Section by section Burke River Trail is growing! We were pleased to write a letter of support for City of Morganton’s Great Trails State Fund Grant application for the Morganton Greenway Extension east of Rocky Ford. Looking back at our pictures, we have been meeting since 2020 and hosting activities at Rocky Ford access to get ready for this event!!
The contents of the letter….
Great Trails State Program Grant Administrators:
When completed, the 40-mile Burke River Trail will connect all nine municipalities in Burke County for quality of life and economic development opportunities. Burke River Trail Association (BRTA) started meeting with the City of Morganton and landowners back in 2020 regarding extending the Catawba River Greenway as part of the Burke River Trail.
We are grateful to the City of Morganton for working on this section and fully support their grant application. As we have already shown, BRTA will support this section of trail with volunteer hours for cleanup, maintenance, programing and gathering partners. Over the past three years, we have organized
- Three group hikes at Rocky Ford Access going west on the Greenway, with educational talks from other partners – Morganton, Foothills Conservancy of NC, Friends-Overmountain Victory State Trail, Friends of Fonta Flora State Trail, Overmountain Cycles
- Two trash cleanups at Rocky Ford Access one on land with 11 participants and one via boat with 10 participants
- More than 10 meetings with partners – including Grace Ridge Retirement Facility – residents and staff, NCDOT, Catawba Riverkeeper, NCWRC, City of Morganton, apartment owner, trail organizations, NC House Member
BRTA is working with the landowners to the east of the section in this grant to make sure the trail can continue in the future. We have received a verbal agreement from each – Keystone Properties (owners of the apartment complex), Western Piedmont Community College for their Emergency Services Training Center (with trail parking) and Vulcan Materials (see map for reference).
BRTA is making trail and trailhead progress in Glen Alpine, Valdese, Rhodhiss and Hildebran. Demonstrating movement in Morganton will be a boost to the regional trail.
The focus of Burke River Trail Association (BRTA) is
- Connections – Physically get trail on the ground to connect communities
- Communities – Build stronger communities through economic development and civic engagement
- Conservation – Educate communities about the environment, wildlife and recreating responsibility
Regards,
Beth Heile
Executive Director