SAHC receives several grants

A release from the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy...

The SAHC has been awarded grants from the Janirve Foundation and the Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina to support its efforts to preserve local working farms and protect water quality.

The Janirve Foundation awarded SAHC an $18,000 grant to support its Farmland Preservation Initiative. Through this initiative, SAHC has already protected over 3,000 acres of working farms in Buncombe, Madison, and Haywood counties. The Janirve grant will enable SAHC to reach out to additional farmers in agricultural communities such as Sandy Mush, Fairview, and Spring Creek, and complete conservation easements on farms in those communities.

A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement a landowner can enter with an organization such as SAHC, in which the landowner agrees not to convert the property to a real estate development, but continues to own and use the land as they have been doing. Landowners who enter conservation easement agreements can potentially qualify for federal and state income tax benefits. This makes conservation easements a powerful tool for preserving farms in the mountains.

The Janirve Foundation is a private grant-making foundation established by the late Irving J. Reuter, an executive in the automobile industry. Janirve has a strong commitment to land and water conservation and has supported SAHC in the past in its efforts to preserve clean drinking water, wildlife habitat, farms and scenic landscapes in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Pigeon River Fund has awarded SAHC a $25,000 grant to support the organization working with farmers in the Spring Creek community in Madison County. The objective of this focused effort is to secure conservation easements that protect and improve water quality in Spring Creek and its tributaries.

The Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina was created by the State of North Carolina and Progress Energy to improve water quality in the streams and rivers of Haywood, Buncombe and Madison counties. The fund provides grants to nonprofit and public agencies that improve surface water quality, enhance fish and wildlife habitat, expand public access and increase awareness about protecting these resources.