N.C. falls short on 1 million acre initiative
Friday, March 30th, 2007
By Chris Fitzsimon
Associated Press Thursday, March 29, 2007
ASHEVILLE, N.C. - North Carolina is well off track of its goal to preserve 1 million acres of land by 2009, and environmentalists say the state should pair more conservation with development as other states have done.
"It’s not ending development because that is not feasible," said Matthew Schaffer of the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land. "It’s inevitable. It is how you grow that can be really important."
Since North Carolina began the N.C. Million Acre Initiative in 1999, the state has protected about 405,000 acres. That doesn’t come close to matching the state’s development rate of 100,000 acres a year.
The main problem is the rising cost of land.
"One of the major issues is obviously the cost of property is going up and there is not enough conservation funding in order for us to meet our million-acre goal," said Richard Rogers, the state’s assistant secretary for natural resources. "And that has been the case since the beginning."
North Carolina’s conservation money comes from state-run trust funds, nonprofits and private donors.
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund gets about $100 million a year for conservation that protects water quality, Rogers said. The Natural Heritage and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund together get about $80 million, which is mostly used for protecting land that improves water quality. (more…)
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