“These land acquisition and park improvement projects will both expand our state parks system and repair and restore facilities and trails for the benefit of the people of North Carolina as well as visitors to our state,” said N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary D. Reid Wilson. “We are grateful to the General Assembly and Governor Cooper for providing significantly increased investments in the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund over the last two years.”

Funded projects include $300,000 to purchase a 1.7-acre inholding for the new Pisgah View State Park. Last year, the state legislature appropriated $12.2 million to complete funding for the $18.2 million purchase of 2.5 square miles of former ranch property, which straddles Haywood and Buncombe counties. The inholding purchase funded through PARTF includes a house and lands that protect water quality at stream frontage. 

Other projects include $249,000 to renovate the mountaintop sewer system at Chimney Rock State Park and connect it to the city sewer system, $1.1 million for trail maintenance throughout the parks system and cost sharing for recreational trail projects, $3.25 million for major maintenance projects statewide and $400,000 for planning projects including a master plan for Pisgah View, small area plans at parks and a Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation plan.