NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1975 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 404

HOUSE BILL 789

 

 

AN ACT TO LENGTHEN THE SEGMENT OF THE SOUTH FORK, NEW RIVER, IN ASHE AND ALLEGHANY COUNTIES INCLUDED IN THE NORTH CAROLINA NATURAL AND SCENIC RIVER SYSTEM.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 113A-35.1 is amended by deleting the section in its entirety and substituting therefor the following section:

"That segment of the South Fork of the New River extending from its confluence with Dog Creek in Ashe County downstream through Ashe and Alleghany Counties to its confluence with the North Fork of the New River and the main fork of the New River in Ashe and Alleghany Counties downstream to the Virginia state line shall be a scenic river area and shall be included in the North Carolina Natural and Scenic Rivers System.

The Department of Natural and Economic Resources shall prepare a management plan for said river section. This management plan shall recognize and provide for the protection of the existing undeveloped scenic and pastoral features of the river. Furthermore, it shall specifically provide for continued use of the lands adjacent to the river for normal agricultural activities, including but not limited to, cultivation of crops, raising of cattle, growing of trees and other practices necessary to such agricultural pursuits.

For purposes of implementing this section and the management plan, the Department of Natural and Economic Resources is empowered to acquire in fee simple not more than 400 acres and to acquire easements, to provide for protection of scenic values as described in G.S. 113A-38 and to provide for public access, in as many as 1,500 acres. Easements obtained for the purpose of implementing this section and the management plan shall not abridge the water rights being exercised at the time this act becomes effective.

Should the Governor seek inclusion of the said river segment in the National System of Wild and Scenic Rivers by action of the Secretary of Interior, such inclusion shall be at no cost to the federal government, as prescribed in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and therefore shall be under the terms described in this section of the North Carolina Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and in the management plan developed pursuant thereto."

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 26th day of May, 1975.