ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701030073
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
FACED WITH the fortunate prospect of selling land or a protective easement for the Appalachian Trail through the Carvins Cove watershed, Roanoke has been moving ever so slowly, worrying publicly that any transfer might result in a future threat to the city's source of drinking water.
Yet it is hard to imagine a more protective steward than the National Park Service, which wants control of the four-mile stretch only to ensure that the trail corridor - used by hikers for 40 years - is set aside permanently for primitive hiking and that the land will look the same in the future as it does today.
In North Carolina, meanwhile, Asheville has made sure that the watershed for its drinking water will be preserved - not by holding control in an iron grip, but by giving it away. The city granted a watershed conservation easement to a land trust.
Asheville - which, like Roanoke, sits just off the Blue Ridge Parkway - has thereby ensured that 20,000 acres of mountain lands will be kept always in a predominantly natural state. Protected forests will preserve views (including 15 miles along the parkway) while protecting the native plants and animals and - Asheville's primary concern - the watershed that is the primary source of drinking water for the city and a neighboring county.
Asheville's City Council voted unanimously to grant the easement to the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, a nonprofit land conservation group. The agreement is binding on future city councils, while reserving for them the right to allow uses they determine are in the best interests of the city - as long as they are compatible with water and scenic protection.
That means the easement will not interfere with maintaining, expanding or replacing water-production facilities, or any other activity needed to continue to produce and deliver drinking water. And it will allow many recreational uses.
But it will prohibit subdivision of the land; buildings; dumps or excavations; human alteration or degradation of natural watercourses; tree-cutting above an elevation of 3,600 feet, except to fight disease, remove a hazard or maintain the water supply; new roads; horseback riding or off-road vehicles; use of poisons; introduction of nonnative plants or animals; utility lines, other than those needed to service permitted uses; and signs.
For giving up these things, Asheville is getting not money but a guarantee, in perpetuity, that precious natural resources will be undamaged by the hand of short-sighted humanity.
Roanoke has a similar opportunity, more limited in scope, but sweetened by the Park Service's offer to buy either the strip of land or a protective easement on it. And that money could be well-spent on further land conservation, perhaps by developing greenways - a suggestion that doesn't deserve the short shrift it has gotten.
Thoughtful consideration of course is needed before making a decision affecting such a critical resource as the water supply. But protecting the trail would protect the resource. So let's make a deal.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB