Planets. Stars. The Moon. Oysters?

Space seems literally a world away from the ocean. So, what relation does space have to oyster reefs?

They have Susan White in common. As part of her job, she finds ways to bring technologies by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to research the state’s coast.

She is the director of the North Carolina Space Grant and North Carolina Sea Grant, as well as the state’s Water Resources Research Institute, or WRRI. All three programs are based out of North Carolina State University.

White finds opportunities to use funds from federal agencies, including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to bring research, education and outreach to North Carolina.

An even more interesting aspect of her job is to find ways for these resources to overlap. For the state’s coast, these means an innovative approach to research.

Managing Three Programs

White was named in October as the director of NC Space Grant after a stint as its interim director. The program is a consortium of 13 academic institutions that, in partnership with NASA, promote “aeronautics and space-related science, engineering, and technology education and training in North Carolina,” according to the program’s website.

White’s work with the space program adds to her list of leadership positions.

NC Sea Grant, where she is also director, is a program that manages millions of dollars of federal funds focused on providing research and outreach funding for the state’s coast, including shoreline restoration, fish management and coastal economic analysis.

White, in her leadership of WRRI, manages a program that receives funding from the United States Geological Survey to research freshwater and water supply in the state. Like the other two programs, WRRI also promotes outreach and education to the public.

“In certain ways, they are definitely distinct,” White said about the programs. “They have their own missions and subject areas, but in the way that I look at them, they are so interconnected. They are a comprehensive piece that makes sense for us to have administrated, sort of, centrally, under one group.”

White said her leadership roles were a continuous pathway because of her background in coastal ecology. WRRI and NC Sea Grant had just merged when she came on board as director. She previously worked at NOAA’s Hollings Marine Laboratory in South Carolina and for NOAA’s Estuarine Reserves Division and National Estuarine Research Reserve System.

She decided to apply for the director position because of her appreciation for North Carolina’s natural assets.

“Having grown up in North Carolina and vacationed both at the coast and at the mountains, they are very good reasons to invest money in the state and the beauty of the resources we have available to us,” she said.

Adding NC Space Grant to her plate was the result, she said, of being on the program’s board and seeing an overlapping interest in STEM, otherwise known as science, technology, engineering and mathematics education.

On a typical day, she said she looks for ways to partner with academic institutions, state agencies and industries that have interest in the programs. Some of the types of partnerships include internship opportunities, classroom education and research funding.

Other days, her office is administering the programs they’ve planned and analyzing the programs’ impact.

All three programs, she said, have established themselves in the state. WRRI recently celebrated 50 years, NC Sea Grant is coming up on its own 50^th anniversary and NC Space Grant has been around for more than 25 years.

The programs bring in a variety of stakeholders. White said one of the benefits of the programs is bringing these diverse groups together on a regular basis.

“We have a good set of conversations we can have with our academic partners, our state agency partners, federal agency partners, as well as our industry partners,” she said. “All of our different stakeholders find great value with these programs.”

All three grant programs focus heavily on extension engagements, which find ways to integrate the programs’ resources into North Carolina communities. She said being so closely connected to the communities benefitting from the investments helps the programs stay relevant.

“You don’t get to sit down and look at research every day. You don’t get to sit down and listen every day,” she said. “But, if you do it regularly enough, be consistent with it, then you really do begin to get a feel for the communities and their needs.”

Connecting Space to the NC Coast

Despite their different purposes, White said there are ways to overlap the three programs.

“There’s a lot of sensible parallels and applications both from a technology and educational perspective that these programs all leverage,” she said.

For example, NC Space Grant and NC Sea Grant co-host a fellowship for student researchers. The opportunity utilizes technology from NASA and NOAA sometimes used in space exploration to investigate issues on the state’s coast. There have been four recipients so far, with two researchers still currently enrolled in the fellowships.

Examples of the projects in the fellowship include using satellite data to inform oyster reef restoration, using computer simulations to study vegetation loss along the coast and looking at the effects of nearshore and offshore storms on ocean circulation.

There is a similar fellowship that links WRRI and NC Sea Grant, focusing on interactions on freshwater at the coast.

White said she would like to expand NC Space Grant’s presence in the state, as the applications are useful for the state’s residents.

Some examples of NASA resources that can be applied to state and its coast include satellite referencing, heat resistance and battery longevity. She said these technologies can make materials stronger, improve medical technologies and can provide more resources for research.

White said she’s also looking forward to bringing NASA’s presence to students in North Carolina. She added that thinking of how to get children excited about space, the ocean and science a “fun part” of her job. A facet of all three programs is education and outreach, including through K-12 classrooms and internships.

Despite leading three separate grant programs, White said one of her favorite parts of the job is seeing the types of research proposals sent in for competitive research opportunities hosted by the programs, a process she calls “fascinating.”

“These are students and faculty that are committed to using their interests for the benefit of the state,” she said, “because that’s how they have to play and tilt their science in order to fit the missions of these programs.”

WRRI and NC Sea Grant host statewide conferences annually and biannually, respectively. White said she would also like to host a similar event for NC Space Grant to share technical and policy findings.

White said she’s looking forward to opportunities to share information and knowledge, like the conferences held by the other two programs.

“We kept bringing these communities together that benefit from the investments that the state makes here,” she said, “and that’s just reinvigorating.”

MOREHEAD CITY – Shrimp. Oysters. Sharks. Estuaries. Stormwater.

These are only a handful of the topics explored by researchers, graduate and undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences, which marks its 70^th anniversary this year. The 60,000-square-foot facility just off U.S. 70 and on the shore of Bogue Sound hosts the research of a dozen faculty members as well as upwards of 25 resident graduate students.

Early Beginnings

The earliest rumblings of what would become the institute began in 1894, when a UNC professor in the Biology Department, Dr. Henry Van Peters “Froggie” Wilson, began bringing students to Pivers Island in Beaufort to take summer courses in marine zoology, intent on giving them hands-on educational experiences. In the following years, interest began to grow in fisheries research and its potential economic benefits.

By 1945, another UNC biology professor, Dr. Robert E. Coker, put together a report, with encouragement from state officials and university leaders, outlining the value of marine sciences as an economic resource. This assessment led to the proposal for a coastal marine research institute.

The original campus opened in Morehead City in 1947 in World War I-era naval facilities that were once used by Camp Glenn, which had also previously served as a National Guard camp and in the 1920s as the first Coast Guard air station.

The institute’s researchers lived then, and continue to live, in the area. At the time, the institute went by a different name: Institute of Fisheries Research, which reflected work taking place here. The campus was renamed the Institute of Marine Sciences in 1967 as the institute’s research began to broaden.

The first student to ever take residence at the facility was in 1964, and she happened to be a woman, Deborah Dexter, who earned her doctorate in zoology in 1962 and continued her research at the institute until 1967. After graduating from UNC, Dexter spent the rest of her career at San Diego State University, where she retired in 2001.

Modern Evolution

Although the institute’s current name dates back only 50 years, Dr. Michael Piehler, a professor at the institute, said the year 1947 was chosen as the institute’s start date because the Institute of Fisheries Research is the original organization from which institute was born.

Current Institute of Marine Sciences Director, Dr. Rick Luettich said that the institute’s evolution has been remarkable.

“(The institute is a) culmination of something that was really focused on student education and classes and summertime kind of things,” he said, “to something that was permanent, really focused on the research enterprise and that applied research and practical research that was helping enable the local population better utilize the resources that were here.”

Initial work at the institute, when it was still called the Institute of Fisheries Research, focused heavily on fish surveys and ways to help the local fishing economy thrive.

Piehler said that the institute’s first major study found that shrimping at night leads to more brown shrimp yields. This put the institute on the map.

“That is regarded as the first major finding of UNC marine science research that had big impacts on the economy of the coast,” he said. “That study at that time with the scientists living here and working here really set the tone for what the institute was to become.”

Since then, the institute has released other major findings and collections that have contributed to the understanding of the state’s coast and international marine science.

Dr. Frank Schwartz, a professor at the institute, has been running the country’s longest-running shark survey for 45 years. Every two weeks during the spring, summer and fall, students and professors tag sharks and collect detailed data.

Luettich said that while other shark data exist, Dr. Schwartz’s long-term research has allowed scientists to observe the precipitous decline of shark species over time.

“There are a few datasets that can demonstrate how that part of the food chain has been impacted,” he said.

Oysters, Luettich said, have also been a major area of research at the institute. Almost every faculty member has worked with oysters in some way or another, including prominent findings by Dr. Pete Peterson.

Other notable research includes findings on worldwide algal blooms by Dr. Hans Paerl, coastal flooding by Luettich and pathogen indicators in shellfish and recreational waters by Dr. Rachel Noble.

The institute has provided three major natural history collections: the Kohlmeyer Marine Fungi collection, which is now housed in the New York Botanical Garden, a collection of fish species collected by Schwartz, which is housed in the North Carolina Museum of Natural History, and a mollusk collection by Dr. Hugh Porter, which is at the same museum. These collections serve as important references for other researchers.

While the institute has generally avoided controversy, its science has been contributed to difficult conversations, including sea level rise and sharks.

“Our critical role is to be objective, rigorous and try to bring our science, that objectivity at least, to the issues,” Luettich said.

The Fire of 1968

An interesting chapter in IMS’s history is a fire that expedited a move to the institute’s current facility.

Up until 1968, IMS was housed in a 7,700-square-foot wooden naval property that formerly served as a dispensary for Camp Glenn. However, a fire burned through the facility on the morning of Nov. 21 of that year, a Thursday. While no one was injured, the institute lost equipment and a dormitory in the blaze. According to a report in the Carteret County News-Times, most of the institute’s equipment had already been moved to a new facility, the current building just east of the original site. There was “significant” damage to what remained.

Among the destroyed items included two large experimental tanks, a supply of scientific glassware and between $15,000 and $20,000 worth of equipment belonging to the Shellfish Sanitation Division of the State Department of Health. Associate professor Dr. W.E. Fahy, who used the experimental tanks, said he estimated the total loss of his materials at $14,500. Adjusted for inflation, the damage would total about $239,000 today.

There was an effort to protect some of the valuable records that remained. Staff of the institute ran in and out of the building as the fire burned to salvage records from the office of Dr. A.F. Chestnut, the institute’s director at the time. Almost all the records were saved, enough to fill a pickup truck.

The institute’s library had been moved the day before the fire, according to the News-Times, and maps of North Carolina’s first-ever oyster study were removed from the burning building with moments to spare.

The cause of the fire was never officially determined, but the blaze started in the furnace room, according the fire marshal, and smoldered for two or three hours before it was discovered. Also, the building’s wiring was described as “old” and “bad” in a report from the News-Times.

Looking Ahead

Luettich said the institute is fortunate to receive strong support from UNC, which is integral to the institute’s success. He said the institute was also fortunate to have the ability to collaborate with other labs in the Morehead City-Beaufort area. The combination of all these facilities is sometimes termed “RTP East.”

Pivers Island in Beaufort houses both Duke University’s Marine Lab and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries lab. North Carolina State University also has a lab in Morehead City, known as CMAST, or the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology.

Luettich said he’s excited for the work the institute has going on now.

“We are fortunate that our faculty (is) really productive and do a huge amount of externally funded research, which keeps this place really vital,” he said, adding that the institute’s research keeps a constant flow of graduate students in and out of the door, with fresh and exciting ideas coming with them.

“One of the great parts of our history is that we’re still here and hopefully doing great stuff,” he said.

Learn More

• UNC Institute of Marine Sciences

RALEIGH — “Bottom line is we should not be building big buildings next to the beach.”

These were the words of Orrin Pilkey, an expert on coastal geology, during a panel discussion at a community forum on the effects of sea level rise on North Carolina last week. Pilkey and other panelists voiced strong opinions on how little state and local officials are doing to adapt to and prevent damage from sea level rise in the coming decades.

The forum, “Rising Seas: How will climate change affect the NC Coast?,” was part of a Community Voices series hosted by The News & Observer and WTVD-TV of Raleigh. The discussion took place at the North Carolina Museum of History on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 27.

In addition to Pilkey, professor emeritus of earth and ocean sciences at Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, panelists included the following:

• Astrid Caldas, senior climate scientist with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
• Stanley R. Riggs, professor of geology at East Carolina University.
• Greg “Rudi” Rudolph, Carteret County shore protection officer and a member of the Coastal Resources Commission’s science panel.
• Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Ned Barnett, an opinion column and blog contributor at The News & Observer, moderated the panel. Barnett noted at the beginning of the forum that the panel included no climate change doubters or those who reject mainstream climate science.

“We cannot devote the little time we have tonight to a debate that there is even a problem to discuss,” he said.

Barnett emphasized the topic of sea level rise is relevant to the state and not talked about enough.

“The rise can seem too small to matter, a few inches a decade,” he said, “but that rise becomes more ominous when we consider that it is relatively new, starting around 1800, that it is accelerating, and that its effects can be compounded by the other consequences of global warming, heavier rainfall and more powerful storms.”

A report released in July by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an organization Caldas said jokingly calls itself the union of pissed-off scientists, found that some coastal regions, which currently only see a few floods a year, will likely see frequent and destructive floods in coming decades.

“Science is telling us that lots of localized floods are going to occur in the near term,” Caldas said, “and that substantial areas are going to become part of the tidal zone in the long term.”

She said that the research projected that Wilmington will go from experiencing a few tidal floods a year to as many as 150 by 2035. By 2045, the number of floods may be in excess of 350. She added that Duck is projected to see about 30 flooding events by 2035, and that the water will cover extensive expanses of land. By 2045, she said, Duck may see up to 150 extensive floods annually.

One of the biggest problems, Caldas said, will be the effect of this phenomenon on poor and minority communities, who feel the effects by sea level rise in different ways. Vulnerable communities, she said, tend to live in distant areas. Flooding on roads can make it difficult to get to resources and to their jobs.

“Many socially, economically vulnerable communities are at the frontlines of this whole mess, with very few resources to cope,” she said.

Rudolph said that people in poor agricultural communities are also vulnerable to sea level rise as they may not be able to afford increasingly expensive flood insurance premiums.

“They’re in the flood zones,” he said, “if not, they’re going to be. Premiums going up because of storms. I see that as a big socioeconomic crisis, and it’s going to impact North Carolina hard.”

Pilkey said that the scientific consensus is that sea level will likely rise 3 feet by the end of the century and possibly another 6 inches, depending on the behavior of the west Antarctic ice sheet. In theory, he said, a foot of sea level rise could create 2,000 feet of shoreline retreat, or as much as 10,000 feet along parts of the Outer Banks.

“Which means that 1 foot of sea level rise could bring the shoreline back 2 miles,” he said regarding the Outer Banks.

As sea level rises, Riggs said the coast is becoming increasingly vulnerable to storm surges, but that society must develop new economies around the natural dynamics. Storms are a part of life, he said, and we must learn to live in harmony with them.

Natural approaches to storm management are still possible in North Carolina, as only half of the state’s coast is developed, Rudolph said.

“There’s a huge what’s called opportunity,” he said, “to advance a mixture of natural flood management, living shorelines and new infrastructure.”

The panel supported the idea that preventing damage from sea level rise should be done sooner rather than waiting until after a devastating event.

“Don’t expect enlightened policymaking in the aftermath of a storm,” Miller said, “everybody’s attention at that point is on recovery.”

Pilkey said that he believes that after 2 feet of sea level rise, beach re-nourishment will no longer be possible, leaving communities with two choices: Move buildings back or build a seawall. The best we can do now, he said, is to stop building large structures that cannot be moved.

As for people who are interested in owning coastal property, Riggs said a lack of information may make them vulnerable to make risky purchases.

“Let’s at least require some statements on a deed that’s out there in the high-hazard areas,” Riggs said, “so a person who’s not familiar knows what they’re buying into.”

Panel members expressed frustration at the gap between science and policy, with Pilkey saying the Coastal Resources Commission appears to be doing everything it can to promote development on the state’s coast.

Riggs referred to the 2010 sea level rise report produced by the CRC science panel, which predicted 39 inches of rise during the next century. The North Carolina General Assembly famously rejected the report, prompting nationwide attention and late-night TV jokes about the state “outlawing climate change,” and the panel was instructed to create a new report in 2015 that looked only 30 years into the future.

Riggs resigned from the panel in 2016, saying “I believe the once highly respected and effective science panel has been subtly defrocked and is now an ineffective body.”

He said during the panel discussion that education is key to putting pressure on policymakers to use science to craft coastal management policies.

“If we don’t have an educated public, we’ll never get off the ground with any of this,” Riggs said.

CAPE LOOKOUT – When visitors spend time on North Carolina’s coast, they also spend money. Renting lodging, dining locally, recreating, camping and fishing are among the services tourists pay for to experience the state’s coastline.

The local spending creates jobs and economic opportunities directly in the surrounding communities, and indirectly as employees spend their income. National parks and their natural features on the state’s coast are a tourist draw and a significant economic boost, according to a recent report.

The report from the National Park Service released in May finds that national parks in the state’s coastal counties have contributed more than $215 million in visitor spending to the state in 2016, supporting more than 3,400 local jobs.

The coastal national parks listed include Cape Lookout National Seashore, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, Wright Brothers National Memorial and Moore’s Creek National Battlefield.

Also, portions of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor run through southeast North Carolina, from Wilmington to Jacksonville, Florida, but economic information on the area was not available in the report.

The tourist draw to the coast’s parks are well known.

North Carolina’s coastal national parks, primarily the national seashores, provide free access to miles of undeveloped beaches, as well as fishing, recreation and boating opportunities. Visitors can also experience the history of the coast, as the seashores are home to historic dwellings and lighthouses open to the public in summer months. For wildlife enthusiasts, the coastal parks provide views of birds and marine life, as well as wild horses that have roamed the seashores for hundreds of years.

