| Contact
Person: Paul Carlson, The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee
Phone: 828-524-2711, PCarlson@ltlt.org, www.ltlt.org
Fifty
Miles of River, Stream, and Reservoir Frontage Conserved under agreement
between Alcoa and The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee
| On
Tuesday, August 30th, the Franklin-based Land Trust for the
Little Tennessee (LTLT) signed a landmark conservation agreement
with Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (APGI), a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Alcoa, Inc., to protect 50 miles of reservoir, river and
stream frontage on the Little Tennessee and Cheoah Rivers, downstream
of Fontana Dam in Graham and Swain Counties. The agreement,
which conserves key lands connecting the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park with the Nantahala National Forest, is part of
a settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to
relicense Alcoa’s operation of four hydropower dams in
the Little Tennessee River Basin for the next forty years. |
Calderwood
Reservoir at the NC/TN Stateline. All of the shoreline
of Calderwood will be conserved under the LTLT Conservation
Easement.
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As a part of
APGI’s settlement agreement, Alcoa also granted conservation
easements on an additional 10,000 acres in Monroe and Blount counties
in Tennessee to the Tennessee chapter of The Nature Conservancy.
This sizeable tract of undeveloped land between the Great Smoky
Mountains and the Cherokee National Forest is "the largest
and most important tract east of the Mississippi," according
to Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), one of the major proponents of
the agreement. APGI has also established a conservation fund for
natural-resource stewardship and enhancement activities in Tennessee
and North Carolina, while additional measures called for under the
agreement include significant habitat enhancements on the free-flowing
portion of the Cheoah River in Graham County and improved recreational
access for boating and fishing in both states.
| Falls
of Yellow Creek in Graham County. Yellow Creek is the
principal tributary to the Cheoah River. All of the streams
in the lower Yellow Creek watershed will be conserved
under the Conservation Agreement between APGI and LTLT. |
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“With
this agreement, Alcoa has demonstrated, in a very tangible
way, their corporate goal of setting higher standards in the
areas of conservation and sustainability,” said Paul
Carlson, LTLT’s Executive Director. “The Land
Trust for the Little Tennessee is very pleased to be able
to work with Alcoa to guarantee the sound conservation management
of their waterfront lands in the Little Tennessee River Basin.”
This
conservation agreement comes 19 months after another 26 miles
of Little Tennessee River frontage was conserved upstream
of Fontana Reservoir when the Needmore Tract was purchased
by the State of North Carolina from Crescent Resources –
the real estate arm of Duke Energy. The Land Trust for the
Little Tennessee also played a major role in leading the campaign
to conserve the Needmore. To date LTLT has conserved another
5 miles of river frontage upstream of the Needmore Tract in
twelve separate projects in Macon County, protecting key farmland,
floodplain, wildlife habitat, and historic sites. |
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