Chattooga Conservancy

"Chattooga stewardship initiative advocates for stream restoration, monitors ecological integrity, and engaging communities in stewardship opportunities. Our ongoing work includes the implementation of three watershed management plans on major waterways in our region. In the monitoring aspect, we use adopt-a-stream methods to analyze tributary stream health; we completed 11 water quality monitoring baseline entries in 2023. 6 volunteers worked on nonnative invasive species removal. We hosted one trash pickup event with 20 volunteers; over 30 bags of trash removed. We also engaged 4 volunteers in planting a native pollinator garden with 12 flowering plant species.

"we have been accredited by land trust alliance since 2016, and we adhere to stringent standards and practices in stewardship of our conservation easements, and in advancing private land conservation opportunities in the Chattooga river watershed. In 2023 each of the 12 easement properties was inspected, 6 current conditions reports were updated, and 1 baseline report was created. We continued to make progress restoring a donated 52.66 acre property known as the clear creek property. Stewardship of this property is an ongoing program aimed at preservation of the tract's conservation values while creating educational and stewardship opportunities for communities.

We provide oversight of the us forest service's management of over 180,000 acres of national forest in three states: the andrew pickens ranger district in oconee county, sc, Chattooga river ranger district in rabun county, ga, & the nantahala ranger district in jackson and macon counties, nc. In 2023 we provided information to the public regarding 5 opportunities to submit comments to the usfs. We have continued to monitor and inform the public about logging projects, endangered species, federal wetlands protections, and commercial special use permits granted. We partner with the usfs to manage a native river cane restoration project, and facilitated 12 members of the eastern band of cherokee indians to visit the site in 2023.