The natural beauty of the areas have economic payoffs locally as tourists spend their money on housing, food and recreation, among other items.

The peer-reviewed economic report is the work of economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service. Numbers from the report highlight the link between tourism and the benefit to local economies through tourism expenditures such as housing, food, admissions and fees and souvenirs.

“National park tourism is a significant driver in the national economy, returning more than $10 for every $1 invested in the National Park Service, and it’s a big factor in our local economy as well,” said acting Cape Lookout Superintendent Mike Gauthier. “We appreciate the partnership and support of our neighbors and are glad to be able to give back by helping to sustain local communities.”

The study defines visitor spending as an estimate of the amount of money park visitors spend “within the gateway regions surrounding each NPS site.” Only spending that takes place directly in the cities and towns directly surrounding a park, where visitors typically stay and eat, are calculated into visitor spending.

The study also gives insight into what tourists spent their money on locally. Nationally, visitor spending was concentrated most heavily on lodging at about a third of the total. Restaurants were the second-most popular expenditure at the sites, averaging about 27 percent. Other significant local expenditures include gas, recreation industries and admissions.

The National Park Service released an interactive tool the public can use to view the economic contributions various national parks have on the economy. The report found that nationally in 2016, visitors spent more than $18 billion within 60 miles of a national park, creating a cumulative effect upwards of $34 billion.

North Carolina’s coast is dotted with both state and federal parks. Examples of state parks include Jockey’s Ridge State Park and in the Outer Banks and Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County. The report focuses exclusively on the economic effects of federally run parks. The funding and responsibility of managing the parks and making them available to the public rests in the hands of the National Park Service, but, as the report highlights, they provide jobs and tourism dollars to local economies.

Cape Lookout National Seashore

The report found that Cape Lookout National Seashore generated more than $20 million in tourism spending in the local area in 2016.

Cape Lookout’s seashore includes a lighthouse, historic dwellings and Shackleford Banks, a popular barrier island that’s home to wild horses. Visitors can reach different parts of the park by ferry or boat. The park’s 458,000 visitors in 2016 supported more than 300 jobs through their spending.

In Carteret County, home to Cape Lookout, in 2015, tourists spent about $337 million, the state’s commerce department found. That same year, visitors to Cape Lookout spent $17.7 million in the park’s gateway areas, about 20 percent of the county’s total tourism expenditures.

The Outer Banks Group

The Outer Banks Group in Dare County encompasses three national parks in the Outer Banks area: Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the Wright Brothers Memorial and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site. Of the three, Cape Hatteras brings in the most money to the local economy.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore is a 70-mile long stretch of islands, including Ocracoke and Bodie Islands. In the park, visitors can also find historic buildings, including a life-saving station and lighthouses. The recent report found that 2.4 million visitors spent more than $150 million in 2016 and supported about 2,400 jobs.

In 2015, visitor spending in Dare County supported more than 12,000 jobs, according to the commerce department. That year, Cape Hatteras supported about 10 percent of those opportunities.

The Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills is a historic compound with a monument dedicated to Wilbur and Orville Wright, brothers who pioneered powered flights. Fort Raleigh in nearby Manteo protects New World settlements from the 1500s and preserves the legacy of Native Americans and African-Americans from Roanoke Island.

Together, these two sites brought in more than $43 million in visitor spending.

Superintendent of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, David Hallac, said the large difference of economic effects between Cape Hatteras and the other two parks is due to the cape’s size and tourist draw.

Tourists, he said, come from all over to spend multiple days fishing, camping, exploring and experiencing the cape’s natural beauty.

“Folks want to be here because of those resources,” he said. To do so, they spend money renting housing and dining locally over a longer period of time. A study from the commerce department found that those who overnight on trips in North Carolina tend to spend $500 more than day trippers.

In 2016, spending in all three sites in the Outer Banks Group supported 3,067 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $247.6 million.

Moore’s Creek National Battlefield

The battlefield marks the first significant victory for patriots during the American Revolution in 1776, and last year’s visitors spend $5 million in surrounding communities, supporting 81 jobs.

The park is in Currie in Pender County. The county, which is also home to popular beach towns such as Topsail Beach and Surf City, experienced about $92 million in visitor spending in 2015.

Learn More

• Interactive: Economic Contributions of National Park Visitor Spending
• Cape Lookout National Seashore
• N.C. Department of Commerce tourism research

CAPE LOOKOUT NATIONAL SEASHORE – The National Park Service unveiled a new solar energy system during a ceremony on Tuesday, transitioning all of the park’s facilities to renewable energy in an effort to discontinue costly and inefficient energy sources the park has used in the past.

The photo-voltaic array is part of a series of transitions the park service staff is making toward modernization and energy efficiency, changes that also include an upgrade to the lighthouse’s beacon.

The morning ceremony held near the base of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse was led by Acting Cape Lookout Superintendent Mike Gauthier and U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jerry Barnes, who expressed excitement about the project’s potential. Steve Sabol, a maintenance supervisor at the park who was involved in the planning and execution of the solar array, had the honor of flipping the switch to make the system go live.

The ceremony also marked the departure of  the park’s acting Superintendent Mike Gauthier and the welcome of new acting Superintendent, Jeff West. In addition, the ceremony was held to announce the beginning of lighthouse climbing season, which had started earlier that day.

Sabol said the idea to make the switch to solar energy came from an assessment of the park’s former power source, an underwater cable that showed the aging system’s vulnerabilities. The park’s staff, he said, began considering what could happen if the park were to lose power.

“We started to determine what loss of power would mean for us,” Sabol said, “what it would mean to not be able to have the keeper’s quarters, to not be able to house volunteers, to not be able to provide potable water, and that was why we moved forward.”

The 18-kilowatt array unveiled this week was finished in March. It joins two other smaller solar arrays installed at the park during the last year. One of the two offsets power consumption at the Cape Lookout maintenance facility on Harkers Island, while the other, on top of the shelter on the island, powers the island’s main facilities.

The park worked with PowerHouse, a Newport-based electrical contracting company, to complete the project.

Together, these panels provide energy to all restrooms, keeper’s quarters, volunteer housing and water systems on the island. Sabol said a backup battery and generator system would prevent any lapse in power during overcast periods that keep the panels from producing at full capacity. He said the batteries would power the park for five days without any input from the panels.

The only facility on the island not powered by solar is the beacon in the lighthouse.

However, that is set to change by October. The Coast Guard has responsibility over the beacon because the light serves as a maritime navigational aid, and the Coast Guard plans to put in a light-emitting diode, or LED, as a replacement for the incandescent bulb. Capt. Barnes said the change would require less power, eventually allowing the beacon to be connected to the solar panels on the island.

The existing energy-intensive light consisting of two 1,000-watt DCB-24 aerobeacons are powered through a submerged cable from Harkers Island that was installed in by the U.S. Coast Guard in the 1980’s. The power from this cable was formerly used by the National Park Service to power the park’s facilities, along with diesel generators.

Barnes said the submerged cable is near the end of its expected life, and the Coast Guard had to make a decision. Switching the optic’s power source to solar and the light to an LED, he said, would significantly decrease maintenance costs while still providing for mariners’ needs.

“The submarine cable would cost the taxpayer $2-3 million (to replace), which over its service life would cost us to maintain the optic about $90,000 per year,” he said, “if we make this change it will really cost us less than $1,000 a year.”

Barnes said the upcoming changes to the lighthouse are exciting and practical.

“This system is so much easier to maintain, keep current, to bring in new panels should the need be, so it’s really the right thing to do,” he said.

Teresa Everett, a science education educator at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island, also attended the ceremony. Everett said she sees the park’s shift toward solar energy as a positive change.

“I’m just excited to know the park service is kind of taking the view of the importance of  solar energy,” she said, “and the fact of why not take advantage of something’s that’s right here for us?”

She said she plans to bring children and school groups to the park to look at the solar panels as a teaching tool.

The road to get the solar installation was a long one. The need to replace the current cable power system and light was recognized in 2009, Barnes said, leading to the agencies to consider other options and ask themselves important questions.

“How can we maintain the optic, maintain the grounds and work together to save the taxpayer money?” he said.

Sabol said a strong relationship and open communication between the park service and the Coast Guard was required to get to this point. Now that the solar panels are in place, he said, “everything seems to be moving pretty smoothly.”

Local Volunteers Sought

The National Park Service on the evening of May 16, the same day as the unveiling ceremony, invited the public to learn more about volunteer opportunities at Cape Lookout.

The meeting, which was held at the Core Sound museum, included a presentation from park officials and a question and answer session.

BG Horvat, the park’s chief of interpretation, said in a phone interview prior to the event that the park service is looking to find interested volunteers in the community in the hopes of expanding the park’s capabilities.

“We would like to have the lighthouse open seven days a week,” he said.

The park service works with more than 300 volunteers a year, Horvat said, but most are from other states and places. This outreach and program, which is in its beginning stages, needs local support.

Everett said anyone is welcome to be a volunteer, and that the park needs all kinds of assistance, from giving tours to helping at ticket booths.

“You don’t have to be a biologist to volunteer,” she said. “You don’t have to have a background, they’ll tell you everything that you need to know.”

Learn More

• Cape Lookout National Seashore

WANCHESE – Erica Connery spends hours every week working with children, teaching them about the coast through hands-on activities, marine debris crafts and educational school visits.

She does all this as an AmeriCorps national service member, where she serves with the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Wanchese office as a community engagement specialist.

The Americorps program is run through the Corporation for National and Community Service, or CNCS, a federal agency that engages Americans in community service – and it’s an agency targeted for elimination in President Trump’s proposed budget.

The Trump administration proposed cutting funding to the independent agency in its 2018 budget blueprint. Under the current budget, the agency was allocated $1.1 billion. AmeriCorps, which is also known as the domestic Peace Corps, is one of several programs the agency is involved with, including Teach for America and Senior Corps, which creates service opportunities for senior citizens in their communities.

Congress approved on Friday a continuing resolution that would give lawmakers another week to negotiate a final budget while avoiding a government shutdown.

In early April, more than 4,520 local leaders – mayors, county officials, tribe leaders – participated in a nationwide effort to support the AmeriCorps program, representing 194 million Americans, about two-thirds of the country’s population.

The AmeriCorps program was created under the Clinton administration and its funding has waxed and waned under subsequent administrations. During the Obama administration, the program was funded enough to retain about 80,000 members, fewer than the president’s goal of 200,000, and Obama spoke openly and often about his support for the program.

The Trump Administration gave Congress a document late in March, recommending what programs should be cut to reallocate funds for defense spending. CNCS and the programs that fall under the agency, it wrote, is not a necessary role of the federal government.

“It is not a core function of the federal government to promote volunteerism, and therefore, these programs should be eliminated,” the Trump administration wrote. “To the extent these activities have value, they should be supported by the private and nonprofit sectors.”

AmeriCorps on the Coast

AmeriCorps currently places more than 80,000 of its members of all ages and backgrounds in nonprofit and community organizations for 10-month or year-long terms all over the country, where they, as the organization’s motto notes, “get things done.” AmeriCorps says its members work on projects ranging from economic development to medical assistance to teaching programming code to coal miners.

Members receive a stipend to cover living expenses, never more than approximately $12,000.

In coastal North Carolina, AmeriCorps members can be found working on environmental issues.

The Conservation Trust for North Carolina is a host organization and placed members in 13 other organizations throughout the state in 2017. On the coast, it has seven members at three host sites: the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where the members have logged more than 10,000 total hours of service. About 7,500 of those hours were in environmental education – the work Connery has been doing.

Nick DiColandrea, the Conservation Trust’s AmeriCorps project director, said environmental education and outreach are among the trust’s biggest goals with coastal members.

“Our overall goal is to provide environmental education to underserved populations,” he said. “So our members from the coast, looking at the coast as one entity, they’re going out and serving individuals, seniors, those who are disabled, those who might have not had access to the waterways or to the ocean – the opportunity to learn more about the state that they live in.”

Connery’s work with the federation reflects that. Along with environmental education activities, including site field trips to places like Jockey’s Ridge State Park, she serves as a tutor to a group of local children, helping them with their homework and reading. She has completed approximately 2,500 service hours and will wrap up her second term at AmeriCorps in May.

Another federation AmeriCorps member, Nina Quaratella, at the organization’s Wrightsville Beach office, has also completed roughly 2,500 service hours and will finish her second AmeriCorps term in May. One of the projects she works on is Touch Tank Tuesday, a weekly educational program during the summer that allows area children to learn about and interact with marine life from the sound.

Other activities the Conservation Trust’s AmeriCorps members have worked on include crafts, litter cleanups and activities that promote what DiColandrea calls “positive behavior change that leads to a more clean and safe environment for everybody.”

He cites an example of a time AmeriCorps members at UNCW built an inflatable whale by hand to show school students what the inside of a whale looked like. It was an effort to demonstrate how marine debris is harmful to marine life.

In other parts of the states, the Conservation Trust’s members also provide environmental education services for the organizations they work with. For example, in the state’s mountains, programs revolve around preventing wildfires, protecting trees and educating the public about birds of prey.

DiColandrea said that all these experiences provide members with work experience and leadership skills.

“Their confidence level in themselves really grows to a level that allows them to find full-time employment, to find meaningful jobs and purposes after they’re finished,” he said. He added that for nonprofits, AmeriCorps members provide extra bandwidth and staff resources for budgets that are often tight.

Connery, with the federation, had a quick response when asked about what she appreciates most about her time with AmeriCorps.

“Being able to gain work experience at a real nonprofit,” Connery said, adding that she enjoyed learning about environmental education, a profession she had previously been interested in exploring. Connery said she hopes to continue working in these fields.

DiColandrea said that AmeriCorps members are not just interns or volunteers, but that they’re individuals committed to giving back to the communities they serve in on a full-time basis, with very little in return.

“They are service members to the states and to the country,” he said.

Learn More

• What is AmeriCorps?

RALEIGH – When European settlers first arrived in North Carolina’s sounds, historical accounts indicate that the water was so clear a dropped coin could be seen falling to the bottom of the sound. The waters once teemed with so many oysters that their reefs were a navigational hazard.

These days, the water looks murkier, and regular shellfish harvesting closures illustrate the impact humans have made on the health of the state’s estuarine systems.

A conference held last week sought to answer the question: could restoring these habitats and improving water quality be an economic boon to North Carolina? Other states may have already made the connection.

Close to 200 North Carolina business leaders, coastal business owners, local and out-of-state leaders and state agency officials met here March 22-23 at an economic development summit to discuss ways to boost the state’s economy through environmental improvement. The group looked to states like Maryland and Virginia to find answers on how to use and protect the North Carolina’s coast for economic prosperity.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation hosted the Sound Economic Development Summit at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. Speakers and panelists discussed the potential for oyster aquaculture, habitat restoration and stormwater management to create jobs and bring money into coastal economies.

Maryland and Virginia were discussed as models for stormwater management and oyster restoration, respectively, with many speakers saying that North Carolina had the potential to surpass the other states in aquaculture and restoration.

Oyster aquaculture and strong stormwater practices discussed at the conference have a shared goal: healthy and clean sound waters. A single oyster can clean as much as 50 gallons of water a day, and good stormwater management can prevent unhealthy bacteria, sediments and chemicals from reaching the sound. Protecting water quality, many attendees argued, could also be key in promoting coastal economies.

“That’s the great thing about oysters and coastal restoration,” said state Environmental Secretary Michael Regan as he addressed the crowd in a welcoming speech, “there’s a little bit of something here for everyone.”

The argument did not fall on deaf ears. In early March, two coastal legislators, Sen. Bill Cook, R-Beaufort, who spoke at the summit in support of aquaculture, and Sen. Norman Sanderson, R-Carteret, sponsored a joint resolution asking the Army Corps of Engineers to allow for more shellfish cultivation and leasing in the state’s waters.

Oysters as Assets

Day one of the conference focused on the potential impact oysters could have on the state’s economy, which many in attendance said could be massive.

There were discussions of North Carolina potentially becoming the “Napa Valley” of oysters, a term coined by author of “The Essential Oyster,” Rowan Jacobsen, who was also in attendance. The term “Silicon Valley” of oysters was also thrown in by Tom Looney, a moderator at the event and a board member of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina. The term is a reference to educational and institutional support available from the state’s universities.

Looney said oysters can provide viable financial returns, jobs and clean water, making the mollusk the “ultimate clean tech.”

North Carolina is in a unique position to take advantage of such a resource.

The state is home to the Albemarle-Pamlico Sound Estuary, with more than 12,000 miles of estuarine coastline. The water body ranks as the second biggest estuarine system in the continental United States.

Despite its potential, North Carolina’s aquaculture industry is not as strong as Virginia’s in the Chesapeake Bay. A study from North Carolina Sea Grant, a North Carolina State University coastal research institute, found that the difference was in the millions. In 2012, Virginia’s oyster aquaculture operations generated more than $9.5 million in revenue, while North Carolina’s made a little less than $600,000.

The reason for Virginia’s aquaculture success may lie in the involvement of its government.

“Every agency of government got behind it and supported it with a comprehensive plan,” Looney said.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, Virginia put a focus on breeding oysters for aquaculture that were disease-resistant and hardy. Eventually, the popular triploid oyster became a mainstream option that made the state millions.

Triploid oysters make up about 90 percent of Virginia’s aquaculture harvest. It has three sets of chromosomes, making it sterile.  Panelist Mark Luckenbach, Associate Dean of Research and Advisory Services at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, said the triploid’s unique genetic makeup creates a tasty summer oyster.

