East Fork Headwaters

Our funding supported Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy’s East Fork Headwaters Project to permanently protect 8,000 acres of the Blue Ridge Escarpment and 50 miles of headwaters streams of the French Broad River through the creation of a Southern Appalachian National Wildlife Refuge, establishing a contiguous chain of 1,000,000 acres of publicly accessible wilderness. CMLC reports that they have acquired 2,099 acres in the project area, and have transferred that land to the state of North Carolina to manage. With this significant acquisition complete, the group will focus on acquiring the remaining 6,000 acres.