Clark named new BRRLT director

By Scott Nicholson

Walter Clark is the new executive director of the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust. Photo submitted

With the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust recently celebrating its 10th anniversary, the reigns have been handed over to someone who has a long conservation history.

Walter Clark has been named the new executive director of BRRLT, the next step in a life that has been spent protecting important sites around the state. Clark is replacing James Coman, the 2008 recipient of the Governor’s N.C. Conservationist of the Year award, who will move into the position of Director Emeritus.

Clark was given the Old North State Award while serving as the legal, planning and policy specialist with the Sea Grant Program at North Carolina State University. He retired in Ashe County, buying a blueberry farm, but the conservation bug wouldn’t leave him. Clark and his partner, Johnny Burleson, were awarded the 2007 Minnette C. Duffy Landscape Preservation Award for their efforts in the “preservation, restoration or maintenance of landscapes, gardens, streetscapes or grounds related to historic structures” by the Historic Preservation Foundation of North Carolina.

He became a member of the BRRLT’s board of directors, and last year became deputy director.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with some very talented and experienced people, the foremost being James Coman,” Clark said. “James has been a tremendous leader in the conservation community and will be a tough act to follow.”

Clark’s current mission is protecting the 2,000-acre Pond Mountain site. He is leading the collaborative effort with Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust, High Country Conservancy, National Committee for the New River, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust Fund and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to secure the site as a state recreation area, open to the public for hiking, camping, hunting and fishing.

Pond Mountain sits at 5,000 feet in elevation and is in the direct view shed of Mount Jefferson, Three Top Mountain, Bluff Mountain and Elk Knob in North Carolina and Whitetop Mountain, Mount Rogers and Grayson Highlands in Virginia.

“Every farm and every wilderness tract that gets protected is a direct result of a concerned community citizen, doing what they feel is right,” Clark said. “We’re just here to assist them in that endeavor.”
The BRRLT is a non-profit regional conservation agency based in Boone.