Preservation in the News

Summer's heat has come to North Carolina chasing thousands to the beaches and the mountains in search of relief. The state is fortunate to boast such a tremendous natural landscape, which delights residents and visitors alike.

Preservation of North Carolina's natural resources should be a top state priority, but it is one that is often underfunded and unappreciated. The Legislature should be commended for assisting that effort in the recently completed session, but must do more to protect the state's land and water for generations to come.

In the past two decades, North Carolina has experienced a period of unprecedented growth. More than two million new residents call the state home, and the skyrocketing population has devoured a significant share of land.

Between 1987 and 1997, the state ranked third in the amount of farmland lost to development. It has seen more than one million acres consumed in the past decade, and will see more lost in the years to come if population projections prove correct. And with that growth has come pollution of water, air and other natural resources.

Those landscapes — the hills and mountains of the West, the coastal plain of the East and the beautiful expanse between — are what define North Carolina and make it a special place to call home. But without adequate protection, residents could see it ruined by development, lost forever to future generations who would know it only in photographs.

Several organizations created by the state exist to halt the erosion of natural land and to protect the air and water, including the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund. And in 2000, the General Assembly resolved to protect one million in undeveloped land by 2009.

Pitt County has benefitted from state money reserved for natural protection, as have other counties, but the trusts have suffered from a lack of funding. North Carolina has also fallen well short of its goal of attaining a million acres for preservation, and looks certain to miss its 2009 deadline.

Prior to this legislative session, several environmental groups lobbied for the state to meet its obligations. They sought $1 billion over five years, an extraordinary and unrealistic sum given the state's economic condition.

The two-year spending plan approved last week included $128 million toward this noble purpose, with money headed to the state's environmental trusts. It will be used to protect beaches and rivers, farmland and parkland. That, in turn, will help the state maintain some of its most pristine land at a time it is threatened.

But, if North Carolina hopes to remain the beautiful place to call home, it must go further to promote environmental protection. That means funding programs aimed at preserving resources in danger, in order to bequeath this state's bounty to the next generation of Tar Heels.