MOREHEAD CITY — I live on Calico Creek in Morehead City. If you live in town or anywhere close to it, your response to that statement is probably something along the lines of “Yuck.” This small tributary to the Newport River has a long and sometimes troubled past as a place where Morehead dumps its sewage.

But, believe it or not, it’s well worth a look from the cockpit of a kayak.

Taking a lunch break on a small beach at the mouth of Calico Creek by the Newport River.

Before I put in, I wanted to get a little more background on the creek. At the History Place, a local museum, I pored over old maps and newspaper articles and availed myself of the encyclopedic knowledge of John Stephens, a local historian and weekly volunteer who grew up in the area. He shared both the history and his memories of growing up on the creek.

The first deed in the area is dated 1722, when land around the creek was used for timber and rich farm land. During those early times, the creek was deep enough that its banks were a center of water-based commerce, home to a sawmill, a shark processing plant and a brick yard. The brick yard was built to supply the bricks for Fort Macon, which was built over 10 years starting in 1826. The fort in nearby Atlantic Beach is now the centerpiece of a state park.

The creek was also known for producing the large quantities of crabs. Crab Point, the name given the north side of the creek and the Newport River, reminds us of this history. Oysters, shrimp and fish were also plentiful and supplemented many a farm family.

Calico Creek, though, has been closed to shellfishing since the 1950s, which is when the Shellfish Sanitation Program of the state Division of Marine Fisheries began keeping records, reports Shannon Jenkins, an environmental senior specialist with the program. Morehead City now boasts a modern sewage treatment plant with an impeccable record, but in the bad old days, raw sewage was discharged into the headwaters of the creek. The waters remain closed to shellfishing because it’s believed that the sediments that have made the headwaters so shallow remain contaminated.

Emeline Pigott, a Confederate spy, was one of the more famous residents of Calico Creek.

One of the most famous residents of Calico Creek was Emeline Pigott, a young woman who became a Confederate spy during the Civil War. She was known for daring exploits as she smuggled messages across enemy lines in her voluminous skirts and hosted clandestine travelers at the family farm. At one point she was jailed and sentenced to death. She was then mysteriously released; supposedly because of the secret information she had on Union officials.

The Pigott homestead took up all of what is now my neighborhood; the family cemetery sits on the creek, tended by the city. Stephens remembers going on Easter egg hunts in the Pigott yard in the mid-1930s. He also has fond memories of going up the creek with his friends on a skiff, getting back after dark, to the consternation of his parents.

There’s a public access point and floating dock at 608 Bay Street, at the intersection of Bay and Sixth streets. Parking is on the street. Timing is key to launching here; if the tide is low, it adds a long, boat-hauling walk over oyster shells to the trip. We put in just before high tide and floated right from the dock.

As we curved around a marshy island just north of the yacht basin, a pair of dolphins surfaced about 30 feet from our boats. They escorted us across the mouth of Calico Creek and into the Newport River, their skin gleaming in the sun, the exhalations from their blow holes sounding a husky counterpoint to the gulls’ cries.

A pair of dolphins surfaced near our boats both coming and going. Photo: Sam Bland

We paddled across the river to a small island beach. The short sandy spit is a common stopping point for boaters and paddlers. After a quick lunch beachside, we set out to explore the marsh. This area is known as Haystacks, and it is a haven for kayaking because much of it is generally too shallow for power boats. We meandered along the narrow passage ways, startling herons and egrets as we passed. Fish ruffled the water’s surface and jumping mullet jumped, taunting us. There are passages through the marsh, but we picked the wrong paths, so we retraced our way out.

A great egret snatches its prey. Photo: Sam Bland

With the sun starting to set, we paddled back across the river toward the mouth of the creek. Once again we were joined by a pair of dolphins, who stayed with us until we passed the yacht basin.

We pulled our boats out of the water, having to drag them from further out since the tide had fallen. A couple on the dock had caught puffer fish, which actually does taste like chicken, and mullet. My companion had trolled a line behind the boat during the trip to no avail. As we loaded up, I was grateful that this beautiful trip was available to me just by crossing the street to my neighbors’ yard. The public access is a much easier way to start, however— the bridge on 20^th street is impassable at high tide.

