Needmore, Swain County

As of July 22, 2007 – the initiative’s fourth anniversary -- EEP had collaborated with public- and private-sector partners to acquire nearly 40,000 acres of natural areas, with 24 tracts being managed as public recreation areas such as parks or gamelands. The tracts included about 235 miles of streams and more than 8,600 acres of wetlands and coastal marsh in high-quality riparian and wetland areas throughout the state. The partnership's aim was to provide fair economic return to landowners while preserving the state's natural areas for future generations through voluntary land-protection agreements.

EEP's preservation activities employed existing funds allocated to the state for mitigating unavoidable environmental impacts from transportation-infrastructure improvements. The N.C. Board of Transportation authorized this funding. EEP also leveraged other funding sources for its preservation initiatives.

• EEP Preservation and Property Protection staff contacts
• Land Trusts and EEP: A Historic Partnership
• EEP preservation success stories
• EEP's partnership for preservation with the Conservation Trust for North Carolina
• Requirements for landowner participation
• EEP Preservation Guidance Criteria

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