From the Smoky Mountain News, January 21, 2015:

A new conservation agreement finalized by the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee will protect 104 acres in Cullowhee from development, preserving it for wildlife, small-scale agriculture and timber management.

The land, owned by Joan Byrd and Georg Rector, is the second tract that they’ve voluntarily placed restrictions on, preventing it from ever being developed.

“We both wanted in some way to help preserve the historical, rural character of Jackson County,” the couple said. “This is one of the fastest-growing counties in the region, and as the population increases, it is essential to protect the resources that people will demand in the future: farmland, clean water and healthy forests.”

The tract borders the Nantahala National Forest for 1,500 feet on the west side. To the east, it borders another conserved tract for 1,200 feet, which Rector and Byrd also own. It is visible from the Blue Ridge Parkway and includes 1.8 miles of forested streams. It’s home to bear, deer, turkey and forest songbirds.

The conservation easement diminishes their property value, but is a benefit to the region and environment, said John Culclasure, land protection manager for LTLT.

“We are grateful to have had the opportunity to protect what we have, but when it comes to conservation there is always so much more to be done, and we only wish we could contribute more,” the couple said.

The Conservation Trust of North Carolina helped fund the technical costs of the transaction.

Press Release:

104 acres of forested land in the viewshed of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Jackson County are now conserved thanks to two local landowners and The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee. LTLT worked with landowners Joan Byrd and George Rector to conserve the tract of land in the Bo Cove area of Speedwell, near Cullowhee. The owners donated a conservation easement on their property, which LTLT holds in trust.

This is the second conservation easement that Byrd and Rector have donated to LTLT. The first was a 40-acre tract in the same area, donated in 2006. The new 104-acre easement connects the Nantahala National Forest to the original 40-acre easement, creating a corridor of conserved lands. The newly conserved tract includes miles of forested streams, including a portion of Bryson Branch. The conservation easement permits forest management, small-scale agriculture and the construction of one home, but ensures that the land will not be subdivided or used for a high-density residential or commercial development.

Byrd, a retired professor from Western Carolina University, and Rector, a potter, reside in Cullowhee and are passionate supporters of conservation in western North Carolina. “We both wanted in some way to help preserve the historical, rural character of Jackson County,” said Rector, who himself grew up on 30 acres of farmland in Andrews. “This is one of the fastest growing counties in the region, and as the population increases, it is essential to protect the resources that people will demand in the future: farmland, clean water and healthy forests.”

John Culclasure, LTLT’s Land Protection Manager, was particularly pleased to work on this project. “This project conserves over a mile and a half of forested streams, whose cool waters are important for fish and other aquatic life. The diversity of forest community types is important for wildlife, and the adjacency to the national forest ensures critters have room to roam. George and Joan have made a tremendous contribution to conservation in Jackson County. ”

This project was made possible thanks to funding support from the Conservation Trust for North Carolina.

This article was written by Ryan Hanchett of The Franklin Press on January 2, 2015.
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After 18 years at the helm of the Land Trust of the Little Tennessee, Executive Director Paul Carlson is retiring from his position and will assume a part-time advisory role within the organization.

Carlson cited his health and a desire to spend more time with family as the primary reasons for his retirement.

“I have had a couple health concerns over the last year that caught my attention,” Carlson said. “After my older brother passed away unexpectedly it really kind of made me realize that maybe I need to step back while I am still relatively young and able to do the things I love.”

The decision to retire has been in the making for several months, and transitioning to a new executive director at the beginning of 2015 made sense for the organization.

“I think if I have a crowning achievement it’s reflected in the staff here at LTLT,” Carlson said. “I have thought about this transition for a while and obviously I knew there would come a time when I would no longer be executive director. Having such a dedicated and well-rounded staff has made it easy for me to feel comfortable with my decision.”

