At the request of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Environmental Finance Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill began research in the summer of 2000 into the expected costs of reaching the million acre goal. Their January 2001 report estimates the acreage of land being protected annually in North Carolina, the amount of money agencies spend to protect land in the state, the amount that various land protection partners need to secure to reach the million acre goal, and more.

The report estimates that North Carolina public and private land protection partners will have to increase annual expenditures on open space protection by $120 million more per year than their expenditures during 2000. Click here to read the report.