RiverLink hosts French Broad River Paddle Trail Community Meetings

Thanks to a grant from the Pigeon River Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, RiverLink is able to follow up its very successful River Access Guide with a canoe camping trail along the French Broad River.

RiverLink's Watershed Resources Manager, Nancy Hodges, is working with an Advisory Council chaired by long-time river manager and paddler Stephen Hendricks, a semi-retired landscape architect with the Forest Service. Currently he serves as the Vice President of the River Management Society for the Southeast and part-time consultant for the National Park Service. Stephen is a 32-year veteran of the U.S. Forest Service, having served primarily in the Southern Appalachian National Forests. He served as Planner/Landscape Architect for the National Forests in North Carolina for the past eight years and recently received the 2010 Aldo Leopold Stewardship Award for his work with the U.S Forest Service.

The goal of the project is to work with the communities and business along the river throughout Buncombe and Madison counties to explore the feasibility and desirability of establishing overnight wilderness camping along the French Broad River. If successful in Buncombe and Madison, the paddle trail may be extended though the entire watershed.


RiverLink invites interested parties to view the river access guide and the project presentation on their Web site at www.riverlink.org.  In 2006 and 2007 RiverLink sponsored canoe trips down the French Broad, Nolichucky and Pigeon Rivers. This firsthand survey confirmed the need for additional access points, and brought to the forefront the lack of public opportunity to camp along the river safely and inexpensively as a family or group. This fall, RiverLink has hosted community information meetings in Hot Springs, Marshall and Asheville. Interest has been high, with great response from the community in support of such a trail. We have heard many great stories of the magical history of the river.

Please join us in Asheville on January 18, 2011 from 5:30-7 p.m. at RiverLink (170 Lyman St. in the River Arts District) OR the rescheduled meeting in Marshall on January 25, 2011 from 3-5:30 p.m. at the Very Small Buisness Center at the Marshall High Studios on the island in Marshall for an information gathering session about a possible canoe camping trail along the French Broad River in Buncombe and Madison counties.