We hope this letter finds you well and ready for the holiday season!
It has been a fun and exciting year celebrating 30 years of Katawba Valley Land Trust! Our newsletters have focused on the various projects and land protections KVLT has done during these 30 years from protecting Revolutionary War battle field sites to securing the majority of land for the Lindsay Pettus Greenway in addition to holding conservation easements on property in the surrounding areas.
We were able to bring back our outings, events and speaker series in 2022. We were excited for the Toast to the Trees event in June at the Ivy Place but Mother Nature had other ideas.
Luckily, the weather held out for an amazing outdoor annual meeting at the Historic Craig Farm Pavilion, including a hike led by Rudy Mancke.
A huge thank you to the Graham family (Ivy Place) and John Craig and Johannes Tromp (Historic Craig Farm) for donating the use of your beautiful facilities for these KVLT events.
In addition, we were able to enjoy various nature hikes at places like Forty Acre Rock, Landsford Canal and the Lindsay Pettus Greenway. We appreciate fellow naturalists and historians like Jay Keck and Doug Bostic, for sharing their expertise with KVLT members and the public as part of KVLT’s speaker series.
To date, KVLT has protected 12,000 acres of land. KVLT has continued to be very busy this year working on various land transactions. We have worked on 11 possible land protection projects in 2022, with multiple ones continuing into 2023. We anticipate closing on two easement projects protecting an additional 417 acres by the end of this year.
We want to say a big thank you to some of our longtime KVLT Board members who are rolling off the board this year: Mark Grier, Paul Gettys, Bill Stokes and Bobby Collins. Mark and Paul were two of the originals who started KVLT with Lindsay 30 years ago! We appreciate all that you all have done for KVLT during your years of tenure. Lucky for KVLT, most will still be involved and play an active role as volunteers.
We also want to welcome our new KVLT Board members starting January 2023: Chris Crosby, Elizabeth Hyatt and Sandy Robinson. Learn more about them in an upcoming newsletter.
Another big announcement is the hiring of KVLT’s first full-time land management specialist. We are pleased to welcome Dr. Michael Small, who will begin in mid-January 2023. More about Michael’s experience and expertise will shared early next year.
Finally, congratulations to the 2022 Lindsay Pettus Award recipients: Rudy Mancke for conservation and John Craig and Johannes Tromp for history.
All of this could not happen without the amazing support of you! On behalf of the KVLT Board and myself, we say a big thank you for all that you do to support KVLT and our mission of land protection. We hope you all have a healthy and happy holiday season!
