Foundation For The Carolinas and more than 40 community and business leaders participated in a discovery process that resulted in the Carolina Thread Trail vision. A set of guiding principles was generated for a large project that impacts each county in Foundation For The Carolinas' footprint.

Building on the good work of the Voices and Choices initiative, Catawba Lands Conservancy, now the lead agency for the Carolina Thread Trail and The Trust for Public Land worked with community leaders to formulate the idea of a 15-county regional trail system.  The Thread vision closely aligned with the guiding principles from the discovery process, thus the Foundation, Catawba Lands Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land formed a partnership to plan what would become the Carolina Thread Trail.

Two Leading Land Conservation Groups

Catawba Lands Conservancy is a regional land trust that has worked closely with regional stakeholders to protect natural areas, water quality, working farms and other special places in the region.  The Conservancy is the lead organization for the Carolina Thread Trail.

Dave Cable, Executive Director
Catawba Lands Conservancy
105 West Morehead Street
Charlotte, NC 28202
(704) 342-3330
dave@catawbalands.org 

The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit organization that is a leader in reclaiming and preserving major river corridors and in creating greenway systems, both in urban areas and in rural and natural areas threatened by rapid growth.

Saxby Chaplin, Legal Counsel                          Caryn Earnst, Program Director
The Trust for Public Land                               Kelley Hart, Manager Conservation Vision
1200 East Morehead Street                            The Trust for Public Land
Suite 290                                                        660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Charlotte, NC  28204                                       Suite 401
(704) 376-1839                                                 Washington, DC 20003
saxby.chaplin@tpl.org                                    (202) 543-7552
                                                                       caryn.earnst@tpl.org
                                                                       kelley.hart@tpl.org 

Support Organizations

Foundation For The Carolinas is providing critical leadership and funding to support the planning phase of the Carolina Thread Trail. Duke Energy has become the Carolina Thread Trail's Corporate Champion, providing leadership, funding, land and in-kind services, all of which are key components to making The Thread a reality.

The Turner Family Foundation provided catalytic funding for the The Thread vision in the beginning stages of the planning process. 

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has supported the vision of The Thread with its generous grant for project planning.

The Women's Impact Fund awarded the Carolina Thread Trail its first environmental project grant that helped fund an economic impact study.