NRCP’s Featured Projects
Economic Revitalization
New River Blueway Map
In cooperation with National Geographic, a canoe trail "Blueway" map of the New River is being produced. The map spans from the headwaters in North Carolina to New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia. It will identify points of interest, access to the River and additional helpful information for canoeists and recreational boaters.
Partners: The National Geographic Society, Army Corps of Engineers – Huntington District, National Committee for the New River, New River Gorge National Park, New River State Park, North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation- Recreational Trails Program, New River Trail State Park, Virginia Department of Conservation & Recreation and New River Community Partners.
Creative Food Ventures
Creative Food Ventures provides a FDA- approved shared-use commercial kitchen facility. The initial funding for this project amounts to $1.2 million. Entrepreneurial farmers and caterers produce specialty food items without the excessive cost of establishing their own commercial kitchen. The facility is housed at Family Central in Ashe County and will be the anchor for the Entrepreneurial Incubator Center.
Partners: Ashe County Partnership for Children (lead agency), Appalachian Regional Development Institute, Blue Ridge Resource Conservation & Development, North Carolina Cooperative Extension- Ashe County, Wilkes Community College and New River Community Partners.
Funding Partners: North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Community Development Block Grant, The Conservation Fund’s Creating New Economies Fund, County of Ashe, Economic Development Initiative Golden Leaf Project for Public Spaces, Rural Advancement Foundation International, US Department of Agriculture – Farmers Market Promotion Program and The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
 Handicap Access Canoe Ramps
Handicap canoe access to the New River has been needed for a number of years. At New River State Park, New River Community Partners worked to provide two ramps to allow easier access to the river for users of all abilities. The ramps are located at the Park’s Kings Creek Access and 221 Access in North Carolina.
Partners: New River State Park, North Carolina Division of Parks & Recreation, North Carolina Division of Water Resources and New River Community Partners.
 New River Arts & Crafts Marketing Initiative
www.NewRiverCrafts.com promotes the online sale of high quality handmade and home grown goods from the people of the New River to the global marketplace, bringing you arts, crafts, food and music from Northwestern North Carolina.
Partners: Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas, Alleghany County Arts & Crafts and New River Community Partners.
Funding Partners: Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas and the Duke Endowment, the Rural Advancement Foundation International and the Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund, the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center and the US Department of Agriculture Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program for the Southern Region.
Education
 The New River Leadership Challenge
Educating leaders to create opportunities within their own communities by learning about decision-making and positive change within existing infrastructure networks.
Partners: Wilkesboro District United Methodist Church, The Duke Endowment, The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Ashe County Chamber of Commerce, Wilkes County Chamber of Commerce, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and New River Community Partners.
 Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas (NAPRC)
Building Leadership, Employment Opportunities and Training and Asset Education for the working poor in the New River headwaters region.
A faith-based partnership among the Wilkesboro District United Methodist Church, The Duke Endowment, NAPRC Steering Committee and New River Community Partners.
View the NAPRC Learning Paper as a PDF document.
Historic and Cultural Preservation
The Todd Projects
Perhaps no other single community in the entire New River watershed epitomizes the true spirit of the American Heritage River Initiative than the village of Todd. The community is located between Ashe and Watauga counties in North Carolina. Represented by the Todd Community Preservation Organization and the Todd Ruritan Club, the community initiated a variety of projects aimed at promoting their assets as a former and vibrant railroad town. At the same time, Todd has preserved its unique history and culture and is protecting its pristine natural resources. Shortly after the New River became an American Heritage River, NRCP partnered with the Todd community to form a National Register Historic District, to acquire and develop an 8-acre island in the middle of the South Fork of the New River for a community park, to improve recreational opportunities surrounding the community and to support local land trust efforts to acquire conservation easements along the river corridor in and around Todd.
Partners: Todd Ruritan Club, Todd Community Preservation Organization, North Carolina's 2000 Recreational Trails Program, Handmade in America, The Conservation Fund, North Carolina Department of Transportation, North Carolina Division of Archives and History, Ashe County Historical Society, National Committee for the New River and New River Community Partners.
Ashe County’s 1904 Courthouse Restoration
Working with several local non-profits and civic clubs, NRCP is assisting with the renovation of the historic 1904 Ashe County Courthouse. The most prominent and historic structure in Ashe County will be the home of a new Ashe County Visitor Center and an Ashe County museum, including a history of the Virginia Creeper Railroad. The project will involve restoring the 1904 Courthouse to much the way it looked originally. This will require the removal of subsequent drop ceilings, floor coverings and paint. Wall partitions and fireplaces were added or covered up through the years and these will be restored as well. The finished product will serve as a major tourist destination for Ashe County.
