Wildlife Resources ConservationWildlife Resources Conservation

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Piedmont Cooperative Land Conservation Project

In order to conserve wildlife, habitats and associated natural resources in the Greater Uwharries, the Wildlife Resources Commission aims to collaborate and work cooperatively with local government, landowners, leaders, industry, and conservation-based organizations to achieve the best ways to conserve wildlife habitat.

Central Park NC and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission are partners in the Greater Uwharrie Conservation Partnership. The Partnership’s mission is, “to work for the long-term conservation and enhancement of biological diversity and ecosystem sustainability throughout the Greater Uwharries landscape.”

Partnership Goals

• promote a vigorous and broadly inclusive public discourse on sustainable land use;

• assess opportunities and work cooperatively to enhance, protect, conserve, and restore the sensitive and unique flora and fauna of the Greater Uwharries region by identifying priority conservation lands and pursuing conservation options;

• encourage projects that focus on protecting, conserving, and restoring the integrity of the landscape, airshed, and waters, along with their natural communities;

• serve as an educational resource to private landowners, institutions and organizations, and the general public on land conservation and management tools and opportunities;

• facilitate collaborative efforts and joint land management activities among members to achieve common conservation objectives across jurisdictional and ownership boundaries; and

• recognize and promote the vital role science must play in responsible sustainable land use.

The Partner Organizations are: Central Park NC, Environmental Defense Fund, The Land Trust for Central NC, The Nature Conservancy, N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources - Natural Heritage Program, N.C. Plant Conservation Program, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. Zoological Park, Piedmont Land Conservancy, USDA Forest Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the USDI Fish and Wildlife Service.

Since 2007 the conservation partnership collaborated on the following projects leading to measurable results. Partners have contacted over 200 private landowners in the region’s most valuable natural areas, to offer technical guidance about conservation options and cost-share programs, resulting in cooperative working relationships with 64 of these landowners. Collaboration of partners led directly to conducting biological surveys on 130 sites leading to the discovery of a 1,000 significant natural heritage area with the largest river sedge population, a rare plant, in the world in Anson County. The partnership has permanently conserved more than 2,818 acres and enhanced habitat on 2,154 acres for high priority wildlife and rare plant habitat in the last 2 years. We also collaborated to provide a forum to local governments in the region to discuss land use planning, leading to the formation of a public committee that will complete a local land use plan and leading to a collaboration to conserve farmland and habitat in the Central Park.

The Greater Uwharries (pronounced, ‘URE’) region contains some of the largest remaining tracts of wildlife and rare plant habitat in the Piedmont. The region is North Carolina’s Central Park. The Uwharrie Mountains are among the oldest mountain ranges in North America, a reason they are home to a diversity of species and habitats in need of conservation and stewardship.

The region is unique because it is mountainous, lies within the Piedmont and is on the edge of the Sandhills, one of the rarest ecosystems in the world. As such the Uwharries are home to an ecotone, a neighborhood, of habitats found nowhere else. The region ranks third in the number of the Outstanding and High-Quality Resource Waters within the Yadkin River Basin. The rivers of the Uwharries contain seven irreplaceable aquatic species as classified by The Nature Conservancy. The Pee Dee River is ranked among the top four priorities for conservation in the Southeast U.S. by the Southeast Aquatics Resources Partnership, while the Little River is one of only a few places in the world where the Carolina redhorse fish is found.

The Uwharries are home to more than 100 wildlife, plant species and habitats that range in state conservation status from Vulnerable to Critically Imperiled and two federally endangered plant and fish species. The region contains landscapes with all of the priority habitats identified for the Piedmont in the N.C. Wildlife Action Plan including bottomland and riparian forests, Piedmont prairies, Piedmont longleaf pine forests, upland depression swamp communities, and upland hardwood forests.

Across the Piedmont, the greatest immediate threat to the persistence of wildlife, rare plant populations and wildlife recreation opportunities is haphazard land development. We all need a place to live and work; however, using land more efficiently is an important tool in helping to accommodate vital economic growth, while still conserving wildlife habitat. There are excellent opportunities for wildlife conservation in this region due to relative remoteness, the presence of unique ecosystems and high quality terrestrial and aquatic habitats.

