Reference Document 5-2
Appendix 5
In addition to contributing to the conservation landscape of the Southeast, North Carolina’s lands and waters also benefit the state’s economy. In 2023, the Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated that the outdoor recreation economy generated $16.2 billion in value for the state’s Gross Domestic Product and another $7.7 billion in wages and salaries (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis for Outdoor Recreation, 2023). Beyond providing recreational value, natural landscapes also support working lands such as agriculture and timber. As of 2024, North Carolina supported more than 8.1 million acres of farmland across 42,100 farms and crop production alone was valued at more than $3.6 billion (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2024).
North Carolina and the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS)
The Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) is a regional conservation initiative that spans the Southeastern United States and Caribbean. SECAS brings together diverse partners around an ambitious goal: a 10% or greater improvement in the health, function, and connectivity of Southeastern ecosystems by 2060. The Southeast Conservation Blueprint is the primary product of SECAS. The Blueprint is a living, spatial plan that identifies priority areas where conservation action would make an impact toward creating a connected networks of lands and waters, based on a suite of natural and cultural resource indicators and a connectivity analysis. So far, more than 2,500 people from over 650 different organizations have been actively involved in developing the Blueprint. At least 37 staff from the NCWRC alone have participated in workshops to review and improve the Blueprint, along with many other conservation practitioners from across the State. Since 2014, the Blueprint has been used by a broad suite of partners to inform many different conservation actions across the state. For example, staff from the NCWRC, along with other partners, used the Blueprint to help secure an ‘America's Ecosystem Restoration Initiative’ grant aimed at restoring longleaf pine ecosystem habitats to benefit at-risk species, improve ecosystem resilience, and decrease wildfire risk to surrounding communities and military installations. The Blueprint was also used to help inform an expansion of Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge and has also been used by several non-profits like Upstate Forever to help prioritize restoration efforts on conservation lands. Maps of the Blueprint and other regional data are provided within this chapter. These maps also include a boundary that extends beyond the State and includes watersheds where North Carolina shares a conservation or species management interest with its neighboring states. This boundary was developed by identifying all watersheds (HUC 8) within 1.5 kilometers of the State boundary and then selecting shared watersheds of conservation interest with NCWRC staff and partners from the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP). By looking beyond the State’s boundaries, North Carolina can consider how to best align conservation actions and identify cross-jurisdictional opportunities with neighboring states to maximize benefits for SGCN with wider ranges. The Blueprint recognizes more than 17.9 million acres, or roughly 52% of the state, as a priority for connecting the region’s lands and waters (Table 1, Figure 2). About 9.1 million acres (26%) are rated as highest or high priority. An additional 6.7 million acres (19.6%) are rated as medium priority and about 2.1 million acres are considered priority connections, or key linkages between priority areas that can help facilitate the flow of species and ecological processes within the State while also considering connectivity within the broader region. Together, these classes represent the most important areas for
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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