ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case study of the Croatan National Forest, located in the coastal plain of Eastern North Carolina. At the start of the 20th century, large areas of coastal North Carolina were cleared for development, agriculture, commercial forestry, and industry, leaving little of the original ecosystem intact. Croatan National Forest no longer provides fodder for livestock, but the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield (MUSY) Act's other elements, ''wood, water, wildlife, and recreation,'' are very much present. Several species of rare birds have been sighted, including the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, and, perhaps most notably, the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW). Timber harvests steadily increased, peaking in the 1970s, although the maximum harvests on the Croatan, even adjusting for its smaller area, never approached the quantities of wood being extracted at that time from the Western forests. Public engagement is as much a Forest Service mantra now as ''sustainable yield'' once was.