If you’re looking for a local trip, give Calico Creek and the Newport River a try. You’ll be glad you did.

Other information worth a look:

• Calico Creek water quality report
• Emeline Pigott: Confederate nurse and spy
• Speckled trout fishing in the Haystacks

Estuaries like this one along the White Oak River in Carteret County give North Carolina the second-largest estuarine system in the country. Photo: Bill Meserve

By Christine Miller

OCEAN — Here at the N.C. Coastal Federation, we may be gearing up today with chocolate and flowers for Valentine’s Day for that special someone, but we know it’s what you do over the long haul that really shows love. And we love estuaries, long time. One might even say we ‘heart’ them, because we’re told that’s what the kids are saying these days.

Here’s why.

North Carolina’s estuary system is the second largest in the nation (and let’s face it, size matters). More than that, it is unmatched in its generally pristine state — far more than other US estuaries, we have something worth protecting. It’s not broken, at least not badly, and we want to keep it that way. You can help—keep reading.

This magical zone where fresh water and salt water meet is where fish and crustaceans find love, too. All the critters we love to eat—shrimp, fish, crabs, oysters—they come here to meet and mate and provide us with delicious meals. Salt marshes and other shallow estuarine areas serve as nursery areas for 90 percent of saltwater fish and shellfish in North Carolina. If you like to fish or crab or shrimp, you, too, heart estuaries.

Blue crabs are just one of the many animals that depend on estuaries.

And they’re gorgeous. Call us shallow, but one look at a sunset over the marsh, or a glimpse of the wild horses of Shackleford Banks, and we’re goners. Paddling through the marsh, surrounded by birds and the occasional dolphin is relaxing and brings peace. What’s not to love?

Showing our love means protecting these special places. That takes time and it takes money. With all that’s going on in Washington, it looks as though the programs that help us take care of our estuaries might slip through the cracks and disappear. We need to stand up for our love and make sure that legislators know how much we love our estuaries, what they mean to us, and that they deserve support.

To do this, several groups, including Restore America’s Estuaries, of which we’re a part, have started the “i heart estuaries” campaign. We need to let leadership in Washington know that we love NOAA’s Community-based Restoration Program, USFWS Coastal Program, NOAA National Estuarine Research Reserve System, and EPA’s National Estuary Program. And that we want them to love them, as well.

Tell our leaders that love is in the air for these programs; here are the links to do it:

• The White House
• U.S. Department of Commerce
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• N.C. delegation

Share the love on Facebook or Twitter.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone. You look particularly lovely today.

You can have the beach to yourself in the fall.

It’s an open secret that many of us who live on the coast name fall as our favorite time of year. There are many reasons, both general and specific — today I’m going to focus on a handful of those that are 1.) outside and 2.) free, or almost so.

Getting Outside. First, there’s getting outside and the simple fact that it’s more fun now than in the dog days of August. The air: Summers here are HOT. Day, night, you name it, we swelter. And humid –some mornings opening the front door feels like getting slapped in the face with a soggy washcloth. Fall eases up both of these: The days change to warm and pleasant, sometimes with a little snap in the mornings, and the humidity decreases to acceptable (to me) levels.
And this decrease in humidity, my diligent Internet research tells me, means the sky turns that particularly rich, deep blue — less interference for the light particles, or some such.

The nights, too, are cool, to the point that making fires in the backyard fire pit or at a campsite becomes a sensible action rather than an affectation. S’mores can come out to play.

Next, the water.  In the summer, the water can be in the 80s and the sounds and creeks, well, it is often compared to warm spit (at least by me). Seriously, it is anti-refreshing to jump into Core Sound in August. After a few weeks of these temperate evenings, though, the water temp drops into the mid-70s. It’s still warmer than the ocean, but that refreshing thing? It’s back.

Empty beaches. In North Carolina, we’re lucky to have wide (in places) beaches, stretching to the horizon. During the summer, these beaches can be packed. During the autumn, the beaches empty, returning to those of us who live here. A person can go out at sunrise or sunset and have only a handful of people for company, some distant specks down the shore. It’s perfect for heart-to-heart talks, belly laughs or a few minutes of solitude before rejoining the hectic, non-beach world.

The International Space Station, above, is a stunning-looking piece of technology up close. But from Earth, it appears as a streak in the night sky. Photos: NASA.

