Fort Bragg wants healthy farms surrounding it. The open spaces of farms and undeveloped forests are compatible with the military mission of the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg.

Grace Lawrence, project director for a Working Lands Protection Plan for the Base Realignment and Closure Regional Task Force, Wednesday night told local landowners about efforts to develop a plan for the 11-county region around Fort Bragg which would work to strengthen farming operations.

She indicated the plan could increase benefits to farmers through their receiving grants at more favorable rates and providing goods to operations at Fort Bragg.

The meeting was held at the Richmond County Cooperative Extension Service office in Rockingham to encourage those attending to complete a survey form if they haven’t done so already and take them home to their neighbors.

The survey is being conducted by Mount Olive College, Lois G. Britt Agribusiness Center, for BRAC. Dr. Sandy Maddox of the college was also present.

Develop plan

Each of the counties in the region will be asked to develop on its own a Working Lands Protection Plan to suit its needs. Richmond County already has a Strategic Land Use Plan and County Zoning Ordinance defining areas as agriculture. County plans strongly support farming and agricultural operations. By North Carolina law, agricultural areas are already exempt from zoning laws.

It remains to be seen how any new plan would relate to plans already in place in the county. “I like the concept of creating such a document that details the value of agribusiness in this county,” said James Armstrong, Richmond County Planner, “especially if it is done with input from many different sectors of the community.”

In keeping with the effort, N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler on Tuesday announced that the state lost more than 600,000 acres of farmland from 2002 to 2007.

“The state has added a million people since 2000, and they all need homes to live in, roads to drive on and places to shop,” he said. “Farmland is the first place developers look.”

Growth concerns

Such growth is of concern to Fort Bragg, Lawrence said. With some 40,000 new people expected at the military installation, development is expected around it. That does not include people moving to the area in support of the added development on base.

She said that by 2030 some four million more people are expected to move into North Carolina. “We are the third fastest-growing state in the United States,” she said.

To manage such growth, she said Troxler wants every county in the state to have land protection plans in place.

Maddox said the plan to be developed will look at the potential for agriculture in the county as well as its present state. Agriculture is defined as farming, forests and horticulture.

Lawrence said the goal was to keep farming profitable in the region. A plan to be developed, she said, would offer recommendations in that direction and offer to identify trends in farming and obstacles to farming.

A plan accepted by Richmond County would be submitted to the N.C. Department of Agriculture for certification, she said, which would then make farmers eligible for certain funds. Since Richmond County is known as a Tier 1 county economically, no matching funds would be necessary.

Committed

Lawrence said BRAC was committed to local producers and people.

BRAC defines its agricultural initiative as one that “will strengthen the economy by opening new markets for local growers/producers, including Fort Bragg; preserve the heritage of family farms and rural entrepreneurship; link agriculture to new technologies which will expand opportunities and the potential for the next generation of farmers.”

In addition to the written surveys being collected, Maddox said the survey group will be calling on people throughout the county for personal interviews to expand on local concerns. “We want to know the challenges you face and the solutions you may have to offer,” she said.

BRAC hopes to have the survey completed in March and the results available during the summer.

Areas of concern

Land use planning is one of the four areas of concern of BRAC. The others include workforce development, education (North Carolina is fourth in the nation with its school drop-out rate), and infrastructure.

Jim McCaskill represents Richmond County as a member of the BRACRTF.

He said by his attending meetings, the county has a place “at the table” when development issues are discussed. He said he reports to the county staff any opportunities which may arise at such meetings.

He said from all indications, it is important that Richmond County gets students trained and ready as a highly-educated workforce to meet the needs of Fort Bragg and the associated industries moving into the area in support of the mission of the installation.

He said Web sites are being developed which will put local contractors in touch with work available in the Fort Bragg area. He said a career planning feature will soon be added for students.

Transform workforce

One of the goals of the BRAC workforce development is to transform the region’s workforce to meet the needs of emerging, existing and expanding industries, such as homeland security, military preparedness, modeling and simulation, allied health care, construction, education, social services and information technologies.

Such workers will be needed for thousands of jobs generated on and off the installation as a result of the move of the U.S. Forces Command and U.S. Army Reserve Command from Fort McPherson, Ga., to Fort Bragg.

Another goal is to transform the regional economy using growth at Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base as the catalyst to attract defense-related companies.

Plans being developed in the 11-county BRAC region could become a sustainability model for the state and defense communities nationwide, BRAC officials said.