AN ACT to authorize the addition of Northern Peaks State Trail to the State Parks System.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  The General Assembly authorizes the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to add the Northern Peaks State Trail to the State Parks System as a State trail, as provided in G.S. 143B‑135.54(b). The Department shall support, promote, encourage, and facilitate the establishment of trail segments on State park lands and on lands of other federal, State, local, and private landowners. On segments of the Northern Peaks State Trail that cross property controlled by agencies or owners other than the Department's Division of Parks and Recreation, the laws, rules, and policies of those agencies or owners shall govern the use of the property. The requirement of G.S. 143B‑135.54(b) that additions be accompanied by adequate appropriations for land acquisition, development, and operations shall not apply to the authorization set forth in this act; provided, however, that the State may receive donations of appropriate land and may purchase other needed lands for the Northern Peaks State Trail with existing funds in the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and other available sources of funding. For purposes of this act, the "Northern Peaks State Trail" refers to the proposed trail connecting Rivers Park in downtown Boone in Watauga County to the Mount Jefferson State Natural Area in Ashe County.
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 26th day of June, 2019.

	s/	 Daniel J. Forest
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Tim Moore
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Roy Cooper
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2019