Impact Report

• Secured a $3.875 million state appropriation from the Kentucky General Assembly for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ acquisition of a nearly 55,000-acre easement on the Cumberland Forest Ataya property. While more work remains before we can close on this historic easement, this funding is essential and provides the required state match for millions in federal funding. Once complete, this conservation easement would be the largest state-owned easement in Kentucky and would ensure protection and permanent access to a huge swath of forest and a critical connection in the larger Appalachian Mountains.
  
  
• Started active negotiations on several thousand-acre or more priority land-acquisition projects in the Central Appalachians, both inside and outside Kentucky, as we ramp up cross-boundary collaboration to advance critical protection efforts in the identified resilient and connected corridor throughout the entire Appalachians.
  
  
• Completed reforestation plantings on 140 acres of former mine lands on the Ataya property in Bell County alongside our partner, Green Forests Work. Planted more than 120,000 trees with a mix of primarily white oak and short-leaf pine plus native warm-season grasses and forbs. These plantings will provide excellent wildlife habitat, link existing forested areas and provide increased natural carbon storage.
  
  
• Utilized advanced scientific mapping tools to prioritize reforestation potential on sites offering the most connectivity and resiliency in the Central Appalachians.
  
  
• Led multi-agency prescribed fire work on 15,575 acres in the Central Appalachians of Kentucky and Tennessee to improve forest health and reduce fuels to decrease the risk of uncontrolled and destructive wildfire.
  
  
• Expanded capacity for prescribed fire with seasonal employees and by training two Tennessee staff members for this work. Also coordinated with parties and contracted with the Kentucky Division of Forestry to host a fire team to assist with burns on the Daniel Boone National Forest.
  
  
• Restored important prairie and barrens grassland communities on TNC preserves and other private lands, completing a five-year U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife grant.
  
  
• Launched an ecozone mapping project that uses aerial imagery and digital elevation models to identify the most critical lands in need of prescribed fire restoration.
  
  
• Donated three land tracts to our partners at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Adjacent to their current holdings, this consolidated ownership with optimized management of rare plant species.

During the 2022 General Assembly legislative session, legislators appropriated $3.875 million to a 55,000-acre conservation easement on the Ataya property in eastern Kentucky, part of the Cumberland Forest Project. The Nature Conservancy got a late start on our legislative effort, but a near-constant presence in Frankfort during the session ended with a resounding success.

“We talked about the easement as a once-in-a-generation opportunity in southeastern Kentucky,” says Heather Majors, external affairs director for the Kentucky program. “Conservation, recreation, public access and tourism were all part of our message, and it resonated with members of the General Assembly.”

Legislators, especially those from eastern Kentucky, understand the beauty of that part of the state, and TNC’s message of the importance of public access and outdoor recreation framed much of the discussion in economic terms. There is still much work to do before the conservation easement is complete, but this investment in public lands will bring much-needed economic activity to the region.

“Outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism are not a panacea for addressing the challenges in eastern Kentucky, but they can be important components of that solution,” says Majors. “They need to be part of the region’s plan moving forward.”

The General Assembly’s investment enabled TNC and its partner, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, to leverage millions in federal funding that required a 25% match. Majors says this opens the door to talking about using state funding to secure even bigger federal investments with legislation such as the Great American Outdoors Act and the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

“Positioning Kentucky to be able to take advantage of federal funding is important,” Majors says. “We are absolutely hoping for more opportunities to get funding like this in the future.”

Majors says legislators on both sides of the aisle received TNC and its conservation message positively during the session.

“Our nonpartisan and solution-oriented approach allowed us to be taken seriously,” she says. “The importance of having solid partnerships also helped tremendously. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation helped open doors for us, and we are grateful for their assistance.”

A quiet stretch of the Barren River now flows freely for the first time in nearly a century. The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other partners removed Lock and Dam #1 in the fall of 2022, restoring 30 miles of the river to natural free-flowing conditions and eliminating a safety hazard for people using the river for recreation.

“This dam needed to come out for three primary reasons. Public safety was number one,” says Lee Andrews, Kentucky Field Office supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Secondly, this was an obsolete federal facility. It hadn’t been used for its intended purpose since 1965. Finally, its removal is a huge win for the river and its aquatic habitats.”

Dams obstruct the movement of fish and mussels, particularly rare and endangered species that need a free-flowing river to survive. Canoe and kayak routes are cut off by dams, diminishing tourism opportunities for small river communities. Additionally, low-head dams such as this one are difficult for paddlers to see, presenting a safety hazard. This dam removal was a win for people and nature.

“Getting an actively failing dam out of the river quickly and safely and opening up new stretches of the river for tourism and paddlers is a big victory,” says Heather Majors, director of external affairs for TNC’s Kentucky program. “There are all of these added benefits for fish and mussels, and we expect to see economic benefits as more people explore the Barren River.”

The Nature Conservancy played a critical role in securing federal legislation calling for the removal of several dams on the Green River and its tributaries, including Barren River Lock and Dam #1. For the last five years, we have convened and helped mobilize the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, Kentucky Waterways Alliance and Mammoth Cave National Park to secure the funding, permits and operational efforts required to advance actual dam removal.

