SELC Attorney named NC Conservationist of the Year

Chapel Hill - Longtime environmental advocate Derb S. Carter, Jr. will be named North Carolina's 2004 Conservationist of the Year by the North Carolina Wildlife Federation for his longtime commitment to protecting the state's waters, wetlands and wildlife. Most recently, Carter has served as a lead attorney representing the environmental interests in litigation against the Navy proposed jet landing field (Outlying Landing Field, or OLF) in northeastern North Carolina.

"Derb has been on the front lines of the OLF fight, which from our perspective is one of the most important environmental issues in the state. Not only is it a very important issue, but the case has activated the conservation community," said Edward Nickens, chairman of the NCWF awards committee. "Derb has been there for so many critical issues in North Carolina. Few people have the history that Derb has of fighting for our natural resources. This award has been a long time coming."

Carter, a Fayetteville native, has worked as a Senior Attorney with SELC since 1989. As director of its Coastal and Wetlands Project, Carter filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and Weyerhaeuser Corporation that resulted in a settlement that protected the East Dismal Swamp, and set a precedent that has saved many southern wetlands from ditching, draining and conversion to pine plantations. He also successfully litigated for the authority of North Carolina's Environmental Management Commission to protect North Carolina wetlands in the face of increasing gaps in federal protection. And in his recent involvement in the high-profile suit against the Navy's OLF proposal, Carter has brought widespread attention to the coastal area's natural beauty and ecological significance.

Driven by a love of wildlife and nature, Carter received his undergraduate degree in biology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and his law degree from the University of Oregon Law School. After a stint with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Carter came back to North Carolina in 1982 to open the National Wildlife Federation's Carolina Wetlands office in Raleigh. He established and served as the first director of the National Wildlife Federation's Southeastern Natural Resources Center in Raleigh until 1987. Among his victories was a successful challenge to proposals to drain tens of thousands of acres of coastal wetlands in the mid-1980s. That fight led to the public acquisition of more than a quarter-million acres of wetlands-and the establishment of the Alligator and Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuges.

"Derb is one of the foremost wetlands protection lawyers in the nation, and North Carolina's wetlands and other natural areas are in much better shape because of his decades of work here," said Trip Van Noppen, SELC's Carolinas Office Director. "We are all delighted that Derb has received this award."

The award will be given to Carter at a ceremony in Durham on February 19. The event is open to the public with reservations and tickets. Visit www.ncwf.org for more info on the NC Wildlife Federation's Governor's Conservation Achievement Awards.