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Blog
Who says you can’t protect the environment and be customer-friendly?
At the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we’re working hard to make sure we do both.
The department’s mission is to protect the state’s natural resources, which are critical for quality of life, economic development and tourism. Our leadership team and our employees understand that we can’t accomplish the mission without the help of all North Carolinians, including those in business and industry.
Last summer, the department’s senior leadership focused its attention on improving customer service.
One way we’ve done that is through convening roundtables of business and industry, local government and environmental leaders. These monthly meetings have enabled healthy communication and helped us gather suggestions for ways we can improve our services to the taxpaying public.
We also finished a review of our environmental regulatory process with an eye on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of our permitting.
This review included a survey of internal permitting staff and of members of our environmental roundtables. The recommendations that came out of this internal review include a need for:
• Technology improvements, such as digital documents and data-sharing among programs and the public.
• Clearer policies and procedures to improve the consistency and reliability of permitting decisions, including ensuring that rules and guidance are easily accessible to the public.
• Training for both staff and permit applicants to improve permitting effectiveness and timeliness.
• Improving our management of staff, including evaluating programs to highlight any review redundancies and providing cross-training.
• Improving communication and customer service in the areas of delegation of authority and the systematic review and adjustment, where needed, of permit fees.
Senior leadership at DENR is currently reviewing these recommendations, and will make changes where practical, feasible and pragmatic. Please know that employees within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources are working hard to meet the high expectations required by public service as we work together with our residents to secure the future of a clean environment, sustained natural resources, healthier lives, thriving ecosystems and a stronger economy.
We have good reason to be optimistic about our state’s economic and environmental outlook, thanks to numerous projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
More than 1,220 jobs have been created in North Carolina with economic recovery money administered by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
People are going back to work on projects that will improve drinking water, reduce diesel engine emissions, clean up scores of contaminated sites, restore oyster habitats and improve our forests.
One such project I’ve been particularly impressed with involves restoring longleaf pines at Bladen Lakes State Forest. This week, I joined state Sen. Margaret Dickson and state Rep. William Brisson, Bladen County officials and others on a tour of the forest led by the N.C. Division of Forest Resources.
We saw some of the 500-plus acres of longleaf pine seedlings already planted by the seven employees and additional contractors hired for the job. The workers are planting pine seedlings and using chainsaws, brush saws and prescribed burning to remove competing understory vegetation.
By reestablishing longleaf pines, we aim to return the largest state-owned forest to its natural ecosystem filled with a tree species capable of withstanding raging wildfires and providing an ideal habitat for the red cockaded woodpecker and other endangered species.
To learn more, go to www.enr.state.nc.us and click on the “NCDENR American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” link under Current Events.
There was drama on the high seas yesterday in Morehead City, where three employees in the Division of Environmental Health, N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, rescued two capsized boaters.
It occurred mid-morning when the sailboat, carrying two boaters, capsized because of strong currents and winds near the Marine Fisheries dock. The boaters were hanging onto their boat that was pinned between dock pillars.
At the same time, staff from the Shellfish Sanitation and Recreational Water Quality Section happened to be on the other side of the dock returning from pulling daily water and shellfish samples. A television station was interviewing staff and captured the rescue on tape.
The staff – Paul Moore, Timmy Moore, and Phil Piner – recognized that the boaters were in trouble and used their quick wits to maneuver their boat to pull the boaters to safety. I am proud and thankful that our staff so willingly went to the aid of the boaters and that potential tragedy was avoided.
There are many unsung heroes at DENR, but the actions of our staff today in Morehead City were caught on tape. If you wish to view the tape and a news story about the rescue, please visit http://www.witn.com/home/headlines/97076919.html.
The creatures living in the North Carolina Zoo’s newest attraction came all the way from Africa to Asheboro.
I’m speaking of the eight lemurs that now call the zoo home. On Friday, I joined my colleagues at the North Carolina Zoo as well as legislators, zoo friends and the media for the official dedication of Lemur Island.
The boulder-filled outcropping loaded with climbing trees and surrounded by water is home to six ring-tailed and two red ruffed lemurs.
Lemurs live only in Madagascar, an island country about the size of California that sits east of Africa. They are the oldest primates, evolving even before monkeys, apes or humans. Like many species, they are endangered as their island home is threatened by rampant deforestation. In bringing them here, we hope people will enjoy them and learn a little about the importance of protecting these rare creatures.
Lemur Island promises to be a big draw, judging from the throng of people who migrated Friday to the zoo’s Africa section for a glimpse of the cute creatures. Perhaps people were drawn to their acrobatics. Lemurs love to entertain, swinging from the trees, wrestling or just grooming each other. Or it may be the fact that lemurs love to socialize and be seen, similar to people.
