NC Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources announces grants, including grants to Buncombe, Haywood, Polk and Swain counties:
Ten groups with projects initially put on a waiting list for state Clean Water Management Trust Fund dollars have received the good news that grant funds are now available for their requested projects.
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund informed the recipients in recent weeks that their projects were to be funded after the trust fund received anticipated revenue from specialty license plates and money from award recipients able to return unused portions of money for past projects.
The projects to be funded include a few that will add to greenway systems and others that protect areas with rare plants and animals. The list also includes a project that will preserve training areas for the U.S. Marine Corps and another that will enable a group to protect the earthworks at the site of a Civil War battle. The recently announced awards total more than $4.5 million in grants from the trust fund.
“The effort to provide clean drinking water, conserve natural areas, and preserve our past is critically important for both current and future generations,” said Bryan Gossage, the trust fund’s director. “I’m pleased that resources will be provided to these great projects that protect North Carolina’s natural and cultural resources.”
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund helps finance the state’s significant natural resource needs, including land conservation and protection of surface water quality. The trust fund is a program in the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and is financed through the state budget and part of annual license plate receipts.
A partial list of those awards recently announced includes:
· $1 million to help conserve 324 acres of land and protect water quality in Cabarrus County. The project, along the Rocky River and Mallard Creek riparian corridors, will also enable additions to the Carolina Thread Trail, a 15-county regional greenway.The Catawba Lands Conservancy expects the project will protect 82.9 acres of riparian corridor and 1.9 miles of riparian corridor in the Yadkin/Pee Dee River Basin.
· $1 million awarded to The Conservation Fund to help purchase 365 acres in Haywood County that contain parts of the Sheepback Knob Natural Area and Carpenter Branch, a stream and local source of drinking water.
· $352,630 to be used with other public and private funds to help protect about 32 acres along Canie Creek in Buncombe County and provide a future extension of the Hominy Creek Greenway. The parcel boasts two wetlands for numerous birds and amphibians and is the former site of the Sulphur Springs Hotel, which once served as a health and recreational retreat from the 1800s to 1940.
· $400,000 to help restore 6,100 linear feet of the North Pacolet River in Polk County. The project will involve streambank stabilization construction along 1.2 miles of the river.
· $270,000 toward a project that will conserve 128 acres on the Little Tennessee River in Swain County. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will use a grant from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire the Allen Tract and ensure the protection of critical wildlife and aquatic habitats on a portion of the Little Tennessee River. The project also will improve public access to a portion of the Needmore Game Land by providing contiguous state ownership of property in the area.
· $187,000 to help acquire about 13 acres in Davidson County that contains parts of the Yadkin River and the former Fort York historic site, home to one of the last Confederate victories of the Civil War. Unaware the Civil War had ended three days prior, southern troops fought at this site in April 1865 to prevent the destruction of a rail bridge, which had become an economic lifeline in the region. Plans are to eventually open the property to educate people about the history of the fort, long identified as one of North Carolina’s most significant unprotected historic sites.
· $130,518 to buy 75 acres along Jarrett Bay and Howland Creek in Carteret County. Among its benefits, the grant awarded to the Conservation Fund will enable the fund to help preserve and protect coastal and estuarine wetlands and habitat, and preserve and protect military flyways for Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.
· $170,900 to help buy about 94 acres along Ledge Creek and Lake Rogers in Granville County and help expand the city of Creedmoor’s greenway system. The town intends to use its funds as well as money from the Clean Water Management Trust and the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative to purchase the property.The entire list of projects can be found on the Clean Water Management Trust Fund’s website at www.cwmtf.net.
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