Wildlife Action Plan

Help Us Keep the N.C. Wildlife Action Plan Up-To-Date

The North Carolina Wildlife Action Plan (NCWAP) is intended to provide a foundation for State and Federal agencies and other conservation partners to think strategically about their individual roles and coordinate prioritizing conservation efforts throughout the state.  At a minimum, North Carolina's Plan will be comprehensively evaluated and revised every 10 years. However, we expect that as new information is discovered about the status of species and natural communities we will need to develop interim updates. You can help us keep the content of the Plan relevant to current issues and needs by sharing your knowledge about the state's fish and wildlife species and their habitats, for example:

  • Projects you (or your organization) are working on that implement priority conservation recommendations outlined in the NCWAP,
  • What you have learned from research concerning fish and wildlife or their habitats,
  • How climate change is being included in your planning processes and projects, or
  • Emerging concerns that have not been addressed in the NCWAP that will impact species or their habitats in North Carolina.

Contact

Cindy Simpson
Wildlife Action Plan Coordinator
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission 
1721 Mail Service Center 
Raleigh, NC 27699-1721 

2025 Wildlife Action Plan

Stay tuned for upcoming announcements about regional workshops!


The WRC has recently started the next 10-year comprehensive revision process and invites all interested partners, organizations, and individuals to participate in revising the WAP. Please stay tuned for further announcements about regional workshops that will focus on climate adaptation, habitat conservation needs, species of greatest conservation need, and other conservation priorities. If you would like to share this information with others please download the attached outreach flyer.

2025 Wildlife Action Plan Revision Outreach Flyer 1

2025 Wildlife Action Plan Revision Outreach Flyer 2

2025 Wildlife Action Plan Revision Outreach Flyer 3

2025 Wildlife Action Plan Revision Outreach Flyer 4

 

 
 

North Carolina's Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) is a comprehensive planning tool developed by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to help conserve and enhance the state’s full array of fish and wildlife species and their habitats. State Wildlife Action Plans emerged from a mandate by the U.S. Congress that each state develop a comprehensive conservation strategy to be eligible for federal funding under the State Wildlife Grants program.

Since submitting the state’s first WAP in 2005, North Carolina has received an average $1.3 million dollars annually to support implementation of the conservation actions laid out in the Plan. In large part these funds have been used to support the Commission’s Wildlife Diversity Program, which implements the WAP throughout North Carolina.

The 2015 WAP was developed in cooperation with numerous partners, including federal and state agencies, conservation organizations, and stakeholders. The Wildlife Commission received approval from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for the comprehensive revision of the WAP on March 30, 2016.

The 2020 Addendum 1 is an interim revision to incorporate new web-based assessment tools, project results, species name and listing status changes, and revisions to the Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) list. Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and other priority fish and wildlife can now be specifically targeted by carefully considering conservation or management options within essential habitats. The goal is to strategically target imperiled animals and their required habitats early, preventing them from becoming extinct. With the 2020 Addendum 1 to the NC Wildlife Action Plan, there are 483 SGCN listed in the Plan. This number includes amphibians, birds, crayfishes, freshwater fishes and mussels, mammals, reptiles, and terrestrial and aquatic snails evaluated by Wildlife Action Plan Taxa Teams of species experts. The SGCN also includes insect and marine species evaluated by others and determined to be a priority for conservation action. North Carolina’s WAP describes 17 river basins and 40 types of aquatic, wetland, and terrestrial natural communities found across the state that provide important habitat to fish and wildlife. The plan matches each SGCN to the habitat type or river basin where it is found, identifies the most important threats facing each habitat, and details the priority conservation actions required to protect and conserve these species and habitats.

Addendum 2 is an interim revision to add plants to the SGCN list. This addendum is in preparation for the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA), proposed federal legislation with wide bi-partisan support, which will include provisions for plant conservation. When passed, RAWA will provide a new source of federal matching grant funds to states that include plants as SGCN in their Wildlife Action Plans. The Wildlife Commission will join 15 other state wildlife agencies that already include plants in their Wildlife Action Plans. Addendum 2 will also add a new natural community description for Piedmont and Coastal Plain Oak Forests, and a table is added to provide habitat associations between plant SGCN and the natural communities described in the Plan. 

Addendum 2 Plant SGCN

Addendum 2 Plant SGCN – Appendix H Update

NEW! May 2023 - A new online tool is available to help users quickly search Wildlife Action Plan content to find priority conservation actions and recommendations for SGCN, habitats, and 11 different categories of potential threats. The search tool offers two options for search criteria that includes habitat categories and types, five recommendation categories, river basins, taxa type or single SGCN, and threat category. Search results can be printed or exported as an Excel worksheet. Please visit the search tool at the Wildlife Action Plan Search website.