Unlike most counties of the Piedmont, the rate of growth is still manageable in the Uwharries and we have an opportunity to conserve many of the largest contiguous areas of wildlife habitat that remain before rapid growth occurs. There is a need to plan for growth now as these regions lie within less than a 90 minute drive of the largest cities in North Carolina. Four out of seven cities surrounding these regions are in the top 100 largest cities in the US, two of which are among the top ten fastest growing cities in the US (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). Four of the ten fastest growing NC counties fall within or border this region (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). The conversion of land to developed uses is predicted to increase 23 percent by 2030 in the 24 counties surrounding Charlotte, according to the Open Space Protection Collaborative. The BRAC Fort Bragg Regional Growth Plan states that extensive growth will impact most of the Sandhills and Uwharries counties with the tens of thousands of new military personnel and families moving to serve and work at Fort Bragg.

The Wildlife Resouces Commission Piedmont Cooperative Land Conservation Project funded and guided a research project through the Renaissance Computing Institute at the University of Charlotte to map projected development growth to 2030 under a status quo scenario and a conservation-based scenario. The project built off of prior research by UNCC with the Land Trust for Central NC as part of the Open Space Protection Collaborative. The purpose of the project was to demonstrate future development patterns based on historic trends as compared to those expected to result from conservation-based land use policies, based in turn on recommendations of the WRC Green Growth Toolbox.

Maps show that adoption of green growth practices would reduce conservation threats and conflict by 75 percent. Development is likely to increase from 13 percent (2006) to 25 percent by 2030 under both scenarios. Under the conservation-based scenario the same amount of land is developed because we felt changes in development density would be imprecise and more appropriately envisioned by local governments. Randolph and Rowan Counties would experience the greatest benefit of land conservation. More than 50 percent of areas of conservation value in these counties would be conserved by adopting green growth practices. Cabarrus Davidson, Richmond and Stanly Counties would be able to increase land conservation by at least 25 percent. With increasing human populations and encroachment from urban counties there is a window of time in which to get ahead of sprawling growth patterns and develop land more efficiently, while maintaining economic growth, without unnecessary impacts to wildlife habitats.

• Photos from N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission unless otherwise stated.

For more information on wildlife resource conservation contact Piedmont Land Conservation Biologist Kacy Cook.

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Land Conservation Events & Programs

Greater Uwharrie Conservation Partnership
March 8, 2010 1pm - 3:pm at the Wildlife Resources Sandhills Game Land Depot in Hoffman

The public is welcome. If you are a member of the media we welcome your attendance, as we do anyone interested in attending our meetings. We ask journalists, to let us know that you will attend so that we can be prepared with accurate information to address your questions.

For more information, contact Laura Fogo, US Fish & Wildlife Service: 910-695-3303.

Directions: The Sandhills Wildlife Depot is located in Hoffman, Richmond Co. The location can be viewed at http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Sandhills+Wildlife+Depot,+Hoffman,+NC&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=54.22533,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=Sandhills+Wildlife+Depot,&hnear=Hoffman,+NC&z=11&iwloc=A.
From the BP station at the intersection of US 1 and SR 1475, travel 0.5 miles south on route 1. Turn right (west) at the Sandhills Depot sign (with the WRC diamond shaped logo) at a dirt road with a stone gate. [Note: if you come to James G. Watson road which has a smaller WRC logo sign at the intersection, you've gone too far south] Follow that road 0.5 miles back to a cluster of buildings. The office is the building at the northeast side of the parking area. If you have trouble finding it, please call Jeff Marcus at 910-281-4388 (office) or 910-322-9019 (cell).

Longleaf Pine Restoration Program

Do you have Piedmont Longleaf Pines on your land? If so, you may qualify for a habitat restoration program that will fund longleaf pine planting and habitat restoration on your land.

For more information, contact Laura Fogo, US Fish & Wildlife Service: 910-695-3303.