High Country conservation group closer to protecting Blowing Rock land

A High Country conservation group is moving closer to its goal of protecting the forests and waterways that make up the famous views from Blowing Rock.

Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina is hoping to acquire more than 300 acres for a permanent preserve under a plan that would also add a public trail system. The land includes the headways of the Johns River and its tributaries, which flow into the Catawba River.

Andrew Kota is executive director of the organization. He says the land will adjoin the recently acquired Cherry Tree Hollow land with its well-known views from Blowing Rock.

“It’s basically one of the last viewshed corridors from US 321 — looking sort of west-southwest that includes the Linville Gorge and Grandfather Mountain,” he says.  

The group’s effort to acquire the land got a boost this month with $150,000 from the state’s Environmental Enhancement Grant Program, funded through an agreement made in 2000 between the state’s attorney general’s office and Smithfield Foods.

Kota says the organization still needs about $1 million to complete the transaction for the land.