The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced that Janice L. Allen, its Deputy Director, has received the Order of the Longleaf Pine from the Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory in appreciation for her role as the conservation leader of the “Encroachment Partnership” between the US Marine Corps and the NC Coastal Land Trust.
Janice Allen has dedicated herself to protecting North Carolina’s natural areas and conservation lands. Many of her most significant achievements have been the result of the “Encroachment Partnership”, which was begun in 2005 in response to the Base Re-Alignment Commission established by the Congress. Janice joined personnel from the USMC Air Station at Cherry Point and the Navy to draw up a priority list of acquisitions that would protect our state’s coastal military bases from encroachment by incompatible development while also protecting conservation resources. Today, more than a decade later, the Encroachment Partnership can point to outstanding results, with 20 separate acquisitions completed; 8,000 acres protected; and $31M in federal, state, and private funds invested.
Local Board of Transportation member and retired Army Major General Hugh Overholt expressed gratitude for Janice Allen and the Coastal Land Trust. Overholt remarked that “Janice and her team successfully leveraged public and private funds for land conservation projects that limit development that is incompatible with the military. Their efforts to secure environmentally friendly land uses that also benefit military testing, training, and operations have had a tremendous positive impact on our State. We all should be grateful for Janice’s service to the community.”
Lands protected include tracts beneath flight paths, noise buffers and training routes to Piney Island Bombing Range, and tracts adjoining the main base of US Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, Bogue Field, Piney Island and US Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.
Conservation resources protected include longleaf pine forests, carnivorous plant habitat, productive wetlands, and buffers along streams and creeks, a farm producing Bogue Sound watermelons, and tracts that have become city parks, greenways, and water access areas.
The benefits of the Encroachment Partnership Program for the state of North Carolina are substantial. Military basing decisions have long-term impacts on our eastern North Carolina economy. In fact, the Encroachment Partnership was cited as one of the key reasons why Cherry Point Air Station was selected to receive squadrons of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Janice’s role as the conservation leader of the Encroachment Partnership encompasses designing and implementing complex, multi-million dollar, conservation real estate transactions. Her success is grounded in her training as a biologist; Janice received a BS in Natural Resources Conservation from the University of Michigan and a MS in Wildlife Biology from Auburn University. Since settling in North Carolina after graduate school, Janice has devoted countless hours of her personal time to learn about our Carolina landscape, talking to and learning from experts all over the state and nation. Janice is respected by her peers as a quiet but resourceful and tenacious architect of ambitious conservation strategies that save the best of our coast’s habitats, balancing the need for environmental protection with economic and community development.
