North Carolina’s four conservation trust funds are at serious risk as the General Assembly writes the next state budget. These trust funds - Clean Water Management, Natural Heritage, Parks and Recreation, and Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation - have preserved hundreds of thousands of acres of family farms, forests, stream banks, game lands, parks, greenways and scenic vistas.
Land protection plays a major role in our state’s economy, boosting agriculture, the military, tourism, forestry, hunting, fishing and wildlife-watching. For every one dollar the state has spent on land conservation, North Carolinians have received four dollars in natural goods and services such as clean drinking water, flood control and clean air.
State conservation funding has already been reduced by almost 50 percent. Key legislators are considering zeroing out funding for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) and the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund (ADFPTF). Now is not the time for further reductions. Please contact your legislators today and urge them to maintain current funding levels for CWMTF and ADFPTF.
High priority conservation projects across North Carolina hang in the balance, including:
- Protecting a 180-acre farm in the Gilbert Town National Historic District in Rutherford County, ensuring that the farm remains a productive part of our state’s vital agricultural economy and preserving a culturally significant Revolutionary War site that was critical to the formation of our country.
- Conserving over 500 acres and several miles of headwater streams in McDowell County that empty directly into the Catawba and Broad rivers.
- Protecting 4,225 acres in Onslow County, buffering Camp Lejeune against incompatible land use encroachment.
- Conserving the 128-acre Heffner Gap tract in McDowell and Mitchell counties, preserving the view along a popular section of the Blue Ridge Parkway and critical sections of the historic Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.
- Saving the Huneycutt Family Farm in Randolph County, ensuring that the farm remains a productive part of our state’s vital agricultural economy.
- Adding 250 acres to Fisher Farm park in Mecklenburg County, increasing recreational opportunities for people in the northeast corner of the county
- Preserving the last largest tract of privately owned old growth longleaf pine in Montgomery County.
These conservation opportunities are available here and now. They can’t wait a year or two. That’s why it is critical that the state’s conservation trust funds receive funding in this year’s budget.
Click here to take part in Land for Tomorrow’s action alert. Use the form provided to contact your state senator and representative today, and tell them that they should maintain current funding levels for the Clean Water Management Trust Fund ($50 million) and Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund ($2 million).
To learn more about these important funds: CLICK HERE
The Foothills Conservancy is a nonprofit land trust dedicated to serving the Blue Ridge Foothills region - an eight-county area in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina - and includes the headwaters of three major rivers in the area: Catawba, Broad and Yadkin.
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