2.3 Natural Resources Changes
With this reported increase in developed lands, there is a corresponding decrease in land cover type over the same 13-year period (USDA 2013) . As of 2010, there are 23,639,900 acres of nonfederal lands in the state and land use or cover is primarily forest land. Figure 2.3 uses NRI data to depict the change in percent of land cover for nonfederal lands used for crops, pasture, forest, and other rural land as well as land enrolled in the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) (USDA 2014) . CRP is a federal program established under the Food Security Act of 1985 to assist private landowners who want to convert highly erodible crop land to vegetative cover for 10 years. As depicted in Figure 2.3, cropland acreage decreased by 1.5%; pastureland decreased by 0.3%; forest land decreased by 1.6%; total rural land decreased by 3.2%; and CRP land decreased by 0.2% over the period between 1997 and 2010, while other rural land uses increased by 0.4% over this 13-year period. 2.3.2 Protected Species Currently, there are 61 wildlife and plant species known to occur in North Carolina that are listed by USFWS for protection under the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) (USFWS 2013) . Of those listed for the state, 34 are fsh, wildlife, insects and spiders, and the remaining 27 are plants. ESA protects species that are in danger of extinction. Of the protected species found in the state, 29 have recovery plans. Recovery plans are available online: http://www.fws.gov/endangered/species/recovery-plans.html. In addition to the federally listed species, there are 109 species currently listed as endan- gered or threatened in North Carolina. Since th 2005 WAP was published, there have been several changes to the species protected under federal and state listings. State protected species are designated by NCWRC through legislative rule-making and published in the NC Administrative Code (NCAC) 15A NCAC 10I.0101 through .0105. All species listed for federal protection are also listed for protection under the State Endangered Species Act (NC General Statute 113-331 to 113-337). Tere are also 129 species of special concern in North Carolina. Te current NCAC list includes both federally and state-listed species; however, any species that has been removed from federal listing will retain state listing status until removed through North Carolina legislative action. A record of state-listed species is avail- able online: http://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Conserving/documents/protected_spe- cies.pdf. Table 2.1 provides a comparison of species with a federal listing status that has changed while the state listing has been retained. Some of these listings difer from the status pub- lished in the 2005 WAP.
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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