More Than 77,000 Acres of International Paper Property Conserved in North Carolina
The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund are buying 218,000 acres of forestlands from International Paper Co. in 10 southeastern states. This $300 million land purchase is the largest private forestland conservation sale in the South and one of the largest in the United States. The most environmentally sensitive parcels were selected from millions of acres the world's largest paper company wants to sell as part of plan to shrink its business and boost profits.
The deal includes 77,090 acres in North Carolina, divided among five sites and containing 300 miles of rivers and streams. Over the next three years, the state plans to buy about 67,000 acres of the North Carolina land from the conservation groups for up to $72 million. The rest will be sold to private owners, but environmental groups will control the timber to protect wildlife. The agreement will allow timber harvesting to continue on part of the land over the next five years, though not in the most environmentally fragile areas.
The forests of the South are among the richest in terms of total number of species of any habitats in the world. Many of these areas would probably be converted from forests into fully developed landscapes in the next 20 years. A 2002 federal study projected the South to lose 31 million acres to urban development over the next four decades.
Progress Energy Joins Natural Heritage Program in Protecting Rare Plant Sites
The North Carolina Natural Heritage Program has expanded a partnership with Progress Energy to protect rare plant habitat occurring in power line rights-of-way across the Piedmont and Coastal Plain of North Carolina. In 2005, Progress Energy added 13 new Registered Heritage Areas to the memorandum of understanding signed in 1993, which originally protected 26 power line sites. This agreement, which formalizes Progress Energy’s commitment to protect the state’s natural diversity and natural areas, outlines a set of management guidelines that will protect and enhance habitat for 26 Endangered, Threatened or Candidate plant species and many more species that are Significantly Rare in the state. Management practices will include mowing only during the non-growing seasons, avoiding impacts to the soil and hydrology, reduced and carefully managed herbicide use in unique natural areas and periodic monitoring and consultation with the Natural Heritage Program.
APNEP Grants for Schoolyard Demonstration Projects
The Citizens’ Advisory Committee of the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program will make project selections and funding allocations for recipients of $125,000 in grant money on April 7. Ten demonstration project proposals will be discussed, which are eligible for funding up to $25,000 each.
The RFP targeted academia, government agencies and nonprofit organizations in northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, focusing on Schoolyard Demonstration Projects. Proposals must:
• Address one or more of the main sections of the program’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan
(Water Quality, Vital Habitat, Fisheries, Stewardship);
• Occur on or adjacent to school property;
• Be physical in-ground projects;
• Have public outreach/education elements;
• Allow public access; and
• Have transferable methods.
Proposals received and scheduled for discussion include:
1. Manteo Middle School Stormwater Demonstration Project- submitted by the Manteo Middle School in the amount of $14,500.
2. Williamston High School Low Impact Development Project- submitted by the N.C. Cooperation Extension Service, in the amount of $25,000.
3. Wet and Wild, Utilizing the Wet Detention Pond at P.S. Jones Middle School in Washington- submitted by the Beaufort County School System in the amount of $25,000.
4. Restoration of Skipjack Sailing Classroom- submitted by the Coastal Carolina Classroom Program in the amount of $20,000.
5. Carteret Community College Shoreline Restoration Project- submitted by the North Carolina Coastal Federation in the amount of $20,978.
6. Howell Woods Longleaf Savannah Restoration and Wetland Education Project- submitted by Johnston Community College in the amount of $25,000.
7. N.C. State University Permeable Pavement Parking Lot- submitted by North Carolina State University in the amount of $25,000.
8. Red Mill Elementary School Riparian Buffer Project and Environmental Education Center- submitted by the City of Virginia Beach, Va., in the amount of $25,000.
9. Perquimans County High School Constructed Wetlands and Environmental Education Project (Phase II)- submitted by Perquimans County High School in the amount of $23,000.
10. River Basin Observation Deck/Water Quality Workbook Project, at the Clemmons Educational State Forest in Clayton. This project is submitted by the N.C. Division of Forest Resources in the amount of $25,000.
The APNEP, among the first of 28 National Estuary Programs to be designated as “an estuary of national significance” by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1987, has distributed approximately $503,000 in grant money since 2003.For more information about the APNEP in general, or the demonstration project proposals in particular, contact Joan Giordano, outreach coordinator, at (252) 948-3825 or Joan.Giordano@ncmail.net, or Kelly Williams, restoration specialist at (919) 715-4074, or Kelly.Williams@ncmail.net or go to www.apnep.org.
Preservation Success Stories from N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program
The N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program’s high-quality preservation initiative has collaborated with public- and private-sector partners since 2003 to set aside 71 tracts of natural areas across North Carolina for future generations.
EEP’s preservation project, which earns credits for the state to offset unavoidable environmental damage from transportation-infrastructure improvements and other economic development, has either acquired or has options to acquire almost 38,000 acres, including more than 7,600 acres of wetlands, as well as about 156 miles of streams. Thumbnail sketches and photos of some of the acquisitions are available on the Web at EEP Preservation Success Stories.
EEP’s preservation activities also benefit from a unique partnership with the Conservation Trust for North Carolina and 22 local and regional land trusts from the mountains to the coast. Under a 2003 agreement with CTNC, EEP capitalizes on the expertise of land trusts to identify high-quality sites and provide fair-market value to willing landowners. About 20 of the tracts preserved under the initiative are managed by the state as parks or gamelands.
EEP’s founding resulted from a July 2003 memorandum of agreement among the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the N.C. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Housed in NCDENR, the initiative uses funding provided by NCDOT for site acquisitions, for restoration and enhancement of wetlands and streams in nearly 400 projects across the state and for development of plans in partnership with local communities to help restore and enhance degraded or endangered watersheds.
The initiative’s groundbreaking approach to providing mitigation for responsible development and protecting water quality earned designation in 2005 as one of the top 50 innovative new programs in the nation from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. The initiative also received a national environmental award in 2005 for local watershed planning from the National Association of Environmental Professionals.
More Sustainable Forestry Workshops Coming Soon
The N.C. Division of Forest Resources hosted three workshops in early December 2005 aimed at promoting sustainable forestry and stemming the state's loss of forestland to new development. More than 600 forest landowners attended the workshops, which were held Dec. 1 in Williamston, Dec. 6 in Fletcher and Dec. 7 at Elon University. The content of the workshops was similar to two forestry summits held in 2004.
The workshops were held to address concerns about the state's loss of more than 1 million acres of forestland to development between 1990 and 2002. Experts in forestry and forest products spoke on numerous topics, including entrepreneurial opportunities available to woodland owners such as raking and selling pine straw and the financial benefits available to people who choose to manage their forestland.
Forestry officials say the effort to reach forest landowners has been so successful that more summits have been scheduled. Summits for 2006 will be held May 8 in Wilkesboro, May 10 in Edenton and May 12 in Kenansville. For more information, contact Jamie Kritzer, public information officer with the Division of Forest Resources, at (919) 733-2162, ext. 234.
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