0325-GCG-FoothillsConservancy_ESG25_12-18 (2) - Flipbook - Page 13
2025 Impact Report / Celebrating 30 Years
milestone acquisitions, such as Lone Mountain and the
Rollins Tract, and conservation easements with families
like Tim and Nell Bovender of the Gilkey community, set
the stage for decades of continued success.
Building on that foundation, and catalyzed by Burke
County’s grassroots group, Citizens to Save Lake
James, FCNC played a key role in the land and water
preservation at Lake James and its surrounding Blue
Ridge watersheds. Over the years, our land protection
achievements have expanded to include preserves
along the Broad and Catawba Rivers, the Henry
Fork, Jacob Fork, and Johns Rivers in the Pinnacle
Mountains area of the South Mountains and along
Wilson Creek—a National Wild and Scenic River. FCNC
has secured public access to Catawba Falls and
several other locations in the Pisgah National Forest,
helped expand and establish multiple state parks and
game lands such as Chimney Rock, Bobs Creek, Johns
River, Buffalo Cove, and North Bend, and contributed to
the Overmountain Victory, Fonta Flora, and Wilderness
Gateway State Trails, all ecologically and culturally
important landscapes and pathways.
As we look ahead, FCNC remains committed to
connecting and protecting even more of our region’s
cherished places, the rural farms, woodlands,
watersheds, and mountains whose biodiversity and
history link us to each other and to this incredible place:
Hickorynut Mountain, North Cove, Armstrong Creek,
Turkey Cove, Blowing Rock’s Johns River Headwaters,
the Upper Yadkin River, Happy Valley, the Brushy
Mountains, Bakers Mountain, and the First Broad River.
Each new project preserves not only the land and water
it holds, but the stories, livelihoods, and recreation that
make Western North Carolina extraordinary.
All of this is possible because of you, our supporters,
partners, and friends. Together, we are safeguarding
the foothills and mountains for generations to come.
Keep Inspired.
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