Seventy-five years ago, Ernal Foster of Hatteras had a notion that sportsmen might actually pay to go fishing. The three elegant boats that arose from that simple idea are still taking folks fishing and are now a part of Outer Banks lore.
Archives
Preserving a Piece of the Woods
Nags Head and the N.C. Nature Conservancy have bought a 20-acre tract that was the center of a dispute last year over development in the Nags Head Woods Preserve.
Community Colleges Offer Courses in Green Jobs
Someone will have to install those solar panels and tend to those wind farms. Several community colleges along the N.C. coast offer courses to teach the skills needed by alternative energy companies.
Oyster Reefs Could Combat Warming
UNC researchers think that oyster reefs in certain settings can be very effective in storing carbon and may be an essential line of defense against global warming.
Using Marshes to Combat Global Warming
Salt marshes may store far more carbon than tropical rain forests and other types of habitats. In the first of a two-part series, we explore these valuable weapons in the fight against global warming.
When It Rains, It Pours
That’s what it’s done all summer in Nags Head, where a 50-year-old network of ditches, culverts and pipes dramatically showed its age after more than 3 feet of rain.
Pesticide-Laden Runoff Kills Blue Crabs
Thousands of crabs died after a pesticide sprayed on a cotton field washed into a canal near the Pamlico River, causing state officials to wonder what these deadly chemicals are doing to aquatic life. They don’t know because no one really keeps track.
Toxic Air Battle Joined Anew
A battle that began earlier this year over legislation cutting back the state’s air toxics program starts up anew this week when state regulators seek public comment on changes to regulations on toxic air emissions.
State Issues CAMA Permit for New Bonner Bridge
The N.C. Division of Coastal Management yesterday issued a Coastal Area Management Act major permit to the state Department of Transportation to build a replacement for the 50-year-old Herbert C. Bonner Bridge in Dare County.
Big Day for a Watermen’s Celebration
The weather was perfect in Hatteras — bright, sunny and not too hot — and the hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors who attended this year’s celebration made it the biggest and best Day at the Docks yet.
Pond Fishing: ‘Like Hounds on a Hunt’
A Wilmington historian takes a look at “serious” pond fishing along the southeast N.C. coast at the turn of the 20th century. The bugs could be ferocious back then, too.
Reviving the Heart of Old Ocracoke
The Ocracoke Foundation hopes to preserve the Community Square in the heart of the village, maintain its docks for public use, manage stormwater and restore the shoreline.
Pelican Award Winner: N.C. History Center
An old, polluted boatyard in New Bern is now home to a modern museum that may be the “greenest” building in North Carolina.
Come Celebrate Our Estuaries
You can paddle a kayak in Ocracoke, take a bike ride on Bogue Banks or get your hands dirty in Stump Sound as part of the federation’s celebration of our coast’s magnificent marshes.
Sam’s Summer of the Hummingbirds
Sam Bland, our naturalist and photographer,found his life being taken over this summer documenting the lives of a mother hummingbird and her two chicks.
Creosote Plant Now Superfund Site
Federal and state agencies are studying the extent of contamination at an old creosote plant in Navassa that is now a Superfund site and how best to fix the damage.