LTLT Deputy Director Sharon Fouts Taylor will succeed Carlson in the executive director’s chair. A Burningtown native, Taylor has spent her life in the rivers and streams of Western North Carolina. She also has served as Carlson’s land protection coordinator for more
than a decade.

“Sharon is smart, dedicated and extremely capable of handling the executive director’s role,” Carlson said. “She is a natural leader and I know she is going to do a great job.”

Since the inception of LTLT, the land trust has conserved approximately 24,000 acres of land in Western North Carolina – including 33 miles of Little Tennessee River frontage. The group has worked extensively in northern Macon County by purchasing the Needmore Tract, Hall Mountain and the historic Rickman Store.

“All of those projects are things that I look back on with great pride,” Carlson said. “Also, the projects we have done conserving watershed areas around municipalities like Waynesville, Sylva and Bryson City have helped protect major water sources and done a lot of good in our region.”

LTLT is currently working on a Nikwasi-to-Cowee Cultural Corridor project and looking at purchasing the old Duncan Oil property on East Main Street adjacent to the LTLT office space. Crews working with the underground tank division of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) are in the process of removing the underground fuel storage tanks at Duncan Oil in order to satisfy a potential brown field agreement between LTLT and NCDENR.

Once the brown field agreement can be finalized, LTLT will have the option to purchase the Duncan Oil property.

“Paul had the vision for this organization and without him the LTLT as it stands today would not have been possible,” Taylor said. “We have led the program together for the past 14 years, but it was his ability to see what was possible and make it happen that laid the groundwork for what we have accomplished.”

Carlson recruited Taylor to join the LTLT in the organization’s infancy. Before joining in 2001, Taylor was employed by the University of Georgia as a research technician on the Long Term Ecological Research Project at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in Otto.

“He came to me 14 years ago and asked if I would help him protect the Needmore Tract, and we have been working side by side ever since,” Taylor said. “Paul is a very good planner and he tends to think about the big picture, so having him around as a consultant to advise us will be invaluable to the future of the LTLT.”

Taylor recalled several projects that she has worked on with Carlson, but one Macon County conservation effort stuck out in her mind as a particularly impactful accomplishment.

“One project that I am particularly proud of is the Gibson Bottoms tract,” Taylor said. “There were plans to put an RV park with cabins and a separate waste processing package plant on that land. We were able to go in and work with the land owner to conserve that area and I was able to help lead those negotiations, so that is something I am very proud of.”

Taylor looks at how to move group forward

In her first year as executive director, Taylor hopes to expand on the community involvement of the organization through citizen science and teaching opportunities.

“We have the option to purchase this office space and that is something that we are going to really look into in the coming year,” Taylor said of the group’s current headquarters in Franklin. “I also want to increase our educational efforts and get the word out in the community of what we do as an organization. Our motto is ‘Conserve, Restore, Connect’ and I would like to strengthen the connect aspect of our work.”

Biologist Jason Meador, the LTLT citizen science program manager, and LTLT senior scientist and aquatic program specialist Dr. Bill McLarney recently alerted officials with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission about brook trout infected with gill lice in tributaries of the Cullasaja River.

The NCWRC immediately alerted fishermen to be on the lookout for the parasites in their potential catches.

“Science is such a big part of what we do here and I think sometimes that aspect of our work may get overlooked because it isn’t necessarily as visible as the land conservation work,” Taylor said. “Stream bank restoration projects, water quality monitoring and collecting biological data are vital to LTLT and through our citizen science program it offers us a way to connect with people in the community.”

As far as long-term projects on the horizon, Taylor noted that the LTLT may have to look at organizational rebranding to better promote its work across all of Western North Carolina, not just in Macon County.

“Going forward, we may consider a name change in order to better represent who we are as an organization,” Taylor said. “When people hear Land Trust of the Little Tennessee they automatically think of Macon County. But we also serve six other counties (including Rabun County, Georgia) and other waterways such as the Tuckaseegee and Hiwassee rivers.”