Looking up. The clearer skies make it just that much easier to see what’s in the night skies. You can show your kids, friends and neighbors the International Space Station zooming across the sky. NASA has a handy Web site  to find it.

Summer has the Perseids meteor shower of August, but fall is no slouch. The season hosts three sets of meteor showers, and this year may be showier than the last because many of them fall on days of a waning or new moon.

The Orionids make an appearance from Oct. 2 to Nov. 7 and will peak this weekend.

The Leonids run Nov. 6-30, and they should be particularly showy this year. You can check this Web site for the peak days, times and part of the sky to watch.

The Geminids are next, from Dec. 4-17. They are billed as the most kid-friendly meteor shower because they’re viewable almost as soon as the sun sets and there’s a new moon, so they will be most visible.

Here’s a link to the 2012 meteor calendar.

Critters of the Night. On the evening of Oct. 27, Cape Lookout National Seashore hosts a fun event. Pack a chair, a picnic and some walking shoes. From 5-8:30 p.m., you’ll get to meet some animals, courtesy of the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter, then have a picnic, take a night hike, stargaze for animal constellations and end the evening sitting around a fire, talking about the nocturnal beasties. Great for the kids, great for anyone curious.

Finally, Seafood and fishing (Oysters! Spanish Mackerel! Spot! Trout!). Restaurants with 2-for-1 local specials, paddling in non-bug-infested creeks. For these, you’ll have to your own Internet research, but it’s well worth it.

Go to our Facebook page and tell us what are your favorite things to do this time of year.

Juniper, or Atlantic white cedar, was once a dominant tree in the swamp forests of the coast.

Interested in planting an increasingly rare coastal tree on your property? Have we got a deal for you.

The N.C. Coastal Federation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have gotten together on a program that will pay landowners 80 percent of the cost of planting Atlantic white cedar, or juniper.

Atlantic white cedar, Chamaecyparis thyoides, was once a well-established ecosystem on the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula of North Carolina. Then, more than 500,000 acres of juniper covered the Eastern seaboard. Less than 5 percent of that acreage remains.

A Current Rarity

What happened to all of it? A combination of things did the cedar in. Much of the peat lands along the Alligator River and in the Great Dismal Swamp, where much of the cedar forests grew, were ditched and drained for farming in the late 1700s. That made the land unsuitable for cedar, which requires waterlogged soils rich in peat, which is made up of partially decayed plant material.

The other factor is that Atlantic white cedar is fantastically useful wood. It’s fragrant, strong and rot resistant—perfect for boat building, shingles, decoys and many other useful items. The forests that remained after the draining were hit hard, and acreage continued to dwindle.

“Atlantic white cedar, what’s that? Our boats are made of juniper,” deadpans Captain Ernie Foster.

Foster is the owner of the Albatross Fleet, three striking charter fishing boats on Hatteras Island that were all originally made of white cedar. “My father got the wood for the original Albatross in 1935, from Buffalo City, near East Lake,” Foster remembers. “Everyone used to use juniper to build boats. It’s strong, light and damn near impervious to rot below the water line if you coat the end-grain.

The boats in the famous Albatross Fleet of Hatteras are made of juniper.

“Besides,” he adds. “I love how it smells.”

This brings to mind another use: “hope chest,” another traditional use that had prospective brides placing linens and other household necessities in the chests so they would become imbued with the wood’s scent.  Woodworkers also report that they were great at keeping moths out of wool clothing. Furniture factories in High Point and private craftsman made these chests up until the 1950s, when their popularity began to wane.

That very popularity, however, posed many problems for the landscape and the creatures that depend on cedar for habitat and the water quality benefits it brings.

“A stand of juniper, as it’s referred to by most people in coastal N.C., is a unique and valuable habitat, especially for migratory songbirds,” said Kendall Smith, private lands biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Columbia, S.C. “Even in mixed stands, it’s an important component that is missing in many of our wetland forests.”

In North Carolina, cedar swamp nesters include prairie, prothonotary and hooded warblers; ovenbirds; and yellow-throats. Cedar swamp ecosystems support a higher density of nesting birds than maple-gum forests, nearly twice as high. Cedar swamps are also prime habitat for endangered swamp pinks, fringed orchids, turkey-beard and curly-grass fern, among others.