As I saw the lemurs, I was reminded about what makes the North Carolina Zoo one of the state’s best places to visit. Where else can you travel less than a day and still visit animals from half a world away?
You can learn more at the North Carolina Zoo’s official website, www.nczoo.org.
I bet you didn’t know that we have staff in the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources that help solve crime.
Heather Hanna, Phil Bradley and Dr. Jeff Reid are in the North Carolina Geological Survey and spend most of their time in creeks and streams in central North Carolina mapping bedrock geology. The data they gather is typically used by county planners, developers, groundwater professionals and others on all types of construction and groundwater projects.
But all three geologists and their colleagues have been called upon in recent years to use their skills analyzing Piedmont soils to solve a couple of murders.
In the first case, Raleigh police called upon Hanna and her colleagues in the North Carolina Program for Forensic Sciences at N.C. State University to compare mineral and soil material from the clothing of a murder suspect with material from the crime scene. The scientists found strong similarities between mica on the suspect’s clothes and the place where police found the body of Anthony Bowling. We later learned from a juror that the soil analysis and the trial testimony of Hanna helped convict Jordan Peterson of first-degree murder.
In the second case, staff members in the state geological survey were called upon in 2006 after a woman was abducted from a parking garage in downtown Raleigh. The victim, Cynthia Moreland, was later killed. After getting a call from authorities, Jim Simons, who directs the state Division of Land Resources where staff with the geological survey work, assembled his scientists to piece together a connection between soil found on the victim’s car and the crime scene miles away. As they worked to build a case, the prime suspect, Antonio Davon Chance, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
The same staff members are already working to help solve other cases. Stay tuned.
North Carolina is a state rich in water. But the 2007-08 drought – the worst since we started recording droughts in 1895 – illuminated just how vulnerable our water supplies can be.
The drought increased everyone’s anxiety and raised numerous questions. How could this happen? When would we receive the water we so desperately needed? Would my well go dry? Would I have to start bathing with bottled water? How much rain did we need to get out of the drought? How could streams be going dry even when we experienced a few days of rain?
One of our agencies, the N.C. Division of Water Resources, has put together a book called “The Water Connection – Water Resources, Drought and the Hydrologic Cycle in North Carolina” to answer those questions.
The “Water Connection” makes it easy to understand drought, how it affects us, why we periodically endure dry patches, how the state is preparing for future droughts and many other basics. It also addresses the relationship between surface water and why it’s more important than ever that we all do our part to conserve water whenever possible.
If you would like to learn more about our most precious natural resource, we’ve made it easy for you to download a copy of “The Water Connection” from the state’s Division of Water Resources’ Web site, www.ncwater.org.
As part of the “United We Serve” campaign, I had the opportunity on Thursday to volunteer alongside a team of enthusiastic AmeriCorps volunteers and staff in our Division of Parks and Recreation.
We were assigned to remove a nonnative, invasive plant called the Autumn olive from a wooded area at the Robeson Creek canoe access in the Jordan Lake Recreation Area between Raleigh and Pittsboro.
Not long after I arrived, Emily Hill, the division’s Piedmont biologist, handed me a lopper and a handsaw and explained that the Autumn olive was introduced as an ornamental plant from Asia to provide food for wildlife, but that it now threatens the forest’s biodiversity as it outcompetes other native plants for food and sunlight.
I didn’t have to look for the large plant, which has a large number of elliptical-shaped leaves and a back side with a silvery white shine. Autumn olive is so dense along the gravel access road it obscures many of the young hardwoods and other species.
We got right to work and it didn’t take long for any of us to break a sweat. I was extremely impressed by the hard work of everyone involved, especially the volunteers with AmeriCorps. There was Veronika Lopez, 20, from California, Jeannie Lee, 23, from down the road in Goldsboro, Ned Scavuzzo-Duggan, 19, from Rhode Island, Jared Brown, 25, from Michigan and the team’s leader Joareyn Hill, 21, from Wisconsin.
I learned from chatting with the team members from AmeriCorps that they were “roughing” it, camping every night at the recreation area. Prior to arriving at Jordan Lake, they spent time rebuilding Louisiana communities destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and rebuilding a battered women’s shelter damaged by fire in western North Carolina. All were spending a year volunteering as a way to travel and do their part for public service. After finishing their work at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area this week, they will head for more volunteer work at Morrow Mountain State Park in Albemarle and then to Pilot Mountain State Park near Mt. Airy.
I am genuinely inspired by their devotion to public service.