Virginia also fostered, and still maintains, a robust water quality and disease-diagnostics program, as well as educational programs. The state also has a heavy focus on marketing its oysters, keeping prices high.

“The way they’ve done that is through an active export business and a great, great marketing campaign,” Looney said.

An idea reiterated throughout the summit by North Carolina officials was to get inspired by Virginia’s oyster trails, where visitors can drive through the Virginia coastline sampling oysters and brews.

North Carolina has also made strides in aquaculture. For example, Carteret County Community College has an aquaculture program for people interested in learning how to grow oysters.

The federation used the event to promote its 50 Million Oyster Initiative, a plan to create 50 acres of oyster sanctuary in North Carolina by 2020. According to the federation, the plan will create economic opportunities for coastal economies.

“It provides jobs for contractors, fishermen, construction workers, truck drivers and many others during the construction of the reefs,” the federation’s description of the project says.

Despite optimism showcased at the summit, the state’s aquaculture abilities have been limited due to barriers such as uncertain seed availability and financial support for research.

Virginia’s oysters have many of the same vulnerabilities as North Carolina’s. Other limiting factors for oyster aquaculture production include a lack of cultch, or material for baby oyster spat to cling to, poor water quality, a lack of hatcheries, disease and overharvesting.

Looney said North Carolina’s small aquaculture industry can make sure to protect resources as the industry grows.

In North Carolina, only a little more than 2,000 acres have been leased to aquaculture, while Virginia has leased more than 120,000 acres.

“The benefit we have here (in North Carolina), we’re starting from a very small base, and that’s why we have the opportunity to really protect the public trust,” Looney said.

Managing Stormwater to Create Opportunities

An important aspect to aquaculture is a healthy estuarine ecosystem. Good water quality is put at risk when contaminated water moves off of land after a storm. Waters with unusually high levels of certain bacteria are shut down to shellfish harvesting to protect consumers from potential illnesses.

Prince George’s County in Maryland, situated towards the eastern side of Washington, D.C., was cited as a success story in stormwater management at the summit. When local waterways leading out to the Chesapeake Bay began to feel the effects of polluted runoff and the United States Environmental Protection Agency issued a mandate to clean up the waters, the county took action by creating a community-based public private partnership, the Clean Water Partnership, in 2015.

David Washington, director of program operations with the $100 million partnership, said that the county partnered with Corvias Solutions, a firm that specializes in helping foster sustainable communities.

Together, the group and the local government have set out to achieve the EPA’s mandate to remove 15,000 impervious acres by 2025. In the process of doing so, Washington said the investment focused on creating jobs and opportunities for local residents.

As part of the project, a goal was set to employ local, small and minority-owned businesses to do 30-40 percent of the work.

“We’ve exceeded that. We’re at 76 percent,” Washington said.

In addition, the project also promotes education and skills by creating a mentor-protégé program and investing $460,000 in student internships.

The first phase of the project is underway, with plans to deliver up to 2,000 impervious acres by spring of 2018.

Hunter Freeman, a Senior Project Engineer at WithersRavenel, a Cary-based civil and environmental engineering firm, said during a panel that he sees the beginnings of a similar approach to stormwater in North Carolina.

“I think we’re at the initial stages of public-private partnerships here, where consultants, researchers, universities, regulators, nonprofits are all now coming together,” he said. “I think what we need to focus on is an additional investment in that framework to get it to the level that Maryland has seen.”

The federation, with partners and individuals, created a plan to use coastal restoration discussed at the summit to develop coastal economies. That plan was presented during a panel at the summit.

Investing and creating opportunities in environmental protection may be more important now than ever. Jason Gray, a senior fellow at the North Carolina Rural Center, said during a panel that coastal communities may face their toughest challenges ahead.

“Our coastal economy is going to be under a lot of pressure in coming years,” he said, “and I haven’t even touched climate change.”

Learn More

• Learn more about the summit
• Read the Strategic Plan for Creating a Robust Coastal Economy with Coastal Restoration
• Prince George’s County Clean Water Partnership
• Read Senate Joint Resolution 205

RALEIGH – Coastal Review Online received 14 awards Thursday from the North Carolina Press Association for our news coverage and photography of the state’s coastal environmental issues. Included was a third-place award among online-only publications for general excellence.

The winners were announced during the news, editorial and photojournalism contest awards ceremony that was part of the association’s annual Winter Institute, a conference held this year at the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in the state’s capital.

CRO writers and photographers competed against others across the state for the second year in the online-only division of the association’s annual competition. Among the awards for the nonprofit news publication’s work were seven first-place awards, including one for overall design. CRO, which is published daily, Monday-Friday, by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, also received two second-place awards and three third-place awards.

More than 100 news organizations participated in this year’s awards, submitting a total of about 3,900 entries. Judges from press associations in New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota decided on the winning entries.

Sandra Hurley, a senior vice president of sales and marketing of Civitas Media and presenter at the ceremony, said the four competing online publications were held to the highest standards.

She added during the ceremony that the judges for the category were “were surprised with the talent they found in North Carolina.”

North Carolina Health News took home the number one spot for general excellence in the online category, while North Carolina Policy Watch came away with second.

The association is a member-owned and operated nonprofit group established to protect First Amendment freedoms, promote the business interests of North Carolina newspapers and maintain high standards in the industry. Members include daily and community newspapers and special interest publications; online news publications; those who provide equipment, supplies, growth opportunities and materials to the industry; and those who generally support newspaper interests. It is the only newspaper industry trade group in the state.

CRO has been an association member since 2013.

The honors recognized the CRO team’s work covering the North Carolina coast’s environmental issues, history and culture. Contest entries are judged by members of other states’ press associations.

“This kind of recognition among our peers for what is still a relatively new model for delivering news content is encouraging,” said CRO editor Mark Hibbs. “I’m proud of our team, which is mostly freelancers with years of experience in newspaper reporting, and the quality journalism each of our reporters produce. Many of our talented writers have been with CRO since its beginning.”

The Coastal Federation launched CRO in February 2012 as an experiment to fill the gap in the coverage of coastal environmental issues created by downsizing in the traditional media.

“CRO follows accepted journalistic principles of fairness and balance and, although we have an advocacy organization as our publisher, our team always strives for unbiased, accurate reporting,” Hibbs said.

As CRO founding editor Frank Tursi noted following the press association awards last year, “At CRO we still cling to the old-fashioned notion that if you give them all the facts, readers are smart enough to come to their own conclusions.”

Among the honors were two awards for both Sam Bland and Jared Lloyd for their photography and articles on coastal life and nature. This included two first-place awards to Lloyd for photography and feature reporting.

Hibbs received a first-place award for his three-part special report exploring the Brunswick County town of Navassa’s long history of industrial pollution, how it has affected town residents and what the future may hold as the contamination is addressed.

First-place awards also went to CRO reporters Catherine Kozak in the category of general news reporting; Brad Rich for feature writing; and Trista Talton for city/county government reporting.

CRO’s breaking-news coverage of the North Carolina General Assembly’s creation of an environmental policy center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill was also recognized, with writer Kirk Ross receiving a third-place award for his work.

Here is the full list of winners and their respective categories:

First Place

• Design-online members only, staff
• Catfish Blues: Rule Threaten Native Species, general news reporting, Catherine Kozak
• ‘Sad’ Little Boat Tells Story of Courage, feature writing, Brad Rich
• Navassa: A Century of Contamination, news enterprise reporting, Mark Hibbs
• Great egret at Rachel Carson Reserve, photography, feature, Jared Lloyd
• Terminal Groins: Easement Needed, city/county government reporting, Trista Talton
• The Ocean: Calming a Stormy Mind, beat feature reporting, Jared Lloyd

Second Place

• Critics Charge an Ill Wind Blows From Raleigh, city/county government reporting, Catherine Kozak
• Coastal Sketch: The Oyster Ladies of Ocracoke, profile feature, Pat Garber
• Nap Time, photography, feature, Sam Bland

Third Place

• General excellence, online members only
• Small Polluters Could Get Pass, general news reporting, Lisa Sorg
• Sam’s Field Notes: Painted Buntings, photography, feature, Sam Bland
• Lawmakers Fund New UNC Policy Center, city/county government reporting, Kirk Ross

PINE KNOLL SHORES — Third-grade Bogue Sound Elementary School teacher Amy Byrd, with the command to “Go,” begins grabbing red M&M’s candy out of a bowl that recent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate Joseph Townsend has in his hands.

The goal of the game is to understand why cells can only get as big as they are. Cells and M&M’s? What’s the connection?

The activity is one of many found on the tables of the SciREN, or Scientific Research and Education Network, Coast event held Feb. 16 at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

In the first round of the game, Byrd is only able to use one hand, demonstrating the smaller surface area from which a smaller cell has to feed. In round two, Byrd uses both hands, but must collect more food to survive.

“As you get bigger, you’re going to reach this point to matter how good you are at feeding, you’re not going to be able to satisfy your needs at a certain size,” Townsend said, explaining why cells only ever get as big as they are.

Before Byrd leaves his table, she writes down her email address to receive more information from Townsend about his game, which doubles as a classroom lesson plan.

The graduate student-led event connects local educators and local researchers to improve science education for students, free of charge.  At least 50 scientists and more than 80 teachers attended.

Beyond the activities, the nonprofit SciREN serves to exchange ideas on how to communicate science in a classroom setting.

In the weeks prior to the event, teachers hosted a workshop for scientists from the local labs, including the UNC-Institute of Marine Sciences and North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology, or CMAST, both in Morehead City, and the Duke University Marine Lab on Pivers Island near Beaufort. The teachers explained how to create lesson plans within the means of a classroom.

The scientists then took this knowledge and formulated the lessons that were presented at the event at the aquarium.

Many of the lesson plans are interactive, requiring students to get hands-on with the subject matter. For example, a group of Duke Marine Lab students created a lesson explaining how drones can be used for research.

They placed a variety of different-sized toys, and pieces of paper with drawing of animals on a table. There were a few repeat animals in the mix. Doctoral candidate K.C. Bierlich said students are first asked to look at the toys at eye level with the table. The children then report how many of each animal they can see from that angle, which is a difficult task.

Then, Bierlich said, the children are asked to stand up and take an aerial view of the toys and recount the different types of animals. The goal is to understand that a change in perspective can help researchers count animal populations.

The lesson plan also includes slideshows and videos teachers can present to students, including drone footage and photographs Duke University researchers took of whales during a recent research trip to Antarctica.

Because of the technical jargon and concepts involved, consolidating complicated scientific topics into a simple lesson plan for children is not an easy task. However, for some burgeoning scientists, this exercise is excellent practice in scientific communication.

“We’re making it a point early in a stage in our career,” Bierlich said. “We want to be better communicators with the public and younger students.”

Fourth-grade Bogue Sound Elementary School teacher Jason Vanzant said SciREN provides him with more than lesson plans; he said it gives him connections and helps him think creatively about how to teach science.

“I feel it’s needed,” Vanzant said of SciREN, “It’s a great experience. As a teacher, you’re always looking to improve or maybe present things in a new way.”

Vanzant, who also attended last year, said that he’s managed to integrate a couple of lesson plans presented at SciREN into his classroom. He said talking to scientists and fellow teachers allows him to grow in his field as a professional and stay current with scientific topics.

“Things are constantly changing,” he said, “especially with science.”

SciREN Expands

SciREN was started by a couple of UNC-Institute of Marine Science graduate students, Justin Ridge and Ethan Theuerkauf, as well as aquarium employee Meredith Heaton Bruhm, five years ago. Ridge was also present at this year’s event. He said the idea for the event was inspired by wanting to connect teachers to rich research resources in the Morehead City-Beaufort area.

“This is a nexus of marine science research,” he said, “and only a little bit of it is trickling into the local community, so we thought, ‘why not?’”

Since its inception in Carteret County, graduate students have taken SciREN to other locations, including the Triangle, Greenville and as far away as Georgia. The program has become so large that organizers made the organization a nonprofit – and they plan to keep growing.

“We’ve set a course that we can continue to expand, like we created a manual that we can just hand out. That’s what we did in Georgia and Greenville,” he said. “We’d love to keep doing that and keep facilitating these in other places.”

Ridge said he’s begun to step away from the organization, allowing newer graduate students to lead the program.

“It’s like the next generation of grad students are taking it on and making it their own,” he said.

UNC-IMS communications specialist Kerry Irish said that each event brings in local scientists, which means each event has unique lesson plans. For example, many of the lessons plans presented at SciREN Coast were from coastal scientists who work with marine and aquatic sciences, and in turn, the teachers walk away with lesson plans in that field. However, SciREN Triangle is more science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM-focused, with researchers from Duke, UNC and N.C. State focused more on engineering, chemistry and physics.

Together, these events create a wide variety lesson plan options. SciREN has found a way to compile them.

The nonprofit has an online portal where every lesson plan presented at each conference is available for download. In addition, Irish said researchers will treat the lesson plans as living documents, and will update the lesson plans as the science changes.

The community has generously supported the program, which is offered free of charge for participants. The aquarium provides a venue at no cost, and UNC, Duke and North Carolina Sea Grant, have all chipped in.

Ridge said he’s proud to see how far SciREN has come. To him, the event boils down to something simple. He said the program is about teaching science differently than a textbook.

“Not contradictory,” he said, “just something a little bit more exciting.”

Learn More

• The Scientific Research and Education Network

Editor’s note: this story has been updated to include the final count of crab pots collected by the North Carolina Coastal Federation this year. 

A small skiff cruises over the calm waters of Bogue Sound, slowing down as it approaches the Emerald Isle boat dock in Carteret County. Onboard are fisherman Marty Frost, his wife, Sue, and their 13-year-old grandson, Hunter. Surrounding them are about 20 broken and derelict crab pots Frost removed from the waters and hoisted onto his vessel.

Frost, 59, of Salter Path, is one of 72 fishermen working with the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s annual Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, an effort to remove marine debris from waters all along the state’s coast. This year, the program grew in size thanks to a $100,000 appropriation from the state General Assembly.

“We were really able to expand substantially this year,” said Ladd Bayliss, a coastal advocate at the federation’s northeast office in Wanchese and the manager of the federation’s project.

Through funding provided by the appropriation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program to remove items that pollute and obstruct waterways, the federation was able to hire about 30 more fishermen and extend the project all along the state’s coast. The federation has also teamed up with the North Carolina Sea Grant for aspects of the project.

To kick off the annual project, the federation held coastline cleanup projects in three locations on Jan. 14: Hatteras Island in the Outer Banks, Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve in Holly Ridge along Stump Sound and Hoop Pole Creek Nature Trail in Atlantic Beach.

Between the three locations, 138 volunteers worked to pick up more than 4,500 pounds of onshore marine debris.

Commercial fishermen, like Frost, were hired by the federation to use their expertise to clean up the sounds during the fishing off-season. This year, they removed debris, mostly crab pots, for a little more than a week starting Jan. 18, during the state’s “no-potting” period.

Bayliss said that the knowledge commercial fishermen have of the water makes them suited to remove crab pots.

“What they bring to the table is a real depth and care about the sound,” she said. Tapping into their knowledge and experience, she said, is important, as removing the crab pots is not an easy task.

The pots on Frost’s boat are in various states of disrepair. A few are slightly bent, but otherwise look brand new. Some are shredded beyond recognition, likely by boat propellers, but most are covered in years of oysters and marine growth.

“You take like this one here – there’s no telling how long it’s been,” Frost said, pointing to a pot barely visible amidst the green algae covering its wires.

In the shallow waters of the Bogue Sound, which Frost said only reaches 8 feet at its lowest points, he can spot the crab pots at the bottom, in marsh grass or occasionally attached to a buoy. He then usually uses a rod and hook to fish out the pot.

Frost said he picked up 10 pots during his last trip on the water, rounding his total count out to 30 in the 5- or 6-mile radius he covered over two days.

Many of the crab pots had been swept away by storms. Tags that once bore the names of their owners are now long gone. Buoys that once marked the locations of the crab pots are now often nowhere in sight. Bayliss said some crab pots have been found as far as 10 miles from their original location.

“More pots were lost because there were significant storms in the fall and in the spring,” Bayliss said.

Crab pots are more than a nuisance in the shallow waters of the sound. They are, as Frost puts it, a hazard for both commercial and recreational fishermen. Not only do they get caught in the propellers of boats in shallow waters, but they continue to trap and kill crabs, fish and other marine life that find their way inside. Beyond that, Frost said that as a fisherman, he wants to keep the waters he depends on clean and healthy.

The program extends across three North Carolina Marine Patrol Districts all along the state’s coast. District 1 covers northeastern North Carolina, extending from the Virginia state line to Manteo and Swan Quarter. The central coastal is District 2, encompassing areas from the Pungo River to Morehead City and Emerald Isle. District 3 is to the south, starting at Cape Carteret and extending down to Wilmington and the South Carolina state line. This year, thanks to the additional funding, the project expanded for the first time beyond the District 1.

Each boat is required to have at least two crew members and receives $400 for every six-hour day the team works. Bayliss said she tries to give every boat three days on the water.

The data from the project is given to North Carolina Sea Grant.

Once the crab pots are removed from the water, they are disposed of in landfills. In the past, the federation had experimented with using the crab pots to build oyster reefs, but regulations make that difficult to do.

The federation reported the project has collected over 2,000 derelict crab pots through the program since 2014. This year, the fishermen picked up 4,270.

Frost said that before this year, he had heard about the project but couldn’t participate because of his location. When he saw in a local newspaper the opportunity to apply, he knew he had to. Now, he said, he was glad to be a part of the project and that he hopes funding for it continues in the future.

