One NC Naturally
Partnerships in Conservation
Quarterly Electronic Newsletter
Office of Conservation and Community Affairs
Summer 2004

Key Conservation Projects for 2004

Conservation Agreement Signed on Upper Tar River Basin
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between International Paper, US Fish & Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC Partners in Flight, Tar River Land Conservancy and the NC Department of Environment & Natural Resources was celebrated on June 22, 2004. International Paper (IP) entered into an agreement with these parties for the conservation of riparian buffers within the Upper Tar River Basin. IP is one of the major landowners in the Upper Tar River Basin, with more than 57 miles of creek and river shoreline equating to 1390 acres under its management. The basin is nationally recognized for the number of rare and endangered aquatic species that reside in the watershed. One of the highlights of the conservation agreement is that fact that IP will maintain 200-foot wide riparian buffers on each side of the designated perennial stream with the first 50 feet being a no-harvest zone and the remainder being a Restricted Harvest Zone (RHZ) along the more than 57 miles of river and streams. Within the RHZ, management guidelines call for no clear cutting, avoiding conversion of hardwoods to pine, retaining trees important to wildlife such as den trees and mast-producing trees. IP will also try to conduct wood harvesting during the songbird non-breeding season, which is October to March.
For a copy of the Memorandum Of Understanding: http://nc-es.fws.gov.
Montreat Wilderness Permanently Protected
On June 4, 2004, the Town of Montreat celebrated a historic partnership that will permanently protect its remarkable 2,463-acres in the Flat Creek watershed from development. The principal partners are the Mountain Retreat Association, which owns the land; the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, which is supplying $3.9 million to purchase a conservation easement on the property; and The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, which facilitated the transaction and will perpetually monitor the easement. The site is one of the most important privately owned tracts in Western North Carolina. It anchors the south end of the Black Mountains range and is prominent in the panorama we see from the Blue Ridge Parkway and I-40 east of Asheville. It is adjacent to more that 125,000 acres of contiguous protected forestlands, including US Forest Service holdings, Blue Ridge Parkway lands, Mount Mitchell State Park and the Asheville Watershed. The easement will protect fifteen miles of state-designated "High Quality" waters, constituting one of the Swannanoa River's primary headwater sources.
www.appalachian.org
Montreat
More Protection for Yadkin River Headwaters
The Council of State signed off in December 2003 on the Mingo Tract, a 5,600-acre land acquisition, which will help protect headwaters of the Yadkin River in Caldwell County. The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund awarded a $13.5 million grant to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to help preserve the 5,621 acres outside of Lenoir for use as state gamelands. The grant will help preserve several streams on the property, which flow into the Yadkin River. The project will also protect water quality at Kerr Reservoir, which would have been affected if the property had been developed. An additional $7.5 million was brought to this project by the N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program in funding allocated by the state Board of Transportation. The state's Natural Heritage Trust Fund also will contribute $1 million to the project.
Mingo
TNC Acquisition Protects Headwaters

A celebration marking the donation of the 1400-acre Silver Run Preserve to The Nature Conservancy was held on July 22, 2004. The acquisition, located in Jackson and Transylvania counties, was made possible through the estate of Ernest Willis, a life member of The Nature Conservancy. The Willis Tract property is valued at nearly $15 million. The site of several of the headwaters streams of the Whitewater River, the preserve is surrounded on three sides by the Nantahala National Forest.

A biological inventory of the preserve is currently underway, and scientists expect to find federally and globally-imperiled plant species that have been identified nearby, including Pinkshell azalea, Fraser’s loosestrife, rock gnome lichen and the small whorled pogonia. The preserve contains excellent examples of a number of natural communities such as rock outcrops, spray cliff and seepage communities. It also supports healthy populations of bear, deer and turkey.

Silver Run will be the largest Conservancy-owned preserve along the Southern Blue Ridge Escarpment, which stretches from Hickory Nut Gorge southeast of Asheville and extends westward to the Chattooga watershed in Georgia. The escarpment boasts more than 300 rare species and natural communities due, in part, to its geological features and weather. The abrupt walls of mountains that make up the escarpment capture moist Gulf air, giving the region the highest rainfall east of the Pacific Cascades. The diversity in elevation, high rainfall, rushing rivers cascading through deep gorges, and extensive forest blocks create habitat for a wide diversity of plants, amphibians, mammals, birds and reptiles.