EXAMPLE PAGE - REPORTS - FOOTHILLS CONSERVANCY - Flipbook - Side 16
Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina
Duke Energy
conveys
conservation
easements to FCNC
The CRA was signed by 70 parties in 2006, including
Protecting the Catawba River
more public recreational opportunities and land for
130 Acres
In March of 2023, Duke Energy transferred three
conservation easements totaling 130 acres of
permanent stream buffer protection along the
Catawba River and its tributaries below the dams at
Lake James in Burke County to Foothills Conservancy
of North Carolina. These properties will help protect
water quality in the upper section of the Catawba
River Basin, and are additions to FCNC9s vast portfolio
of permanently protected lands around Lake James.
The easement transfers prompted the conveyance
of over 1,200 acres of surrounding property adjacent
to the Catawba River to the North Carolina Wildlife
Resources Commission for public recreation and
compatible permanent conservation.
The history of this noteworthy conservation endeavor
dates back to the early 2000s.
Most hydropower dams in the United States need
to be licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, and Duke Energy9s license for its 13
hydropower facilities on 11 reservoirs along 225 miles
of the Catawba-Wateree River Basin was due to expire
in 2006. The original license was issued in 1958, and
much had changed in the Basin since then.
Through a collaborative process and years of active
negotiation among Duke Energy and multiple state
agencies, federal agencies, local governments,
nonproots and citizens, a settlement agreement, also
known as the Comprehensive Relicensing Agreement
(CRA), was forged.
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FCNC, and it represents a landmark document
providing the region9s vision for conservation
initiatives needed to protect the Catawba River and
lake system for a 50-year planning horizon. The
CRA features initiatives to manage water supply
during drought and to protect aquatic species and
habitat, to enhance water quality and to provide for
recreational use.
The Lake James section of the CRA included the
establishment of conservation easements along
approximately 29 miles of land adjoining the Johns
River, Catawba River and Linville River, and the
conveyance of property around the Catawba River to
a state agency for public ownership and recreation,
and watershed protection. This is the basis of the
conservation initiative achieved 17 years later in 2023.
