6.3 Conservation Opportunities and Incentives
habitat management tool is critical to several natural communities. Public attitudes about fre have been greatly infuenced by decades of Smokey Bear’s efective fre prevention messages that emphasize the destructiveness of wildfre. Although anti-wildfre messages did not extend to prescribed burning, many people are unable to distinguish between “good” and “bad” fre (NCCES n.d.) . Support for prescribed fre practices will require efective education and outreach to the communities and private landowners afected by this man- agement practice. 6.3.3.2 Citizen Science Outreach Citizen science projects help to involve the public in a hands-on way and create a sense of ownership and accomplishment among participants. Continued expansion of citizen science projects involving water quality monitoring, watershed restoration, wildlife conser- vation, and cleanup eforts are important in North Carolina. Tese eforts do a great deal to connect citizens to natural resource and water quality conservation, and help them under- stand human impacts on these resources at the local level. In the western part of the state, the Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition sponsors volunteer water quality monitoring programs and supports local watershed restoration work that pro- tects water quality. In the densely urbanized central Piedmont, the Lake Norman Wildlife Conservationists (an NC Wildlife Federation Teaming With Wildlife partner) actively works toward protection and enhancement of wildlife habitats in the Lake Norman area. Other programs provide citizens with the opportunity to contribute to the base of scien- tifc knowledge about wildlife. For example, the NC Calling Amphibian Survey Program (CASP) is a volunteer-based monitoring program administered by NCWRC. CASP coordi- nates with the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program (NAAMP), which main- tains an online database administered by the USGS. Te CASP survey data will contribute to information on the distribution and relative abundance of frogs and toads in North Carolina over time. Tis NC data will also be pooled with data from other states to inves- tigate regional and national trends in frog distribution and changes in frog populations. Understanding these trends will provide us with a better understanding of the status and health of our frog and toad populations, and will enable us to protect critical habitats for our frog and toad species. Te National Audubon Society sponsors an annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) that engages tens of thousands of birders in three weeks of organized group spotting events. Te goal of CBC is to collect the most complete and accurate picture of bird populations across the world. Tis volunteer-driven citizen science event has been conducted for more than 100 years and is the most complete historic record of our bird populations over time. A less formal version of CBC, the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is held each February
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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