Blue Ridge Forever initiative:

“Have you ever returned after a few year's absence to a favorite outdoors spot for hiking or maybe fishing

and found houses and sedimentation very close to your spot?

Well, here's some more talk of action to keep more such places the way they are but $25,000 is not even one ten thousandth of the money that would be needed for this initiative to reach its goal! For example, the owners of the private theme park called 'Chimney Rock' now want to sell to anyone including the state of North Carolina but are asking $55 million for their few hundred acres.



"The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina recently awarded $25,000 to a group of 13 land conservation organizations working collectively to protect wildlife habitat, farmland, scenic landscapes and clean drinking water in the southern region of Western North Carolina’s. Blue Ridge Mountains.

The conservation organizations are embarking on a five-year campaign called “Blue Ridge Forever” that seeks to protect 50,000 acres of critical land and water resources in the Southern Blue Ridge by 2010."

http://www.smokymountainnews.com/issues/08_06/08_02_06/out_land_trust_campaign.html
last edited: 8/03/06 6:28:21 AM”

“The most beautiful thing about the Blue Ridge Mountains is the view one could get from the deck on their new condo. =>”

“There is and will continue to be for some time increasingly available such views from decks of condos

with something on the order of $3 to 4 billion or more dollars spent this year on new housing and residential infrastructure construction in WNC.

So, the announcement of a $25,000 fund to promote preservation of wildlands here is relatively trivial, almost meaningless.

Although, bigger efforts are in the works.”