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What do training soldiers to fight overseas have to do with conserving land? Read on to find out.

I mentioned in my post on the upcoming legislative agenda that a group of legislators (the Land and Water Conservation Study Commission was going to recommend some conservation steps to the General Assembly. They met today (Monday) and issued their final report, a draft of which you can find here. (This version lacks a few of the final tweaks.)

The group recommended that the state spend $1 billion over five years to protect both natural resources as well as historic and cultural sites throughout the state. But they stopped short of calling for a bond to pay for the whole deal as they did during the last session. Basically, they said the legislature should use some mix of funding (bonds, taxes, fees, etc...) to accomplish the goals. Of course, as the old saw goes, if you want to start a fight in the legislature put a dollar on the table (or threaten to take on off).

One of the interesting bits of yesterday’s meeting was to hear Colonel David G. Fox, Garrison Commander at Fort Bragg talk about how the state’s past conservation efforts had helped his base and helped to bring back a certain kind of woodpecker to the region. I guess maybe it goes against type to hear a military type talking with pride about how his base has the largest strand of long leaf pine in the country.

Click here to listen to some of his testimony.

Of local (to Greensboro) note, Rep. Pricey Harrison sits on the committee. Harrison is probably one of the legislatures more environmentally minded members.
Click here to listen to her exchange with North Carolina Farm Bureau President Larry Wooten about farmland preservation funding.

The biggest question surrounding all these preservation ideas is not whether they’re worthy notions (most folks, I think, agree they are) but how to pay for them. That’s where some powerful and well-heeled interests (see prior post on campaign fundraising) will get into the act.

Both the N.C. Home Builders Association and the N.C. Association of realtors weighed in, suggesting that contemplated increases on fees related to property transactions and the like would be unpopular with their colleagues.

Click here to listen to the Home Builders’ Lisa Martin ("Since everybody benefits, everybody should pay.") and Click here to listen the realtors’ lobbyist Rick Zechini talk with the commission.

If the realtors and home builders got their dander up, it wouldn’t be impossible to get this conservation package done, but it would sure get harder.

One odd or end from Harrison: she picked up on something that Zechini said about applying a fee to start state parks in order to fund some conservation efforts. The idea did not make it into the final report because it was not aired at any of the commission’s public hearings. But it seems like the idea might get some attention if the General Assembly starts crafting legislation around this report.