Chapter 5 Threats
5.4 Agriculture and Aquaculture
This category considers threats from farming and ranching as a result of agricultural expansion and intensification and includes silviculture, mariculture, and aquaculture. (Salafsky et al . 2008) . Our state has a rich agricultural heritage. North Carolina has over 8.4 million acres of farmland and ranks seventh nationally for farm profits (USDA 2014) . Our state leads the nation in tobacco and sweet potato production and ranks second for Christmas trees, hogs, and turkeys (USDA 2014) . In North Carolina, the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDACS) has responsibility for agriculture and aquaculture operations. Livestock farming and ranching are agriculture components and involve raising terrestrial animals (e.g., cattle, swine, poultry) on farms or feed lots. Examples include dairy, chicken, horse, and cattle farms; cattle and swine feed lots; sheep and goat herds; and exotic animal herds (e.g., llamas, alpacas, ostriches). Annual and perennial non-timber crops, orchards, vineyards, and mixed agroforestry planted and harvested from traditional and industrial farms or plantations and used for food, fodder, fiber, fuel, or other uses as agricultural concerns are silviculture concerns. Aquaculture is a fast-growing source of food production throughout the world (FAO 1997; Fu et al. 2012) . Freshwater and marine aquaculture (mariculture) includes aquatic animals raised in one location on farmed or nonlocal resources and hatchery fish allowed to roam in the wild. Shrimp or finfish aquaculture, fish ponds on farms, hatchery fish, seeded shellfish beds, and artificial algal beds are examples of aquaculture operations (Salafsky et al. 2008) . Freshwater aquaculture can generally be defined as the propagation and rearing of aquatic species in controlled or selected environments, such as constructed ponds or lakes and hatcheries. Aquaculture facilities in the Mountain ecoregion tend to focus on cool- and coldwater production of fish using flow-through tank production. Freshwater aquaculture facilities in the Piedmont ecoregion generally use recirculating tank production, while those in the Coastal Plain ecoregion typically use warmwater ponds for production (Turano et al. 2013) . Mariculture involves propagation and rearing of marine aquatic species in controlled or selected environments such as ocean ranching, constructed ponds or lakes, hatcheries, seeded beds (shellfish), or facilities constructed in natural waters (Salafsky et al. 2008) . Mariculture in North Carolina involves raising finfish species (e.g., Black Sea Bass) as well as clams, oysters, and soft crabs (Turano et al. 2013) . The NC Marine Fisheries Commission is responsible for the management, protection, preservation, and enhancement of marine and estuarine resources, including mariculture operations.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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