State, RoCo team up to tackle forest conservation
Published 1:00 am Wednesday, September 23, 2026
By DEAN STEPHENS/Salisbury Post
An agreement between the county and state will result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in conservation funds.
At their regular session meeting on Monday, Rowan County commissioners entered into a joint agreement with the state to earmark a combined $237,719 toward the preservation of Rowan County forests.
“…the board, recognizing the need for active forest protection, development, reforestation, management and improvement in Rowan County, has accepted the offer of the department for cooperation in accomplishing this objective,” reads part of an agreement between Rowan County and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Commissioners passed the agreement as part of their Monday-evening meeting’s consent agenda. The consent agenda is an omnibus of various items commissioners can either approve or single out for further discussion. Commissioners approved the agreement without additional discussion. Both the county and state retain the right to make alterations to the agreement.
“This agreement may be modified only in writing and upon execution by both parties,” reads part of the agreement.
The agreement covers both forest preservation and improvements. This entails forest protection, development, reforestation, management and improvement, among other actions. The agreement also calls for expanding the county’s forestry staff.
“..the parties contract and agree to maintain a legally appointed and equipped Forest Service office to support said county at the joint cost of the state and county,” reads part of the agreement.
C.J. Ingram currently serves as the county ranger. The agreement suggests adding an assistant ranger.
The assistant ranger’s duties include detecting and extinguishing fires, investigating the origin of fires, for enforcing the state’s forest fire laws, take such preventive measures, educational, forest fire prevention and forest promotion, among other tasks.
The agreement also calls for a forestry management clerk who serves as a secondary administrative contact within the county. They may also serve as the primary contact in regards to administrative matters.
The agreement also mentions hiring specialized equipment operators. One is a forest fire equipment operator while the other is a vehicle repair technician.
While the former is described as operating and maintaining “all types of heavy site preparation equipment,” the latter is tasked with “overhauling, repairing and maintaining light duty vehicles and heavy-duty equipment, including but not limited to specialized firefighting equipment, heavy construction and agricultural equipment, and stationary power units equipped with complex hydraulic systems and spark-ignition or diesel engines.”
A full forestry staff would oversee the 129,223 acres of combined timberland and forestland. This 129,223 acres is entirely privately owned, according to information from N.C. State Extension. That is a departure from 2014, when Rowan County’s public farmland totaled 5,789 acres.
Rowan County’s forest sector consists of various forest-based industries. It accounted for 1,283 jobs, in 2024, with an estimated payrole of $104 million. Of those jobs, the secondary paper and paperboard products industry accounts for 652 jobs, the highest in the forest sector. At $265 million, its industry output was also the highest in the sector.
According to the N.C. State Extension Office, Rowan County’s forest sector had a total economic contribution of $477 million to the county’s economy in 2024.
