Land of Sky Regional Council
Project Title: Landcare
Name of Council: Land of Sky Regional Council (LOSRC)
State/Region Incorporated: North Carolina
Project Manager: Jim Stokoe, Deputy Director
Link to Website: www.landofsky.org
LOSRC and Landcare
Land-of-Sky Regional Council’s involvement in landcare began in May 2004, when we hosted a visit of James McKee (Chairman of the Toowoomba Landcare Group in Queensland, Australia) and Mike Brubaker (CEO of the Council for US Landcare, one of two national groups working to start a US landcare movement). We pulled together a group of about 25-30 land management, land trust, forestry, agricultural and conservation representatives and asked the question, “Could the Australian landcare model – or something like it – add value to our efforts to get conservation on the ground in western North Carolina?” The group’s basic answer to this question was “Yes – landcare can add value to our efforts.” Since that meeting, a group from our region went to Queensland, Australia to study landcare, and LOSRC has written several grants to attempt to establish some seed funding for landcare projects.
Landcare Grant Applications
Landcare Riparian Management Demonstration (Proposal to Pigeon River Fund) Landcare - A Movement to Re-energize Land Stewardship in North Carolina (Proposal to Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation)
Creating Place-Based Jobs for Rural North Carolina: Prosperity through Stewardship of Natural Assets (Economic Innovation Grant proposal to NC Rural Economic Development Center)
Bruce Lloyd Visit: Former Australian Landcare Council Chairman and Minister of Parliament Bruce Lloyd and his wife Heather visited Asheville on October 3, 2005 to assist Land-of-Sky Regional Council (LOSRC) to start a landcare movement in the area.
Two field site visits and two sit-down meetings led Lloyd to see opportunities to form three distinct types of landcare groups or affiliations in western North Carolina:
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Urban landcare – neighborhhod associations could conduct landcare projects, or even form landcare groups; townspeople could form landcare groups to control invasive plants and do other conservation work.
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Rural landcare – coalitions of watershed associations, Resource Conservation & Development Councils, and Soil & Water Conservation Districts, with assistance from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service could support watershed-based volunteer groups of farmers and other rural landowners.
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Indigenous landcare – the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on Qualla Boundary could do landcare projects on a variety of conservation needs.
Bruce’s visit helped LOSRC advance the cause of local landcare in several ways:
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Providing an impetus for meetings at which a number of new landcare stakeholders were informed about landcare;
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Bringing to these meetings the authenticity, authority and experience of his many years of Australian landcare involvement;
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Identifying specific local landcare opportunities.
October 3, 2005 Landcare Meeting: The best opportunity to realize the benefits of landcare in our region appears to be for existing groups already doing good conservation work to conduct some projects using the landcare model. Some new landcare groups also could form if groups of volunteers wish to do so. A landcare stakeholders’ meeting was held on short notice on October 3, 2005 to take advantage of Bruce Lloyd’s one-day visit. The purpose of that meeting was to discuss what kinds of arrangements and collaboration will be needed to get some projects going, and to see who is interested. This meeting was intended to serve as a model for a larger workshop to be held in the near future, in which we attempt to engage a much broader group of conservation stakeholders. Functions and roles needed to support a local landcare movement.
Other LOSRC projects related to Green Infrastructure and Landcare
Regional Green Infrastructure Plan
Land-of-Sky Regional Council’s regional strategic economic development plan, Regional Vision 2010 includes a strategic initiative entitled, “Protect and Restore our Natural and Cultural Wealth” (p.10). An objective of that initiative is to conduct a regional green infrastructure plan in concert with -- and as a basis for – infrastructure cooperation, growth management, brownfields, urban development and transportation in the region. This plan will use green infrastructure planning principles to ensure that ecological integrity and the cost advantages for local governments of green infrastructure methods are incorporated into other regional efforts. Information on green infrastructure can be seen at www.greeninfrastructure.net.”
In September, 2005 the 25-county Blue Ridge National Heritage Area (BRNHA) http://www.blueridgeheritage.com convened a meeting on regional strategies for natural resources and recreation. The top action idea from this meeting was to develop a green infrastructure plan for the Heritage Area, in cooperation with the Conservation Fund (originators of the green infrastructure concept and planning methodology), NCDENR’s One NC Naturally program http://www.onencnaturally.org/, and others. LOSRC staff collaborated with Conservation Fund staff and BRNHA staff to prepare a grant pre-proposal to the National Urban & Community Forestry Advisory Council of the USDA Forest Service. The pre-proposal describes the first phases of green infrastructure planning for Region B, as a model for the entire 25-county Heritage Area.
According to the pre-proposal, Land-of-Sky Regional Council will partner with The Conservation Fund to design and deliver a multi-phased program for the Upper French Broad River watershed in Western North Carolina with the goal of creating a regional green infrastructure framework that guides future growth while respecting the integrity of the region’s rich forest ecosystems. This demonstration project integrates shared learning with community engagement, illustrating a collaborative approach to regional land use planning that strengthens and links rural and urban communities, protects the area’s rich natural and cultural heritage, and is driven by shared community values.
Open Space Planning
Under contract with the One North Carolina Naturally program http://www.onencnaturally.com, Land-of-Sky Regional Council staff met with county planners, environmentalists, land trust staff, mappers and state officials to create an inventory of open space - Open Space Maps.
The Council also developed a conceptual design for a regional open space plan that addresses local conservation needs and opportunities. That plan will include federal, state and local government open space opportunities as well as lands that could be managed by land trusts, other conservation organizations and private entities.
Regional open space planning is part of the Council’s larger “green infrastructure” collaboration with the USDA Forest Service and the National Association of Regional Councils. This effort includes landcare, mountain ridge protection, non-native invasive species, agricultural land preservation, forest gateway communities, and sustainable forest management.