• Crescent obtained ownership of the Needmore Tract when Duke acquired Nantahala Power and Light in December 1999. The 4,400-acre tract lies along the Little Tennessee River in Macon and Swain counties. The largest contiguous tract, 3,400 acres, is in Swain County.
• NP&L acquired the property in 1931 as a potential reservoir for hydroelectric power generation. The river was never dammed, and the land has remained a mosaic of agriculture and wildlands.
• The Little Tennessee through Needmore is the only river in the Blue Ridge that still contains all its original fauna. It is home to nearly 50 percent of all the freshwater fish species in the Tennessee Valley and provides habitat for several threatened and endangered species, including the spotfin chub and the Appalachian elktoe mussel.
• The two local governments whose borders contain the Needmore Tract — Swain and Macon — have issued resolutions supporting its preservation in its current state.

Crescent Resources, the land management company of Duke Energy, and The Nature Conservancy have both reported that the disposition of the Needmore Tract will be decided behind closed doors.

Early in 2000, Crescent, with the aid of The Nature Conservancy, began a two-year process to determine the fate of the property. Crescent began meeting privately and publicly with stakeholders, lessees, scientists, local governments and conservation and grassroots organizations.

The last Needmore timeline issued by Crescent stated that a tentative report would be produced in spring 2002. However, when it was reported that Bill Gibson of the Southwestern Commission — who speaks for the counties in Needmore negotiations — told Swain commissioners he was waiting to see Crescent’s report, he was contacted by Este Stifel of TNC and told no such report was forthcoming.

Gibson wasn’t the only interested stakeholder working under the assumption Crescent was preparing a document for review in the spring 2002.

Mark Cantrell of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was his understanding that a timeframe had been established and that Crescent/TNC would have a summary with recommendations for the management of the property.

Tonja Jones of Crown Communications, spokesperson for Crescent, corroborated Stifel’s statement that no public document would be produced, and that Crescent would announce their plans for Needmore sometime this spring.

Hopes for the preservation of Needmore were riding high back in June 2001. During a public meeting moderated by Gibson, members of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund announced that both organizations were highly interested in seeing Needmore protected.

This scenario has also hit a snag. In light of a $900 million state budget shortfall, Gov. Mike Easley cut $20.8 million of funding for the trust fund. Bill Holman, CWMTF executive director, said Needmore was still high on his organization’s priority list but first funding priorities would have to go to honor commitments from last year’s funding cycle. He said there would be intense competition but noted there was still strong support from Swain and Macon counties and N.C. Wildlife.

Jeoffry Brooks of N.C. Wildlife said he was in the process of writing a grant application to be submitted to CWMTF this June.

Another question mark in the Needmore puzzle is the disposition of the outlying parcels.

“It is understandable that folks from outside the area might see the preservation of the 4,000-acre parcel as the crux of the Needmore project given its extraordinary significance both for protection of the river and bottomland areas as well as of adjoining upland habitats,”wrote Paul Carlson, executive director of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee. “At the same time, we are ultimately dealing with a river corridor conservation project in which the outlying parcels have a huge conservation significance. From an ecological point of view it is known that the 13 outlying parcels of the Tract on a per acre basis buffer more than twice the critical habitat for rare and endangered aquatic species as does the large parcel. These outlyers also encompass three times the wetland areas per acre as does the large parcel — wetlands being among the rarest habitat types that we have in the mountains.”

After conducting one vegetative study in the area, TNC sees it differently. Stifel said the outlying parcels did not contain the same ecological significance as the contiguous tract.

In addition to the environmental issue, Carlson sees significant cultural value in the outlying parcels.

“As to their cultural significance, the outlying parcels contain the greatest concentration of archaeological and historic sites on the Tract. They lie at the heart of the most intact archaeological landscape of the Cherokee people remaining in the country, they fall within the richest National Register Historic District in the state (the Cowee/West’s Mill District), and they lie at the heart of the rural, mountain communities of northern Macon County.”

Notwithstanding funding problems and the shroud of secrecy, Carlson still thinks a positive resolution is possible.

“We are confident that Crescent Resources will work to insure an appropriate conservation solution for all of its lands along the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Macon counties,” he wrote.