The Conservation Trust for North Carolina recently protected 22.7 acres along Boone Fork Creek near Boone in Watauga County. The Conservation Trust purchased the property to preserve the stream’s outstanding aquatic resources and a valuable section of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s natural corridor for wildlife. Boone Fork Creek supports exemplary natural communities and a number of rare plant and animal species. The newly acquired property will protect 1,330 feet of the stream along both banks.

The property is located between Grandfather Mountain and Julian Price Lake near milepost 298 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Conservation Trust has been working alongside other conservation organizations on a landscape-scale conservation effort to protect Boone Fork Creek, a stream classified as “Outstanding Resource Waters,” and recreational opportunities at Julian Price Park. The Conservation Trust holds a conservation agreement on a 21.6-acre property immediately downstream from the recently purchased property and adjacent to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The property also complements a 925-acre conservation agreement held by the NC Chapter of the Nature Conservancy that protects the Creek’s headwaters upstream from the recently purchased property.

Tom and Barbara Lankford sold the property to the Conservation Trust at below market price. The property is located in an area highly threatened by development and rapidly rising land prices. The Conservation Trust purchased the property with the help of a generous contribution from Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury, NC. The Conservation Trust hopes to receive additional funding from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

Your donation helps land trusts protect North Carolina’s most valuable land and water resources from inappropriate development. Please contribute to the Conservation Trust and/or your local land trust today to save clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, parks and trails, and other natural areas in our state.