(Note from Leonard Hensley: Also in Old Fort, McDowell County, NC, is another tract that the Department of Water Quality/Department of Environmental and Natural Resources is spending tax funds on -- to remove from public access the headwaters of the Catawba River. DWQ/DENR is spending $200,000.00 to restore a flood-plain river park in Marion (15 miles east) that God and some teenagers took out as soon as it was finished the first time ... The teenagers destroyed all the fixtures. God took what was left with a nice flood. " ... WHAT budget deficit?" you may well ask! These 'projects' are nothing more than the redirection of needed public monies by government and the expectation that the public will continue to ignore the lies.)

December 1, 2002

By Julie Ball

jball@citizen-times.com

828-232-5851

Asheville Citizen-Times

Asheville, North Carolina

To submit a Letter to the Editor: editor@citizen-times.com  (200-word limit)

OLD FORT - A local land trust is getting more than $400,000 in grant money to preserve property near the headwaters of the Catawba River.

The conservancy was recently awarded $444,000 in grant money from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The money will help purchase a conservation easement along 3.5 miles of stream, said Carl Silverstein, executive director of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy.

The project will protect five tributary streams and wetland areas, according to the Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The Pisgah National Forest surrounds the 318-acre tract on three sides.

"The Catawba River starts there," said Andy Brown, conservation planner and president of Equinox Environmental Consultation and Design Inc. "We're talking about keeping sediment and other pollutants away from that source."

Property owners Mary and Arthur Joe Hemphill, Jr., Black Mountain have agreed to give up development rights through a conservation easement. They are selling the development rights for less than they are worth, according to Silverstein. Hemphill's father bought the land back in the 1940s.

"I grew up on the property. I love the property. And I want to see it stay like it is," Joe Hemphill said.

Silverstein said development pressure in the area is growing. Four large tracts near the land have already been sold. Mountain views and proximity to Asheville make the land ripe for development.

The project will help protect the headwaters of an important source of drinking water in North Carolina, according to Susie Hamrick Jones, executive director of Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina, based in Morganton. About 1.5 million people in North Carolina get their water from the Catawba River, Jones said.

"It (the project) is a great example of the landowners and the state and the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, a land trust, working together to achieve protection," she said.

Silverstein said the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy hopes to finalize the deal by next spring. In addition to the state grant, the conservancy received $25,000 in grant money from the Cannon Foundation, but still needs to raise about $80,000, he said.

http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/