0299-GCG-FoothillsConservancy ESG24-FINALb (1) - Flipbook - Page 22
Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina
443 ACRES
Assembling FCNC’s
Henry Fork River
Preserve and
the Wilderness
Gateway State Trail
Prospect Ridge
Planning, patience, perseverance, and partnership.
These qualities are fundamental to advancing land and
water protection, especially in instances where parcels
of land are assembled over long periods of time and
uni昀椀ed into large conservation preserves. Such are the
attributes Foothills Conservancy of NC’s staff and our
collaborators exercised and exhibited over more than a
decade to build the Conservancy’s 850-acre Henry Fork
River Preserve south of Morganton in Burke County.
Earlier this year, with funding support from the NC
Land and Water Fund, FCNC placed a state-held
conservation easement on a 443-acre tract of land
that was, in essence, the missing puzzle piece to link
20
together seven previously acquired conservation
parcels around the Henry Fork River. The journey to
assemble this preserve began back in 2010, when
Conservancy staff completed a riparian corridor
conservation plan for the Henry Fork and Jacob Fork
rivers that identi昀椀ed lands critical to protecting water
quality in these two high-quality streams, which
originate among protected land in South Mountains
State Park and merge in southern Catawba County to
create the South Fork Catawba River.
It wasn’t until four years after the planning process
was complete, in 2014, that FCNC began the land
acquisition process with two parcels of land along
River Road and the Henry Fork river, between NC 18 to
the north and Old NC 18 to the south. These 85 acres
feature a highly signi昀椀cant natural area, Smiths Cliffs,
with rock outcrops that serve as habitat for several
rare plant species. Independently, this acreage is
important because of the unique and rare Smiths
Cliffs and associated plant life, but FCNC staff knew
these parcels could serve as an anchor point for
greater conservation in the headwaters of the
Henry Fork river.
Over the next four years, 昀椀ve more land acquisition
opportunities surfaced in the vicinity, and with support
