Governor Cooper and EPA Administrator Regan Celebrate Historic Funding for Natural Lands Conservation and Restoration at Green Swamp Preserve

Today, Governor Roy Cooper visited Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County with United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson to celebrate historic federal funding that will support carbon-reducing natural land conservation and restoration projects in North Carolina and beyond.

Raleigh

Jul 30, 2024

Today, Governor Roy Cooper visited Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County with United States Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Reid Wilson to celebrate historic federal funding that will support carbon-reducing natural land conservation and restoration projects in North Carolina and beyond. Last week, Governor Cooper announced a historic $421 million grant under the Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program. With this funding, over 200,000 acres of coastal habitats, forests, and farmland will be preserved, enhanced, or restored across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.

"As we move toward a clean energy future, we must also recommit ourselves to preserving, restoring and protecting our natural resources that play such an important role," said Governor Cooper. "This historic funding from the Biden-Harris administration will help us make our state and future generations more resilient to storms, more attractive for tourism dollars and more effective at removing carbon from our air."

"President Biden and Vice President Harris believe in the power of community-driven solutions to fight climate change, protect public health, and grow our economy. Thanks to Governor Cooper's leadership, North Carolinians will benefit from unprecedented resources to fund the solutions that work best in their communities," said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. "Under EPA's Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program, North Carolina and a bipartisan multi-state coalition will deploy natural climate solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, investing in our coastal wetlands, peatlands, forests, and urban forestry while creating economic and workforce development opportunities along the way."

"The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources stands ready to manage this crucial funding that will make our state more resilient to the devastating effects of climate change," said Secretary Wilson. "Because the natural environment does not know state boundaries, we're thrilled to partner with our neighboring states of South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland."

"Restored peatlands also have other benefits including absorbing floodwaters, which is particularly important on our hurricane-prone coast," said Executive Director for North Carolina Nature Conservancy Katherine Skinner. "And, of course, restored peatlands provide habitat for a myriad of animals, which boosts our economy through hunting and wildlife-watching."

North Carolina's Atlantic Conservation Coalition ("ACC") was selected for the CPRG award, receiving the fourth largest single award in the competition. The $421 million grant will be transformational for conservation and environmental restoration efforts in the Southeast. The grant is one of the four largest single awards distributed by the EPA for the CPRG program and will be managed by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources ("DNCR") and is the largest award in EPA history for natural climate solutions.

Each of the four states will receive $50 million for "shovel-ready" projects. The 21 projects identified by the coalition will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 28 million metric tons of CO2e by 2050. These projects include salt marsh restoration, conserving land for outdoor recreation, building living shorelines, cost-assistance to small forest landowners, urban tree planting, farmland preservation, and reforestation among other activities.

This historic funding, made possible by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, will provide a monumental boost to each state's efforts to reach their existing emission reduction, conservation, and resilience goals. In North Carolina, this grant will support the directives of Governor Cooper's Executive Order 305, which set bold goals to conserve and restore natural and working lands by 2040 and the North Carolina Natural and Working Lands Action Plan. The funding will be used to restore over 600 acres of coastal habitats, build living shorelines, reforest over 55,000 acres, plant 1,200 urban trees, and permanently add 3,300 acres to the North Carolina State Park System. In addition, The Nature Conservancy will preserve, restore, or improve 126,000 acres of land across the four states including 33,000 acres in North Carolina.

The Nature Conservancy's Green Swamp Preserve is nearly 15,655 acres and made up of longleaf pine savannas with a diverse herb layer including orchids and carnivorous plants. The Nature Conservancy's many management activities at the Green Swamp include controlled burning and restoring pine plantations to longleaf pine savannas and woodlands.

Further information about the Atlantic Conservation Coalition's projects and expected outcomes can be found here.

Further information on additional Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Awards can be found here.

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Jordan Monaghan

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(919) 814-2100