NEWS

Carolina Environmental Program receives grant supporting One North Carolina Naturally

CHAPEL HILL -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Environmental Program has received a $100,000 grant from the Winston-Salem-based Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation for a statewide land conservation initiative.

The grant provides funding for the Carolina Environmental Program’s research, in partnership with the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), supporting the department’s One North Carolina Naturally efforts.

"The grant is groundbreaking," said Carolina Environmental Program director and project leader Dr. Doug Crawford-Brown, "because the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation has asked the department and the program to work in concert with a coalition of land preservation groups led by the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, the North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Carolinas office of the Trust for Public Land.

"All of us will work together to advance land conservation in North Carolina, with our role being impartial survey and needs assessment research. This research will allow DENR and UNC to develop a publicly available land conservation database and decision system."

The land conservation coalition also received a $100,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation for planning in support of One North Carolina Naturally. Through the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, this group also includes 22 other N.C. land trusts such as the Catawba Lands Conservancy (Charlotte), Piedmont Land Conservancy (Greensboro) and Triangle Land Conservancy (Raleigh).

"We have placed such a high priority on this issue because it influences all aspects of environmental protection and natural resource preservation," said Bill Ross, secretary of DENR. "By supporting both of these grants, Z. Smith Reynolds has acknowledged how land conservation is essential for quality of life, economic gain and human survival."

DENR launched One North Carolina Naturally to make conservation more coordinated, better focused and more effective. The Z. Smith Reynolds grants will allow this initiative to continue its work to build a comprehensive statewide conservation plan by determining work already under way, connecting and supporting those efforts, and deciding how to fill in the gaps.

"One of the main foci of our environment program is preservation of North Carolina’s natural assets, including green space, forests, wetlands and farmland," said Tom Ross, executive director of the

Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. "We also emphasize bringing together all those interested in preservation of these irreplaceable resources to create statewide networks, plans and polices. For all of these reasons, we felt it important to support both of these land conservation proposals. We hope that our investment will establish continuing statewide collaboration between government, academia, environmental organizations and land owners."

Said Crawford-Brown, "We deeply appreciate this visionary leadership and support from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. This grant will bring everyone involved in land conservation in our great state together. It is a very focused way to improve our quality of life and our environment."

The Carolina Environmental Program is a multidisciplinary initiative addressing factors building an environmentally sustainable society. The program, which offers majors in ecology, environmental science and environmental studies through the College of Arts and Sciences, fosters collaborative research on large-scale environmental problems such as air quality, and provides technical assistance, training and up-to-date information on environmental issues to communities statewide.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina is based in Raleigh, the N.C. Chapter of The Nature Conservancy is based in Durham, and the Carolinas office of the Trust for Public Land is based in Charlotte.

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Carolina Environmental Program contact: Tony Reevy, (919) 966-9927 or tony_reevy@unc.edu
News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu
NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources contact: Don Reuter, (919) 715-4112 or don.reuter@ncmail.net