Appendix 5
Reference Document 5-2
Key Partners & Regional Partnerships
In addition to SECAS, many active partnerships are working across the Southeast region to connect lands and waters, sustain species, and protect and restore habitats. These partnerships provide opportunities for North Carolina to collaborate with new organizations, leverage new funding opportunities, align with shared priorities to make a bigger impact outside its borders, and access new tools and data.
Tribal Nations
Currently, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is the only federally recognized tribe in North Carolina. State recognized tribes include the Coharie, the Haliwa-Saponi, the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the Meherrin, the Sappony, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, and the Waccamaw Siouan. The Lumbee tribe has partial federal recognition (the Lumbee Act of 1956). There are also many federally recognized tribes with ancestral homelands within North Carolina.
Department of Defense priorities and North Carolina
The Department of Defense (DoD) manages nearly 27 million acres within the United States (Department of Defense, DoD Natural Resources Program Fact Sheet 2023). While the primary function of these lands and waters is to support vital military readiness testing, training, and operations, military installations also encompass some of the most important and biodiverse lands under federal control. DoD managed lands provide habitat for nearly 500 federally listed plant and animal species and for over 550 additional at-risk species, including 60 listed species and 74 at-risk species that occur only on DoD lands (Department of Defense, DoD Natural Resources Program Fact Sheet 2023). Maintaining habitat in a natural condition, especially in broader landscapes around military installations, can help preclude the need to list species and helps DoD sustain the use of their lands for realistic and mission-essential testing, training, and operations. Given the frequent alignment between military and conservation goals, working with military bases offers opportunities to promote conservation actions and collaborate with the DoD to support both SGCN and RSGCN. North Carolina has one of the largest military footprints of any state in the Nation. There are eight military bases in the State. They include: Pope Air Force Base, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Fort Liberty (formerly Bragg), Camp Mackall Army Base, Simmons Army Airfield, Air Station Elizabeth City Coast Guard Base, National Strike Force Coast Guard, Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point Marine Corps Base, and the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point. The largest of these facilities is Fort Liberty. Beyond the facilities and bases themselves, the military also conducts training exercises in a larger physical footprint across the State. There are several main tools that North Carolina can use to look for opportunities to manage and support SGCNs through the DoD. These tools include Integrated Natural Resource Management Plans, the Army Compatible Use Buffer, the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration program, and the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership. Integrated Natural Resource Management Plans (INRMPs) provide an existing avenue of collaboration with the DoD. INRMPs serve as management plans for the highly diverse habitats for which the DoD is responsible. These plans are installation-specific and are mandatory, as required by the Sikes Act, for
2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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