David Jackson Productions

Organizations strive to stay true to their mission.The Watauga Land Trust was formed in 1995, established by Appalachian State University students concerned with protecting Howard Knob, a mountain adjacent to the Town of Boone. The new organization raised local awareness about the unprecedented pace of development not just around Boone, but across North Carolina’s northwestern mountains. These concerns galvanized the local community and in 1997 the Watauga Land Trust changed its name to High Country Conservancy and expanded its jurisdiction to include Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties. The organization’s mission was “to protect the natural resources of Appalachia by conserving land with significant ecological, cultural, recreational, or scenic value in the North Carolina High Country.”In May of 2010, Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust based in West Jefferson, North Carolina and High Country Conservancy, based in Boone merged to create Blue Ridge Conservancy, a private, non-profit organization that has protected over