State Funding for Conservation Projects in Brunswick County (aka "Green Book" data)

Example Projects in Brunswick County

Nature Preserves And Playgrounds - Meeting The Park Needs Of A Growing Population

• Brunswick County, our most southern coastal county, is blessed with some of the most exceptional natural places in North Carolina: beautiful beaches that stretch from Bald Head Island to Sunset Beach; the marshes, forests, and historic rice plantations of Town Creek and the Lower Cape Fear River; and the vast Green Swamp, teeming with wildlife. Understandably, people want to live near such extraordinary natural beauty, and Brunswick is now the 29th fastest growing county in the United States. Brunswick County and conservation organizations are working hard to protect Brunswick’s most special places and meet the park needs of citizens, given the rapid rate of development in the county. Along Town Creek and the Lower Cape Fear, the NC Coastal Land Trust has worked with landowners and the state’s conservation trust funds to protect the water and more than 10,000 acres of marshes, forests, and historic plantations. Now, thanks to two grants totaling $390,000 from the coastal access program of the NC Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF), Brunswick County will be providing canoe access to Town Creek off of US 17 and trails and picnic areas on a new 900- acre nature preserve, donated to the County by the NC Coastal Land Trust. The creek and forests are some of the best places in North Carolina to see wildlife and native plants: alligators, rare snails, a menagerie of mussels, longleaf pines, red cockaded woodpeckers, fox squirrels, bobcats, black bears, and carnivorous plants. A third grant for $500,000 from the local parks program of PARTF is helping the county provide much-needed recreational facilities at 60 acres it owns in Ocean Isle. Funds will help build playgrounds, tennis courts, and a covered amphitheater. As North Carolina becomes a more urban state, grants from the state’s conservation trust funds are a great help to counties like Brunswick in their efforts to ensure that water will continue to be clean and abundant and that their citizens can still enjoy the beauty of nature.

The Day 2% Of North Carolina Went Up For Sale

The Best International Paper Lands Conserved Forever

• In 2005, International Paper Company made the unexpected and unprecedented announcement that it planned to sell 6.8 million acres in the United States, including 631,000 acres in North Carolina (approximately 2% of the total land area in our state).  The Nature Conservancy quickly went to work with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, the NC Natural Heritage Program, and others to determine which International Paper parcels were critical for water quality protection and for rare species of wildlife and native plants. The NC Division of Parks and Recreation and NC Department of Cultural Resources also jumped in to help assess the recreational and historic value of the tracts.  In March 2006, negotiations for the most critical acres were complete, and The Nature Conservancy announced that International Paper had agreed to sell 76,500 acres of its most biologically significant forest, wetland, and rivers for approximately $80 million.  The land conserved is along the Chowan, Roanoke, and Tar Rivers in northeastern NC and along Juniper Creek in the state’s far southeastern tip. The former timber lands are rich with natural treasures, from swamp forests and estuaries to longleaf savannas and alluvial plains.  Nearly 80 percent of the property will be transferred to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, adding to the state’s Game Land program. Other tracts will become part of Medoc Mountain State Park, a new Civil War historic site on the Roanoke River, and conservation lands that The Nature Conservancy will manage.  The Nature Conservancy took the financial risk at the outset, but the state’s conservation trust funds and NC Wildlife Resources Commission are working to cover the state’s share for properties that will go into public ownership by the spring of 2009. On schedule, the Clean Water Management Trust Fund awarded grants in 2006 that totaled $16,286,000, and the Natural Heritage Trust Fund awarded $4,664,000, which is going toward the $80 million purchase price.  The state’s investment will safeguard these lands for years to come, protecting wildlife and the drinking water downstream.