Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016 - 9

mountain report

Foothills Conservancy Saves N.C. Lands

And at Virginia Tech, researchers are trying to unlock the mysteries
of poison ivy, especially as it occurs along the Appalachian Trail.
by Cathryn McCue
JANICE WALD FRIEDMAN

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The Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina received a $1 million grant to help protect streams at Wildacres Retreat, above.

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arouNd the regioN

North CaroLiNa

North CaroLiNa

The U.S. Forest Service has
flagged several trouble
spots along the proposed
route of the controversial
Atlantic Coast Pipeline,
which would carry natural gas 600 miles from
W.Va., through Va. and
into N.C. The agency has
requested that the pipeline company, Dominion
Resources, re-evaluate
places where pipeline
or access roads would
cross four wild brook
trout streams. The Forest
Service earlier this year
rejected Dominion's first
route proposed through
national forest land due
to ecological impacts.
A draft environmental
study for public comment
is due out by the end of
the year. roanoke.com

With the acquisition of
a 377-acre parcel this
summer, the Foothills
Conservancy of North
Carolina reached a major
milestone of protecting more than 50,000
acres in its 20 years of
operation. The Ivy Creek
tract will be added to the
South Mountain State
Park in Burke County.
"We truly appreciate
the many landowners,
partners and supporters who have helped us
reach this milestone,"
says executive director
Susie Hamrick Jones.
"Together, we are leaving
a legacy of protection
for and public access to
irreplaceable natural
areas and iconic places."
foothillsconservancy.org

A $1 million state grant
to Foothills Conservancy
of North Carolina will
help with the purchase
of conservation easements along five miles of
streams on the Wildacres
Retreat property, protecting public drinking water
sources in the Catawba
River Basin, including
Lake James. The conservancy and Conservation
Trust for North Carolina
are partnering to help
protect the property. "This
place provides an atmosphere that is conducive
to learning and growing,
and our board is in full
support of placing the
land in a conservation
easement," says Wildacres
director Philip Blumenthal. wildacres.org

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Three Virginia Tech
researchers are launching an investigation
into poison ivy-which
many know, but about
which little is known.
The team, led by associate professor John
Jelesko, started their
work at McAfee Knob
on the Appalachian
Trail, mapping the
plant's growth patterns
and genetic make-up. A
previous study showed
that as the planet
warms, poison ivy will
grow faster, bigger and
more toxic. Jelesko
hopes to document poison ivy along the entire
AT, enlisting citizen scientists in geo-tagging
poison ivy populations.
vt.edu/index.html

Under a legal settlement with three
environmental groups,
coal company Alpha
Natural Resources will
pay $7.5 million for
restoring mining sites
and numerous streams
in West Virginia. The
deal settles Clean Water
Act claims the groups
had made against
Alpha, and is in addition
to its cleanup obligations required by law.
According to federal
surveys, West Virginia
has approximately $1.5
billion worth of cleanup
of abandoned coal mine
lands. The restoration
projects will be done
by a nonprofit, Appalachian Headwaters.
content.sierraclub.org/
press-releases
November/December 2016 9

http://www.roanoke.com http://www.foothillsconservancy.org http://www.wildacres.org http://www.vt.edu/index.html http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases

Blue Ridge Country - November/December 2016

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