NCDENR's Ecosystem Enhancement Program has been named among the top 50 new government initiatives from among more than 1,000 applicants nationwide in the 2005 Innovations in American Government Awards by Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. EEP is also receiving a 2005 National Environmental Excellence Award at the National Association of Environmental Professionals Annual Conference for a Pasquotank River local watershed plan.

Umstead State Park gains 100 acres. The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit private land conservation group, has completed the acquisition of 100 acres for Umstead State Park. The Eure family, known for its Angus Barn restaurant on Glenwood Avenue, had owned the tract. The land was acquired for about $6 million through a partnership with Wake County's open space bond program and the state's Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. The undeveloped property along the park's northeastern boundary will serve as a buffer to development along U.S. 70 and protect water quality in Sycamore Creek, one of the main tributaries that flow into the 5,439-acre park.

Sugarloaf Island off the Morehead City waterfront has been permanently protected from development. The North Carolina Coastal Federation partnered with the town to apply for a $500,000 grant from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund to help buy the property, which the town matched with $125,000 in local funds. By preventing development of the island, the town is protecting the waterways from pollution from stormwater runoff and preserving a natural habitat for animals and vegetation. Only basic facilities designed to give residents and visitors easier access to the island's natural beauty are being added.

The state has completed its purchase of a 70-acre tract along the Eno River to help protect endangered wildflowers. The land, which is in the area of Penny's Bend in northern Durham, is host to more than 30 native plant species that are considered rare - including the smooth coneflower and the tall larkspur. The land was bought with the help of an $848,400 grant from the Natural Heritage Trust Fund awarded to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which oversees the plant conservation program. State officials also have approved the purchase of another nine acres from three neighboring landowners, citing the land's proximity to the Penny's Bend Preserve, the Eno River State Park and the Butner-Falls of the Neuse Gamelands.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina has bought two properties on and overlooking Saddle Mountain near the Blue Ridge Parkway in northeastern Alleghany County. The purchase will help preserve views of the landmark mountain and protect wildlife habitat and streams feeding the Mitchell River. Saddle Mountain, which gets its name from its appearance, is north of U.S. 21 near the Alleghany and Surry county line. The Conservation Trust paid $1.75 million for the two newly acquired properties. The money to pay for the land would come from the N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund. If the deal goes through, the Piedmont Land Conservancy also plans to turn over an adjoining 212-acre tract, named Wolfe Creek Preserve, that the conservancy bought six years ago. That would push the size of the state's property on Saddle Mountain to 463 acres.

The N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund's board awarded grants in March totaling more than $8.9 million to protect significant natural areas. These grants provide supplemental funding to selected state agencies for the acquisition and protection of important natural areas, to preserve the state's ecological diversity and cultural heritage, and to inventory the natural heritage resources of our state. The land purchased may be added to the parks system, state trails, aesthetic forests, fish and wildlife management areas, wild and scenic river systems, natural areas and historic sites for the education, use and enjoyment of the public. Projects funded were:

1. The continuation of county natural area inventories;
2. Expansion of Clemmons Educational State Forest to continue educational outreach;
3. The addition of Elk Knob State Natural Area in Watauga County, in which six high quality natural communities have been identified;
4. The Sandy Run tract in Pender and Onslow counties for the protection of the water quality in the Cape Fear River basin, to conserve the unique coastal plain habitats and to buffer Camp LeJeune;
5. The acquisition of Harvest Field in Randolph to protect Schweinitz's Sunflower, a federally and state endangered plant species;
6. The addition of Saddle Mountain in Alleghany County to the Game Lands Program.
7. Funding for the Upchurch Tract in Hoke County that contains the Redwing Seeps Significant Natural Heritage Areas, which supports two rare plants and six rare animal species, and was also added to the Game Lands Program.

Three more counties have been inventoried for rare plants, animals and natural areas, bringing the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program closer to capturing the biodiversity of all 100 counties in the state. The North Carolina Natural Heritage Trust Fund and county partners provided funding. Hoke, Davidson and Orange counties have been added to the inventory reports for 72 counties statewide.

Rhodes Pond, a regionally-significant natural heritage area located near Godwin in northeastern Cumberland County, was recently purchased by the Ecosystem Enhancement Program in partnership with the Sandhills Area Land Trust. This site, an old millpond created by the damming of Black River about 1740, is home to more than 45 native shrub and herb species that grow on the trunks of the pond cypress trees at and just above the waterline. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will manage Rhodes Pond.

The Clean Water Management Trust Fund gave tentative approval to a grant request to protect 850 acres along Stoney Creek and adjacent to the southern end of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base's runway. The grant request, from the city of Goldsboro and Wayne County, was one of 11 proposals totaling nearly $32 million designed to protect both surface water quality and military installations from development. All 11 military base-related proposals received tentative approval and remain eligible for funding. Final decisions will be made later this year. Almost 10,000 acres near North Carolina's key bases have already been protected with almost $10 million in grants. By coordinating environmental protection and economic preservation, CWMTF is helping to assure the continued viability of the state's military installations. Without clean water and undeveloped buffers of land around the installations, the economies of military communities would be severely compromised, especially in the face of pending base closure and realignment decisions.