Foothills Conservancy updates commissioners on Oak Hill Park, regional trails and hurricane-relief funding

Shane Prisby, trails program director, and Andrew Coda, executive director of Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina, gave the Burke County Board of Commissioners an informational briefing on Oct. 6 about regional trail projects and local recreation investments at Oak Hill Community Park and Forest.

Prisby said Oak Hill Community Park and Forest is a community-led project covering about 656 acres and offers “over 12 miles of trails” and local agriculture programs. Coda said the park has been open about two years and estimated “somewhere in that range of about 30,000 annual visitors”.

Prisby described several projects that the conservancy is advancing in and near Burke County: the Bob Benner Memorial Trail, a mountain-bike racecourse at Catawba Meadows that the organization says will be the first Interscholastic Cycling Association racecourse in western North Carolina, and the Wilderness Gateway State Trail — a proposed multi-county corridor stretching toward Catawba County intended to accommodate adaptive bikes.

Prisby said collaborating with the National Park Service has positioned the conservancy to distribute approximately $1,000,000 in congressionally appropriated hurricane-relief funding to repair trail systems, and he said some of those funds are likely to be eligible for projects maintained by Burke County. He also said the Henry Ford River Preserve project is “fully funded” and “under contract” and expected to be built in the next year and a half.

Coda noted the conservancy’s regional footprint: he said Foothills Conservancy is celebrating its 30th anniversary and has protected more than 71,500 acres across eight counties, with roughly 25,000 acres of permanent conservation impact in Burke County.

Commissioners asked about equestrian access, adaptive-bike width and trail maintenance and emergency access; Prisby said equestrian access on specific trail segments is determined by land managers and that wider trail construction can improve maintenance and emergency response access.

Ending: The board left the presentation on the agenda so the conservancy can return with a fuller slide presentation at the Oct. 20 regular meeting.