NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Ecosystem Enhancement Program - Why EEP Matters
Ecosystem Enhancement Program
WHY EEP MATTERSThrough the Ecosystem Enhancement Program, North Carolina has altered the way that the state confronts a challenge with serious implications for economic growth and the state’s overall quality of life. EEP facilitates the delivery of crucial projects that help to drive the state’s economy, and restores, enhances and protects the state’s wetlands, waterways and natural areas for future generations. While the N.C. Department of Transportation historically has been EEP’s major customer -– EEP has helped advance more than $8 billion in road projects since 2003 without a single delay because of a lack of environmental permits -- EEP also carries out compensatory mitigation on a voluntary basis for local governments, schools, churches, developers, the military and landowners. EEP combines these functions into a single, focused entity with specific goals for proactive mitigation under a programmatic approach -- not the project-by-project strategy that had defined mitigation in the past. In doing so, the initiative advances environmental stewardship through the identification of unique enhancement opportunities that provide both benefits and protection to the state's natural resources. |
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