| 118th Year, 40th Issue | Thursday, May 17, 2007 | Sparta, North Carolina |
The Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust (BRRLT) celebrated its 10th anniversary on Sunday without fanfare. Since its inception, the land trust has quietly helped preserve some 6,500 acres through both donated and purchased easements.
The land trust began as an idea at a meeting in Boone dealing with land conservation issues. BRRLT Executive Director James Coman recalled, "On May 13th, 1997, conservation in northwestern North Carolina entered a new era. On that day the League of Women Voters of Boone, assisted by Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development, held their annual meeting at Appalachian Brian Estates in Boone. The topic was the spiraling loss of rural land and culture in the area." Coman said the event featured keynote speaker Chuck Roe, then director of the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, who urged the attendees to form a local land trust as the best way to begin reversing the negative trend.
That was accomplished, said Coman. "From this meeting a working group was formed that began meeting every few weeks in the Shoney's of Boone to discuss the formation of a regional land trust with credibility and contacts in the rural community. By August of 1997 the Blue Ridge RC&D Council had formally adopted the newborn land trust as one of its projects, and agreed to provide office support and "incubation" for the new entity. Also in August of 1997, the new entity adopted the name 'Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust.'
The initial steering committee of BRRLT was composed of Kelly Coffey,
Martha Stephenson, Paul Gaskill, Jocelyn Elliott, Holly Ambler, Sue
Glenn, Harwood T. Smith, Steve Carlson, Leo Mast, Jule Hubbard.
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