Partners: Ashe County government, The 1904 Courthouse Preservation Organization, Ashe County Historical Society, North Carolina Department of Transportation, North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office and New River Community Partners.
 Preserve America
Recognizing historic preservation for its intrinsic and economic benefits, the White House created the Preserve America initiative, through Executive Order 13287. The initiative "encourages and supports community efforts to preserve and enjoy our priceless cultural and natural heritage. The goals of the initiative include a greater shared knowledge about the nation’s past, strengthened regional identities and local pride, increased local participation in preserving the country’s cultural and natural heritage assets and support for the economic vitality of our communities" (Preserve America website). The Advisory Council for Historic Preservation administers the initiative and the First Lady is the Honorary Chair. Communities are awarded Preserve America status after demonstrating that they have inventoried, protected and promoted their historic and cultural assets. With a Preserve America designation, communities become eligible to apply for federal funding for historic preservation projects, ranging from $20,000 to $150,000 in federal matching funds. To date, New River Community Partners has assisted the following communities and partners to attain a Preserve America designation:
Hinton - Flannagan-Murrell House, Inc., City of Hinton, Hinton Railroad Museum, Summers County Chamber of Commerce, Representative Nick Rahall, Senator John D. Rockefeller.
Natural Resources Protection
Mainstreaming Hazard Mitigation - A New River Watershed Approach
The New River Watershed Hazard Mitigation Project fostered building a disaster resistant watershed. The concept behind the project involved taking FEMA's Project Impact one step further. Project Impact communities are cities and towns throughout the country. The Town of Boone is the only Project Impact community in the New River watershed. Project Impact aims to build a disaster-resistant community. New River Community Partners and other project partners proposed to FEMA that communities should be more interested in a watershed-wide approach to Hazard Mitigation. After all, one community in the middle of a watershed can do all the right things as far as implementing plans, programs and projects designed at building disaster resistant communities; yet, they can still be impacted in a major way by communities up-stream that do all the wrong things. Through this project, NRCP sought to build a watershed-wide awareness of the hazards that do exist within the tri-state New River basin and to develop a prioritized approach to addressing these hazards. Partners: The Town of Boone, The Conservation Fund, Federal Emergency Management Agency, local emergency management officials throughout the New River watershed, City, United States Army Corps of Engineers — Huntington District and the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
The Whitt-Riverbend Park
The Whitt-Riverbend Park is a 27 acre property fronting along 3/4 mile of the New River located in Pearisburg, Giles County, Virginia. The parcel has been transformed into a regional park, greenway and conservation area owned and maintained by the Town of Pearisburg. The park includes interpretive nature trails, picnic areas, boat access ramps, primitive camping sites and riparian conservation areas. The site lies in a large bend of the New River and includes approximately 400 feet of frontage along Walker Creek at its confluence with the New River. Partners: Town of Pearisburg, Float Fishermen of Virginia, Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, National Committee for the New River and New River Community Partners.
Funding Partners: The Conservation Fund's Kodak American Greenways Awards Program and The Virginia Land Conservation Foundation.
 Enhancements at New River State Park
Several sections of riverbank at key access sites along the New River have been stabilized. New River Community Partners is continuing with other projects to help reduce the sediment load in the New River and to help protect the State of North Carolina’s investment in park lands along the New River. In addition, New River Community Partners administered the construction of a "green-certified" restroom facility at the Park.
Partners: New River State Park, North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, North Carolina Division of Water Resources and New River Community Partners.
New River Sustainable Agriculture Initiative
Focused in the North Carolina headwaters, the New River Sustainable Agriculture Initiative served as a broad-based partnership that provided educational assistance and scientific research to the New River basin, through the implementation of the following priorities: research demonstrations into the viability of alternative income opportunities; identification and development of new, alternative, non-traditional commodities that are ecologically sound, economically viable and socially responsible, enabling full or parttime farmers to retain their family farms; public workshops designed to introduce regional farmers to alternative income opportunities; development of a regional marketing plan for the traditional and non-traditional agricultural commodities of the New River basin, including the development and use of a "New River" trademark; leveraging of federal, state, local and private resources to promote, preserve and revitalize the agricultural economy of the New River basin; and development of a successful program that can be replicated and easily exported to other parts of the New River watershed.
Partners: North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, North Carolina Department of Agriculture – Upper Mountain Research Station, Golden LEAF Foundation, US Department of Agriculture – Rural Development, NC A & T University and New River Community Partners. |
