Protect NC Parks, Open Spaces

From the Smokies to the foothills to the Outer Banks, North Carolina has more than its share of natural beauty.
But out-of-control development and the state's growing population are quickly transforming the landscape, with the farmland and forests we treasure quickly disappearing. North Carolina's population recently surpassed that of New Jersey's and within the next 20 years will grow larger than Ohio's and Michigan's.
The development that comes with our growing population contaminates our rivers and streams, destroys fish and wildlife habitat, and makes the state more susceptible to damaging floods. What's more, development threatens some of the state's best-known and best-loved green spaces, from Chimney Rock, to the Uwharries, to our treasured coast.
That's why Environment North Carolina is working with the Land for Tomorrow Coalition to back the recommendations of the Land and Water Conservation study commission, which will ensure an additional $1 billion goes to existing land conservation programs.
The Land and Water Conservation plan can help protect Chimney Rock, the Uwharries, and hundreds of thousands of other important natural areas like them across the state. The proposal will help sustain working farms and forests, preserve stream and river buffers, and create new parks and greenways. In all, the plan will protect more than 260,000 acres of forests, farmlands, trails, parks, gamelands, and other natural areas, and more than 6,000 miles of river and stream buffers.
There's still time to let legislators know you support saving our natural areas. Welcome your legislators back to Raleigh and ask them to support protecting our parks and open spaces by sending an e-mail below.
Click on the link or copy and paste it into your web browser. Then forward this email to your family and friends.
https://www.environmentnorthcarolina.org/action/preservation/welcome?id4=ES
Sincerely, Elizabeth Ouzts
Environment North Carolina State Director
ElizabethO@environmentnorthcarolina.orghttp://www.environmentnorthcarolina.org