2.3 Natural Resources Changes
impacts from stressors such as land-use changes, invasive species, climate change, and industrial forestry practices will make it increasingly difcult to retain biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Tese systems may require protection from stressors that threaten their ability to function as complete and natural ecological communities (Forest Ethics et al. 2006) . Seven southeastern states (Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Alabama, and Tennessee) made the ‘extreme risk’ category in an assessment of risk to ecosystems in the United States based on number of endangered ecosystems, percentage of imperiled species by state, and development pressures. In addition to that distinction, eight of the top 21 endangered ecosystems in the United States can be found in North Carolina (Noss and Peters 1995) as indicated in Table 2.2.
T ABLE 2.2 Endangered ecosystems in the southeast Endangered Ecosystem
Rank
Southern Appalachian spruce-fr forests
2 3 4 7
Longleaf Pine and savanna
Eastern grasslands, savanna, and barrens Coastal communities in the lower 48 states Large streams and rivers in the lower 48 states
11 12 16 21
Cave and karst systems
Ancient eastern deciduous forest Southern forested wetlands
NCWRC has developed conservation recommendations that can help local planning orga- nizations and municipal governments conserve and manage terrestrial wildlife habitats, including six priority community types: wetlands, riparian and foodplain habitats, long- leaf pine habitats, upland forests, early successional habitats, and rock outcrops, caves, and mines (NCWRC 2012) . 2.3.4 Critical Areas for Freshwater Conservation Tere have been several aquatic assessments undertaken by conservation organizations during the last several years that address freshwater biodiversity conservation at diferent scales. Tese assessments have largely built on the information gathered in previous eforts in order to identify signifcant regions and priority areas for freshwater conservation. For example, Te Nature Conservancy (TNC) quantifed the distribution of freshwater systems and the condition of lands and waters surrounding them to generate a set of pri- orities for freshwater preservation, restoration, and further exploration (Burns et al . 2012; Benner et al. 2014) . TNC evaluated streams in the state by applying criteria that considered physical
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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