LTLT has been awarded a grant from the Federal Highway Administration Scenic Byways program that will allow us to continue to work with the Wood family in Cherokee County in an effort to conserve some of the best farming soils in western North Carolina. The Nantahala Byway, a scenic, 43-mile highway that meanders through parts of Jackson, Swain, Macon and Cherokee counties, runs through the Wood Farm for almost two miles. The $1,098,500 grant money would go towards purchasing a conservation easement that would protect over 400 acres of the Wood family farmland lying along the Valley River. The Wood Farm was a model project in the Mountain Landscapes Initiative last year and the grant provides a great boost to “next steps” of that Initiative.
We were very excited to receive this great news as we weren’t sure that we would be funded at all. Even with the grant the project is far from being completed. LTLT will have to raise funds for a significant match to the federal grant, but this award gives us a great jump start toward meeting the needs of the Wood family and conserving the farmland.
