Blazing a Path for NC Forests

New report recommends ways to conserve state's crucial woodlands

Posted: 14-Sep-2006; Updated: 18-Sep-2006

A new vision for forests balances forest health, economic growth, and increased public benefits from private lands. (Source: Corbis)

Standing Tall: A New Path for North Carolina's Private Forests

Download the report here, along with some key graphics. Please use source information for the graphics provided in the report.

• Download Standing Tall
  
• Download map of NC forest coverage (280kb)
• Download graph of forest loss vs. population growth (296 kb)
• Download map of forest loss (1.7 Mb)
• Download graph of harvest rates vs. growth rates (292 kb)
• Download graph of federal landowner assistance funding (280 kb)

"There's a crisis brewing in our woods, and we better start paying attention," says Jim McEwen, a landowner from Richmond County in North Carolina.

It's a crisis that's intensifying: North Carolina is losing its private forests to development at the alarming rate of nearly 100,000 acres a year—an area of land roughly the size of Durham. As forests give way to strip malls, subdivisions and highways, their vital functions, along with their aesthetic appeal, disappear with them. There are fewer trees to filter pollutants from water, to hold back runoff that muddies streams and rivers and to serve as habitat for wildlife ranging from white-tailed deer to wild turkey to warblers.

Private forests are critical to the North Carolina's economy, environment and overall quality of life, and every year some

600,000 landowners make decisions that help shape not only the future of the state's forests but also the state itself.

Crafting a new vision for forests

Standing Tall [PDF], a new report by Environmental Defense, catalogs 15 recommendations that will help North Carolina stanch the loss of its forests. First and foremost among these is to have the state create and implement a plan to protect and restore rare and declining forest types before they perish. A mosaic of diverse forest types is crucial to clean air and clean water for North Carolina. Other proposals offered in Standing Tall include:

• providing tax relief for landowners whose land management includes conservation efforts,
• creating a framework and implementing policies to reduce sprawl and its negative impacts on rural lands, and
• empaneling a task force to look at the business opportunities of forestland.

Get the details on these and our other recommendations in Standing Tall [PDF].