The Navy has agreed to look at six alternative sites in North Carolina for a practice airfield it has been wanting to build near a wildlife refuge in the eastern part of the state.

The sites, which state officials asked the Navy to consider, include two in Gates County and two in Camden County in northeastern North Carolina. Those sites are near the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Va., where most of the squadrons using the landing field would be based, reports Wade Rawlins.

Also on the list: a site at the Angola Bay gameland, on the border of Pender and Duplin counties, and a site at Hofmann Forest, on the border of Jones and Onslow counties. Those two sites are in southeastern North Carolina.

State environmental officials and Navy representatives made a joint presentation today regarding the sites to an advisory committee appointed by Gov. Mike Easley.

Navy officials plan to review the alternatives and decide within the next 60 days whether to do in- depth environmental studies of any of them.

Read more after the jump.

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Politicians usually don’t look for kudos from the nonpartisan Field & Stream magazine.

But the sportsman’s magazine’s blog labels Gov. Mike Easley a hero for opposing Navy plans for a carrier-landing practice field near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, reports Rob Christensen.