In June, Gov. Bev Perdue called on state employees to join the national “United We Serve” campaign to encourage people to be more active helping their communities this summer.
Employees in one of our agencies – the state Division of Water Quality – answered that call in a very creative manner.
Dana Satterwhite, a division employee, found a public charity based in Youngsville called All-N’ Together Services that provides services to people in need and noticed that the charity was holding a school supplies drive for children in orphanages, foster homes or low-income families.
Satterwhite called on her colleagues in the agency’s different sections and units to see which program in the division could gather the most school supplies. The winning program would earn a little recognition and a pizza lunch.
Between July 1-31, seven teams competed by collecting pencils, notebook paper, colored markers, scissors, calculators, erasers and pretty much anything else that a child might need in school.
In the end, the Construction Grants and Loans Section surpassed others by a long shot, by soliciting donations from Target and Costco, holding raffles and using the proceeds to buy more supplies. They persuaded folks in other divisions to donate, and even brought the Carolina Hurricanes on board as contributors. All together, the section, which has the fewest number of employees of any section in Water Quality, donated 8,275 items.
I’m proud of everyone in the Division of Water Quality for their efforts. When All-N’Together Services came to gather the donations at our Raleigh offices, they were shocked. They thought they would be able to put all the donations in one car, but they were wrong. It took a packed SUV and a truck.
I had the good fortune yesterday to enjoy the outdoor beauty of western North Carolina while working with a dedicated group of volunteers in the "Land of Waterfalls" – better known as Transylvania County. I spent yesterday afternoon constructing a hemlock rail fence alongside a popular hiking trail in DuPont State Forest with the Friends of DuPont Forest, a volunteer service organization that works to enhance the public use and enjoyment of this state-owned forest while also protecting its abundant natural resources.
I truly enjoyed this day of service, part of the "United We Serve" campaign, a national volunteer effort announced earlier this summer by President Obama and supported by Gov. Perdue. This work, in this place, was especially meaningful to me, as I spent many years as city manager of Brevard, the county seat in Transylvania County.
Working shoulder-to-shoulder with the Friends of DuPont Forest showed me first-hand just how important the work of this and other volunteer groups are to our state parks and state forests, and to other state resources such as its aquariums, the Museum of Natural Sciences and the N.C. Zoo. The Friends of DuPont Forest – a nonprofit organization – schedules trail-building and maintenance workdays under the able leadership of DuPont's forest supervisor, David Brown. The Friends group also sponsors building projects and upgrades, promotes fundraising for the forest and provides information to assist the more than 130,000 people who visit DuPont State Forest each year.
I highly recommend a visit to DuPont State Forest – as well as the educational state forests, all operated by the N.C. Division of Forest Resources. The 10,400 acre DuPont State Forest is located in Henderson and Transylvania counties between the towns of Hendersonville and Brevard. The Little River runs through the forest, and contains four major waterfalls; the forest also boasts five lakes, and more than 80 miles of roads and trails shared by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians.
The teamwork I experienced yesterday, as well as the Friends of DuPont Forest’s partnerships with many other volunteer groups, all go to show that “United We Serve” is indeed how necessary work is completed at our treasured natural resources, enabling these great places to continue to serve the needs of the public, today and in the months and years to come.
Gov. Perdue has declared June 19 Coastal Reserve Day in North Carolina in honor of the N.C. Coastal Reserve Program’s 20th anniversary.
In June 1989, the N.C. General Assembly created the Coastal Reserve Program to acquire, improve and maintain undeveloped coastal land and water areas in a natural state. Twenty years later, that seemingly simple act of legislation has led to the preservation of more than 40,000 acres of unique environments on 10 coastal reserve sites along the entire length of our coast. Four of the sites are also part of NOAA’s National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRs), a federal program designed to improve coastal management and scientific understanding of the nation’s estuarine and coastal habitats.
From Currituck Banks in the north, to Bird Island on our southern border, North Carolina’s coastal reserve system has become an unparalleled resource for education, research and stewardship of these precious and irreplaceable habitats.
Help us celebrate the reserve program’s 20th anniversary by getting to know some of North Carolina’s most beautiful and unspoiled places—visit one (or more!) of our 10 reserve sites and discover some of our coastal treasures.
The four components that are designated as NCNERR sites are Currituck Banks, Rachel Carson, Masonboro Island, and Zeke’s Island. The state supported coastal reserve sites are Kitty Hawk Woods, Emily and Richardson Preyer Buckridge, Buxton Woods, Permuda Island, Bald Head Woods, and Bird Island.
For more information on North Carolina’s Coastal Reserve Program, please visit www.nccoastalreserve.net.
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