Public Hearing on Conservation Options Slated
By Paul B. Johnson, High Point Enterprise, N.C.
Jan. 3–TRIAD — State Rep. Pricey Harrison has a succinct reason for wanting to promote conservation of land and water in North Carolina — “They aren’t making it anymore.”
If state leaders and residents don’t come together and fi nd ways to secure and preserve open lands, water sources and historic properties, development and growth may wipe out the chance, said Harrison, D Guilford.
Peoplein theTriad will get their chance next week to offer suggestions on ways to preserve land during a public meeting of the N.C. General Assembly’s Landand Water Conservation Commission. The meeting — which is the one for input from the central part of thestate? will beheld Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown.
North Carolina “is losing land at the fourth — or fifth-fastest rate in the country,” said Harrison, the lone Triad representative on the conservation commission. “We are losing open space, vital agricultural lands and forest areas. We’ve got to preserve what we can.”
The General Assembly last year considered a bill to put a bond referendum before state voters to raise $1 billion for conservation trust funds. But the bill didn’t pass, in part becauseof concerns about the state taking on further debt loads.
Gov. Mike Easley and legislators will face up to a $1 billion budget shortfall this year, meaning that funding through the general state budget might be hard to come by for conservationefforts. Harrison said legislators can consider policies that would promote the preservation of land and water resources. The General Assembly created the conservation commission last year to come up with recommendations for the 2007 legislative session.
“What we’d like to see is an opportunity for the voters to voice their opinions about conservation in the state,” said Charles Brummitt, executivedirector of the Piedmont Land Conservancy.
Many legislators want to find a way to apply more money for conservation, but fiscal challenges have hamstrung them so far, Brummitt said.
Even if the state can’t raise $1 billion for conservation,a smaller amount might get the effort started, he said. Harrison said the longer action is delayed, the more land and water is lost.
“There’s an opportunity here to protect some valuable resources for future generations of North Carolinians,” Harrison said. “Some big money now will pay off in major dividends down the road.
pjohnson@hpe.com|888-3528
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Copyright (c) 2007, High Point Enterprise, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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