• Places to walk, picnic, camp, canoe and enjoy the outdoors that are easily accessible to a greater percentage of North Carolinians
• Ensure that North Carolina's unusually diverse native species of plants and wildlife thrive along with a growing human population
• Protection of water and air quality
• Natural lands are a preferred neighbor of military bases
• Jobs generated by visitors to the parks
• Protection of outstanding examples of North Carolina's diverse archeological, scenic and geological resources
• Places to exercise to improve health and reduce obesity
• Places for people to study ecology and natural sciences

Priority Areas for Protection:

• Enlargement of existing State Parks to meet public demand for trails and recreational opportunities and protect important archeological, biological, scenic and geological resources
• Land and facilities for the 44 new parks and natural areas proposed by the NC Division of Parks and Recreation in its New Parks for a New Century plan Enlargement of existing State Parks to meet public demand for trails and recreational opportunities and protect important archeological, biological, scenic and geological resources
  Land and facilities for the 44 new parks and natural areas proposed by the NC Division of Parks and Recreation in its New Parks for a New Century plan

Protection Techniques:
In most instances, state parkland is acquired outright by the NC Division of Parks and Recreation or other park agency. When landowners want or need to sell their land or an easement, the property can be purchased at fair market value.

Five-Year Goal:
60,000 acres (approximately 1/3 of acres identified for new and expanded state parks and new and renovated facilities).

Funding Needed:
$200 million for land, $100 million for park facilities ($60 million per year).

In 2004, the NC Division of Parks and Recreation estimated that it could acquire this much land and provide these facilities to implement a sizable portion of the New Parks for a New Century plan. Funding estimates are based on the Division's recent experience in acquiring land.