Foothills Conservancy Autumn Update

Autumn in the Foothills
Submitted by The Foothills Conservancy
Celebrating 15 Years of Land and Water Conservation in the Blue Ridge and Foothills of North Carolina

What do you love about autumn? Is it the crisp, cool air against your face? Spending time with loved ones, or just sitting on the porch watching the leaves fall? If you are anything like us, you love it all, and there isn't a better time to get out and enjoy the places you love; places like the Bovender farm in Rutherford County or Wild and Scenic Wilson Creek in Caldwell County, or one of our many state parks such as South Mountains State Park, Chimney Rock State Park or the newly opened addition of Lake James State Park. Your support over the years has helped protect these special places so get out and enjoy them. The state parks and national forests belong to you.

Bovender Farm Tour -Saturday, October 23 - Tour the historic 1,000-acre Bovender Farm in Rutherford County’s Gilkey Community on Saturday, Oct. 23 from 10 until noon. Enjoy a wagon ride around the scenic farm with Tim and Nell Bovender and Foothills Conservancy staff, and learn about how they have worked with the conservancy to permanently protect it with an agricultural conservation agreement. Meet at the farm located at 202 Flack Rd., Rutherfordton, NC

For more information call 828-437-9930 or email info@foothillsconservancy.org or visit our website.

Meet our 2010 Ruby Pharr Conservation Volunteer of the Year: Jim Goldsmith, a conservancy board member and Marion attorney was named the 2010 Ruby Pharr Conservation Volunteer of the Year for his dedication and leadership in protecting the Catawba River’s headwaters and service as a conservancy board member and volunteer.

“Jim exemplifies the spirit of this special volunteer award,” said Susie Hamrick Jones, Foothills Conservancy’s executive director. “A McDowell native, he has been a champion of our efforts to protect the source waters of the Catawba River in western McDowell County and to achieve, earlier this year, public trail access to Catawba Falls in Pisgah National Forest.

“He is one of our longest-serving board members, serving as board chairman for several years, leading our land protection committee, and currently serving as vice chairman,” she said. “His commitment of time and expertise has helped Foothills Conservancy become one of the state’s most effective land trusts – protecting more than 45,000 acres across the eastern Blue Ridge Mountains and foothills since 1995 at places like Catawba Falls, Chimney Rock, South Mountains, Lake James and the Linville Gorge, and Wilson Creek.”

“I am honored to receive Foothills Conservancy’s Ruby Pharr award for many reasons,” Goldsmith said. “Foothills Conservancy has achieved such spectacular results protecting the geographic area we serve. But since the award is named for Ruby, whom I admire and respect, and the award plaque carries her name, it is an especially meaningful honor to me.”

The award is named in honor of Ruby Pharr, a founding and current Foothills Conservancy board member and former board chairman whose own outstanding volunteer efforts helped Foothills Conservancy protect tens of thousands of acres in the South Mountains.  Foothills Conservancy presents this special award annually to an individual or group whose volunteer efforts have had a major positive impact on the conservation of special places in the conservancy’s eight-county Blue Ridge Mountains and foothills region.