Stands of cedar also help prevent erosion and improve water quality by providing filtration, preventing nutrient and water clarity problems that plague oysters and other coastal animals, a prime concern of the federation’s.

The Deal

The federation and the Fish and Wildlife Service found that they had dovetailing goals, so they formed a partnership. Using service money, they are looking for private landowners with appropriate soils who want to plant juniper AWC their property. They’re looking to plant 50 acres for this phase of the project.

If you have the right kind of site, the federation and service will pay 80 percent of the cost to plant the trees and perform the maintenance needed to establish them.  The landowner’s share could be in-kind services to plant and maintain the stand.

The 50 acres don’t need to be on one plot of land. While they prefer larger tracts, the partners will consider smaller parcels.

Project sites must be wetlands or former wetlands capable of being restored.  They must also have supported juniper in the past.  If prospective landowners contact the federation or the Fish and Wildlife Service, we can use soil types, fertility, and existing vegetation to make this determination.  The federation would work with the landowner and service staff to develop a project plan, and the state Forest Service will provide the trees.

As coastal residents either brace themselves for it or embrace it, the number of visitors hitting the coast swells rapidly every year, with a dramatic uptick around Easter. It only increases from there, long through the fall. Though they also bring traffic, tourists are the economic lifeblood of many coastal communities, a fact highlighted and quantified by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in their 2011 State of the Coast Report’s Southeastern regional section.

North Carolina’s commercial fisheries lead the Southeast Region in catch value. Photo: Alyssa Ploeger.

“Southeast,” as defined by NOAA, means North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. While the state designates 20 counties as “coastal” for the purposes of policy and management, NOAA‘s report covers 34, encompassing all of the coastal watershed counties.

Here’s a summary of what the report found.

Population Density

Twenty-three percent of the state’s population, or 2.2 million people, lives in these 34 counties.

New Hanover County, with 1,058 people per square mile, is sixth in the Southeast Region for population density—the other five are, predictably, in Florida. The average U.S. population density, excluding Alaska, is 104 people per square mile.

And these numbers don’t reflect the influx of visitors who come to the coast annually. According to Dare County Cooperative Extension, that county on the northeast coast has a year-round population of about 29,000, but it swells to 225,000 during the tourist season, a nine-fold increase. In Carteret County in the central coast, the resident population of 62,000 quadruples to about 248,000 during the summer and fall.

Economy: Big-time Fishing

The report highlights the significant economic value that fishing, both commercial and recreational, have for the coast and the state in general. North Carolina’s commercial fisheries lead the Southeast Region in catch value. North Carolina’s recreational fisheries are second in the region, behind Florida’s, with approximately 608,000 trips in 2010. One thing is certain, people come for the fish.

“This report underscores the importance of managing coastal fisheries and habitats for sustainable harvest not just for the betterment of North Carolina’s economy but for the entire South Atlantic coast,” said Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. “North Carolina’s coastal fish stocks supply a lucrative commercial and recreational fishing industry that adds more than $2 billion to the state’s economy each year. However, many of the species that migrate along the South Atlantic coast use North Carolina’s waters for a portion of their life cycle.”

“Fishing isn’t cheap,” notes Anna Beckwith, co-owner of Pamlico Guide, a charter fishing company, and member of the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission. “Even a few hooks, weights, a tub of bait shrimp and saltwater fishing license and you may get change from a hundred dollar bill. Buy a rod and reel while you’re here and you may spend several hundred dollars to well over a thousand. Those big sportfishing boats may spend that much in fuel alone on a day trip. Throw in the dollars spent in fine restaurants, hotels or house rentals, not to mention the people that build those boats and the captains and guides that work on them and the economic impact is immense.

With good fisheries management, improving water quality and fish stocks and fishing regulations that are generous enough to justify all of these expenditures, more and more people are coming to the coast and they aren’t just coming from western North Carolina, Beckwith said.

“With world-class fishing opportunities from the back waters to the Big Rock, big-spending fishermen are coming to the Crystal Coast from around the country and the globe and they are leaving their dollars behind,” she said.

Economy:  But It’s More Than Fish

Those who flock to the coast come for many other reasons, too.

