Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Cost: $100
Explore how western North Carolina communities are rebuilding stronger through innovative conservation practices, stream restoration efforts, and emerging uses of biochar in agricultural recovery and land management.
This hands-on educational tour takes participants across Haywood County and surrounding areas to visit active and completed resilience projects that highlight conservation partnerships and recovery efforts following natural disasters.
Tour stops include:
- A behind-the-scenes visit to a regional biochar production facility to see how woody debris and storm-related materials are transformed into valuable soil amendments.
- A drive-through viewing of the completed Dotson Branch stream restoration project — an NRCS/RCPP conservation success story completed in 2018 on a 303(d) listed stream with participation from three Haywood SWCD cooperators.
- A working farm site impacted by Hurricane Helene where biochar and streambank stabilization practices are being considered for cropland recovery through a current EQIP application.
- The active RavenFork stream restoration project, featuring approximately 3,500 feet of restoration work along the RavenFork River. Participants will learn how restoration techniques have evolved since the site’s earlier Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) work in the 1990s.
Tour Includes:
- Bus transportation to all project locations
- Lunch
- Technical and educational discussions on:
- Biochar production and applications
- Soil health and cropland recovery
- Streambank stabilization techniques
- Stream restoration practices in western North Carolina
Many of these topics will also be explored in greater detail during Monday’s breakout sessions, making this tour an excellent hands-on learning opportunity before the conference begins.