River action needed now!

We’ve just received word from our friends in Raleigh, Conservation Trust for NC, that it looks like the NC House Appropriations Committee will release its proposed budget for 2011-12 next week.

That’s where you come in.  For those of you in NC — we need you to communicate with House members ASAP, today through Monday/Tuesday, to deliver two key messages:

1) Fund the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) at $50 million (the current word is that it’s at $10 million in House budget draft).  CWMTF has funded a large part of our restoration work and the River Builder program and helps on important land protection projects.  CWMTF gets it’s funding from appropriations from the legislature – so this is critical money to our work at NCNR.

2) Oppose HB 574 and SB 462, the bills that would permanently divert half of the dedicated revenue for Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF) and Natural Heritage Trust Fund (NHTF).  These funds come 100% from real estate transfer fees – no taxes are involved.  They are an important source of funding for land protection projects like our recent addition of lands to the New River State Park and community projects like ball fields.

It is truly crunch time.  We (and other conservation organizations throughout the state) depend on CWMTF, NHTF, and PARTF to fund our projects, so we’ve got to pull out all the stops right now to ensure that they survive with enough funding to make a difference.

All 21 land trusts in NC have signed a letter to the legislators which will be delivered on Monday. There are 27 other organizations also on the letter, including about twenty from the hunting/fishing/outdoors community.

Please do whatever you can over the next few days to communicate (phone calls and e-mails) with legislators.  It is our understanding that they are meeting behind closed doors in Raleigh over weekend!

Go to the website: http://www.ncleg.net/ for member phone numbers and email addresses.  You can also read the full content of the bills listed above.

And, thank you for your continuing support!

George Santucci, Executive Director, NCNR