0299-GCG-FoothillsConservancy ESG24-FINALb (1) - Flipbook - Page 8
Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina
On
Landscape
Conservation
By Michael Gaffney,
Conservation and GIS Specialist
One of the privileges of protecting the mountains,
foothills, and valleys of Western North Carolina is
the ability to do what we call “landscape-scale”
conservation. This refers to protecting contiguous
tracts of land that add up to thousands or tens of
thousands of acres. A former teacher of mine used to
say that a landscape is what you see from 30,000 feet
up, peering out of an airplane window. Landscapes
extend across many different ecosystems, natural
communities, river channels, and mountains, forming
a stained-glass mosaic of unique habitats.
In Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina’s service area, one of our signature
landscapes is the South Mountains. These mountains, like the Brushy Mountains in
the northern section of our region, are classi昀椀ed as being within the Eastern Blue
Ridge Foothills ecoregion, suggesting that their fauna, 昀氀ora, and topography are
more similar to the higher-elevation mountains to the west than the Piedmont to the
east. The South Mountains are transitional, uniquely positioned between two of the
three major ecoregions of North Carolina.
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