Chapter 5 Threats
5.3 Residential and Commercial Development
For this discussion, development includes housing and urban areas, commercial and industrial areas, and tourism and recreation areas that have a substantial footprint (Salafsky et al. 2008).
The US Geological Survey (USGS) suggests that the threat to ecosystems from development patterns and current practices in the Southeast rivals threats from climate change (Terando et al . 2014) . Habitat degradation and fragmentation arising from sprawling development patterns are some of the most significant causes of species imperilment in the United States (Brown and Laband 2006; Doyle et al. 2001; Ewing et al. 2005) . Encroachment of major development adjacent to existing conserved lands and within high-quality wildlife corridors is of particular concern due to the need to maintain the integrity of protected habitats and the ability of wildlife and plants to disperse across the landscape. In addition to the land use and habitat fragmentation that are common to any type of development, manufacturing and industrial facilities can also be a source of air, water, and noise pollution that can disrupt natural wildlife activities. Urbanized land can have a disproportionate effect on freshwater stream health, with estimates indicating urbanized basins can impair as much as three times the length of stream impacts when compared to stream impacts from agricultural land uses (Smoot et al. 2004) . North Carolina has been consistently among the 12 largest and fastest growing states in the country, according to recent census reports, and is now the ninth most populous state. The Office of State Budget and Management reports North Carolina is projected to become the seventh most populated state by the early 2030s (OSBM, 2024) . The Triangle region in particular has been the 10 th fastest growing region since 2020 (Eanes, 2024) . Over one acre of land is developed for each new resident in the state, and the rate of land development has been growing faster than the rate of population growth (ENCRPC 2007) . These growth rates are projected to continue, with a 10% projected population growth rate from 2020 to 2030, when the total population is expected to be almost 11.7 million (NCOSBM 2014) . Instead of encouraging major development in or near town centers, land-use policies in our state are leading to fragmented and spread-out patterns of development in which our rural landscapes are being converted to sprawling suburban land uses with large parking lots and extensive lawn-dominated landscaping. Lack of redevelopment within town and city centers, separation of land uses instead of mixed-use development, and leapfrog development on the outskirts of towns and cities make North Carolina home to the most urban sprawl of any state (Otto et al . 2002) .
Haphazard development causes negative impacts to fish and wildlife that are among the top threats, especially to those species that are identified as conservation priorities (NCWRC 2012) . The
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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