Chapter 2 The Need for Conservation
population declines. County census data for the 2020 to 2023 period showed the highest percentage of population growth occurred in coastal counties (Brunswick, Pender, Currituck).
Data for the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill urban area, commonly referred to as the “Research Triangle,” show 81% of the population growth in this urban area occurred in Wake County (USDHUD 2021) , which includes the Apex, Cary, Holly Springs, Morrisville, and Wake Forest municipalities. This rate of growth spurred a request by these municipalities for a 38% increase in water withdrawals from the Cape Fear River Basin for drinking water supplies. Growth around these urban areas also resulted in new roads, expanded highway capacity through widening, additional utility infrastructure, and increased commercial, education, and health- related development. The NC Natural and Working Lands (NWL) Action Plan (2020) reports the state’s population grew by 27% between 2000 and 2017. With continued population growth, we can expect continued changes to land use and a persistent need for conservation and protection of important natural resources. 2.3 Natural Resources Changes The Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) periodically conducted by the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) reports the status, condition, and trends in soil, water, and other natural resources on non-federal lands in the US (USDA 2020) . The 2017 Natural Resources Inventory (NRI) for North Carolina estimates the total surface area of the state, including freshwaters, to be more than 33.7 million acres (USDA 2020) . Based on estimates reported in this latest NRI, most land ownership in North Carolina is characterized as non-federal rural lands, which means that nearly all land is private, municipal, state, or tribal owned (see Table 2 .3 -1 below) (USDA 2020) . The NC Forest Service reports approximately 83% of the farm and forestland holdings in North Carolina are privately owned land (NCFS 2020) . Table 2.3-1. Surface area of non-federal and federal-owned land and water areas in North Carolina (USDA 2020) . Federal Land Non-Federal Land
Surface Waters
Total Surface Area
Developed
Rural
Total
2,388
4,916
23,602
28,518
2,804
33,710
All totals are in thousands of acres.
2.3.1 Land Use and Land Cover Changes Land use is the term that describes human use of the land, often resulting in some type of modification of the land from its natural or prior state into a developed state (Claggett 2015) . Land cover can be defined as the observed biophysical cover on the earth’s surface (Di Gregorio 2005,
2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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