Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2017 - 20

mountain report

American Chestnut Foundation Speeds
Process Toward Disease-Free Trees
And in North Carolina Mainspring Conservation Trust celebrates 20 years
with two easements.
by Cathryn McCue
This 1849 "pig iron" furnace is the centerpiece of a 4,672-acre tract of Botetourt County, Virginia land purchased by the Open Space Institute for purposes of conservation.

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The American Chestnut
Foundation has received
$600,000 in grants to
bolster efforts to restore
the tree species that was
nearly extirpated due to
a blight introduced in
the early 1900s. Crossbreeding the tree with
Chinese chestnut, which
is resistant to the blight,
is a laborious, timeconsuming process; the
funds will allow researchers to use genomic selection to speed the process
of predicting disease-free
"parent" trees from 30
years to five years. The
contributors are the
Colcom Foundation, Allegheny Foundation and
an anonymous foundation. acf.org

A new report outlines
numerous problems with
the proposed Atlantic
Coast Pipeline that
would carry natural gas
600 miles from W.Va.,
through Va. and into N.C.
Looking at the project's
impact on two national
forests, the Dominion
Pipeline Monitoring Coalition says it would fragment more than 2,400
acres of forest, potentially
harm 18 endangered,
threatened or at-risk
species, and pose threats
to water quality when
it crosses 58 mountain
streams, including 26 native brook trout streams.
The organization also
warns of potential landslides where the 42-inch
diameter pipeline would
cross steep slopes.
pipelineupdate.org

Mainspring Conservation
Trust has helped preserve
a 202-acre tract near the
Nantahala National Forest
in Jackson County that
protects the community's
viewshed and at least
eight headwater springs
that provide drinking
water for Western Carolina
University. Patrick and
Jeanne McGuire donated
the conservation easement. In Cherokee County,
George and Linda Jensen
contributed an easement
on 141 acres that include
old-growth forest and
headwaters of the Fishermare Branch. Celebrating
20 years this year, Mainspring has conserved more
than 25,000 acres over
six counties in western
North Carolina and Rabun
County, Georgia. mainspringconserves.org.

The Open Space Institute
has purchased the 4,672acre "Grace Furnace"
property adjacent to the
Jefferson National Forest
in Botetourt County for
$5 million in one of the
largest conservation
purchases in the region.
The land includes 14
freshwater springs that
feed into the James River
and more than 10 miles
of brook trout habitat. A
historic "pig iron" furnace
dating to 1849 which
likely supplied iron ore
during the Civil War is
on the property. Institute
spokeswoman Dene Lee
said the deal transpired
quickly, and OSI would
ultimately like to convey
the land to the U.S. Forest
Service. osiny.org.

Botetourt County is set
to host the state's first
commercial wind farm.
Virginia regulators have
approved the last necessary permit for the Rocky
Forge project, 25 wind
turbines on about 7,000
acres on North Mountain. The developer,
Apex Clean Energy, says
the turbines should start
spinning in 2018 and
generate enough electricity for 20,000 homes.
Apex agreed to stop the
550-foot tall turbines
during still summer
nights and to take other
precautions to limit bat
mortality. About 150
construction jobs, and
half a dozen permanent
jobs are expected.
apexcleanenergy.com

20 BlueRidgeCountry.com

http://www.W.Va http://www.acf.org http://www.apexcleanenergy.com http://www.osiny.org http://www.pipelineupdate.org http://www.springconserves.org http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com

Blue Ridge Country - May/June 2017

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