{"id":4400,"date":"2024-02-13T19:25:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T19:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/13\/north-carolina-gov-cooper-signs-executive-order-to-conserve-1m-acres-of-forests-and-wetlands\/"},"modified":"2024-02-13T19:25:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T19:25:41","slug":"north-carolina-gov-cooper-signs-executive-order-to-conserve-1m-acres-of-forests-and-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/13\/north-carolina-gov-cooper-signs-executive-order-to-conserve-1m-acres-of-forests-and-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"North Carolina Gov. Cooper signs executive order to conserve 1M acres of forests and wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper<\/a> said a series of environmental directives and goals he initiated to protect and restore forests and wetlands in the state will help counter climate change and aid the economy.<\/p>\n

Cooper signed an executive order on Monday that in part sets statewide targets for governments and private land-protection groups by 2040 to both “permanently conserve” 1 million acres of forests and wetlands and to restore 1 million new acres of similar lands. The governor also wants 1 million new trees planted in urban areas by 2040.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s office called the executive action the most significant by a governor to protect the state\u2019s ecosystems since then-Gov. Jim Hunt\u2019s “Million Acre Initiative” for land preservation was announced in 1999.<\/p>\n

PLANS FOR MINE NEAR GEORGIA WILDLIFE REFUGE PROCEED, ENVIRONMENTALISTS CALL IT A ‘DEATH WARRANT’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“As our state continues to grow, we must be mindful to conserve and protect our natural resources,” Cooper said in a news release following the order\u2019s signing at Falls Lake State Recreation Area east of Durham. The plan, he added, “will help us leave our state better than we found it for generations to come.”<\/p>\n

Among other items, the order from Cooper, a Democrat in his final year as governor, also directed state agencies to use plants and seeds in landscaping projects that are native to the Southeast, with a preference for North Carolina-native<\/a> plants. He told agencies to seek federal funding to preserve wetlands that improve the state\u2019s resiliency to flooding and water quality.<\/p>\n

Several environmental and conservation groups<\/a> praised Cooper\u2019s order. Some of them said it would help counteract a 2023 state law that when combined with a U.S. Supreme Court decision weakens the regulation of wetlands.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s action “recognizes how vital wetlands are to North Carolina\u2019s people and wildlife, fisheries and flood protection,” Mary Maclean Asbill with the Southern Environmental Law Center said in a separate news release.<\/p>\n

Cooper\u2019s office said the order\u2019s goals and directives seek to implement recommendations in a 2020 “natural and working lands action plan” authored by several state offices and departments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said a series of environmental directives and goals he initiated to protect and restore forests and wetlands in the state will help counter climate change and aid the economy. Cooper signed an executive order on Monday that in part sets statewide targets for governments and private land-protection groups by 2040 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}