“North Carolina’s 300 miles of coastline are a vital part of our state’s tourism product,” said Lynn Minges, assistant Commerce secretary for Tourism. “Our natural scenic beauty paired with unique attractions like the wild horses on the Outer Banks, the watery grave of Blackbeard’s flagship and the spiraling staircases of our coastal lighthouses draw families to our coast year after year.”

Economy: Workforce

Wages paid in coastal North Carolina totaled approximately $78 million in 2010. This added considerable tax revenue to the state’s coffers. NOAA reports that regionally, the Southeast coast contributed more than $600 billion to the U.S. gross national product.

The report confirms what Todd Miller has always preached: Preserving the coast’s natural resources is protecting its economic vitality. “I’ve never thought of our coast as some hands-off museum piece,” says Miller, the executive director and founder of the N.C. Coastal Federation and a coastal native. “We want people to visit the coast, to experience its natural beauty. We want them to be able to live here and make their livings off the coast. But we have to do all that responsibly, in ways that don’t threaten the coast’s natural beauty and, as this report shows, its economic vitality.”

OCEAN – It’s a fun, family-friendly event full of beautiful native plants; coastal artists and craftsmen; entertainment and special guests. You’ll want to spend the day at the N.C. Coastal Federation’s annual Native Plant Festival on Saturday, April 28. (Or become a member of the federation and get a sneak peek the day before.)

The festival takes place at federation headquarters, 3609 N.C. 24 in Ocean – about halfway between Morehead City and Swansboro – from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The members-only preview takes place Friday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. You can become a member on-site that day if you wish.

“Each year the festival gets bigger and better,” said Rose Rundell, a federation administrative assistant and the festival’s primary organizer. “It’s taken on life of its own.”

Come early to beat the crowds and to get the best pick of the plants.

The festival has several new features this year. Special guest Dr. Orrin Pilkey will offer discussions and answer questions about global climate change during the festival and during the members-only preview. Pilkey is director emeritus of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, now at Western Carolina University, and the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. He recently published a new book, Global Climate Change: A Primer.

A lively and sought-after speaker, Pilkey is sure to challenge and entertain. He will discuss and sign his new book on Friday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. On Saturday he’ll also be on hand from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Craftsmen and artists will surround the federation grounds with hand-crafted pottery, jewelry, baskets, bird houses and art. Popular folk artist Frank Gaines will entertain with songs and ballads. Hungry festival-goers can enjoy fresh-baked muffins and deli sandwiches from Garden Gate Deli.

Saturday afternoon, Second Wind Ecotours and Yoga Studio of Swansboro will offer an afternoon session of Qi Gong from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Dea Daniels, a registered nurse, will conduct the session, which is appropriate for most physical levels. Qi Gong is a powerful system of healing and energy medicine from China that uses breathing techniques, gentle movement and focus to cleanse, strengthen and circulate life energy. The session is free, but donations will be accepted.

Festival goers buy plants by the wheel barrow full.

Of course, the main attraction is the almost 4,000 native plants, flowers, shrubs and trees that will be available for sale. Native plants have evolved over thousands of years in a particular region. Coastal natives, for instance, have adapted to the geography, hydrology and climate of the region and will thrive with less care. Native plants also provide habitat for a variety of  wildlife species such as songbirds and butterflies, turning your yard into a haven.

Native plants also provide a beautiful, hardy, drought-resistant, low-maintenance landscape that benefits the environment. Once established, they save time and money by eliminating or significantly reducing the need for fertilizers, pesticides and water.

This year’s plant collection offers the best-sellers of festivals past, including fruit-bearing shrubs and trees. Black cherry trees, elderberry, blueberry and persimmon trees do well in our coastal area and will be available. Local food doesn’t get more local than your own backyard.

Federation members get a sneak peek at the massive plant assortment on Friday, April 27, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., an early opportunity to buy plants and a chance to meet and chat with Pilkey. Members are required to show their membership card for admittance. Guests and visitors may join on-site or online at the federation’s Web site.

To learn more about the Native Plant Festival or to join the federation and attend the Members’ Preview, look at the list of plants and artists below or call 252-393-8185.

• List of available plants
• List of artists, craftspeople

The unaltered marshes of Bear Island teem with wildlife and are one of the few reminders of what barrier island ecosystems are supposed to look like. Photo: Sam Bland.