“It’s not a waste of money,” Frost said. “It’s helping clean up the environment.”

Frost said that his family fishes during the summer, but goes oystering in the winter. This project, he said, will supplement those earnings.

“Things are kind of slack this time of year,” he said, “and it give us a little bit of extra income. And, I like to see a clean and healthy resource, too.”

Bayliss wants people to know that the commercial fishermen working on the project care about the health of the ecosystems they fish from, calling them “some of the greatest advocates for a healthy sound.”

Frost said he enjoys working on the water and that he appreciates the opportunity to keep it clean. He said he’s been on the water for 50 years, since he was a boy, and that the water is his home.

“A bad day on the water,” he said, “is better than a good day on land for me.”

Learn More

• Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project
• Video of the Hatteras Island kick off cleanup

RALEIGH — North Carolina’s new stormwater rules take effect New Year’s Day, allowing for more flexibility before construction and a new expedited permitting process, but only time will tell whether the changes do enough to protect water quality.

The rules overhaul was the result of a North Carolina General Assembly mandate that the Department of Environmental Quality provide clear guidelines based on the most recent science. During the three-year development process, DEQ consulted with a group of about 25 stakeholders, including developers, local government officials and environmentalists.

Annette Lucas, an environmental engineer at DEQ who worked on the rules, said the group was diverse in opinions and experiences.

“What we developed is based on a consensus from all those groups,” she said, adding that the new process created rules that were clearer and better organized.

A new fast-track permitting process in the rules gives state-licensed engineers and landscape architects authority to build stormwater systems without state review beforehand. The applicants must send in only basic information to get approval to build the system and the state will follow up afterward with a compliance review.

The new process aims to shorten permit approval times from 90 days to about a month.

The Rules Review Commission adopted 18 of the 32 proposed stormwater rules during its meeting on Aug. 18, but the commission objected to 14 of the rules, based on the way the term “licensed professional” was used in the proposed language. The language was changed to allow licensed landscape architects, rather than only professional engineers, to sign off on submitted plans, and the commission adopted the remaining 14 rules during its meeting on Nov. 17.

The commission received no letters objecting to the new rules. State officials said this was likely because the rules crafted were agreeable to a wide variety of stakeholders.

“The state, in cooperation with a lot of stakeholders, has worked hard to develop rules that will protect our water quality from stormwater runoff while at the same time providing more flexibility and options for designers than we’ve had in the past,” Lucas said.

DEQ staff is working to make available application forms and the stormwater design manual and update the state stormwater permit website by Jan. 1, 2017.

Questions Raised

Despite the wide variety of opinions considered, several concerns have been raised about the upcoming rules.

Lucas said there is “risk” in the self-permitting provision allowing stormwater systems to be built before the state looks at the designs.

“They’re promising it’s going to comply before it’s built and before we’ve reviewed and approved the plan,” she said.

Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation, was a member of the stormwater stakeholder committee that helped formulate the rules. He said the new self-permitting system may discourage engineers who are afraid to take on the project without the state signing off as well.

A mistake could lead to an expensive repair or put at risk the engineer’s license.

“There’s still a lot of question of whether the individual engineers are really going to want to take on the liability that’s associated with it,” Miller said, “so it puts a lot more responsibility on them. If they do something wrong, they’re going to be financially liable.”

However, Miller said the new rules bring some assurance that systems are built according to permits, assurance that is currently lacking.

“There have been issues where the systems have not been constructed as designed,” he said.

Over the long term, however, Miller worries about a larger question: What happens to these systems after they’re permitted and built?

He said that while maintenance is required, in practice, there aren’t enough resources to ensure that stormwater systems are properly maintained over the life of the system.

The lack of maintenance can be easy to spot: a stormwater pond full of cattails or a system clogged with debris. Miller said these are common examples of noncompliance with stormwater permits in the more than 14,000 stormwater systems now in place in the state’s 20 coastal counties.

“If you don’t have a program capable of making sure that things remain in good shape, most of your effort is wasted,” he said.

Miller said his frustration lies in the assumption that systems are going to maintained and upgraded properly.

“That that may be a bad assumption,” he said.

Miller said a selling point for the new rules is that not spending as much time on the up-front review would leave more staff time for oversight of existing systems and maintenance monitoring. Time will tell, he said.

Lucas, of DEQ, said the updated design standards include ways to make stormwater systems easier to maintain over time.

Natural Solutions

Miller and Lucas agree that managing stormwater is especially important in coastal North Carolina. Stormwater carries chemicals, bacteria and sediments and is the biggest cause of water pollution.

Rules to manage stormwater have been introduced and modified since the 1980s. However, water quality issues have led to state and local governments tweaking rules considered inadequate over time.

There has been promise shown in more natural, so-called “low-impact” solutions, including swales, which are shallow ditches that allow stormwater to pool and percolate through the ground. Miller said methods like these, which match the natural hydrology, are easier to maintain over time than complex systems.

“If you can keep the landscape functional and let nature do your work for you, then more passive systems are always better,”

Whether the new stormwater rules work as intended should be evident later in 2017, based on water quality testing in swimming and shellfishing waters.

“That would be the final arbitrator as to whether the proposals are working or not,” Miller said.

Learn More

• Stormwater design manual
• Will new runoff rules protect waterways?

OCEAN – Suzanne Simon, a strategic programs manager at the national organization Restore America’s Estuaries, or RAE, said it began with a “magic wand question.”

If given unlimited resources, she asked, how can we help promote the use of living shorelines?

A few years ago, Simon began posing the question to leaders in the restoration and management community across the United States in one-on-one discussions about living shorelines. Over the years, Simon had noticed increasing interest in living shorelines, a sustainable coastal management method using natural elements, such as marsh grasses and oyster reefs, to fight erosion, filter water and create estuarine habitats, and she wanted to know how RAE could help.

Simon repeatedly heard one request:

“Every single person said we want an online, one-stop shop for living shorelines,” she said.

And now that website, the Living Shoreline Academy, is up and running.

In partnership with RAE, the North Carolina Coastal Federation developed the site as a resource where anyone can learn more about living shorelines, get training on how to build them and ask questions of experts in the field.

The federation will unveil the Living Shoreline Academy next week at the national RAE conference in New Orleans, where Todd Miller, executive director of the federation, said attendees will have the chance to learn more.

The website features a question forum, training modules and project databases targeted to property owners, contractors and policymakers.

Living shorelines are an alternative to other, hardened management methods, such as seawalls and bulkheads, which have been shown to cause erosion farther down the shoreline and to disrupt estuarine ecosystems.

RAE works to restore and protect bays and estuaries across the country. According to its website, RAE consists of 10 member organizations, including the federation, dedicated to protecting 11 estuaries in 16 states.

According to a cooperative agreement between RAE and the Environmental Protection Agency, the objective of the Living Shoreline Academy is to increase coastal wetlands by promoting the understanding of living shoreline techniques. The EPA is an active partner in the project, providing feedback on the website and checking in.

The federation has been working two years on the first part of the project, developing the website. The keys to the Living Shoreline Academy will be handed over to RAE at the beginning of 2018, and the organization will work to ensure the website’s long-term sustainability.

Tracy Skrabal, a coastal scientist for the federation’s Wrightsville Beach office, said the website is designed to reach any type of person who’s interested in learning more about living shorelines.

“We are attempting to provide a portal to anyone who wishes to find as much information about living shorelines as possible,” she said.

Skrabal will showcase the website during a presentation at the five-day conference and attendees will be able to learn more about the resource at a display booth.

While there are other similar websites out there, Skrabal said the academy’s scope is what sets it apart. Other websites, which tend to be run by universities and local governments, focus on small geographic areas. The academy, she said, is contributed to and can be used by people across the country.

“There is no other nationally coordinated effort,” she said.

Simon said the responsibility of developing the website was given to the federation because of its skills and experience with living shorelines, which Skrabal said the federation has been working on since the mid-1990s.

“The federation has a unique set of talents and experience that made them great in terms of leading the charge,” Simon said.

Among the website’s features are training modules that teach and quiz the learner on vocabulary and concepts associated with living shorelines.

Once RAE takes control of the academy, it will work to keep the website useful and current.

“We will be adding content and hopefully building out some of the modules depending on what is needed on the part of the living shorelines’ broader community, really determining what kind of additional info is needed, what training is needed, what modules are needed,” Simon said.

One module is geared toward helping property owners install living shorelines on their own properties. A second module covering the design, construction and permitting of living shorelines targets marine professionals, contractors and policymakers.

Skrabal called the modules “extremely useful” to people who are new to living shorelines.

Those interested can also view established living shoreline projects from all over the country, including California, Louisiana and Maryland, in the project database. Each project has a description, pictures and technical description, including the installment’s area and materials.

A forum where people can ask and answer questions about living shorelines was migrated from the Southern Environmental Law Center’s website to the academy, adding an interactive function.

Skrabal said people can make the most of the website by browsing the resources section, which has literature, videos and presentations.

Simon said the value of the website lies in the ability for people learn from each other and to contribute to the overall knowledge of living shorelines.

“By having the expertise that’s in the community, we’re collectively raising the knowledge and enthusiasm rather than having people recreate a wheel in their own state or own region,” she said. “I think there was some danger of that happening.”

Simon said the academy welcomes additional input from the public, including research, literature, projects, examples and contact information.

After the destruction of Hurricane Matthew, Miller said that it’s more important now than ever for living shorelines to be implemented.

“Matthew proved that building seawalls and other hard erosion control structures to protect waterfront property provides a false sense of security for waterfront property owners,” he said.

With all the resources the website offers, Miller said he hopes that the website becomes a hub for living shoreline activity. Asked about his long-term goal for the website, Miller’s answer was simple:

“That it’s the go-to portal for living shorelines.”

Learn More

• Visit livingshorelinesacademy.org
• Learn more about the Restore America’s Estuaries 2016 Summit

PINE KNOLL SHORES –The town has broken ground on a natural stormwater management system designed to decrease the volume of runoff and alleviate some of the area’s flooding.

Through a partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the town is in the process of installing three swales, or long, shallow ditches along roadsides, and two bio-retention ponds in a neighborhood prone to flooding.

The installations are part of a broader set of tools known as best management practices, or BMPs, for stormwater, because of their ability to clean and move runoff.

The goal of the retrofits is to get the water off paved areas and onto the ground, where it has the chance to soak in. This decreases volume of stormwater runoff and filters out pollutants.

The systems are being installed on Elm Court, Cypress Drive and Cedar Road, streets also locally known as the “tree streets.” The area and the houses in it are prone to flooding, along with other parts of town. Town manager Brian Kramer said the project began two weeks ago and is expected to be completed by the spring.

In addition to causing flooding, stormwater can contain bacteria, sediments, chemicals and fertilizers it picks up as it moves. This problem is made worse by impervious surfaces, roads, sidewalks and driveways, that make the pollutants more likely to flow, unfiltered, into nearby waterways.

Lauren Kolodij, deputy director of the federation, said stormwater is the greatest pollutant of coastal creeks and sounds, leading to shellfish area closures and swimming advisories. She said that using best management practices reduces the amount of pollution, including sediment and bacteria, that reaches the water.

“If you reduce the volume and the flow of stormwater, none of those things can get to the water,” she said.

A Problem Rooted in History

Kramer said that Pine Knoll Shores, a community on Bogue Banks in Carteret County, has experienced flooding for decades. The problem, he said, began when the area was initially being developed with summer cottages built in the 1950s and 1960s and stormwater systems were not put in place.

“That may have been okay back then,” Kramer said, “but then we built a golf course and then we built a mobile home park and then we built a Hampton Inn.”

As the land became more developed, he said, the water had nowhere to go.

“It’s all caused, and everyone knows this, by development blocking the west-to-east flow of water to Hoop Pole Creek in Atlantic Beach and out to the sound,” Kramer said.

Over time, Kramer said, the east side of town, particularly, has dealt with the effects of flooding. He listed road closures and flooded garages and homes among the problems. Kramer said the town has tried a variety of solutions, including pumping stormwater directly into the ocean and Bogue Sound.

Kramer said the decision to work with the federation on this project was simple. The town was interested in finding methods of dealing with stormwater that were clean and effective.

“We want to have a town that’s environmentally friendly and focused,” he said.

Kramer said representatives from their local government went to Oak Island in Brunswick County to see similar systems the federation installed there and were encouraged by the results.

There has also been a push on the statewide level to address stormwater in recent decades. Bree Tillett, a coastal fellow at the federation, said that after fish kills from water pollution during Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the state government began to encourage the use of best management practices to improve water quality.

“The stormwater rules in the state require the use of BMPs for pretty much any development in the coastal plain,” she said.

A Green Solution

Tillett worked closely with the town and stormwater engineer Larry Sneeden, who also works for AECOM of Wilmingon, an engineering and consulting firm, to draw up plans for the BMPs.

Swales and bio-retention ponds are simple, which is what Kramer said he loves about them. Instead of focusing on reducing pollutants, the systems are designed to reduce stormwater volume, which also reduces the amount of pollutants that reach water bodies.

The swales in this project are 100 feet long. The shallow ditches move the water to bio-retention ponds while also allowing some water to infiltrate. Bio-retention ponds are holes where the water has a chance to sit, allowing it to seep slowly into the ground, filtering the water and keeping it from flooding the area. The town’s public works employees were able to create them without incurring the cost of outside contractors.

Sneeden said that the goal of the retrofits is to get water off of impermeable surfaces so water can soak into the ground, reducing the amount of stormwater runoff.

“They can seem more complicated than they really are but the key is just to give the water the opportunity to get off the pavement, the roads, the sidewalks, the driveways and get it to be able to travel over a grassed surface or vegetated surface and have a chance to soak in,” Sneeden said.

Tillett said the main goal of the retrofits may be to reduce the volume of stormwater, but that the water quality benefits are also impressive.

“Swales and bio-retention can reduce the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment over 75 percent,” she said.

Tillett was clear that the swales and bio-retention ponds were designed for 1.5-inch rainfalls, but not more than that. The retrofits offer a solution to make the situation better in a place with no stormwater system, she said, but they can’t work like systems used in newer developments.

“This is not the cure for cancer of their flooding problems,” she said, “but it will put a dent in it. You’re offering a chance for the water to enter somewhere where it can sit rather than moving over.”

Tillett said that if she saw less water moving between the houses, she would consider the project a success.

Sneeden said property owners can also do their part to lessen the amount of stormwater runoff in their communities. One example of this is to turn downspouts toward yards instead of pavement, like driveways.

“You can reduce the runoff coming off each lot, then you significantly reduce the runoff in the street that’s causing the flooding,” he said.

Other Communities

Kolodij said the federation is also in talks with town officials in Beaufort and Swansboro and has completed successful projects in Wrightsville Beach, as well as Oak Island.

One of the roles of the federation, she said, is to help communities apply for stormwater management grants and to connect towns with geographic information system, or GIS, specialists who can help them plan their retrofits.

“It’s giving local governments a jumpstart by providing them with the background data and the hydrographs so that they can then take that in put it in the template and create a plan,” Kolodij said.

She said there have been signs of great progress in completed projects, including a 50 to 90 percent decrease in stormwater from some BMPs in Wrightsville Beach.

For Kramer, the project has been a test bed. He hopes to demonstrate to the community the potential of technologies such as these. In the future, he said, the town would be interested in installing more.

“We’re really hopeful,” Kramer said, “that we’re going to see positive results from this next storm season.”

MOREHEAD CITY — Dr. Craig Harms had planned on spending the day writing parts of a book he was co-authoring. The subject he was focused on was sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation, so it was no surprise when a sea turtle emergency put an end to his quiet plans for the day on Sept. 27, 2016.

That morning, a weak loggerhead sea turtle had been found washed up at Cape Lookout. Within a few hours, it would arrive at North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology in Morehead City where Harms, the resident veterinarian, would take a look at the ill turtle.

CMAST is the university’s 52,000-square-foot marine sciences lab. The center serves as home base for university researchers, resident veterinarians and graduate students. Educators also hold classes for both NCSU and Carteret County Community College students in the upper floors of the building, which is located on the community college campus.

The center is one of three university labs along the Crystal Coast. The other two labs are the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Science in Morehead City and the Duke University Marine Lab on Pivers Island near Beaufort. Each lab serves as offices for graduate students, researchers and staff that work to understand the coastal areas and oceans.

CMAST has programs allow participants to interact with and better understand animals directly. This role has given the lab a unique place in the community. Since its establishment in 1997, CMAST has become partners with the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City and North Carolina Aquariums in efforts to care for sick or injured marine life.

As for his position as a veterinarian and director of the Marine Health Program at CMAST, Harms calls it a “sweet” deal.

“I get to work with the vet school, but I get to be based down here,” Harms said. A large window in his office provides a sweeping view of the waters of Bogue Sound behind him. At the lab, Harms has the resources to provide treatment to animals, including sea turtles and marine mammals, and conduct necropsies if needed.

Other programs at CMAST include marine environmental toxicology, which studies the effects of toxins in the marine environment; fisheries ecology, which studies fish population sizes; and a seafood science lab, which assesses the product safety and processing of seafood.

Through his work at CMAST, Harms conducts research on best ways to treat aquatic animals. For example, if a researcher needs to perform surgery on a fish to implant a tracking device, Harms finds surgery methods that reduce inflammation and reduce the likelihood of losing the device.

He has also pioneered humane methods to euthanize large whales that are beyond saving.

“It’s absolutely not the thing I thought I was going to be doing in vet school,” he said, “coming up with really complicated, large-scale techniques to euthanize a really big animal humanely and safely for the environment and for the scavengers.”

