TITLE
Title
APPROVE CONTRACT BETWEEN THE NC DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE & CONSUMER SERVICES AND GUILFORD COUNTY FOR THE PROTECTION, DEVELOPMENT AND IMPROVEMENT OF FOREST LANDS IN GUILFORD COUNTY
end
SPONSOR
Sponsor
J. Leslie Bell
end
BACKGROUND
Background
The NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services historically enters into an annual interlocal agreement with Guilford County to provide for active forest protection, development, reforestation, management and improvement in forested lands in Guilford County. The interlocal agreement attached herein is for FY24/25 for the period July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. The interlocal agreement with Guilford County provides for the State to maintain a legally appointed and equipped Forest Service office to support the aforementioned efforts and is funded jointly via a 60% (state portion) - 40% (Guilford County portion) funding split.
The Planning & Development Department’s Division of Guilford Soil and Water District's approved FY24/25 budget includes the County’s 40% funding responsibility ($86,310). Additionally, with the State’s 60% share ($129,467) a FY24/25 total cooperative appropriation of $215,777 is allocated for Forestry Service efforts in Guilford County. The Guilford County Forestry Service office is located at the County's Cooperative Extension Building (Agricultural Building) at 3309 Burlington Road, Greensboro. This interlocal agreement allows the State to pay assigned staff in accordance with the existing State salary administration policy.
For its part, the State is contracted to provide/fund the following:
- One (1) County/Area Ranger assigned for the purposes of controlling forest fires; for detecting and extinguishing fires that break out; for investigating the origin of forest, woodland, and field fires; for enforcing the State’s forest fire laws; for taking such preventive measures, educational and otherwise, to prevent forest fires; for developing and improving the forests through reforestation, promotion, and practice of Forest Management practices; and for protection of forests from insects and diseases;
- One (1) Assistant County Ranger to assist the County/Area Ranger with those aforementioned duties /responsibilities and services above;
- Staff support necessary to carry out the functions of a designated Forestry Service office in Guilford County; and
- Other necessary equipment, office space rental allocation, public information/education materials/efforts and assistance (as necessary) to support the County in the proper management, best practices and other Forestry Service improvements as funding allows.
More specifically, Guilford County activities either recently provided or planned for FY24/25 include, but not limited to, the following:
-Conducted interview (Jimmy Holt, County Ranger for Guilford County) with WFMY News 2 on June 27, 2024 encouraging firework safety and caution during July 4th holiday due to drought conditions;
-Responded to approximately 130 outside fires in Guilford County;
-Scheduled a prescribed fire project at SW Park in Guilford County late this season or early 2025;
-Developed a solid plan to manage Hines Chapel Preserve and bringing fire back into the ecosystem;
-Written complex stewardship plans for four (4) to five (5) county Parks and Preserves;
-Recently taught two (2) 3-hour hands on, face-to-face chainsaw safety classes to Guilford County Parks and Recreation;
-Assisted Guilford County Parks with hazard tree removal in Hagan-Stone park and identification of other tree hazards (i.e., trees that need to be felled);
-Assists the Guilford County Tax Dept. and Guilford County citizens with writing fire management plans as part of the Tax Departments audits for and participation in its Present Use Valuation program;
-Teach a twelve (12) hour certification wildland fire suppression class for volunteer fire departments (class taught on average of 2x/year);
-Conduct approximately thirty (30) annual information and education (I&E) events across Guilford County on wildfire prevention including Smokey the Bear campaign, providing Forestry Service helicopter for Future Farmers of America (FFA) Day, participating in Guil-rand Fire Dept's. fire camp program, and participating in a wildfire safety program offered in Summerfield for special needs children;
-Successfully received approval and conducted prescribed burns for several forested tracts including SE Guilford County as a preventative best management practice in an urban county to reduce forestry fire hazards (avg. cost for the landowner is approximately $45/acre which is considerably less than the actual cost to perform this service);
-Actively supports and recognizes Guilford County municipal and institutional participants (e.g., Jamestown, High Point, Oak Ridge, and High Point University) in the Tree City USA program (provide communities with a four-step framework to maintain and grow tree cover);
-Serves (Jimmy Holt, County Ranger for Guilford County) as Public Information Officer (PIO) for Piedmont Region for the NC Forest Service; and
-Offer arborist services to Guilford County citizens as both Jimmy Holt, County Fire Ranger and Robbie Beeson (Asst. Fire Ranger) are certified arborists.
Historically, total cooperative appropriation for FY22/23 - FY23/24, and requested for FY24/25 is as follows:
FY22/23 -$233,000 (Guilford County 40% @ $93,200; State 60% @ $139,800)
FY23/24 - $249,000 (Guilford County 40% @ $99,600; State 60% @ $149,400)
FY24/25 - $215,777 (Guilford County 40% @ $86,310; State 60% @ $129,467)
Funding requested for Guilford County for FY24/25 is approx. 13.3% less than FY23/24 (in part because the FY22/23 and FY23/24 requests by the State included costs for a vehicle that was not purchased in FY22/23 and carried over into FY23/24).
The FY24/25 interlocal agreement is attached.
end
BUDGET IMPACT
Budget Impact
NO ADDITIONAL COUNTY FUNDS REQUIRED
end
REQUESTED ACTION
Requested Action
Approve contract, in substantial form, between the NC Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services and Guilford County for the protection, development, and improvement of Guilford County’s Forest Lands with a Guilford County obligation of $86,310 for a term beginning July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
end