North Carolina has lost 300,000 acres of family farms, forests, stream banks and wildlife areas to development since 2005.

That's according to a report issued by Land for Tomorrow, which is asking for $200 million in state funding in each of the next five years for land and water conservation.

The report says that the cost of land has risen almost 300 percent in the last 10 years, while the miles of streams that do not meet water quality standards has gone from 3,000 to 3,300 since 2005.

The state is only halfway towards its 1999 goal of protecting a million acres of land by 2009. (AC-T)

North Carolina lost 2.4 million acres of open space in the past 20 years.

And it will lose another 2 million acres over the next two decades if development continues at its current rate, according to a report by Environment North Carolina. (N&O)

The state is also losing farmland, including about 1,000 farms in 2005.

"The average age of farmers is getting up in the high 50s, and about the only retirement plan they've got is the land — to sell it," said a fifth-generation farmer in Leicester. (AC-T)

Advocates of land preservation used the report as part of their argument for the legislature to put a $1 billion bond referendum before voters this fall.

Rep. Lucy Allen, a Louisburg Democrat who is sponsor of the bond bill, noted that it would have competition from other budget needs, but she said it is urgent.

"There are going to be no second chances," she said. "As a former school board member and former mayor, I have many times heard people say, 'Yes, we need to do that but now is not the time.' ... I will tell you, there will not be another chance like we have right now to do this." (AP)