When sea turtle emergencies spring up, however, Harms takes off his researcher hat and puts on his veterinarian one.

When the nearly three-foot-long sea turtle from Cape Lookout arrived at the facility later that day, it was covered in gooseneck barnacles, a bad sign. The excessive barnacles create drag, making it difficult for the turtle to swim quickly. Harms said the turtle was also missing a hind flipper and may have had cataracts.

As Harms and Heather Broadhurst, a research technician, handled the turtle, it tried feebly to fight back. At this point, the reason for the turtle’s weakness was unknown, but Harms and Broadhurst described the turtle as “depressed.”

Harms said a turtle that size shouldn’t be so easy to handle.

Further assessment of the turtle revealed it to be about 20 years old, still a juvenile, and at more than 100 pounds, the turtle was too skinny. Harms said that there was about 10 pounds of sediment alone on the turtle that needed to be cleaned off.

The turtle was moved to a black tub, where it wheezed heavily under its own weight. Later in the day, a weeks-old gash was discovered in the turtle’s carapace, or shell, that exposed its lung. Despite the turtle’s various ailments, Harms said the wound should eventually heal well at the Karen Beasley sea turtle rehabilitation center in Surf City.

There are two primary sea turtle rehabilitation facilities in the state. Harms is the primary veterinarian for the sea turtle hospital in Surf City while a former resident works with an North Carolina Aquariums facility in Manteo.

Harms said that working with sea turtles is rewarding because many of them are able to recover and be released. He estimated that 80 percent of the turtles that come in are rehabilitated. He recalled an experience where a turtle with a skull fracture and exposed brain made a full recovery.

“When sick and injured animals come in, people expect something to be done and we are able to do that with the sea turtles,” he said.

While sea turtles may be able to get back to the water, many other aquatic creatures aren’t so lucky. One of Harms’ colleagues at CMAST, Victoria Thayer, the coordinator of the North Carolina Central Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network, rescues marine mammals when she can, but collects as much data about them when she can’t.

The network is a collaboration with the state Division of Marine Fisheries and CMAST. Thayer and her team respond to calls about beached and stranded marine animals, including dolphins, whales and ice seals. More often than not, the animals have already died by the time help arrives.

When Thayer’s team finds a dead animal, it conducts a necropsy, documents measurements and takes photographs. She said they’re meticulous because of the insight the strandings can provide.

“A lot of what we know about some of these species only comes from stranded animals,” Thayer said.

Harms said the information that comes to CMAST and its staff this way is unique and valuable.

“In all cases we learn as much as we can about them and about the environment that they came from and what stressors and impacts that they might be dealing with,” he said, “which is important to the health of our environment.”

Learn More

• Center for Marine Sciences and Technology
• Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center

SWANSBORO – Are alligators a public safety menace or a misunderstood creature that deserves protection?

A divided crowd of about 30 people showed up last week to voice their opinions and thoughts about an alligator management plan the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is drafting. The meeting, which was held Wednesday at the Swansboro Recreation Center, was one of three public forums hosted by the commission to gather public comments before the plan’s completion. The other two sessions were in Leland earlier in the week and in Manteo on Thursday.

Gordon Myers, the commission’s executive director, appointed the 15-member North Carolina Alligator Task Force, which is set to release a draft of the management plan next spring. The task force is made up of scientists, North Carolina residents and commission staff. Myers said that the public comments collected would be considered in the final plan.

“Tonight’s forum is part of the process of developing the alligator management plan,” he said to the crowd. “It’s very important that the public participate.”

The task force was assembled after the commission received public comments, including many from conservation groups, opposed to a proposal to allow alligator hunting. The commission, in a resolution, asked the task force to develop a management plan that includes characteristics of alligators, identifies knowledge gaps and lays out the public’s opinions on alligators and their management. Additionally, the plan will include recommendations for management strategies in areas with alligator overpopulation and recommendations of management areas.

The American alligator, which finds its northernmost range in North Carolina, was once listed as an endangered species. Because of measures enacted to protect it, alligator populations bounced back. However, the alligator is still listed as endangered based on its similarity in appearance and range to the American crocodile, which is extremely rare.

People who attended the meeting were asked about their knowledge of alligator biology, their opinions on the proposed alligator management methods and where they see over-population. Most of the questions were multiple choice, and the audience used electronic clickers to submit their answers.

When asked why they chose to attend the forum and voice their opinion, members of the audience were split: 35 percent said alligator conservation was their main concern while 42 percent said public safety was of utmost importance.

One woman said she worried about the safety of children in camps in the region where she lives.

“We live in Pamlico County and there are several camps – sailing camps, swimming camps – where we are, and now we’re seeing quite a few alligators,” she said, “and that’s one of the reasons we’re here, because we’re fighting for these children.”

Another man asked whether someone would have to be hurt, or possibly killed, by an alligator before officials address their presence.

“What does it take in public waters … before something is done about the alligators?” he said. “Is it kind of like intersections out here on the roads, several people have to get killed?”

The man later said alligators should be removed.

Others said they supported efforts to stabilize populations, rather than reduce their numbers. Robbie Withington, a wildlife biologist at the Marine Corps Air Station New River, said in an interview after the forum that alligators play a specific role in the local ecosystem.

“For so many years and they’ve been here and the other populations have basically kind of stabilized around them,” Withington said. “If you decrease alligators, someone else (another species) is going to increase.”

Withington said alligators are misunderstood. He said that in the last 25 years North Carolina has only seen three incidents of injuries related to alligators, but no deaths.

“They’re not historically a big issue. They’re not, like, aggressive,” he said.

Mary Ann Ryan of Havelock said in an interview after the forum that she attended the meeting because she loves learning about animals and educating others about them. She said alligators are harmless if left alone and that the public should do more to learn about them.

“The information is out there,” she said. “You can go right to the wildlife website. You can read everything about the alligator: that not to be afraid of them, don’t feed them, don’t go stick your hand in their mouth.”

Also during the meeting, Mike Campbell, an outreach specialist at the commission, discussed so-called “nuisance” alligators. He said what is considered a nuisance is relative based on the person that finds them. For some people, he said, just the sight of an alligator is considered a nuisance.

“They see an alligator, they’re afraid. Something’s got to be done with it,” he said.

From the agency’s perspective, however, Campbell said nuisance alligators are primarily ones that have lost their fear of humans. He said this is because alligators have learned to associate people with a handout.

“They’re almost always alligators that have been fed,” he said. “They’re just habituated to people.”

Alligators that escape their natural habitats and wander onto roads or other public places, those that cause property damage and those who have shown the ability to be a threat to humans, pets or livestock are also considered nuisances.

Fifty-two percent of respondents at the forum said education is the best way to prevent the illegal feeding of alligators. Ryan echoed the sentiment, noting that many negative alligator incidents are the result of feeding the alligators.

“I think we definitely need to educate the public,” she said, “because in Pamlico County, where they’re talking about the alligator problem there, deer poachers throw their carcasses in the water, fisherman throw their trash in the water. What are they doing? They’re feeding alligators.”

While attendees were divided on most topics discussed, one question elicited a unified response. When asked if alligator hunting would support the species’ conservation, 79 percent of attendees said “yes.” Allen Boynton, Wildlife Diversity Program coordinator at the commission, said some populations of endangered animals, including bears, have been brought back through the support of hunters.

“Bear hunters are some of the strongest advocates for bear conservation in the state,” he said.

Members of the audience nodded in agreement.

Hunting, however, isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. In North Carolina, cooler weather causes slower population growth rates in alligators compared to southern populations due to a later age of sexual maturity. In the alligator hunting resolution, the commission states that “these variable life history traits make alligators in North Carolina more vulnerable to over-harvest.” However, the resolution also states that alligators have a “patchy” distribution throughout the state, and that there is a public interest in allowing hunting in areas where populations are sustainable or overabundant.

Task force member Alvin Braswell, emeritus research curator of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, said the task force would continue to seek public participation in the management plan. He said individuals and organizations are encouraged to comment on the draft plan when it is released next spring.

“Everybody deserves to be heard,” he said.

MOREHEAD CITY- Sea turtle enthusiasts traveled more than 20 miles offshore Wednesday to witness the release of rehabilitated juvenile sea turtles into the Atlantic Ocean.

The 33 turtles, all loggerheads, began their lives on one of North Carolina’s beaches injured, sick or weak. They were nursed back to health and released by the staff of the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. Loggerhead sea turtles are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

20 staff members and 50 attendees met at the Carolina Princess dock in Morehead City to embark on the two-hour trip aboard the 95-foot headboat to reach a location 22 miles off the coast.

One attendee, Corinne Everett Belch of New Bern, said she wanted to go on the trip to participate in something the aquarium was doing for the good of the environment.

“I’m excited to go out and definitely see the sea turtles swim away,” she said. “I like the idea of seeing their first taste of freedom.”

Among the turtles released this week were 20 hatchlings that had been rescued during the summer, some only a few weeks old. Many were found weak, struggling at the bottom of their nests, or sick and washed up on a beach.

The remaining 13 turtles range in age from a year to 2 years old. Four of them were loaned to partner aquariums, the National Aquarium in Maryland, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky and Adventure Aquarium in New Jersey, for educational purposes. The remaining yearling turtles were given to and rehabilitated by the aquariums throughout the year.

Aquarium officials invited the public — for a $100 fee — to join 20 aquarium employees and volunteers, including representatives from visiting aquariums, and reporters to witness the release.

Michele Lamping, an aquarist at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores who took care of the turtles, said there had been public demand to watch the releases. But meeting the demand had been difficult because of time, temperature and location requirements. For the last two years, however, she said the aquarium has responded by offering the opportunity to a limited number of interested people.

“The only way to do that is to take the public with us offshore,” Lamping said.

During the release, staff members placed the turtles into laundry baskets and then slowly lowered each basket into the water. As the basket was submerged, the turtles glided out.

Most turtles shot straight out to the water, quickly darting away until they were nearly out of sight. One released turtle, however, swam back toward the boat, prompting shouts of “it’s coming back!” from adults and children alike. This turtle eventually made its way as well.

The aquarium released the turtles at sea rather than on the beach in order to give them the best shot at survival. Baby turtles are naturally born with a yolk sac that provides them enough energy to get to the warmer parts of the Gulf Stream current to find areas where their food, namely small fish that live in sea weed, is plentiful. However, once the aquarium has had the turtles for a few days, this yolk sac dries up and is no longer viable. In order to ensure that the turtles can make it to the Gulf Stream, which the turtles use to find food and travel, the staff tries to get them as close as they can by dropping them off in the ocean.

“It should be an easy swim for them to get to the Gulf Stream,” Lamping said.

Long Road to Release

Before the turtles were released into their natural habitat, they had to be nurtured back to health.

Lamping said the turtles were fed daily a healthy diet of omnivore gel food, also known as reptile treats, modified fish food and krill. In addition, turtles with injuries go through physical therapy and treatments. In order to be released, Lamping said the turtles must pass a health test from a veterinarian and must be approved for release by the state Wildlife Resources Commission.

The healthiest turtles become part of the one-year loan program with other aquariums. Those turtles were taken Thursday to the partner aquariums. Following the program, they will be released back into the Atlantic Ocean.

In a previous article, CRO reported on the first five baby sea turtles of the summer to be rescued by the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. One of these turtles was released this week and one more will remain at the aquarium where it will be fitted with a satellite tracking tag before it is released. The other three are going to other aquariums for the one-year education loan program.

All the turtles are tagged with passive integrated transponder tags that are injected under the skin and help identify and track turtles that may be found later, similar to microchips used for pets.

Lamping said she thought attendees had a good time on the trip. She said programs such as the release are important because the public can learn about the problems sea turtles face.

“The whole conservation message gets to them,” she said. “I think it’s an important way to reach people, and then those people will tell their friends and family what they did, what they learned.”

To Learn More

• The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores
• Loggerhead Sea Turtles (NOAA Fisheries)

Last of two parts

BEAUFORT– As more people move toward the coast, estuaries are increasingly under stress. If not correctly managed, North Carolina’s estuaries may see the same fate as other overwhelmed estuarine systems in the country.

The Chesapeake Bay, for example, was once a thriving estuary with unmatched oyster harvesting. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, numbers have fallen to less than 1 percent of historic populations because of overfishing, poor water quality, habitat degradation and disease.

North Carolina is home to the country’s second-largest estuarine system behind the Chesapeake Bay, the Albemarle-Pamlico estuary. As with the Chesapeake Bay, national and state agencies have both worked to protect the resources and livelihoods the areas provide. Despite these efforts, over the years both areas have lost habitats, suffered from poor quality and seen increasing development nearby. Restoration efforts in both states are now focused on improving water quality and growing the oyster economy.

This week is National Estuaries Week, as designated by the nonprofit group, Restore America’s Estuaries. In this second installment of a two-part special report, we will look at the types of threats North Carolina’s estuaries face and what their futures may look like.

Coastal Living

In 2010, NOAA reported that about 40 percent of the United States’ population lived directly on a shoreline. This percentage is projected to increase, along with the risks estuaries face. North Carolina also has the fourth most beach visits in the country, adding more pressure to its coastal region.

Joel Fodrie, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, said coastal development presents estuaries with many different challenges at one time.

“Those local impacts, because they happen everywhere, those may be the real dangers,” Fodrie said.

Boating, as one example, can result in cumulative deterioration as thousands of vessels transit estuaries annually, disrupting ecosystems, Fodrie said. Construction of bridges and causeways can also add pressure to the various habitats in estuaries, including oyster reefs, mud flats and sea grass beds.

Lexia Weaver, a coastal scientist at the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said waterfront property owners who install bulkheads and seawalls are among the biggest offenders. The hardened shorelines cause the salt marshes along properties to disappear.

“Whenever they put a bulkhead in, it takes away all of that habitat in front of it,” Weaver said.

Stormwater runoff from development also affects estuaries.

After heavy rainfalls, chemicals, sediment and bacteria are carried by stormwater into estuarine systems. The Division of Marine Fisheries will temporarily close waters to oyster fishing and clamming if bacterial concentrations are high enough to keep consumers from eating contaminated shellfish. During these closures, it is unlawful to take or sell oysters, clams and mussels from the polluted areas.

Just this week, heavy rainfall and runoff associated with Tropical Storm Julia caused the division to close waters in Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties, and continue closures of waters in five other coastal counties.

Continued coastal development can make this problem worse as roads and other impermeable surfaces prevent stormwater from filtering through soil naturally.

Pollution carried by stormwater has also affected the Chesapeake Bay. The bay has some of the most documented cases of dead zones, or low-oxygen waters, in the country. In July, an update from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources showed that 20 percent of the Chesapeake Bay suffered from dead zones. These areas can develop when runoff mixes fertilizers and other nutrients into the water, promoting algae growth. Algal blooms then draw oxygen out of the water, often leading to fish kills.

Both the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds are at heightened risk of low-oxygen waters because of their proximity to North Carolina’s industrial farming areas.

Poor water quality also puts the state’s commercial fishing economy at risk by disrupting habitats like sea grasses. Commercially important species of flounder, black bass and blue crab rely on North Carolina’s sea grasses for part or all of their life cycles.

Disease is another threat to estuarine habitats. In the Chesapeake Bay, disease and overfishing nearly wiped out once-thriving oyster populations. It is estimated there used to be enough oysters to filter the entire bay in a single week, but now it could take the remaining populations a year to do the same work.

The same trend of decline is visible in North Carolina’s oyster reefs, which were once rich fisheries. According to the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s 2015 State of the Oyster report, oyster harvests have declined 15-20 percent since 1889. The culprit is dermo, a disease that kills oysters before they reach a certain size.

Anne Deaton of the Division of Marine Fisheries habitat-assessment program said that there has been a historic loss of oysters, causing the fishery’s status to be “concern” because of disease, poor water quality and habitat loss.

“We’ve improved the regulations,” Deaton said, “but they just haven’t come back to what they used to be.”

Climate Change

Fodrie said the threat of climate change is not as immediate as development along the coast. Species, he said, have for the most part experienced climate changes over geological time and may be able to adapt.

“In the historical record from 15,000 years ago to 5,000 years ago, they basically averaged a meter rise every century, so the animals and plants in the estuaries have seen that before,” Fodrie said. “They can handle that in a vacuum.”

Fodrie said the more interesting question is how estuaries will adapt to climate change while also dealing with humans.

“The new player is going to be us,” he said, “and so it’ll really be how we respond, how adamant we are to tow the line or how easily we are able to retreat away from a moving seashore. The plants and animals will be responding to us and to that change.”

Estuaries may be able to adapt to human-induced climate change if other, local threats are well managed.

“They’re certainly resilient as long as we don’t screw up too badly,” he said.

The Future of North Carolina’s Estuaries

If the future of North Carolina’s estuaries looks anything like the Chesapeake Bay, it is concerning. However, Fodrie said it’s difficult to predict what the future will look like for the state’s estuaries.

Restore America’s Estuaries, a nonprofit that works to protect the country’s estuarine systems, said on its website that as individuals, people can help protect the future of estuaries by recycling and minimizing vehicle emissions.

Weaver is optimistic about the future of the state’s estuaries. She said North Carolina is doing more than other parts of the country to protect its estuarine systems.

“I think here in North Carolina, because of all the efforts that are happening with respect to oysters and living shorelines and all the research that’s going on because all the marine labs are here, that its promising,” she said.

Funding and grants aimed at improving and restoring the state’s estuaries and fish habitats are also available, Weaver said. The federation uses this type of funding to restore living shorelines, salt marshes and oyster reefs.

It is difficult to know how the continued effects of human encroachment and rising sea levels will change estuaries and the organisms that will rely on them.