Evaluated by Wildlife Action Plan Taxa Teams
(2020 Addendum 1 Update in red)

Taxonomic GroupSpecies of Greatest Conservation NeedKnowledge Gap Priority SpeciesManagement Concern Priority Species
Amphibians515730
Birds938076
Crayfishes24145
Fishes856968
Freshwater Mussels392730
Mammals282829
Reptiles434720
Snails - Freshwater923
Snails - Terrestrial63176187
TOTAL435500448
Evaluated by Other Species Experts
Insects44--
Marine Mammals4--
TOTAL SGCN483  
Tab/Accordion Items

As of APRIL 2021: for the most current version of the NC Wildlife Action Plan (PDF) and SGCN lists (Excel) please download the documents available through the 2020 Wildlife Action Plan tab.

Most links below are PDFs that open to a new window. You may download the complete document or sections of interest below.

Download entire document (PDF) 

Download entire document to access appendixes using in-document links.   

Note: Large download: 34 MB, 1328 pages. The PDFs and Excel files are available to download in compressed ZIP file format - send an email to Cindy Simpson to request a Dropbox link for the download.

Download Table of Contents and Chapters 1-8 only  (PDF - 11 MB)

NOTE: To access the appendixes using in-document hyperlinks, download the entire document. Or download the Appendixes below. In-document hyperlinks to appendixes will not work if only the Table of Contents and Chapters 1-8 are downloaded. 

Download Appendixes (PDF, Excel, and ArcMap files)

Appendixes (PDF): All Appendixes except G, H, J and P.
Appendix G (Excel) - Taxa Team Evaluation Results
Appendix H (Excel) 
Appendix J (Excel) - Priority HUC12s by River Basin

GIS DATA   Download a ZIP compressed file with ArcGIS shapefiles  OR send a request to cindy.simpson@ncwildlife.org

Appendix P (Excel) - All SGCN by Taxonomic Group


 

May 2023 - Final Approval received from U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Addendum 2 to the 2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan adds a list of plant SGCN as a component of the state’s natural communities, adds a new natural community description for Piedmont and Coastal Plain Oak Forests, and provides new and updated appendices.

Download Addendum 2 documents below.

Chapters

Contains a PDF copy Cover, Table of Contents, and Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 3 Species, and Chapter 4 Habitats (all pages are 8.5 x 11 size)

Appendixes

Appendix CA-2 Key Participants and Letters (PDF)
Appendix HA-2 Plant SGCN Habitat Associations by Ecoregions
Appendix PA-2 List of Plant SGCN
Appendix R White Paper Protected Plant and SGCN Evaluation Methodology (PDF) 
Appendix R Plant List (PDF)
Appendix S Public Comments (PDF)

 

Download compressed ZIP files that contain ArcGIS shapefile data below or send a request to cindy.simpson@ncwildlife.org to get a OneDrive download link.

Aquatic Conservation Opportunity Areas (COAs) - Priority HUC12s by River Basin (ZIP) 
Terrestrial Conservation Opportunity Areas (COAs) By Ecoregion of Interest

NC Bird Atlas 

A statewide community science project to map birds during the breeding and wintering seasons. We support participation by a diversity of humans for the diversity of birds. The NC Bird Atlas focuses on priority blocks, spreading out birding effort across the state. When a block has had enough effort, we mark it as complete to encourage Atlasers to focus on other priority blocks.

Calling Amphibian Survey Program (CASP) for the NC Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation. 

CASP has 141 road-based listening routes randomly placed throughout North Carolina that volunteers can adopt and collect listening data during amphibian breeding seasons. Each route has 10 listening stops that have amphibian breeding areas (streams, wetlands, ponds) nearby and volunteers enter the species of frogs and toads they hear calling during a five minute stop. CASP survey data contributes to information on the distribution and relative abundance of frogs and toads in North Carolina over time. Our NC data gets pooled with data from other states to allow for analysis of regional and national trends in frog distribution and changes in frog populations. Understanding these trends will provide us a better understanding of the status and health of our frog and toad populations, and will enable us to protect critical habitats for our frog and toad species. Anyone with an interest in the frogs and toads of NC and a willingness to learn their calls and run 3 surveys a year can participate. The ability to correctly identify the frogs and toads in the state is a must for this program.  There are 21 species of frogs and toads in NC.  You can use this website to listen to the calls and begin to familiarize yourself with all of the NC species: Frogs and Toads of NC.  Frog call workshops are available periodically to help with frog call identification and to explore CASP protocols.

Recovering America's Wildlife Act

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is a bipartisan bill that, if passed, would dedicate over $20 million annually to North Carolina to conserve and restore nearly 500 nongame fish and wildlife species of greatest conservation need (SGCN), as well as their habitats. North Carolina is home to more than 1,500 nongame fish and wildlife species and over 6,000 plant species. RAWA would allow North Carolina to consistently review, assess and plan conservation and restoration of nearly 500 SGCN that have low and/or declining populations and need conservation action as described in the  N.C. Wildlife Action Plan. 

Wildlife Diversity Program and Quarterly Reports

Staff with the Wildlife Commission’s Wildlife Diversity Program conduct projects and programs that benefit nongame species — animals without an open hunting, fishing, or trapping season. More than 700 nongame species call North Carolina home and include songbirds and other birds, reptiles and amphibians, freshwater mussels, fish and crustaceans, and mammals. Support the Wildlife Diversity Program by contributing to the N.C. Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Fund.   

Documents