• Seek additional funding for wetland restoration and floodplain conservation in western Kentucky and Tennessee via a proposal to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. This funding would support stream channel restoration, reversing the effects of a decades-long trend of straightening streams and damaging their hydrology.
  
  
• Partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to inform restoration approaches at Dogtooth Bend and other priority sites.
  
  
• Strengthen our flood risk reduction and resiliency work through building closer partnerships with key stakeholders in Kentucky.
  
  
• Complete our five-year wetland monitoring project and utilize the results to inform better restoration techniques and practices and secure additional investments in wetland restoration.
  
  
• Resolve the water supply challenge and complete the removal of Green River Lock and Dam #5, restoring 73 miles of free-flowing conditions and making the river healthier, safer and more accessible.
  
  
• Promote conservation agriculture practices, using the Purdue University survey results to convene partners and formulate an action plan.
  
  
• Convene partners around a “think different” initiative to develop new incentives and innovative funding sources to significantly increase adoption of cropland grass buffers and other high-impact field edge agricultural practices.

• Partnered with the Mountain Association and began installation of a rooftop solar project on the Middlesboro Community Center, utilizing Cumberland Forest Community Fund dollars. The project will lower community energy costs and decrease carbon emissions.
  
  
• Selected two additional community solar projects with the Mountain Association and began planning for installation in 2023.
  
  
• Produced two successful climate videos featuring trusted Kentucky voices: “Farmers in a Changing Climate” and “Doing Business in a Changing Climate.” These videos were viewed thousands of times and featured on the larger organization’s website homepage and flagship social media channels.
  
  
• Began piloting the Family Forest Carbon Program with three eastern Kentucky landowners to bring smaller forest owners into carbon markets and promote better forest management and healthier forests in the Central Appalachians.

In the world of voluntary carbon credit programs, small landowners are usually left out. Two thousand-acre minimums are the norm for forestland to be eligible for these programs. The Nature Conservancy and the American Forest Foundation are changing that with a new initiative called the Family Forest Carbon Program. Small family-owned forests like those found all over eastern Kentucky will now have the opportunity to benefit financially by improving the long-term management of their forestland.

TNC and the American Forest Foundation are currently piloting the program and intend to roll it out more widely in 2023. The Kentucky team is hiring a new Central Appalachians forester to connect families in eastern Kentucky to the program, which develops a forest management plan and provides payments over the life of the contract period (usually 20 years) based on adherence to that plan and an associated forestry agreement.

“This program is innovative because it’s the first real opportunity the average landowner has to participate in carbon programs and to financially benefit from good forestry practices,” says Chris Garland, director of Kentucky’s Central Appalachians project. “Long-term, this program will leave them with a healthier, more valuable forest that captures and stores more carbon.”

TNC’s new forester will work with eastern Kentucky landowners to perform a preliminary inventory of their properties. The key assessment is how much improved management can increase carbon capture from the atmosphere. Based on that assessment, the program can make landowners an offer and finalize the agreement. As trees grow larger in eastern Kentucky, this natural climate solution yields conservation and financial benefits.

“Income to eastern Kentucky families is a big benefit,” Garland says. “Down the road, we hope to see improved overall forest quality and some sustainable timber harvest, which could provide jobs. And you never know—hopefully this will instill a conservation ethic that builds into permanent land protection. It’s a win-win for nature and communities.”

• Hire a conservation forester to develop and deliver the Family Forest Carbon Program in Kentucky as well as work with Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee to advance forest conservation and management strategies across the Appalachian Mountains in all three states.
  
  
• Roll out the Family Forest Carbon Program more widely in eastern Kentucky to bring family forests into carbon markets and make improved forest management financially beneficial to eastern Kentucky families.
  
  
• Complete two additional community solar projects in eastern Kentucky in coordination with the Mountain Association.
  
  
• Work with the University of Tennessee and other partners on the implementation of a Climate Smart Commodities proposal, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, by establishing on-farm pilots to quantify increased carbon sequestration related to native grass re-establishment in both a pasture and cropland border setting.

Steve Johnson first came into contact with The Nature Conservancy on Capitol Hill in the mid-1980s. He was working on environmental issues for a California legislator.

“TNC was then, as it is now, always the voice of reason on conservation issues,” Johnson says. “When they came by, you always sat down and listened to them.”

Johnson took a sabbatical from his government relations career and traveled out West, where he got to see a different side of conservation. Working in Alaska at a national wildlife refuge and in the mountains of Montana, he experienced nature firsthand.

“It’s one thing to read about it in a policy document, but it’s another thing to experience it,” he says. “It changes something in you forever. You never lose that, and I’m a better person for having gotten to experience it.”

Johnson and his wife, Kim, have made sure their children got the opportunity to experience the same places where they have lived. With one child recently home from India and another living in Arizona for school, adventure is ingrained in the whole family.

“Being asked to serve on TNC’s board was serendipitous,” Johnson says. “I consider this truly a part of my life’s mission and purpose.”

Johnson says TNC’s work to remove dams on the Green River is particularly inspiring to him. He loves the free-flowing river that comes with this restoration.

“I see TNC’s mission as being very altruistic by its very nature,” he says. “It’s really about trying to conserve these beautiful areas so everyone can experience what I have experienced.”