Estuaries’ blessing is also their curse. The calm, productive waters inspire people to protect them, while also fishing, recreating and living near them.

“The challenge,” Fodrie said, “is to make sure we don’t love the estuaries to death.”

To Learn More

• Restore America’s Estuaries
• North Carolina Coastal Federation

Read Part One

First of two parts

BEAUFORT — The products of North Carolina’s estuaries are found on dinner plates up and down the East Coast. Peek into a restaurant in New York, and you may see a blue crab that once lived in the sea grasses of Bogue Sound. Stroll into an oyster bar in South Carolina, and you may dine on oysters harvested from Pamlico Sound. Many of the creatures that make up North Carolina’s fishing industry at some point in their lives, depend on the humble, shallow waters of an estuary — waters that are facing increasing pressures from human activities.

This week is National Estuaries Week, as designated by the nonprofit group, Restore America’s Estuaries. In this two-part series that begins today, we will explore what estuaries are, the role they play in the state’s economy and environment, the problems they face and their future.

Danielle Keller, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, studies these unique areas. On a cool summer morning, she’s releasing flounder into the estuarine waters near the Rachel Carson Reserve, across Taylors Creek from the Beaufort waterfront.

As she tosses in the first flounder, Keller points out a small, red surgical spot on the juvenile fish. She explains she’s implanted tracking devices in 20 flounders and 20 gag groupers, and will follow their movements as they travel through the estuary.  She is hoping to understand what changes in estuarine sea grass habitats, which are influenced by water quality and climate change, will have on local fish populations.

Studying these waters, she said, is important, because our health is linked with the health of estuaries.

“Everyone is in some way connected to the ocean,” Keller said.

What are estuaries?

Estuaries are shallow, partially enclosed areas usually found in sounds, inlets or bays. The freshwater flowing to the sea from inland rivers mixes here with the salty ocean, creating brackish waters. Their shallow nature creates the ideal environment for marine grasses and plants that can easily capture sunlight. On this day, the deepest waters Keller wades in only reach her chest.

One of the nation’s largest estuarine systems is found here in North Carolina in the Albemarle-Pamlico region that includes Core, Croatan, Back, Bogue, Currituck and Roanoke sounds.

There are probably few places on earth as productive and mysterious as estuaries. On any given day, these shallow, productive areas appear calm and quiet. However, below the water’s surface, estuarine systems are teeming with organisms ranging from worms, rays, baby fish and shrimp. Species including red drum, black sea bass and stone crabs rely on the habitats within estuaries.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, about 90 percent of commercially important fish in North Carolina live in estuarine habitats, such as mud flats, salt marshes and the water column itself, at some point in their lives.

“Every parcel of water, every acre of habitat out there is valuable to some species,” said Joel Fodrie, a professor at the institute who studies estuaries and is also Keller’s faculty adviser.

North Carolina’s estuaries

North Carolina’s estuaries are particularly notable due to their size and biodiversity.

Fodrie said warm water coming up from the Gulf Stream mixes here with the colder waters of the Labrador Current to create a unique environment. The result of this is a variety of species, including the sea grass Keller studies.

Eel grass, a northern species that likes cooler waters, has its southernmost range in North Carolina, and shoal grass, a southern species that prefers warmer waters, has its northernmost range here, too.

Keller is observing to see if animals use the two grasses differently, and if any shift in the grasses’ ranges would affect the animals. This is especially concerning as the range of eel grass may pull out of North Carolina as waters warm because of climate change.

That’s not the only reason why the state’s estuaries are unique.

North Carolina has more sea grass than all other East Coast states, except Florida, combined. It is also home to the Albemarle-Pamilco estuary, which is the second-largest system in the lower 48 states. The area is one of the only remaining places the endangered Atlantic sturgeon still goes to breed annually.

“North Carolina is just replete with resources and issues to consider our role, the role of estuaries, and our balance with estuaries,” Fodrie said.

Congress in 1987 established the National Estuary Program as an amendment to the Clean Water Act after the importance of estuaries was realized. The non-regulatory program created 28 regional organizations across the country. In North Carolina, the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, or APNEP, was created to research, restore and protect the area.

In addition, the North Carolina National Estuarine Research Reserve was created through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state to protect more than 10,500 acres across four sites in Currituck Banks, Rachel Carson Reserve, Masonboro Island and Zeke’s Island.

The North Carolina Coastal Reserve, managed by the state’s Division of Coastal Management, protects six more sites, including Bird Island in Brunswick County and Permuda Island in Pender County.

What do estuaries provide?

Summing up the importance of estuaries is not an easy task. They provide a variety of “ecosystem services,” according to Keller, or resources important to both humans and wildlife. Fodrie said their role is extensive, from nutrient cycling to fish production to wave-energy absorption.

The list goes on.

One of the most important services estuaries provide, in terms of the state’s economy, is as a nursery to marine life, promoting the state’s $1 billion fishing industry.

“All the birds that you enjoy looking at when you’re on your boat, all of the fish and crabs,” Keller said, “all of them really grow up in the estuaries.”

The fish Keller studies, gag grouper and flounder, are born in estuaries and take refuge amongst the sea grasses and gentle waters. Keller says one reason for estuaries’ popularity with wildlife is because the area is full of the nutrition larger organisms need to survive, including phytoplankton.

“There’s a lot of food at the bottom of the food chain that other baby fish and crabs can consume,” Keller said.

She added that estuaries are just as productive as rainforests with a variety of habitats and species that call them home. The waters are so nutrient-rich that taking pictures underwater is virtually impossible during Keller’s day of field work, with green phytoplankton creating murky waters.

“People don’t realize that because they don’t see it, essentially because it’s all underwater,” Keller said. “But, estuaries have so many different habitats and provide homes for so many different organisms.”

Habitats like oyster beds and sea grasses filter the water, keeping it clean and fresh for humans and marine life. An oyster can filter water at a rate of up to 50 gallons per day. The areas, along with salt marshes, also buffer storm surges and stabilize shorelines as the spiky beds absorb wave energy.

Estuaries also serve in the frontlines against climate change.

Ian Kroll, another doctoral student at the institute who joined Keller on the water, said estuaries are also known to store carbon. The plants that call estuaries home photosynthesize, meaning they absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Over time, these plants die and are covered by sands, along with the carbon they absorbed.

“Instead of coming back to the atmosphere,” Kroll said. “It floats to the bottom of the ocean, deposits there and builds up.”

Fodrie said the unique nature of estuaries is what makes them special.

“Estuaries are just tremendously important both because people are living right around the edge of estuaries,” he said, “but also because they’re pretty dynamic given their nature and the interface between and land and sea.”

To Learn More

• Restore America’s Estuaries
• Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership

Wednesday: Threats facing our estuaries

TRENTON — Solar power and agriculture may not seem related, but in coastal North Carolina, the two are becoming intertwined as an increasing number of farmers lease their land to solar developers. This trend, which provides economic benefits for the farmers, has communities and some state officials worried about the potential environmental and agricultural effects.

The issue came to a head last week in a courtroom in Trenton in Jones County. About 25 residents gathered for a hearing organized by the North Carolina Utilities Commission for a proposed five-megawatt solar installment between Mallard Cove Landing Road and Trent Farm Road.

Most who spoke during the hearing were opposed.

“People do not want to live next to something that looks like a prison,” said Andy Gower, who lives near the proposed site.

In addition to the aesthetics, nearby residents said the project could affect their property values and possibly their health, but Douglas “Doug” Soltow, who owns the land where the project would go, said the concerns weren’t real and that he still hopes to profit from solar.

“It’s hard to stop progress, you’ve got to have progress,” he said.

Soltow plans to lease his land to Strata Solar, a Chapel Hill-based developer. According to the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, there are more than 550 megawatts of energy being produced by 402 solar systems in Eastern North Carolina. About 85 of these developments are utility scale, producing five megawatts or more of power, as proposed for Soltow’s land. The number of these particular developments is expected to increase with new proposals popping up on agricultural land in coastal counties including Onslow and Pender.

A megawatt is a million watts of electricity. That’s enough to power 750 to 1,000 average houses.

New Source of Income

A farmer’s motivation for leasing land for solar development is fairly simple: Leasing can be more lucrative and stable than farming, with less expense and labor. However, like any development, solar installments are subject to oversight and regulation, and they often spark controversy.

For some farmers, the economic incentive of solar is too good an option to pass up.

“It’s a business,” said Soltow, who would not say how much he would make by leasing his land for solar, except that it would be more than he makes from farming. Life as a small farmer is uncertain, he said.

“A lot of small farmers go under,” he said.

One reason for the rise of solar in North Carolina is the state’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard adopted in 2007, which requires that 12.5 percent of the state’s energy needs must come from renewables. Under this standard, Duke Energy and other power companies must source energy from renewable sources in order to receive state incentives.

In response, private developers began building large-scale solar developments and selling the energy back to utilities, including Duke Energy.

Soltow said he still intends to continue with agriculture on part of his land, but that leasing the remaining portion to solar provides financial stability crops can’t.

For solar developers, agricultural land is ideal. Cody Shadley, a project developer at Pine Gate Renewables, which is working on two sites in Onslow County, said agricultural land is ideal because it tends to be cleared of trees, away from floodplains and flat.

“Land that is high, dry and flat, that makes a pretty good foundation for a solar farm,” Shadley said.

Guido van der Hoeven, a senior professor and extension specialist in the Agricultural and Resource Department of North Carolina State University, said he’s heard it’s possible for farmers to make $750 to $1,400 an acre leasing solar. Harvesting crops such as soybean or corn can yield much lower, or even negative, returns.

“They may think it might be worth taking 20 acres or 30 acres, or whatever, out of crop production to ensure that (they) have an income stream of the lease rate for solar,” Van der Hoeven said.

Peter Ledford, a policy director with the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association, said that many of the proposals on farmland are five-megawatt farms, as opposed to smaller ones, because the leases last a long time and provide a longer period of stable income.

“The solar developer generally enters into a lease anywhere between 15 and 30 years,” Ledford said, “and the guaranteed income stream for that to the farmer exceeds what they might be able to make from growing crops on their land, or they just want to diversify that guaranteed income.”

There are other benefits for farmers. Soltow, for example, said he will have to do very little to manage the property.

Shadley of Pine Gate Renewables said the company takes care of the operations, maintenance and cleanup of the solar farms, and that representatives drop by once or twice a month to inspect the sites.

“We’re consistently monitoring the project, the life of the project, up until it gets to the decommissioning of the site,” he said. After which, he said, the panels will be removed by the company and the land will be returned to its tillable state if the lease is not extended.

Agricultural, Environmental Effects

Various state agencies must weigh in during the permitting and processing of solar farm applications. The permitting process can take years, depending on the number and kinds of permits needed. Soltow said he’s been waiting a year and a half.

Pine Gate Renewables has proposed a similar project near Maysville in Onslow County. As part of the state clearinghouse process for the Utilities Commission’s approval, a copy of the plan was passed to the North Carolina Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services. In a letter, the department stated concern about the loss of productive farmland to development of any kind.

Joseph Hudyncia, the department of agriculture’s director of environmental programs, wrote the letter. He said in an interview that the loss of agricultural land in North Carolina was “alarming,” but noted that farmers may need to lease parts of their land for solar to make a living.

“Some farmers have gone that route and it’s worked out well for them as a form of diversification,” he said.

Hudyncia added that the solar industry had been receptive to working with other groups. The North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association and the department of agriculture are collaborating on a report that will show that solar has removed only about a tenth of 1 percent of the state’s agricultural lands.

That fraction may not grow too much larger. Van der Hoeven said developing solar on many agricultural lands could be difficult, as transferring the energy to the power company’s grid requires infrastructure that isn’t available in many rural areas.

The state Wildlife Resource Commission expressed fears about how utility-scale solar developments affect wildlife and habitats. Some Trenton residents shared similar worries.

“In general, the NCWRC supports solar facilities located in open areas,” according to a letter signed by Maria Dunn, a coastal habitat coordinator with the commission. “However, the conversion of forests and wetlands to support solar development is causing increasing concern due to the loss of wildlife habitat, the fragmentation of wildlife habitat, and vegetative manage needed post-conversion for wetland and other forested areas.”

Dunn said in an interview that those worries extend to any kind of development, although she added that for solar, agricultural land is preferred to property that hasn’t been cleared.

Shadley agreed, noting that Pine Gate Renewables also prefers agricultural property for the same reason.

Shadley said Pine Gate Renewables follows management practices designed to protect the coastal environment. The company follows guidelines and suggestions recommended by state agencies and also reaches out to communities to address their concerns.

“We want to be a good neighbor; we’re not trying to rock the boat,” Shadley said. “We want to add value to the community.”

WANCHESE — The first thing a visitor may notice about the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s new office in Wanchese is the view, which looks out over the gentle waters of Roanoke Sound. For the federation, however, the building is more than its view – it’s a representation of a strong bond to the community and the greater ability to meet its mission of promoting clean and healthy coastal waters.

The staff invites the public to take in the view and visit the new two-story office in the Marine Industrial Park of Wanchese at an open house from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday.

The Wanchese office is one of three federation offices along the state’s coast. The others are in  Ocean in Carteret County and Wrightsville Beach.

Erin Fleckenstein, a coastal scientist and manager of the Wanchese office, said that between an expanding staff and high attendance to various meetings, the original three-office building near downtown Manteo was not able to suit the staff’s needs.

“The old space in Manteo was just too small to accommodate all of the people,” Fleckenstein said.

The new office in Wanchese was originally a radio station, and after a few of weeks of renovating, cleaning and decorating, it now comfortably fits the federation’s six full- and part-time employees and additional interns.

The group has already had quite the welcome to Wanchese.

A few days before they moved in, their mailbox, which was black, with a red flag and wooden post, was painted a bright red-orange. While no one in the office is sure who did it and why, or if it was even done in relation to the federation, the office enjoyed the paint job.

“We put the word out to the community that we liked it,” Fleckenstein said.

The new building features an education area, six offices, a conference room, an intern working space and a full-service kitchen, which Fleckenstein said will be ideal for the office’s annual fish fry – this year on Sept. 30 – and other events.

A rain barrel, rain garden and permeable-surface parking pad are among the office’s environmentally friendly features. However, work on the property isn’t done yet.

“We hope to do some additional work to showcase our projects,” Fleckenstein said.

The staff hopes to build a dock and install demonstrations of various coastal management practices along a nearby shoreline, including oyster restoration and living shoreline techniques.

Michelle Clower, a fellow at the office, said installments like these would help the public understand how different techniques work.

“That’s what I’m most excited for,” she said, “making the techniques real, instead of just conceptually telling people about it.”

As the move into the new office has progressed over the last few weeks, the staff found support in the local community. For example, longtime federation supporters Ralph and Ginger Webster hosted a “friend-raiser” in their home at Southern Shores that attracted about 100 people.

Working in Wanchese

The Marine Industrial Park is home to commercial fishing and boat building operations. Those industries are not typically associated with an environmental advocacy group like the federation, Fleckenstein said, but the relationship actually goes hand in hand.

“We’re really excited about the space because our goal is to have clean water and a healthy environment,” Fleckenstein said, “and we’ll be working right next door to people and industries that depend most on that.”

Ladd Bayliss, a coastal advocate in the office and an Outer Banks native, said the new location would further the office’s mission of protecting the coast by appealing to those who are connected to its waters.

“What we’re trying to do here is make people become, and understand the value of, being an advocate for the water,” she said.

On a day-to-day basis, Bayliss said the office’s interaction in Wanchese with the community will not differ much from its interactions in Manteo. They hope to continue their current programs, like litter cleanups, and to add more initiatives.

Fleckenstein said Bob Peele, the director of the Marine Industrial Park Authority, told the federation about the open office space and invited them to consider its use.

“I think it’s very emblematic of the partnerships that we try to cultivate in our region,” Fleckenstein said, “working with non-traditional partners to reach our common goals of a healthy coast.”

To Learn More

• Register for the open house

PINE KNOLL SHORES  — Every summer in the back halls of the North Carolina Aquarium here, several large tanks become hospital wards for injured, sick or weak baby sea turtles brought in from local beaches. The aquarium welcomed the first five hatchlings of the season last week, with dozens more expected in the coming months.

Michele Lamper, an aquarist at the aquarium, runs the rehabilitation program, which seeks to treat and release juvenile sea turtles back into the ocean. She works on the project with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, which makes decisions regarding sea turtles on land.

Most sea turtle species, including loggerhead, Kemp’s Ridley and green are endangered. Lamping said saving as many babies as possible is important because only one in a thousand will make it to adulthood. Saving and releasing a turtle, she said, still means that turtle might die, but it could increase the chance of another turtle surviving.

“Once they get to the water, then it’s up to nature, and most of the time it will get eaten,” Lamper said. “If he happens to be the one that gets eaten and it happens to save another one who does reach adulthood, then okay, great. We’re still accomplishing.”

Sea turtles come to the aquarium for a variety of reasons between May and October, their nesting season. Some are injured by predators, buried in their nest or are found moving away from the ocean after following a light source in the wrong direction.

This year’s nesting has been record-breaking, with about 1,520 sea turtle nests identified along the North Carolina coast. Of the nests, only four are Kemp’s Ridley and 17 are green. The rest belong to loggerhead turtles. Since the arrival of the initial five turtles, Lamping now has a dozen under her care.

With such large numbers of nests, Lamping expects more hatchlings to arrive. The aquarium, she noted, has never had less than a hundred in a season.

The five hatchlings, which are all loggerheads, represent a diversity of ailments afflicting baby sea turtles.

