Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993 TAG: 9303130030
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: BRISTOL LENGTH: Medium
FUND DRIVE LAUNCHED TO SAVE `GREAT PLACES' STAFF
The Nature Conservancy says it hopes to raise $300 million to save 75 of the world's "last great places," including the Clinch River and Powell River valleys in southwest Virginia.The Arlington-based environmental group called the fund-raising drive the biggest in conservation history. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, hero of the Persian Gulf War and a conservancy board member, promoted the plan at a news conference in Washington.
The conservancy quietly raised $165 million toward its goal before going public, officials said.
Group members in Bristol outlined plans to protect the Clinch and Powell watersheds, home to one of the nation's highest concentrations of endangered animals and plants.
Through its "Last Great Places" program, begun two years ago, the conservancy hopes to protect some of the best remaining natural areas in the United States, Latin America and the Pacific.
The Clinch and Powell rivers in Virginia and Tennessee "are essentially the last free-flowing stretches of the upper Tennessee River system," said Michael L. Lipford, the conservancy's Virginia director.
The flow of the Tennessee River and tributaries to the south has been interrupted by many dams.
Scientists suggest the Clinch-Powell watershed is rich in rare species because of the absence of dams, and because Ice Age glaciers spared the region.
"The area has evolved without natural disturbances for thousands of years," said Bill Kittrell, manager of the 2,200-square-mile Clinch Valley Bioreserve established by the conservancy in August.
The region has an international reputation among scientists for its rare mussels.
Pendleton Island in the Clinch in Scott County, owned by the conservancy, "is the richest 300 yards of mussel diversity on the planet," Lipford said.
Mussels are important, scientists say, because they filter water and serve as indicators of its quality. Some scientists use mussels in cancer research.
The bioreserve harbors more than 135 rare plants and animals, including 24 federally protected species. About 1,400 of Virginia's 2,200 caves are in the region.