• Protection of the land base of the forest products industry
• Places for hunting
• Habitat for many species of native plants and wildlife
• Buffers around military bases and flyways
• Water quality protection

Priority Areas for Protection:

The NC Division of Forest Resources has identified eight areas across the state as "Forest Legacy Areas" because of their diverse ecosystems and traditional forest industries.

Protection Techniques:
In most instances, working forests are protected through purchase of development rights (PDR) programs that keep the land in private ownership and allow continued management and harvesting of timber, but restrict buildings and other development on the property (although in some instances landowners retain the right to build one or two homes). Depending on the needs of the landowner, PDRs may be purchased by a government agency or by a nonprofit land trust at fair market value, or the landowner may donate the easement and qualify for charitable tax benefits.

Five-Year Goal:
To protect 25,000 acres of forest land within Forest Legacy Areas.

This goal was recommended by members of the Steering Committee of Land for Tomorrow as a challenging but achievable goal, based on their experience involving working-forest landowners. As this program builds, landowners will need to be educated and governments and conservation nonprofits will need to expand their organizational capacity to work with these landowners. If this five-year start-up program is successful, experience in other states indicates that landowner intereste in PDR programs is likely to increase dramatically, and it will be possible to substantially increase the number of acres of working forest protected per year.

Funding Needed:
$55 million over five years ($11 million per year).

The funding estimate is based on an average PDR price per acre of $2200, the same estimate that we have used for PDR for working farms.