Two of the turtles were found on Atlantic Beach with little energy. Their shells and flippers were still soft and folded. Too weak to live in water, the turtles were placed by Lamping into a dry bucket with a moist towel upon arrival, but Lamping said they’re now swimming and eating on their own.

Two more turtles were found, dehydrated, at the bottom of a nest in Emerald Isle. A ghost crab had dug a hole in their nest, making it impossible for them to climb out. They also suffered from folded left flippers that Lamping plans to correct with physical therapy, including flipper rotations and stretches. One of the turtles was also taking antibiotics for an eye infection. Lamping said the turtles are also swimming and eating on their own.

The last turtle was found in Pine Knoll Shores after he made it out to the ocean, but was washed back to the beach. Lamping said the turtle hasn’t been able to eat on his own since he was found, and is not optimistic about his survival.

“We’re doing a mixture of force-feeding and we also have some fluids on him since he hasn’t been able to turn it around,” she said.

There are a variety of treatments for the turtles, including vitamins in their food, plankton and injectable fluids. Lamping said most of her time is spent flushing out wounds and keeping the turtles clean.

“I clean them every day. I flush them every day,” she said.

Before they are released back into the ocean, a vet checks on all of them to make sure they’re swimming, diving and eating properly. Most will be released back. Lamping said some may need additional time to strengthen up or may have to stay in captivity if they are unable to live in the wild.

The turtles stay in the facility anywhere from a couple of days to months, depending on the illness or injury. Some turtles simply hatch too early and are released within days if they still have their yolk sacs, a nutrient source, attached. Those that do not will be released in October, when they are stronger.

Lamping said that for those turtles, the aquarium cannot simply release the turtles onto the beach after a few days because they won’t have yolk sacs to nourish them in waters near the shore, which don’t have much food. Instead, the aquarium waits a couple of months, until they know the turtles are healthy, can catch their own food and can swim proficiently, releasing them into the ocean with a higher chance of survival.

Ten to 15 healthy turtles are selected to stay in the aquarium or are used as part of an educational loan program, where they are sent to aquariums all over the country for one to three years, after which they are released into the ocean. Lamping said programs like these help educate hundreds of visitors every day.

Lamping said there are several human factors that can contribute to the obstacles hatchlings face. For example, lights on beaches lead hatchlings away from the ocean and can lead to their deaths at the hands of ghost crabs or the scorching sun. Tire marks that run parallel to the water and holes left by beachgoers can trap the babies, leaving them vulnerable to prey and dehydration.

She recalled an incident when a group of hatchlings were found dead in tire tracks.

“It was probably enough time, enough heat and sun,” she said, “that it killed them.”

OCEAN – A man whose pioneering work has made restoring large tracts of wetlands possible is among the 44 people, groups and local governments that will be recognized Saturday by the North Carolina Coastal Federation for their outstanding contributions to the coastal environment.

Carlton Campbell of Cary, who successfully perfected growing marsh grass seedlings in large quantities, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, the federation’s highest honor.

Thirty-two cities and counties in the state will also receive Pelican Awards for passing resolutions opposing offshore drilling. The federal government cited that opposition earlier this year when it removed the Atlantic from its proposed offshore leasing plan. Other winners include a biologist in Beaufort who has spent a lifetime saving marine mammals, an environmental activist in Sunset Beach and a university program that champions natural beaches and several people who volunteer to restore wetlands and oyster reefs.

All winners will be honored at a ceremony held at The Boathouse at Front Street Village in Beaufort.

Here’s a quick look at some of them:

Carlton Campbell: Campbell’s pioneering work in propagating marsh grasses allowed groups like the federation to restore large tracts of wetlands and build large living shoreline projects.

He began growing the grasses in the late 1970s, when he was working at North Carolina State University in a lab that was attempting to restore a marsh. When the lab began looking for a place to grow the grass, Campbell offered up a greenhouse that was on his property.

“I said ‘Shoot, I’ll just fix the greenhouse up, and I’ll grow the plants,’” he said.

He started small, but his operation grew to produce up to 50,000 grass plugs a year. Campbell also went to France three times to work on restoration projects there. According to the federation, he became the first person in North Carolina to grow enough grasses for restoration projects, inspiring others to start similar businesses.

The Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines: The program’s staff is receiving the award for their expert research and strategic advice to advance sound beach and shoreline management.

Rob Young, the director, and Andy Coburn, his assistant, began their work 10 years ago and have continued the momentum of its founder, renowned geologist Orrin Pilkey of Duke University. The program looks at coastal processes and geological hazards worldwide, and it helps analyze development policies in a time of rising sea levels. According to the federation, Young, Coburn and their team have become leaders in developing sustainable coastal management strategies.

Young said that the program has faced some criticism in the past. “The topics and issues we deal with, it can get political, no question about it,” he said.

However, he said, the program is now bigger than it’s ever been with more projects and people than it’s ever had, thanks to support from the university.

Young said the award recognizes the hard work of his staff, who have provided technical assistance to the federation and other groups, including advice ranging from beach and inlet management to reviewing terminal groin and engineering proposals.

“It’s really reaffirming to think that the work that we’re doing really is making a meaningful difference in preserving the long-term sustainability of the North Carolina coast,” he said of the award.

Jan Harris:  Harris said her awareness of environmental issues began during her time at Johns Manville Corp. working in employee relations. She was there when asbestos, which was produced by the company, was banned by the federal government. She said the incident opened her eyes to how environments in buildings and the natural world affect people. This realization led her on a more than 20-year quest to protect the environment.

“Once your eyes are open,” she said, “you just can’t close them again.”

In the early 1990s, she fought the construction of a hazardous waste incinerator in Butner, where she was living at the time. She is a proud member of the Butner 64, a group of activists who were arrested for their protests about the plant. After she moved to the Sunset Beach in 1995, she founded and ran the Brunswick Environmental Action Team until 2007. The group educated the public on stormwater issues and filed appeals on development permits.

Although is she is retired today, Harris continues to work as an advocate, researching and commenting on developments along the coast.

She said she’s honored to receive a Pelican Award, saying the recognition is “just about the highest honor anybody can get.”

Keith Rittmaster: Rittmaster, a New Jersey native, said his interest in coastal issues began with his love of surfing and sailing, which exposed him to problems in the marine environments. He’s now a natural science curator at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort and in his free time protects and studies marine mammals, which he has been doing for over 30 years.

Rittmaster and his wife, Vicky, felt compelled to contribute to knowledge on whales, dolphins, sea turtles and seabirds after realizing not much was known about these animals. In the process, they discovered the detrimental effects of marine debris on the health of marine mammals. Together, they started North Carolina Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program which has collected over 2,400 miles of fishing line through 42 receptacles along the coast.

The Rittmasters are also members of the North Carolina Marine Mammal Stranding Network and the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Network, through which they respond to entanglement incidents.

ATLANTIC BEACH – It was a warm summer morning, and Michele Lamping carefully scanned the beach, picking up trash as she went. Amid the litter, footprints and shells scattering the shoreline, she was looking for the distinct tracks of endangered sea turtles, which find their way to beaches along North Carolina’s coast each spring and summer to lay their eggs.

Lamping, 35, is an aquarist at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores. She also leads a local effort to find and protect sea turtle nests. As the volunteer coordinator of the Atlantic Beach sea turtle patrol for the last seven years, Lamping has seen firsthand how important volunteers along the state’s coast are to the success of the species.

“Without our group, we have a whole bunch of turtles that wouldn’t exist,” she said. “Our volunteers are saving thousands of turtles every year.”

The beach and turtles-nesting seasons coincide along the North Carolina coast. During the early mornings and late nights from May to September, volunteers walk stretches of the beach from Currituck to Calabash, meticulously looking for turtle trails that lead to nests. Most belong to loggerheads, but green, Kemps’ Ridley and leatherback sea turtles also nest on the state’s beaches.

The state Wildlife Resources Commission runs the North Carolina Sea Turtle Project, which the commission says on its website would not be possible without volunteers. Participants help find, mark and monitor nests at 25 beaches along the coast and report beached sea turtles and sightings. Volunteers report to the commission, which makes decisions about the turtles’ well-being on land.

Sea turtles that nest in North Carolina are listed as endangered species in part, Lamping said, because many beaches have become dangerous or undesirable places for nesting.

One of the biggest issues is light pollution, she said. The volunteers take measures to block out light during the nesting season, and Lamping has talked to town officials in an attempt to get some of the nearby lights shut off. Too much artificial light, she said, could confuse the baby turtles that follow the light source, usually away from the ocean.

“Before we did all the efforts that we’re doing, we lost every nest,” she said. “They just all got killed. They all just went backwards in the dunes and just got eaten.”

Trash, debris and holes left on the beach pose a danger to sea turtles, as they can block the path of both mothers and babies trying to get to and from the ocean. Turtles can also ingest the plastic, which has devastating effects.

Volunteers pick up trash during their patrols, and on this particular day, Lamping collected about a grocery bag full of trash.  She pointed to a plastic bag laying in the sand.

“Did this family know that they just left that bag on the beach,” she said, “of how many animals it could potentially kill?”

She said two or three years ago, a dead adult female leatherback turtle was found on this stretch of beach that was half her body weight, only 700 pounds. It was discovered that a piece of plastic had lodged in her intestine, essentially starving the turtle for months, or even years.

To keep turtle nesting grounds safe, Lamping has a simple message.

“Go enjoy the beach,” she said, “but leave it in the same condition or better as you found it.”

Each beach’s turtle patrol is run differently. On Atlantic Beach, Lamping breaks the beach into half-mile zones, where volunteers search for tracks for an hour or so in the morning or night, depending on the beach.

The Atlantic Beach patrol has about 20 consistent volunteers and 40 more that volunteer when they are able. Once volunteers find sea turtle tracks, they determine whether the tracks lead to a nest.

Lamping checks on any reported nests and sends off one egg to a lab that records the mother’s genetic marker so scientists can keep tabs on the turtle as it nests throughout its lifetime.

“We know how many times each female’s nesting each season,” she said, “where she’s nesting, how many nests she laid that season and how many years in between nesting seasons she goes.”

The nests are marked with bright ribbons during the 50- or 60-day incubation period, around which time, Lamping organizes a “nest-sitting,” where volunteers keep guard near the nest to make sure nothing obstructs the baby turtle’s trip to the ocean.

Not everyone has been receptive to the volunteers. Lamping said that she used to fill in big holes or leave a note on beach gear left overnight, which can trap turtles, until people started getting mad at her.

“I had people come at me, like yelling, screaming, cussing me out because I was filling in their holes,” she said.

Following incidents like these, Lamping said she approached the town about filling in the holes. She said the city has been receptive and helpful, filling in holes and shutting off lights when they can.

Despite the occasional obstacle, Lamping said she thinks that sea turtles have become spokespersons for ocean conservation, and that they bring people, volunteers and communities together to work towards a healthier environment. She said that by taking care of our beaches for turtles, volunteers also help the birds, fish and other animals that call these habitats home.

“You get people to care about one animal,” she said, “and it really is them caring about all the animals.”

Like father, like son.

When Charles Pilkey was a young boy, his father, Orrin, a famous geologist and coastal researcher at Duke University, would take him and his four siblings to Shackleford Banks, an uninhabited island in the Cape Lookout National Seashore. It is there, Charles said, that he first fell in love with the ocean, a love he shares with his father.

Today, Charles is a 59-year-old sculptor and former geologist living in Mint Hill, near Charlotte. Orrin, of Durham, is 81 now and retired. Charles recalled days spent on the island, where he would wade into tidal pools teeming with snails and small fish, touching and learning first-hand about the natural beach. He said his father instilled in him an appreciation for science and the natural world at a young age.

Five decades later, father and son have teamed up to write an activity book that intends to inspire the same love for beaches in children, and even in adults, through illustrations, questions and activities.

Charles’ artistic vision and writing ability, coupled with Orrin’s more than 50-year career as a researcher produced “Lessons from the Sand: Family-Friendly Science Activities you can do on a Carolina Beach,” which was published by University of North Carolina Press in April.

According to UNC Press, early sales have been strong with about 2,000 orders. Both Charles and Orrin are impressed by the response.

“We’ve got so many comments, all positive,” Orrin said. “Everybody sees that it’s a really different book. One bookstore said ‘we can hardly keep them on the shelves.’ Of course, every author wants to hear that.”

Charles said the philosophy behind the book was to showcase the spiritual, magical places he believes beaches to be and to teach the public how science works.

“We had to introduce the scientific method,” he said. “We had to teach them how to think.”

Both father and son share the belief that beaches are not just places to visit, but places to experience. They believe that science goes beyond a textbook, that it is best touched, seen and enjoyed in person.

The book is full of activities, from estimating wave height to identifying astronomical formations on a starry beach night, as well as bird and shell identifications. Charles also sprinkled the book with quotes from poems, literature and stories to merge science with the humanities. The book prompts readers to think for themselves through questions. For example, why are fossil sharks’ teeth black? Can you guess how shell layers were formed?

Orrin stresses the book is best enjoyed at the beach, where readers can get their hands dirty and shuffle around in the sand as they engage in the book’s activities.

“People are going to be looking at you saying, ‘What’s this strange kid doing?’” he said. “You should feel proud. You’re doing some science and all they’re doing is sitting there looking at the ocean. You’re learning about the ocean.”

Through science, Charles hopes people see beaches in a new light.

“If people recognize that beaches are beautiful, spiritual, magical places,” he said, “they’ll want to preserve them.”

A love for science, writing and education seems ingrained in the Pilkey family, where authoring books together is not uncommon.

Orrin wrote his first book, “How to Live With an Island,” with his father, Orrin H. Pilkey Sr., an engineer, more than 40 years ago. He has also coauthored books with his brother, Walter Pilkey, a mathematician, two of his other children, Linda and Keith, a geologist and administrative law judge, respectively, and a niece, Debbie Pilkey, who is an engineer.

This book, however, was a departure from Orrin’s usual academic and technical writing pieces, of which he has more than 250 published. The suggestion came from UNC Press, when Charles submitted another manuscript. He enlisted his father’s help for the activity book in 2013.

However, Charles said that during the writing process, his mother was diagnosed with kidney cancer, prompting Orrin had to take a step back from writing the book.

“At this point, he was taking care of my mom and I was doing the writing,” Charles said.

Over two years, Charles wrote almost all of the book’s content, designed each page and created illustrations. He would send his father the activities, who would check them for scientific accuracy. The pair even took trips down to the beach to try them out for themselves.

“We tested them in the field, he and I together,” Charles said.

For Orrin, this is where the joy of working with his children, who have long since left the nest, comes into play.

“They run away despite all the wonderful things you did, they go away,” he said. “But, here, when you’re working with them and discussing things over the phone or face-to-face, that’s what’s nicest, is the contact, the close contact with them.”

For Charles, working with his father builds on a bond he has shared with him his whole life.

“More than anybody, he has imprinted on me a scientific thinking,” Charles said of his father, “a skepticism that a scientist must always carry with him or with her and a rational, analytical view of the world. He’s been my mentor since day one.”

Charles said he doesn’t know why his family keeps writing books together, but he holds out hope that his 12-year-old son will also catch the writing bug.

“Hopefully,” he said, “my son will carry on the tradition.”

Learn More

• About the book

BEAUFORT – The chairman of the panel that manages coastal development rules wants to create a new term that downplays the perils of owning beach property near coastal inlets.

Frank Gorham, chairman of the state’s Coastal Resources Commission, suggested Wednesday changing the name of the areas designated as inlet hazard zones to something that sounds more positive. His suggestion came during the 13-member commission’s meeting at Pivers Island near Beaufort.

“We’ve always had the issue of no one wants to be in an inlet hazard area,” Gorham said. “Where do we stand on maybe renaming it?”

During an interview immediately following the two-day meeting that began Tuesday, Gorham suggested “inlet management area” or “inlet-affected area” in order to “encourage people to participate, as opposed to run away from it.”

The North Carolina Division of Coastal Management defines an inlet hazard area as shorelines that are especially vulnerable to erosion and flooding where inlets can shift suddenly and dramatically. Gorham made the suggestion during a presentation by the commission’s science panel, a 10-member group that provides commission members scientific data and recommendations.

While no decisions were made regarding the name, Spencer Rogers of Wilmington, vice chair of the Coastal Resources Advisory Council, told the commission that erosion rates can be 10 to 15 times greater in inlet zones than elsewhere.

An inlet hazard area is one of a number of terms used to designate various zones barrier islands in the 20 coastal counties subject to Coastal Area Management Act of 1974. The CRC’s responsibilities include setting policy, designating areas of environmental concern and granting exceptions, or variances, to coastal development rules.

The commission on Tuesday granted four such variances, all that were requested for this meeting, including one for a property on an inlet hazard area at the west end of Ocean Isle Beach in Brunswick County.

The Ocean Isle case involves a home on Tubbs Inlet, which was designated an inlet hazard area in 1979. The owner, Kay Picha, bought the lot in 2003. The piece of land owned by Picha is dynamic, with sands shifting heavily over time. As recently as 1980, her lot was underwater.

Four years after she purchased the property, Picha requested and was granted three CAMA general permits to place sandbags along the oceanfront and inlet side of her property after the home was determined to be threatened by erosion. Two years later in 2009, Picha was permitted to place additional sandbags for five years on the inlet and rear side of the property, which overlooks a creek.

