senate floor urging their fellow congressmen to dedicate consistent and reliable funds to land and water conservation efforts nationwide.
The bill, cosponsored by five other congressmen, would amend the current Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF Act of 1965.
Donated Conservation Easement Protects Paddy Creek and Lake James
September 17, 2012-MORGANTON, NC- Almost three-quarters of a mile of the clear, clean waters of Paddy Creek and its tributaries, which emerge from Pisgah National Forest and flow into Lake James, will be forever protected by a permanent conservation easement donated to Foothills Conservancy on a 100-acre farm by co-owners Dr. William G. Orrison and Dr. Andrew and Bridgette Davis.
Yadkin River Farm and Woodlands Protected by Conservation Easement Gift
-June 8, 2012 Morganton, NC – In Happy Valley, landowners Margaret and Richard Martine permanently protected the productive farmland and forests of their historic 182-acre farm along one-half mile of the Yadkin River with the generous donation this spring of a conservation easement to Foothills Conservancy.