Almost any time of year, one of my favorite places to be is on Bear Island. But my dedication to the place pales in comparison to that of Sam Bland, my coworker here at the federation. I haven’t been able to get out there yet this year, so I decided to pick his brain (and swipe some of his fantastic photos).

Sam is built for speed; there’s not an extra ounce on his spare frame. He sits in the lumpy chair across from me, speaking in quiet tones about the place he spent more than 20 years protecting in his prior career as the superintend and ranger at Hammocks Beach State Park and still spends as much time as possible, just visiting. His face lights up as he talks; it’s a pleasure to listen.

Between us, we’ve been to Bear Island thousands of times. By that, I mean I’ve been there maybe a dozen and he accounts for the rest, but who’s counting?

First, the basics: Bear Island is part of Hammocks Beach, which is off N.C. 24 in Swansboro, on the central part of the coast. The 892-acre, undeveloped barrier island has more than three miles of oceanfront, and backs up to a wonderland of marsh and tidal creeks. It’s a prime example of what a barrier island should be. In other words, Emerald Isle, it ain’t.

The island played starring roles in Indian culture, pirate lore and the Civil War, before becoming a beach for African Americans during segregation. The park has a good accounting of the rich history of the island here.

The island has primitive camping all year and water and restrooms open March through October. You reserve and pay for your campsite online—the website was down for a while this winter, but it’s active again now. If you don’t book online, you will likely be out of luck. There are 14 camping sites that will hold up to six people each. Three are on the marsh side, the rest on the ocean, tucked in the first line of dunes and they’re all $13 a night.
There are no roads to the island, so you have to get there by water, either on the park ferry or your own personal water craft.  This limits the number of people out there—a huge bonus in my book.

The ferry begins to run again Friday. It’s first-come, first-served, so even though you reserve your campsite online, you still need to go into the visitor center, register and buy a ferry ticket ($5 for adults, $3 for children and people over 62). Come early, or you may be waiting around.

Pack lightly if going by ferry—you will need to schlep your belongings anywhere from a half to a little over a mile along the trail to your

Look closely at the marsh grass. Periwinkles abound. Photo: Sam Bland

When I go, we paddle, and most of the time when Sam goes now, he paddles, so I’ll focus on that.

If you’re kayaking, you still need to park and register, show them ID and your reservation and give them your car tag number. They have a cart, if you need help hauling your boat down to the dock. They also have a nifty launching tube on the dock. Once you’re in it, you can slide yourself right on into the water, very smoothly.

Check the tides before you go. Low tide is very low, and when it’s down you will not make it to the lagoon at the end of the trail; you will find yourself stuck until the water comes back in.

Once you cut across the Intracoastal Waterway, the Bear Island paddle trail is clearly defined with orange markers. Don’t follow the yellow ones unless you want to circle nearby Huggins Island.  It’s gorgeous, but takes you through six miles of meandering marsh. Very impressive, granted, but if you’re headed for the campsite, you’re better off meandering on the orange path.

The trail takes you along tidal creeks through the marsh, with crabs skittering and birds calling throughout the trip. The trail ends at a lagoon. Pull out by the park sign. Campsites 7, 8 and 9 are just a short haul through a cut in the dune after you land. For this reason, they’re also the first to be reserved.

The inland landscape contains both maritime forest and sand dunes. While the shore is the right place for sunset and moon rise, the high (well, high for the coast) inland dunes are the place to take a blanket and sky watch. While full moon nights are popular, Sam prefers the new moon; the lack of light pollution almost guarantees that you’ll see shooting stars, even if you’re not there for the Perseids.

Sam has a warning, though—two, actually. First, there are cacti on the island that will laugh at your flip flops as they stab their way to your feet. Bring sturdy shoes or you’ll sport puncture holes on the way home.

Also, there is almost always a breeze on the island, which feels great. Occasionally, however, there is not. If you’re stretched out stargazing when the wind dies down, bloodthirsty bugs of all descriptions will descend upon you, so bring bug spray, the tough stuff.  Sam tells a fine tale of being driven so crazy by mosquitoes and no see ‘ems that he had to jump up and run into the ocean at 3 a.m. one night in his PJs.

