Industry Outreach Press Releases

Congress Funds A.T. Lands Projects

For Immediate Release
Brian B. King
(304) 535-6331, ext. 111
bking@appalachiantrail.org

Maine to Georgia, October 30, 2009 — From the Appalachian Trail Conservancy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONGRESS APPROVES THOUSANDS OF ACRES OF ADDED PROTECTION
FOR THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL

HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. (October 30, 2009)—Public agencies and private conservancies soon will be able to add thousands of acres of buffer lands around the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Tennessee, thanks to $9.8 million in appropriations approved by Congress late Thursday and sent to President Obama for signature before Sunday.

The funding comes as major projects along the Virginia quarter of the Appalachian Trail, supported with almost $2 million in federal appropriations last year, are close to settlement.

All of the projects funded as part of the fiscal 2010 appropriations bill for the Interior Department involve sensitive habitat for a variety of threatened plants and animals, key local watersheds and fisheries, and nonmotorized outdoor recreation benefitting local economies. The private Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), which coordinates management of the trail, led testimony before appropriations subcommittees in support of all the projects and is working on most with wide-ranging coalitions of local, state, and other national nonprofit organizations, with bipartisan support in Congress.

Since 1968, federal and state agencies have bought enough land to place 99 percent of the 2,178-mile footpath in public ownership, but that corridor is extremely narrow in spots and the trail's location in others is undesirable in terms of either users' safety or the experiences the public expects on America's premier national scenic trail.

Congress on Thursday approved:

• $6 million toward USDA Forest Service acquisition of the 10,000-acre Rocky Fork tract astride the Tennessee–North Carolina border, on top of $5 million appropriated in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 and earlier private and public funds secured by ATC, The Conservation Fund, the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, and the state of Tennessee, among others. This will allow a nearly three-mile trail relocation as further funding is sought for what is the top national land-acquisition project for the Forest Service.

• $1.82 million for about half the cost of National Park Service (NPS) purchase of five tracts totaling about 1,000 acres around White Rocks area in south-central Pennsylvania, where unbroken forest is threatened with plans for 274 residential lots on 277 of those acres. Matching state funds are being sought, with help with such preacquisition expenses as surveys already having come from the Conservation Alliance and a number of ATC-affiliated trail clubs.

• $1.38 million (the same as in fiscal 2009) to NPS for the so-called Mahoosucs Gateway Project in New Hampshire's Success Township on the Maine border, which will add 4,772 acres of forested protection along the north flank of six miles of one of the most rugged sections of the trail. Additional Forest Service funds are being sought for this project, in which The Conservation Fund has had the lead role.

• $625,000 or half the amount still needed for NPS acquisition of 1,000 acres straddling about 1.5 miles of the trail near Woodstock, Vt., a property known as Chateauguay–No Town. A private donor already has committed $500,000 to this project, which also is being spearheaded by The Conservation Fund.

Congress for 2009 also approved $1.25 million for a 400-acre parcel on the north side of the New River at Pearisburg, Va., which is allowing completion of the last major scheduled relocation for the 72-year-old footpath (around a large chemical plant), and $680,000 toward the purchase of a 170-acre historic farmstead along the trail in Smyth County, Va., near Ceres. The state of Virginia also has contributed monies toward the latter project, and a private donor contributed $150,000 to the ATC land trust for the New River project.

More details can be found on the Web at http://www.appalachiantrail.org/lands.

The three decades of funding ATC has successfully sought from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) have been critical to protection of the Appalachian Trail, which Congress included in the national park system in 1968 with the assurance that the volunteer-based ATC would continue to manage it and the publicly acquired lands surrounding it.

ATC is part of a national coalition seeking full funding of the authorized $900 million a year for the LWCF, the federal government's principal means of assisting in the preservation of natural open spaces, including parks, trails, and wildlife lands. Revenues from offshore oil and gas royalties are reinvested into land protection and outdoor recreation through the LWCF. In recent years, most of the money designated for this fund has been diverted to other federal programs. Congress is considering legislation that would permanently dedicate funds to the LWCF at its authorized level, met only once in the program's 25-year history.

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy, founded in 1925 by volunteers and federal officials who were working to build a continuous footpath on the Appalachian Mountains from Maine to Georgia, is focused solely on the protection, management, and promotion of the Appalachian Trail. It supports 6,000 volunteers in 30 affiliated local organizations who typically donate 200,000 hours a year on trail-related work. It has formal partnerships with the NPS, USFS, and the 14 states through which the trail passes.

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Contact: Brian B. King
Phone: (304) 535-6331, ext. 111
E-mail: bking@appalachiantrail.org

 
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