Hartwell Carson

• French Broad Riverkeeper/Clean Water Director
• MountainTrue

Hartwell has worked to protect the French Broad River for the past 20 years as the French Broad Riverkeeper, and was recently promoted to the Clean Water Director for MountainTrue, coordinating the organizations response to Hurricane Helene across all of their water programs. He has done everything from shutting down power plants, cleaning up coal ash, building the French Broad River Paddle Trail, crawling up sewer pipes to find and report dozens of sewer leaks, starting a water quality monitoring program replicated around the state, and raising millions for clean water. Hartwell also started Clean Water for Africa, which works with African Waterkeepers to build clean drinking water projects. Recently Hartwell also opened Cold Spring Basecamp, a campground nestled in the Western NC mountains.