Forestry Projects
The N.C. Division of Forest Resources was awarded more than $4.6 million for fire hazard reduction efforts and $1.7 million for the Regional Longleaf Pine Restoration through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The division was awarded $4.6 million in fire hazard reduction money with the goal of reducing the fuel loads in North Carolina forests, resulting in the expenditure of fewer tax dollars to fight wildfires while maintaining and creating jobs. To assist the NCDFR, five people are being hired to seek out areas that need mitigation and establish contracts to carry out that work.
Private contractors are being hired to provide wildfire mitigation and prevention education, and complete Community Wildland Fire Protection Plans (CWPP) by collecting data in 300 fire districts and reporting the information using NCDFR protocols. The information in the CWPP’s will be used to promote the N.C. Firewise program, which provides the knowledge necessary for citizens to protect homes in the wildland urban interface from wildfire. There are currently 14 Firewise communities in North Carolina.
NCDFR was also awarded more than $1.7 million for the Regional Longleaf Pine Restoration Initiative through the ARRA. The division is one of five state forestry agencies across the country that will implement the longleaf pine initiative over the next two years (May 2009 – May 2011). The overall funding for this regional project is more than $8.9 million and is being divided between North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. In addition to creating jobs, the initiative will support a variety of activities to restore longleaf pine ecosystems within its natural range. The longleaf pine once covered the land from Virginia to eastern Texas, covering approximately 92 million acres; approximately 3 million acres remain across the country. During the colonial and early statehood periods, the longleaf pine was a vital part of the North Carolina economy.
The majority of the planned longleaf restoration efforts will occur in Bladen Lakes State Forest to establish longleaf pine on 700 acres within and near red cockaded woodpecker forage habitat. A number of other management activities will occur at BLSF, including the establishment of 300 acres of wiregrass groundcover under canopies of existing longleaf pine. Prescribed burns on approximately 6,300 acres of existing, and soon to be converted, longleaf stands will also occur. This work will be accomplished by hiring temporary employees and private contractors. If opportunities and funding allow, work may be conducted on other state forest lands managed by NCDFR and on other state and local government lands.
In North Carolina there are growing efforts by tree nurseries, including those managed by NCDFR, to grow longleaf pine seedlings for commercial production. Stimulus money will be used to expand the containerized longleaf seedling capacity at Claridge Nursery, in Goldsboro, by 4.2 million seedlings annually. This will include the construction of a new irrigation system. NCDFR will also produce seedlings of understory plant species typically associated with longleaf pine ecosystems, such as beargrass and wiregrass, which can be sold to support the longleaf ecosystem restoration. This work will be done primarily by private contractors.
A $247,000 grant has also been awarded through the ARRA to the N.C. Division of Forest Resources to fund a project entitled “Keep Sediment in Check.” This money will promote efforts to protect water quality across over 17 million acres of North Carolina’s forestland, while supporting an estimated 20 jobs during the project’s implementation.
Approximately 60 percent of the funds will be applied to restoring, stabilizing and enhancing stream and aquatic conditions on a portion of state forest lands under management by the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. The remaining 40 percent of the ARRA grant will support two staff positions for approximately seven months within the N.C. Division of Forest Resources’ Nonpoint Source Branch, both of which would otherwise have been eliminated in mid-2010 due to lack of salary funds.
Funding from these grants will also be used to create a new grant administrative assistant position and to support retention of an existing staff forester position to serve as the ARRA longleaf program coordinator. A highly qualified outreach and education coordinator will also be hired as a contractor to develop a series of educational workshops targeting landowners in three areas – the N.C. Sandhills, Bladen Lakes and the Onslow Bight (from North Carolina’s Cape Lookout to Cape Fear regions). NCDFR also plans to offer tuition and travel scholarships for up to 25 foresters and natural resource professionals to attend one of the six Longleaf Academies being planned by the Longleaf Alliance in Alabama. Promotional/
educational materials supporting longleaf pine restoration and management will also be purchased or developed and distributed widely to landowners, natural resource professionals and longleaf advocates.
