CWMTF tentatively approved its largest grant ever with an award of $6.56 million to preserve 1,312 acres of land bordering Mountain Island Lake, from which approximately 8 % of the state's population gets its drinking water, including Charlotte and several towns and cities in Mecklenberg and Gaston Counties. This acquisition is only one part of a $25 million strategy to preserve this important water quality resource. CWMTF also approved approximately $3.85 million towards a $7 million project that will secure nearly 18,000 acres of land in Tyrell County, adjacent to the Outstanding Resource Waters of the Alligator River, and linking the Pocosin Lakes and Alligator River Wildlife Refuges. This land will be managed as a part of North Carolina's Estuarine Research Reserve.
An award of $2.75 million was approved for the Triangle Land Conservancy to acquire and preserve critical lands along New Hope Creek in the rapidly growing communities of Durham and Chapel Hill. Other local governments receiving grants to acquire streamside buffer properties include: Ramseur (up to $134,000), Maiden (up to $360,000), Greenville (up to $270,000), Yadkinville (up to $980,000), Gastonia (up to $347,000) and Edenton (up to $880,000). The Conservation Fund received a grant of up to $294,300 to secure a restrictive conservation easement on 600 acres of land adjacent to the Outstanding Resource Waters of the Tuckaseigee River. Two challenge grants were made to the Land Trust for Central North Carolina, one for up to $500,000 to establish and preserve 800 acres of buffering lands in the Yadkin River watershed, and one for $50,000 to help preserve the exceptional wetlands of Clarke Creek in Cabarrus County. A grant of $550,000 was made to the NC Division of State Parks to assist in the acquisition oof 832 acres adjacent to the Lumber River.
One final award of $650,000 was made to Pamlico County to supplement an earlier grant to them to build a land application wastewater treatment system.
There are 93 applications for over $100 million under review during this funding cycle. These applications were received by the Trust Fund prior to December 1 of last year. Another application cycle will be conducted this summer, as the Fund will consider proposals received before June 1, 1998. In late April, the Board of Trustees, which also denied funding for 19 projects at this most recent meeting, will conclude their deliberations on the remaining 35 projects, most of which deal with sewer infrastructure projects.
Contact Persons (CWMTF Field representatives): In the mountains, Tom Massie, 704-586-4133; in the piedmont, Bern Schumak, 704-947-0506; and in the east, Damon Tatum, 919-441-6672.
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