Nature Conservancy Appoints New Clinch Valley Program Director

Brad Kreps returns to southwest Virginia after leading the Conservancy’s Allegheny Highlands Program

ABINGDON, VA — May 30, 2007 — The Nature Conservancy announced today that Brad Kreps has been named director of its Clinch Valley Program. Having led the Conservancy’s Allegheny Highlands Program since 2004, Kreps will assume a similar role in Abingdon, managing conservation work across 2,200 square miles of mountains and valleys in southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee.

“We are pleased to have Brad take on the leadership of the Clinch Valley Program. Brad has done a superb job establishing a strong community-focused conservation program in the Allegheny Highlands of western Virginia,” said Bill Kittrell, director of conservation programs for The Na

Brad Kreps, Clinch Valley Program Director © TNC

ture Conservancy in Virginia and formerly its first director of the Clinch Valley Program. “Brad’s familiarity with the conservation challenges facing the Clinch Valley’s incredible mountains, forests and streams will help him hit the ground running.”

The Conservancy acquired its first preserve on the Clinch River in 1983 at Pendleton Island and opened its Clinch Valley Program office in Abingdon in 1990. The staff work to protect the watersheds of the Clinch, Holston and Powell rivers—three of the last free-flowing rivers in the Tennessee River system.

The highest concentration of rare and imperiled species on the mainland U.S. occurs in the Clinch River watershed, according to the biodiversity survey Precious Heritage. The watershed harbors 29 rare freshwater mussel and 19 rare fish species.

Since September 2004, Kreps has managed 9,000-acre Warm Springs Mountain Preserve and conservation partnerships throughout western Virginia’s Allegheny Highlands, an area geographically similar to the Clinch Valley. Kreps previously spent three years with the Clinch Valley Program, fostering partnerships with local communities, landowners, agencies and various other organizations. He has his undergraduate degree from James Madison University and has a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee.

Kreps, a native Virginian, has lived in the Appalachians for more than a decade and is eager to assume leadership of the community-based conservation program in the Clinch Valley.

“I have a great affinity for the Clinch Valley and its people. I began my conservation career in southwest Virginia, and I relish the opportunity to return to one of the Conservancy’s flagship programs,” Kreps said. “I look forward to working with a very talented and experienced staff and a diverse set of partners to continue building on the great conservation work we’ve already accomplished here.”

The Clinch Valley program’s previous director, Matthew Crum, decided to resign in 2006. Crum is leaving the Conservancy to enter private law practice in Abingdon and will continue to lend his expertise to the Conservancy on a variety of conservation issues in the Clinch Valley.

“Thanks to Matt’s leadership, we now have more than 20,000 acres enrolled in working forest easements,” Kittrell said. “We’re grateful for Matt’s contributions to the Conservancy’s mission and pleased that he will play a role in future conservation work.”

The Conservancy and partners have protected habitat for more than 70 percent of the Clinch Valley region’s imperiled species, but threats remain from unsustainable forestry, inappropriate agricultural practices and generations of coal mining. Most recently, the Conservancy protected nearly 5,000 acres atop Brumley Mountain from potential development. Nearly 6,000 acres at Rich Mountain Farm, part of America’s oldest cattle ranch, are enrolled in the Conservation Forestry Program. Through projects such as the Russell County Vision Forum and St. Paul Tomorrow!, the Conservancy works in partnership with local communities to promote economic opportunities that are consistent with protecting the Clinch Valley’s lands, waters and way of life.

“What the Conservancy and its numerous partners have accomplished here over the last 20 years is remarkable,” Kreps said. “It is truly rare and precious to have a region with such biological diversity. There is no better place than the Clinch Valley to test and prove the notion that humans and nature can thrive in the same place, at the same time.”

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org.