Chapter 5 Threats
Coastal Plain. Conservation-based development ordinances or projects often do not address habitat fragmentation.
Lands between existing managed conservation areas are at risk, in developing counties, from major development that will impede wildlife travel and habitat corridors. Reduced ability to conduct prescribed burning and hunting can occur due to the encroachment of major development adjacent to managed conservation lands. Bald Eagles and colonial nesting waterbirds have been known to abandon their nests when development takes place during the nesting season within 330 feet or more of their nests (Rogers and Smith 1995; Carney and Sydeman 1999; USFWS 2007) . Converting pervious land surfaces to impervious surfaces such as roads, rooftops, and parking lots alters stream hydrology by increasing surface runoff during rain events and reducing infiltration. An increase in imperviousness causes streamflows to increase more rapidly following rain events and subside more quickly. With less rainfall soaking into the ground, there is less groundwater to contribute to baseflows. Altered stream hydrology can impact aquatic communities. Contamination originating from developed areas can flow into surface waters used by aquatic species and breeding and larval amphibians when stormwater runoff and other nonpoint sources carry toxic materials, such as gas and oil and chemical pest control treatments from lawns and fields. Road projects and mining in areas with acidic rock types can degrade streams. Development often encroaches on floodplains, reducing lateral connectivity and exacerbating flood damage to streams and riparian areas. Reduced or eliminated riparian buffers along streams result in increased water temperatures and less stable stream banks, leading to increased sedimentation. Increased numbers of road crossings, particularly culverts, further fragment streams and other aquatic systems, leading to reduced organism movements and gene flow. In the Coastal Plain ecoregion, development and use of beaches increase impacts to nesting seabirds and other waterbirds, Diamondback Terrapins, and sea turtles. Lack of living shorelines along open waterbodies will increase erosion and further reduce forage, nesting areas, and cover for wildlife. Development of barrier islands, coastal forest, and wetland communities further reduces natural habitat that is already highly fragmented, which may completely isolate and threaten species with specialized life histories and limited movement ability. Examples include the Buxton Woods White-footed Deermouse, Eastern Woodrat, Eastern Coral Snake, and many amphibian species. Development of uplands adjacent to brackish wetlands impacts species such as the Diamondback Terrapin and waterbirds. Tidal swamp forests and species are also particularly threatened by development.
In the Sandhills and Coastal Plain ecoregions, impacts in landscapes surrounding upland pools, depressions and seeps, and wet and mesic pine savannas are of particular concern for winter-
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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