PARTNERSHIPS, INNOVATIONS AND TEAMSWORK KEY EEP's SUCCESS

BY BILL ROSS, DENR SECRETARY

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-- “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost

The Ecosystem Enhancement Program has become a national model for compensatory mitigation because North Carolina dared to dream, and had the courage to act. As the program reaches age two, we all can be proud of the risk we were willing to take in creating EEP, and the promise that has been realized by the partners who created it, our external stakeholders and EEP’s hard-working staff.

The keys to this success remain the same since Day One of the program: partnerships, innovation and teamwork. NCDENR’s partnership with the N.C. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – and in particular, the strong leadership of Secretary Lyndo Tippett and his colleagues at NCDOT, and Col. Jim DeLony and his successor, Col. Ray Alexander of the USACE’s Wilmington District – made the grand experiment possible. But a myriad of public and private partners beyond the program’s sponsors are critically important to EEP’s record of achievement.

The highlight of that record is crystal clear: Not a single transportation project sidetracked since July 2003 because of a lack of mitigation, the same problem that NCDOT has cited as the greatest cause of expense and delay in its construction process. But we also can take great pride in EEP’s role in preserving more than 30,000 acres of natural areas for future generations, and the more than $75 million invested through the program for stream and wetland restoration and enhancement projects in collaboration with private-sector firms.

As you’ll read elsewhere in this newsletter, the innovation that spawned EEP has earned the program plaudits nationwide. These honors are a credit to the initial task force that designed the EEP blueprint back in 2001, as well as to Gov. Easley’s leadership in giving us our marching orders to make it happen.

As far as teamwork goes, consider the words of a baseline assessment report created by RTI International in the early days of the program. “The EEP concept will either be a collective success or a collective failure,” the report stated. “EEP cannot succeed or fail alone.” Everyone involved with EEP, both internally and externally, has taken those words to heart and deserves to share in the progress we’ve achieved since July 2003.

So here’s to the road less traveled by: North Carolina’s choice in creating a groundbreaking concept has made a real difference in helping to conserve our state’s natural resources for years to come and to enhance our economic opportunities.

STRIKING A DELICATE BALANCE BY NINA SZLOSBERG CHAIR, ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND POLICY COMMITTEE N.C. BOARD OF TRANSPORTATION There are a few times in your life when, if fortunate, you have the opportunity to be a part of something greater than you… something meaningful and long lasting. I would never have guessed that moment would come for me in a small room on the N.C. State University Centennial Campus in 2001. It was there that NCDOT Secretary Lyndo Tippett and Deputy Secretary Roger Sheats, NCDENR Secretary Bill Ross and Chief Deputy Secretary Dempsey Benton, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Ray Alexander, Bill Gilmore and I kicked off a multi-agency workshop to improve our collaborative processes in the delivery of transportation projects in the state. The Ecosystem Enhancement Program is the direct outcome of that workshop. Four years later, we have saved and protected more than 30,000 acres of North Carolina’s most important natural areas. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be a part of that effort. In my view, this is among the most important work we can do – protecting and preserving the natural beauty that is our state -- because the effect of this work is so far-reaching: public health… economic prosperity... quality of life… an investment in the future. John Muir, the great naturalist said, “As you reach into the universe to pull one thing out, you find it is connected to all other things.” This is the lesson we’ve learned as we balance environmental protection with providing for the transportation needs of our citizens. The Ecosystem Enhancement Program respects the complex connections of our natural world and the delicate balance we must strike. It is a program of which we all can be proud.