One North Carolina Naturally: Uniting the State to Conserve our Natural Heritage (2004)

Undergraduates: Lars Perlmutt, Kelly Anderson, Scott Johnson, Tatum Neil, Philip Smallwood, Thomas Blake Wiggins

Faculty Advisor: Douglas Crawford-Brown
Department: Environmental Studies

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North Carolina has a wealth of natural resources that make it an attractive place to live and locate businesses. We must balance the needs for conservation of our natural heritage and for economic development. This will require coordinated efforts of conservation and development groups, ensuring that conservation efforts target the most important land and water resources while recognizing the need for reasonable development. To assist in this coordination, we attended a series of 8 regional meetings of conservation and development groups throughout North Carolina, and analyzed the results of surveys of participants. These surveys show how conservation areas are selected in different regions of the state, and provide a ?road map? for identifying new conservation efforts that will be supported by diverse conservation groups, be consistent with development, and protect the most important aspects of our natural heritage and the natural services provided by land and water ecosystems.