5.4 Agriculture and Aquaculture
5.4 Agriculture and Aquaculture Tis category considers threats from farming and ranching as a result of agricultural expansion and intensifcation and includes silviculture, mari- culture, and aquaculture. (Salafsky et al . 2008) Our state has a rich agricultural heritage. North Carolina has over 8.4 million acres of farmland and ranks seventh nationally for farm profts (USDA 2014) . Our state leads the nation in tobacco and sweet potato production and ranks second for Christmas trees, hogs, and turkeys (USDA 2014) . In North Carolina, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDACS) has responsibility for agriculture and aquaculture operations. Livestock farming and ranching are agriculture components and involve raising terrestrial animals (e.g., cattle, swine, poultry) on farms or feed lots. Examples include dairy, chicken, horse, and cattle farms; cattle and swine feed lots; sheep and goat herds; and exotic animal herds (e.g., llamas, alpacas, ostriches). Annual and perennial non-timber crops, orchards, vineyards, and mixed agroforestry planted and harvested from traditional and industrial farms or plantations and used for food, fodder, fber, fuel, or other uses as agricultural con- cerns are silviculture concerns. Aquaculture is a fast growing source of food production throughout the world (FAO 1997; Fu et al. 2012) . Freshwater and marine aquaculture (mariculture) includes aquatic animals raised in one location on farmed or nonlocal resources and hatchery fsh allowed to roam in the wild. Shrimp or fnfsh aquaculture, fsh ponds on farms, hatchery fsh, seeded shellfsh beds, and artifcial algal beds are examples of aquaculture operations (Salafsky et al. 2008) . Freshwater aquaculture can generally be defned as the propagation and rearing of aquatic species in controlled or selected environments such as constructed ponds or lakes and hatcheries. Aquaculture facilities in the Mountain ecoregion tend to focus on cool- and coldwater production of fsh using fow-through tank production. Freshwater aquaculture facilities in the Piedmont ecoregion generally use recirculating tank production, while those in the Coastal Plain ecoregion typically use warmwater ponds for production (Turano et al. 2013) . Mariculture involves propagation and rearing of marine aquatic species in controlled or selected environments such as ocean ranching, constructed ponds or lakes, hatcher- ies, seeded beds (shellfsh), or facilities constructed in natural waters (Salafsky et al. 2008) . Mariculture in North Carolina involves raising fnfsh species (e.g., Black Sea Bass) as well as clams, oysters, and soft crabs (Turano et al. 2013) . Te NC Marine Fisheries Commission is responsible for the management, protection, preservation, and enhancement of marine and estuarine resources, including mariculture operations.
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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