Sandbags are considered a temporary measure of protection from erosion and must be removed within eight years, as set in the permit, though few actually are. Picha’s sandbags were never removed and in April, Picha applied for another CAMA permit to add more sandbags to those in place, for which time had run out. Picha sought to also to increase the size of the sandbag wall beyond the commission’s authorized size limits. In June, the Division of Coastal Management, citing the excessive size of the proposed sandbag wall and the expiration of the existing permits, denied the application. The division staff also expressed worry that sandbags could fall into the inlet, a public trust area, and become a hazard to navigation, among other concerns.  “Removal of such displaced sandbags would be very difficult given the dynamic nature of the inlet, increasing the possibility that these sandbags would present a future navigational hazard within the inlet channel,” according to a legal summary by the division staff.

Despite the objections from staff, the CRC approved the variance, allowing the height of the sandbag wall to double at about 12 feet.

Picha’s attorney, Clark Wright of the Davis Hartman Wright law firm of New Bern, argued that the “accelerated eastward movement” of the Tubbs Inlet channel “now immediately imperils” Picha’s sandbag wall, thereby also putting at risk her home and the private road and public utilities serving it and a number of other homes on the west end of Ocean Isle Beach.

The channel had moved about 77 feet closer to the western edge of Picha’s sandbag wall between Nov. 25, 2015, and June 19 and was now only three feet from the sandbags.

“This movement represented an increase of several hundred percent over prior years’ average monthly movements,” according to Wright’s letter included in the agenda materials for the meeting.

Ana Zivanovic-Nenadovic, a senior policy analyst at the North Carolina Coastal Federation who was present at the meeting, said the sandbags approved for the project will end up on public trust waters, or waters below the mean high water mark that belong to the public.

“The way the proposed structure design was presented does not show the structure below mean high water mark,” Zivanovic-Nenadovic said, “but if the bags were put in today, with the present configuration of Tubbs Inlet, they would certainly be below mean high water.”

Commissioners also voted on changes to sandbag rules on Wednesday, appearing to take a slightly different view on the temporary structures than during the variance discussions.

In a 7-2 vote, the CRC opted to do away with sandbag permit renewals in favor of one-time sandbag permits.

Some commissioners said they worried that allowing property owners to apply to renew sandbag permits every eight years, even in the face of imminent threats, provides little incentive for towns to seek other measures of erosion control, such as beach re-nourishment or construction of terminal groins.

“I don’t think that’s good,” said commissioner Larry Baldwin, echoing the advisory council’s advice against multiple permit renewals stated earlier in the day.

The division staff is expected to present the commission in September a new draft for sandbag rules that changes the permit renewal language, adding back in the requirement that towns must be “actively pursuing” beach management and incorporating the one-time permit rule.

Sandbags have long been considered a temporary solution to a growing erosion problem on the coast.

Zivanovic-Nenadovic said sandbags were originally meant to be two-year temporary structures. However, the new rules being developed by the CRC, including extending the permit to eight years, are making the structures more permanent. The result is often a loss of public access.

“They benefit private property owners, but interfere with public’s right to use dry sand beach because they are placed on the public trust,” she said. “They can also increase erosion rates in front of the structure, on the ocean side of the bags. In addition, they can become a hazard during storms and they can break up, litter and obstruct access to the beach.”

Commission members offered differing opinions during their discussion of permit renewals. Gorham said that homeowners looking to sell their homes would not want sandbags on their properties because they lower property values.

“Nobody wants to have a house with sandbags,” Gorham said. “There is an economic incentive to cover up the sandbags.”

Commissioner John Snipes responded, asking what incentive there would be if a property owner wanted to stay. “What if I don’t want to sell my house?” he said.

Gorham said restrictions on sandbag permits will result in some desperate property owners seeking a variance from the commission as their only option, which can be a slow process.

“That’s hard to tell people,” he said. “That’s my problem.”

Mark Hibbs, Coastal Review Online’s assistant editor, contributed to this report.

A federal proposal to designate portions of coastal rivers in North Carolina as habitat essential to the survival of the endangered Atlantic sturgeon will not add another layer of regulations for fishermen, boaters, dredgers and others using those rivers, federal officials say.

Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a proposal earlier this month to designate critical habitats for sturgeon in coastal rivers along the East Coast. About 915 miles of waterways in the Yadkin-Pee Dee, Waccamaw, Cape Fear, Northeast Cape Fear, Black, Neuse, Tar-Pamlico and Roanoke rivers in North Carolina are included in the designation.

Required by the federal Endangered Species Act, the designation is meant to protect spawning, foraging and other areas that are important to the survival of the fish. The sturgeon was listed as endangered in 2012.

A public hearing on the proposal will be held 7 p.m. Thursday at the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City. It will be the only hearing in North Carolina. Comments on the proposal can be submitted to NOAA until Sept. 1.

Sturgeon, a large bony fish known for its roe used for caviar, are called anadromous fish because they spawn upriver in fresh water but spend most of their lives in marine or estuary waters. The species dates back 120 million years to the time of the dinosaurs. In the 1800s, Atlantic waters teemed with the fish, which can span 15 feet and weigh 800 pounds. However, in the last century, numbers have fallen drastically due to overfishing, and sturgeon fishing was banned in North Carolina more than 20 years ago in an attempt to recoup the numbers.

Designated Locations

Areas were designated based on their importance to the species’ recovery. As stated in the proposal, Atlantic sturgeon spawn and spend their early life in rivers, making the habitats vital to the success of the species.

“An essential feature for Atlantic sturgeon spawning is unobstructed migratory pathways for safe movement of adults to and from upstream spawning areas as well as providing safe movement for the larvae and juveniles moving downstream,” the proposal says.

The proposal states that after analysis, the following features were found to be essential for the conservation of the Atlantic sturgeon: hard bottom, transitional salinity zones, appropriate depth and physical barriers and appropriate water quality conditions.

NOAA officials said these critical areas are important because even when the fish is migrating, its habitat can still be protected.

“It’s important because we can designate these areas even if the animal is not around,” said Andy Herndon, Atlantic sturgeon and shortnose sturgeon coordinator at NOAA.

Although the critical habitat designation was supposed to be proposed within a year after the fish was listed, it was not until a lawsuit filed by the Delaware Riverkeeper Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council that NOAA took action this year. Lawsuits – or the threat of them — normally spur the federal government to designate critical habitat.

Federal Oversight

Currently, because of the species’ endangered status, federal actions must be regulated to prevent harm to the fish. According to NOAA officials, this additional designation means if a federal action or permit is up for approval, the effects to the sturgeon’s critical habitats must also be assessed by NOAA, the agency that manages endangered fish.

“When federal agencies conduct or authorize an action that might have an impact on the Atlantic sturgeon critical habitat they’re required to, what we call, consult with us on that,” said Herndon.

Herndon said the designation proposal would not be another layer of regulation, but another consideration when approving projects.

During the consultation, according to the proposal, NOAA will ensure that the proposed actions “are not likely to destroy or adversely modify critical habitat.”

In a draft assessment report, NOAA highlighted 14 federal activities in the designated areas that may require consultation. Activities include dredging and coastal engineering, nuclear power plant construction and fishery management. Any federal loans or permits related to these activities may be affected by the designations as well.

In the assessment report, NOAA estimates that 205 projects will require consultation during the next 10 years because of the critical habitat designation, with a projected administrative cost of about $1 million.

Research is underway at Virginia Commonwealth University to uncover the secrets of a charismatic, endangered species, the Atlantic sturgeon. This short documentary follows Matt Balazik as he discovers, for the first time, the sturgeon migration using acoustic transmitter tags.

Fishing and Dredging

Most of the concerns on the coast center around fishing and dredging.

Jason Rueter, NOAA’s Gulf sturgeon coordinator, said by email that commercial fishing will likely not be affected by the sturgeon habitat designation, but that dredging may be.

Greg “Rudi” Rudolph, Carteret County’s shore protection manager, said while he is glad the critical habitat areas are in rivers and not on the oceanfront, he still worries about the effect the proposal will have on dredging.

According to Rudolph, Atlantic sturgeon use inlets to get from freshwater rivers to the ocean, where they live most of their adult life. Rudolph said inlets are also important for beach dredging and that designations like these may make dredging more difficult.

“Even if the critical habitat technically doesn’t do anything in terms of a hardcore regulation,” he said, “it does intensify what things we may have to do to avoid harming a species.”

Fred Harris, an aquatic resource specialist with the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, said that in NOAA’s consultation, the sturgeon’s seasonal usage of the inlets would likely be considered. That way, he said, alternative times for dredging activities can be considered. He added that the designation would likely not stop activities, but rather force people to rethink them.

“Identifying this critical habitat doesn’t necessarily mean none of those projects are going to happen,” he said, “it’s just they look at them carefully, and they look for all alternatives that would be less damaging to the animal’s habitat.”

To Learn More

• Proposed designation for the Carolinas
• NOAA Fisheries’ Atlantic sturgeon page
• NRDC petition to list the sturgeon

NEWPORT – Brooke Breen moves through the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter swiftly, her movements careful and measured as she cups a baby bird in her hands. As an experienced wildlife rehabilitator and the shelter’s new executive director, she knows time is of the essence.

“It’s just like an emergency room, you never know,” says Breen. “It’s always going to be something.”

Just a little while ago, someone dropped off two abandoned grackle chicks. One had already died. Breen rushes to the second one to the baby bird nursery for a quick meal of Pedialyte, which is full of electrolytes a hurt bird would need.

“You’re dealing with a live creature that’s sustained some sort of trauma,” she says. “First thing they do to you in a hospital is give you an IV, same principle applies.”

Saving baby birds is just one event in the day in the life of the shelter’s new executive director, a role that keeps Breen on her toes and working overtime.

“This is my sole focus. Technically, I’m here four days a week, but usually its six,” she says.

As a mother to an almost two-year-old son, Breen, 39, has her hands full at home and in the shelter. Fortunately, she has two decades of experience working with wildlife and a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University in zoology to help her out.

Breen has a strong connection with the community, and still lives in the house she grew up in Emerald Isle. Her father, Russell Covert, was a longtime teacher at White Oak Elementary School in nearby Cape Carteret, and her mother, Christine, was an assistant principal in Craven County.

She says her love of wildlife started early, and that she did not choose animals.

“They chose me,” she says. “I would stumble across them and I just kind of ignored it and played it off as long as I could.”

Compelled to help animals, Breen began volunteering at the shelter at the age of 17 as a junior bird feeder. Over the years, she continued to volunteer or work part-time at the shelter, even while working as an emergency dispatcher, chemistry teaching assistant at Carteret County Community College and silversmith apprentice, among other jobs. She became the executive director of this sprawling, two-acre compound in January.

“I’ve worked my whole adult life to be able to have this opportunity,” she says. The goal of the nonprofit is to care for injured, sick and orphaned wildlife, rehabilitate them and release them back into the wild. The shelter serves a variety of species, including birds, like owls and pelicans, reptiles, like turtles, and small mammals, like rabbits.

Occasionally, an animal may be too permanently injured to be released. The shelter cares for them and uses them for educational purposes. The shelter hosts summer art and wildlife camps for children, where they can learn about the natural world.

Breen says she loves the job of running the place and that she’s fortunate her work is her passion. “Some people, this is what they’re supposed to do,” she says.

Breen has a deep connection with the animals she cares for. That was apparent with Phoenix, an injured peregrine falcon and a permanent resident that recently died.

“I started working with him when I was 18 years old,” Breen says, as she tears up a bit. “We knew each other for a very long time and he was a good friend.”

She adds that she and her staff of four also take animals home on a regular basis to give them the around-the-clock care they need.

“I’ve had to go home with 20-something possums,” Breen says, “that have to be tube-fed every three hours.”

Some animals may die during rehabilitation or may have to be euthanized due to extensive injuries. However, Breen says she has never turned an animal away from the shelter. The shelter released about half of the 1,300 animals it received last year, a rate Breen says is good given the precarious state many animals arrive in and the delicate nature of local species, especially water birds.

The community has helped the shelter rehabilitate animals. For example, Lowe’s Food in Cape Carteret donates day-old meat, the boy scouts have held donation drives and cleaned up the nature trails and a church group once redid the shelter’s floors. Breen says she’s grateful for the effort the community has put in and that the shelter still needs as much help as it can get.

“The more volunteers that we have to support the staff members, the more time that the staff members, who have all this expertise in animal medicine, are able to spend with the patient,” she says.

The care of baby birds in the spring highlights the shelter’s need for extra hands.

“Baby birds have to be fed every half an hour from sun up to sun down,” she says. That’s 24 hand-feedings for each bird, every day.

In addition to volunteers, she says, the shelter could use donations, whether its monetary, cleaning supplies or frozen meat.

Fish, she says, is a particular need that is hard to meet.

“Pelicans will eat their weight in fish every day,” she says. “If we’ve got 10 pelicans, that’s a whole lot of fish.”

Breen says one of her biggest challenges coming into directorship was making community members aware of the shelter’s existence, prompting her to start a Facebook page for the shelter.

“This is our expertise. We want to help these animals and we want them to know that we are in the community,” she says.

When she’s not on the phone, making connections within the community, or in Raleigh, meeting with wildlife officials, or in the outdoor enclosures, checking on opossums for release, Breen says she likes to take a 20-minute break by the pond every once in a while to escape the constant noise of the shelter.

There were times, Breen says, when she tried to fight the urge to care for animals. She says they kept finding to her.

“They still come to me,” she says with a laugh. “I guess I’ve got to kind of stick with it.”

OAK ISLAND — They’re simple ditches on the side of a road, but swales and similar, low-impact technologies could change the way coastal towns divert and treat stormwater, with less large-scale engineering and money.

“Aren’t they underwhelming?” Tracy Skrabal, a scientist with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, said about swales “They’re beautiful.”

Skrabal was speaking to a group of about 45 coastal residents, engineers and city government representatives who gathered last month at Oak Island, a beach community on a barrier island in Brunswick County. They came to learn more about how the community is using swales and similar techniques to reduce runoff at six sites on the island.

Swales are trenches on the side of a road designed to catch and hold stormwater runoff until it soaks into the ground. They are one of several types of these infiltration techniques the federation showcased during the tour.

Porous pavement, rain gardens, swales and other types of techniques that force runoff to seep into the ground are better for the environment, Skrabal explained, than simply diverting it into the nearest waterbody. Using money from a federal grant, the federation and Oak Island tried to prove the point by using these mitigation methods at the six sites.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington monitored the sites for several months and concluded that the systems had been hugely successful. The goal was to reduce runoff by 200,000 gallons over a one-year period, but the researcher found that runoff had been reduced by almost 385,000 gallons.

The Problem with Runoff

Stormwater runoff is especially worrisome for coastal communities.

When it rains, water runs down hard pavement and into drains, ditches or pipes that carry the runoff into the nearest waterbodies. As the water flows, it collects bacteria from animal droppings, dirt, chemicals, oils and other pollutants.

On the coast, bacteria and sediment from runoff have been shown to contaminate estuaries and oyster beds, hurting ecosystems and local fishing economies. Stormwater runoff can also contribute to erosion and flooding.

Fortunately, nature has its own way of removing these impurities from the runoff and slowing down erosion, Skrabal said. For example, simply digging a swale next to a road allows the water to collect and filter through the soil, she said. Eventually, this water will replenish groundwater reserves.

Lloyd Young, an engineer with Bechtel Corp., a construction and civil engineering company, attended the tour with fellow engineers of the coastal branch of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He said these simple solutions can reduce the need for more elaborate engineering solutions.

“What we learned today,” he said, “is that underwhelming solutions are often very important to reduce pollution, to reduce stormwater and maintain the quality of life as development takes place.”

Communities Taking Note

Representatives from Pine Knoll Shores, Sunset Beach and Oak Island were also present on the tour. They agreed that runoff is a pressing problem in their beach towns.

Clark Edwards, a councilman in Pine Knoll Shores in Carteret County, said the town’s low-lying streets are often submerged during storms.

“We’ve been struggling in our town, as many have, with the problem of runoff that becomes flooding,” he said.

Sheila Bell, an Oak Island councilwoman, said that continuing development on the island in Brunswick County makes stormwater runoff concerns even more important. “We are growing so fast,” she said. “The concern is that as we clear lots and take away tree coverage, that we are adding to the stormwater issue.”

Other coastal towns have joined Oak Island in using techniques discussed on the tour. Sunset Beach, for example, has begun installing similar methods, said Susan Parker, the town manager. She said they not only provide flood control, but also improve water quality.

Edwards said that Pine Knoll Shores will be working with the federation soon to implement some low-impact solutions there.

All the towns’ representatives agreed they would like to see more of the simple techniques presented during the tour in their communities.

“We’re pushed into the fancy or complicated solutions when really common sense, simple ones often work exceedingly well,” said Edwards.

Long-Term Solutions

The three town representatives said it was too early to know how their towns would pay for the long-term use of these techniques.

Bell said that Oak Island recently created a new position for a stormwater administrator and slightly increased residents’ stormwater fees, which could pay for implementation.

She said she was amazed by the effectiveness of the techniques and thought other council members may support using natural infiltration techniques.

“We know the problem is there,” she said, “and we are very open to solutions that will not cost our citizens. I cannot even fathom that it would not be something that we would consider.”

Edwards said that because of his town’s specific needs, a stormwater fee may not need to be imposed. Pine Knoll Shores, Edwards said, needs to educate its residents about the causes of runoff and how to prevent it.

“We have to educate people to understand that the town next to the road does not have to be a putting green,” he said. “It does not have to be sodded right up to the road.”

Parker said she is hoping the Sunset Beach town council will have a stormwater budget approved during a meeting in this month. This money, she said, will pay for analyzing how best to address stormwater runoff. Recommendations about possible solutions would come next, she said. She said it’s too early to see if a stormwater fee is a viable option the community will support.

“We’re in the very early stages,” Parker said, “but at least we’re moving in the right direction.”