Special to IFN

RALEIGH — Gov. Roy Cooper and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources on Monday announced a historic $421 million grant award under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program to support a broad array of carbon-reducing natural land conservation and restoration projects.

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.

“Protecting our natural lands for future generations is not only critical to our fight against climate change but also our state’s economy and tourism industries,” Cooper said. “This major award from the Biden-Harris administration will strengthen our bipartisan partnership to conserve and restore public and private lands across state lines.”

“This substantial Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will enable North Carolina to conserve more natural lands and restore degraded streams and wetlands,” said Reid Wilson, DNCR Secretary. “These projects will make our state more resilient to the  devastating effects of climate change.”

This “Atlantic Conservation Coalition” will partner with The Nature Conservancy to conserve and restore crucial peatland wetlands, coastal habitats, and forests. Partners across all four states worked collaboratively to identify targeted, high-value projects that substantially reduce carbon emissions, bolster the region’s resilience to natural hazards, protect vital natural lands under threat of development and pollution, and benefit underserved local communities. This grant is one of the largest grants ever awarded by the EPA and the largest for nature-based climate solutions.

Each of the four states will receive $50 million for “shovel-ready” projects. An additional $200 million will be allocated to The Nature Conservancy for additional high carbon-sequestering forest and wetland restoration projects across the entire coalition region, which will be implemented in collaboration with respective states and local partners. 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 state will 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. Each state has developed specific projects and goals that this funding will support. In addition, The Nature Conservancy will preserve, restore, or improve 126,000 acres of land across the four states, including North Carolina.