A grassy hill with trees in the background

North Carolina

Forest Action Plan

Ensuring the sustainability of North Carolina’s forests

From the mountains to the coast, North Carolina is fortunate to have rich and diverse forest resources. Forests are the dominant land use in North Carolina, and the forest industry in our state is a robust economic engine ensuring jobs for thousands of our citizens. This updated 2020 North Carolina Forest Action Plan is a thorough review of North Carolina’s forests, with a focus on changes and trends that have occurred since North Carolina’s initial Forest Action Plan.

Driven by the need to efficiently target our collective efforts and resources, the 2020 North Carolina Forest Action Plan represents a clear path for conserving, protecting, and enhancing North Carolina’s forest resources and the many benefits we enjoy from them. While the mandate for this critical assessment originated in the 2008 Farm Bill under the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, its origins are deeply seated in a public that demands increased impact, accountability, and innovation from its agencies. With that challenge as our goal, a committed group of staff, partners, and sister agency personnel collaborated to make this Forest Action Plan a reality.



Best Management Practices

North Carolina’s best management practices (BMPs) program is quasi-regulatory. The agency responsible for BMPs policy development is the North Carolina Forest Service.

Click here to view the most recent BMPs recommendations on the state forestry agency website.

Click the following links to view available BMP monitoring data and implementation rates from NASF’s 2015 BMP survey and NASF’s 2019 BMP survey.

North Carolina Forestry Publications

Having trouble opening PDFs? Download Adobe Reader here.

Accessibility Toolbar