Copyright Notice: This article is from the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

Part i: Introduction; Part ii: Initial Water Conservation, Forestry Regulation, and Antipollution Policies; Part iii: Development of the Modern Environmental Movement; Part iv: New Programs, Legal Initiatives, and Continuing Environmental Threats

See also: Biltmore Forest School; Environment and Natural Resources, Department of; Forests; Nature Conservancy; State Parks.

North Carolina's cities and towns, natural areas, and public lands have benefited greatly from conservation initiatives starting as early as the eighteenth century, but efforts to control pollution and save natural areas remain controversial as the state faces serious environmental issues and intense competition for available land. Despite the progress made during the last quarter of the twentieth century, several factors-such as urban growth, a proliferation of new highways, extensive development of resorts and vacation homes in the Coastal Plain and Mountain regions, the advent of large-scale industrial livestock operations, the clearance of natural forest habitats for huge pine plantations, mounting soil erosion, and polluted water flowing into streams and estuaries-continue to threaten North Carolina's rural landscapes, natural habitats, and environmental resources. 

Keep Reading Part II: Initial Water Conservation, Forestry Regulation, and Antipollution Policies

References:

Richard A. Bartlett, Troubled Waters: Champion International and the Pigeon River Controversy (1995).

Thomas Clark, The Greening of the South: The Recovery of Land and Forest (rev. ed., 2004).

Albert Cowdrey, This Land, This South: An Environmental History (1983).

David H. Howells, Quest for Clean Streams: An Historical Account of Stream Pollution Control in North Carolina (1990).

Raymond L. Murray, Understanding Radioactive Waste (1994).

Neil R. Sampson, For Love of the Land: A History of the National Association of Conservation Districts (1985).

Thomas Schoenbaum, The New River Controversy (1979).

Citation

Daniels, Dennis F., Joan E. Freeman, Raymond L. Murray, Charles E. Roe, Karl Rohr, and Nancy P. Shires. "Conservation Movement." NCpedia. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Accessed on December 12th, 2024. https://www.ncpedia.org/conservation-movement.