With funding from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Cemala Foundation, and Educational Foundation of America, the Land for Tomorrow Coalition has spent the last year gauging public opinion and investigating funding options. In Fall 2003, the coalition interviewed more than 50 leaders across the state to assess public opinion and to look at options for increasing state and local funding for land conservation. In Spring 2004, LFT published a Land Conservation Financing Study that describes successful land conservation programs in other states and recommends steps that can be taken here to increase funding and effectiveness. LFT also conducted a statewide poll of the general public and a poll of farmland owners to learn what they think about land conservation.
In the statewide poll, 59% of North Carolinians agreed that we are losing land so fast that we must find a way to preserve open space, farmland, and water supply areas. Eighty-six percent say that they would be likely to support increased funding if it would protect rivers and waterways, and 82% say that they would be likely to support increased funding if it would protect family farms and farmland. Strong majorities also supported protecting land for many other purposes including historic sites, habitat for animals, scenic views, local parks, hunting and fishing, and hiking and biking trails.
During the 2004 session of the General Assembly, the Land for Tomorrow Coalition also worked with DENR and One North Carolina Naturally on the passage of House Bill 1264 to Finance Vital Projects/Studies. Now that the legislative session is over, the Coalition is focusing its energies on:
1. Educating the public about why rural and natural land is so important to North Carolina's environment, economy, public health, and quality of life; and
2. Formulating recommendations about how an expanded state funding program might be focused and structured.
The Land for Tomorrow Coalition, like One North Carolina Naturally, is about so much more than funding: it is about creating parks in which to play baseball, to fish, and to picnic; about buffering rivers that supply our drinking water, feed vast wetland ecosystems, and flow into the sounds and ocean; about protecting mountains that rise over the Blue Ridge Parkway and throughout the western part of the state; about preserving farmland that puts food on our tables. It is about sustaining our way of life while insuring the same for future generations.
For more information about the Land for Tomorrow Coalition, please contact Kate Dixon, Project Director, 4705 University Drive, Suite 290, Durham, NC 27707; 919-403-8558; kdixon@tnc.org.
Important Bird Areas of North Carolina
Audubon North Carolina announces the release of the Important Bird Areas of North Carolina, an ocean-to-mountains summary of the 92 most crucial sites in the state for birds. The culmination of six years of work, the report enumerates species supported, conservation threats faced, and goals for protection at each site. All land managers, conservation agencies, nonprofits and land trusts should become familiar with these areas. The publication is being made available electronically for download at www.ncaudubon.org as a .pdf file readable in Adobe Acrobat and a GIS data folder. For further information, contact Walker Golder at wgolder@audubon.org.
Learning How to Sustain Working Forests
The NC Division of Forest Resources, in cooperation with several government and private organizations, is hosting the NC Forestry Summit: Sustainable Working Forests. The summit will be held twice: on July 28th in Smithfield at Johnston Community College, and on August 19th at the Statesville Civic Center. The focus of each event is on how to keep private forests healthy and productive. A broad range of speakers, including forest landowners, conservationists, forest industry experts and foresters will share information with landowners on managing their lands to sustain our forests. More information can be found on the Division's web site at http://www.dfr.state.nc.us/. Stay tuned for summaries following these events.
Second Phase of Funding from Z. Smith Reynolds
We are fortunate once again to be able to partner with the Carolina Environmental Program at UNC-Chapel Hill and to receive the second phase of funding from Z. Smith Reynolds for our statewide conservation planning efforts. These funds are to be used for completing the development of the Internet Decision Support Tool, as well as for conservation planning of agricultural and forestlands across the state. We continue to look for additional funding sources to further these efforts.
Statewide Conservation Mapping Coming Together
An Internet-based Decision Support Tool is being developed that will provide GIS information to planners, local governments, and the public through the use of a custom online map viewer. Data from each of the Regional Plans
is being incorporated into the One North Carolina Naturally decision support tool, and the data will be continually updated to remain current. We anticipate the initial version of this tool will be available to the public in the fall of 2004.
This customized decision support tool, designed for use without special GIS software, will make it easier to coordinate conservation and development within and across regions and ecosystems of our state. Specialized conservation data such as managed lands, areas of conservation interest, infrastructure data and other information will be available to enhance decision making on community priorities. This project has been coordinated with a Clean Water Management Trust Fund project, and once online will be housed at the Carolina Environmental Program at UNC-Chapel Hill.
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