Aug. 12. Catawba Lands Conservancy has purchased 87 acres of land along Forney Creek near Denver bringing the total size of the total size of the Forney Creek Conservation Area to 308 acres of protected hardwood forests, floodplain and waterfowl ponds.

This property will allow for an additional 0.6 new miles of Carolina Thread Trail, adding to the existing 2.5-mile Forney Creek Trail.

The Forney Creek Trail currently runs through the Conservancy’s Sally’s Y and Catawba Springs Preserves. The parking address is Sally’s YMCA, 1601 Forney Creek Parkway in Denver.

The Old Stumpy Preserve was purchased with funding from North Carolina’s Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

The Carolina Thread Trail is a 15-county, two-state initiative designed to create a regional network of trails, blueways and conservation corridors that will link more than 2.9 million people. With technical resources and catalytic funding from the Thread Trail, local communities plan and implement their portions of this greenway system.

The Carolina Thread Trail region includes Anson, Cabarrus, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Rowan, Stanly and Union counties within North Carolina and Cherokee, Chester, Lancaster and York counties in South Carolina.

In Cornelius, the McDowell Creek Greenway is a paved trail that runs from Westmoreland Road near the I-77 bridge to Birkdale Village. Parking Address: 16815 Cranlyn Rd, Birkdale Village.

Catawba Lands Conservancy is the lead agency for the Thread Trail, which is working in partnership with Foundation for the Carolinas and many local partners. Currently, more than 270 miles of Thread Trail are open to the public.