You’ve probably noticed some dramatic changes to North Carolina’s landscape over the past 10 years. What you might not realize is that North Carolina’s forests, farmlands, and other open spaces are disappearing at the sixth-fastest rate in the nation.

Upcoming changes in major land-owning industries could bring even more development to the state.

Poor planning has consequences
Poorly planned strip malls, big box stores, and other developments are replacing our natural areas almost twice as fast as our population grows. In fact, Environment North Carolina research shows that every day, we lose another 383 acres—an area the size of 20 Wal-Marts—to development.

Changes in land ownership in the timber, utility, and agriculture sectors could have dramatic impacts on open spaces in North Carolina. Private landowners, who today maintain substantial acreage of farmlands and forests in North Carolina, are predicted to sell off large tracts of property.

Open space opportunity
Today, roughly 60 percent of the state’s acreage is forested. Ninety percent of this forested area is owned by private interests. Much of the privately owned land that is now held by large utility and timber companies will change hands in the coming
year.

Power companies and timber companies are selling large amounts of land through-out North Carolina because of changes in their industry.

What’s more, the end of the tobacco quota system means that quota holders will soon decide whether to keep farming their land. Thousands of acres in working farms may be sold for development, and farming communities could disappear unless a creative solution is found.

This widespread sale of land makes for a perfect storm of open space opportunities. North Carolina has a rare opportunity to permanently protect water quality, native plants and wildlife and at the same time keep critical lands in productive agricultureand forestry.

The Environment North Carolina backed Land for Tomorrow Initiative, which would devote one percent of the state’s budget over the next five years to land protection, could take advantage of the upcoming opportunities.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to achieve North Carolina’s million acre promise, and preserve the beauty and heritage of North Carolina,” said Environment North Carolina State Director Elizabeth Ouzts. “The Legislature will have to act quickly to avoid losing these prime areas to more out of control development.”