Established 2016
About
The Eastern North Carolina Sentinel Landscape (ENCSL) spans nearly 11 million acres across 33 counties in North Carolina’s Coastal Plain and Sandhills regions. The sentinel landscape is home to seven key military installations and ranges: Fort Roland L. Bragg and Camp Mackall, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Marine Corps Air Stations (MCAS) Cherry Point and New River, and the Dare County Range. North Carolina has the third largest military presence in the country, and Fort Bragg, an ENCSL anchoring installation, is the largest Army installation by population. This sentinel landscape is also home to the F-15E Strike Eagle Formal Training Unit Basic Course, qualifying Airmen in F15E air-to-air and air-to-ground missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Additionally, MCAS Cherry Point, the largest Marine Corps Air Station, is home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and Fleet Readiness Center.
Military activity in North Carolina ranks second only to agriculture as the state’s leading economic driver. The ENCSL helps protect the anchoring installations from wildfire, habitat degradation, flooding, and water resource vulnerabilities. To address these encroachment challenges, ENCSL partners design and implement nature-based infrastructure, restore critical floodplains, and promote stewardship of longleaf pine ecosystems. The landscape also collaborates with local governments to address off-base infrastructure vulnerabilities that impact defense-supporting communities. These actions improve soil health, safeguard water quality and supply, enhance biodiversity, and reinforce the long-term sustainability of working lands and defense readiness.
North Carolina Sentinel Landscapes is an innovative partnership focused on collaboration between farmers, foresters, conservationists, and military installations to provide mutual benefits and protect the state’s two largest economic sectors — Agriculture and Defense.
Private working lands (farms and forests) are strong economic engines that provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge and recreational areas. Working lands are at risk from the pressures of unplanned development in Eastern North Carolina and landowners are witnessing rapid population growth and a change in our rural landscape.
Through the National Sentinel Landscapes designation, qualifying landowners in the 33-county region of Eastern North Carolina are eligible for financial incentives to implement best management practices for land and water resource management to help meet your management goals.
Contact: Tom Potter, NC Foundation for Soil and Water Conservation, tpotter@ncsoilwater.org