--- title: Daily Update - March 18, 2026 description: Daily Update - March 18, 2026Private Sector Is Better For The Environment As WellListenLike and Subscribe Transcript About Reuel Sample This is the Wilmington S... canonical_url: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-march-18-2026 language: en-GB date: 2026-03-18T14:24:21Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-march-18-2026. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1304 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-march-18-2026. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ![Good For Environment](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/daily_update/2026/march/mar18/DailyUpdate-March182026-article.png) This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Wednesday March 18 2026. New Hanover County just demonstrated that it understands the private sector can do a better job than the government at just about everything – including managing and protecting the environment. On March 16th, the county commissioners authorized their staff to enter into negotiations to sell a tract of land known as the Flossie Bryan tract to the Coastal Land Trust. Flossie Bryan – who owns the tract – simply wants the land to be set aside for use by the public as a nature preserve. According to their website, the [Coastal Land Trust](https://coastallandtrust.org/who-we-are/) is an accredited regional land trust serving 31 counties in North Carolina. They are non-partisan and science-driven. But most importantly – while they are a non-profit organization – they are also a private organization. In a post on Facebook, Commissioner Dane Scalise stated that the sale of of this tract of land: further ensure that the land will never be developed, but it also allows the county to receive back most of the money paid to acquire it and saves any additional public funds from being spent to create the nature preserve itself. He is exactly right. While the preservation of green spaces might be a top issue on people’s minds here in New Hanover, the BUSINESS of doing so is best left to the private sector who can do it more efficiently and effectively – because they have their own stakes in the game. Government at all levels can learn a lesson here. From trash collection to street repairs to human services to janitorial staff, when cities and counties and states and even the national government divest of these programs and put the in the hands of the private sector we end up with better services, better jobs, less waste, and smaller government. And smaller government is always a good thing. For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample. 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