ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Climate change is top of mind after extreme weather events such as Hurricanes Florence and Michael, and North Carolina's land trusts have a significant role to play.

The latest climate science – from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – underscores the importance of natural areas such as forests and working farmlands in the fight against climate change, especially in protecting those places that have the ability to absorb carbon dioxide emissions.

Elsea Brown, is director of the Blue Ridge Forever Coalition, a collective campaign led by local land trusts and national conservation organizations. The group has worked to protect more than 40,000 acres of land.

"We're kind of in a unique position in that it's our responsibility to steward and protect the natural areas that are going to allow humans to be more prepared for the effects that we are going to see," she states.

Advocates hope climate solutions will include broad involvement across for-profit, nonprofit and civil sectors.

Without major changes, IPCC scientists warn that by the end of the century the average global temperature will be around 5.8 degrees warmer with the climbing carbon footprint.

For land trusts such as the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, climate change data has helped the organization plan with a long-term lens.

"Before we started using climate change data, we were looking at what land is most important to protect today," says Michelle Pugliese, the conservancy’s land protection director.

Now, with the new data, Pugliese says the conservancy is looking at what land is most important to protect long into the future.

Scientists and advocates alike say conservation goes beyond partisan politics. Brown calls it a unifying cause.

"Conservation is really something that can bring people together,” she states. “We all care about having a healthy environment and having clean air and clean water and healthy food for ourselves and for our families. It's really not something that belongs to one party or the other."

This month, an international panel of scientists released its sixth report on climate change with data affirming that natural areas reduce our carbon footprint.


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MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. -- North Carolina's Marine Fisheries Commission has approved an updated version of the state's Coastal Habitat Protection Plan, which experts say will improve the health of the state's wetlands and estuaries, and increase communities' resilience to climate change.

Leda Cunningham, officer for conserving marine life in the United States at The Pew Charitable Trusts, explained the plan includes new guidelines aimed at protecting seagrass, which filter out pollutants, improve water quality and help communities withstand increasing flood and sea-level rise from climate change by strengthening shorelines.

"I think it's really important for the public to understand that a healthy coastal environment can contribute to healthier coastal communities," Cunningham asserted.

The updated plan also includes information on how residents can design local projects and solutions to protect their estuaries.

Cunningham pointed to the Neuse River Basin as an example, and said communities could identify where additional vegetation could be planted along stream beds to help absorb and slow stormwater runoff and reduce algae blooms.

The plan also is in line with Gov. Roy Cooper's 2020 Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan, which addressed the need to increase the resiliency of regions devastated by hurricanes.

Anne Deaton, habitat program supervisor of the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, said the state's valuable fisheries depend on the actions outlined in the updated plan.

"So if we are successful in implementation actions, it will improve our water quality, which will improve our habitat," Deaton explained. "That improves things like tourism, water-skiing and swimming, harvesting shellfish. It also increases the resilience of the coast when we have storms."

Cunningham emphasized she is excited about the plan's recommendation to forge a public-private partnership to maximize the interest and commitment of residents who want local solutions. She added many of the recommendations already are happening in coastal communities, and noted the state will begin working on water-quality rule-making recommendations next year.

"They're going to hit the ground running in January," Cunningham remarked. "That's going to take really pulling together between the environmental management commission, DEQ staff -- especially the division of water resources -- and this new public-private partnership that needs to get formed quickly and move things along."

According to the Department of Environmental Quality, the state has received more than 1,200 signatures from North Carolinians endorsing the Coastal Habitat Protection Plan.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

WARREN, Pa. -- A Western Pennsylvania conservation group is petitioning the Allegheny National Forest to prohibit bike riding on all non-motorized trails across its more than 500,000 acres of land due to safety concerns.

The Friends of Allegheny Wilderness are calling on the U.S. Forest Service to formally amend its 2007 Land and Resource Management Plan for the Allegheny National Forest because they say the advent of potentially fast-moving electric bikes, which can be indistinguishable from regular mountain bikes, poses a physical danger to hikers.

Kirk Johnson, executive director of the Friends of Allegheny Wilderness, said the group's request can help ensure a positive hiking experience.

"E-bikes can travel greater distances in less amount of time at high rates of speed, so they're a real threat to not only just regular hikers but also especially to younger hikers or elderly hikers," Johnson explained.

E-bikes are not permitted on non-motorized trails. A spokesperson for the Allegheny National Forest said in a statement they are reviewing the petition and the forest is committed to "balancing the needs of user groups while sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of the forest."

Johnson said the ban would not apply to the Jakes Rocks mountain biking trail in Allegheny National Forest. The Friends group is asking for a ban on pedestrian access to the trail out of an abundance of caution. Johnson added it is important to keep all visitors to the national forest out of harm's way.

"I think what they have to do when it comes to trails is get away from the multiple-use concept," Johnson urged. "We need dedicated hiking trails with no e-bikes, no mountain bikes, and then there should also be dedicated mountain-bike trails. "

Mountain-bike riders would still be able to utilize other motorized trails in the forest, including Rocky Gap, Willow Creek, Marienville, Timberline and Penoke. Under the petition, mountain bike riders would have nearly 144 miles of trail to use, a reduction of about 45 miles.

TAOS, N.M. - In Northern New Mexico's Carson National Forest, many rivers are eligible for federal "Wild and Scenic" designation, and conservation groups say a plan to remove more than 60 from that category is short-sighted.

Amigos Bravos and other groups are awaiting word on whether the U.S. Forest Service will reverse its proposal to 'delist' the rivers in an updated management plan.

Amigos Bravos Deputy Director Rachel Conn said she worries that without protections, rivers and streams in northern New Mexico could see new dams, roads and other development.

"There's 62 river segments, as per the final plan, that are no longer eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system," said Conn, "so therefore are no longer protected as free-flowing rivers."

The Forest Service has argued river decisions made 25 years ago were overly broad, and included too many rivers as eligible for a Wild and Scenic designation, which must be approved by Congress.

The deadline to comment on new management plans for the Carson, Cibola, and Santa Fe National Forests was November 3. Amigos Bravos is among the groups that filed objections to the draft plans.

New Mexico has suffered from drought for the past 20 years, with rivers seeing record low flows this year. Conn said that makes it more important to keep the rivers in northern New Mexico free-flowing - which isn't guaranteed without protections.

She noted the nature of the state's rivers, deemed to have what are known as 'Outstandingly Remarkable Values' in a Forest Service plan adopted 35 years ago, hasn't changed.

"Those 'Outstandingly Remarkable Values' can be fisheries-related, geologic, scenic, recreation, wildlife," said Conn. "So there's different categories of Outstandingly Remarkable Values."

Conn said she believes officials drafting the Carson National Forest management plan should have done a case by case review of rivers rather than reevaluating the entire forest.