Of course, Sam being Sam, this led to him discovering the joys of bioluminescence, which peaks in the shallow waters off Bear Island in late spring and early summer. The small sea creatures light up when they brush by. I’ve seen it, and it’s magical. The bioluminescence, I mean, not Sam in PJs.

Through the marshes, birds abound. Egrets stalk elegantly, poised to strike their prey if only we would paddle on by. An osprey takes a dive into the water and emerges with half a fish sticking out of its beak. Terns do the same, though with more frequency and less success. Also smaller splashes. In the spring, migratory colonial shore birds will show up to nest on the exposed beaches at the point, including hundreds of least terns, Wilson’s plovers and others. Sam says the flocks, which nest together on the flat sand at the point of the island, make great photo subjects.

If you watch the water as you paddle the marshes, you may see a cow-nosed ray—they hide in the creek bottoms, coming in on the tides. Shrimp and various fish are also plentiful.

Bottlenose dolphins are always good for a show. Photo: Sam Bland

And charismatic mega-fauna—Bear Island’s got ‘em.  I’ve seen bottlenose dolphins most of the times I’ve visited, and Sam has not only seen them, but taken some striking pictures. We’ve put one on this page. The dolphins cruise the ocean shoreline, and there are few beach sites that generate such excitement for visitors.

And turtles. Bear Island hosts between 20 and 30 loggerhead sea turtle nests each year. The mama turtles lay their eggs in mid-to late-May, and the hatchlings emerge and make a run for the sea August to October. Rangers mark and watch the sites, and volunteers come to watch over the nests and to try to protect the tiny turtles from those that want to snack upon them, such as ghost crabs, raccoons and foxes.

No fires are allowed on the island. I like a good campfire as much as most, but in this case, it makes good sense. If a fire starts, there is no way to put it out, so, in Sam’s words, “the whole thing would go up.” That’s what happened in 1945, when the maritime forest was destroyed. The park learned the lesson.

While I’m at it, there is also no alcohol allowed in the park, and Sam says to tell you that big scary rangers will find you and take it away if you bring it.

By the time we’re done talking, I’m itching to look at the weather and the site reservations to see if I can get myself out there this weekend.  I think he is, too. He looks off into the middle distance. “When I’m there, I’m home,” he says. “It brings me joy.”

The joy part: Me, too, Sam—me, too.

The tracks of baby turtles in the sand on Bear Island. Photo: Sam Bland

The map show the acreage at North River Farms in Carteret County that the N.C. Coastal Federation and its partners bought. The tracts marked 1 and 2 are own by the federation.

The N.C. Coastal Federation and a dizzying array of partners are restoring hydrology and wetlands on thousands of acres of ditched and drained agricultural land at two large-scale projects along the state’s coast.

Through these projects, multiple generations of farmers, fishers, business people, government officials, scientists and conservationists are revisiting the way they work the land, realizing that wetlands serve valuable economic and environmental functions as reclaimed wetlands restore and ensure the productivity of coastal fisheries, farming and hunting.

Jan Deblieu described the work in Hyde County in two articles a couple of weeks ago. Here’s we’ll focus on the other large-scale site, North River Farms in eastern Carteret County.

Wet, Productive Places

Much of the land east of Interstate-95 in eastern North Carolina is wet. These wetlands are characterized by bottomland hardwood forests, “swamps on the hill” that the Native Americans called pocosins and brackish and saltwater marshes that fringe 2.1 million acres of coastal estuaries. These wetlands are home an astounding variety of wildlife: black bears, ducks, geese, swans, wading birds, shorebirds, raptors, red-cockaded woodpeckers, river otters, American alligators, red wolves, deer, raccoons, rabbits, snakes and neo-tropical migrating birds. They also support numerous species of plants – many that are considered endangered or threatened – and extremely productive marine fisheries that depend upon a delicate balance of fresh and salt water.

Over the past three centuries, much of the land in eastern North Carolina was progressively ditched and drained to promote intensive farming, forestry and other land uses. As the acreage of wetlands declined, so did the wildlife and fisheries that depended upon these habitats as shelter and for good water quality.

The federation is focused exclusively on promoting the health of the coastal environment and economy. In 1999, we began to work on a large-scale wetland restoration project, at North River Farms, aimed at restoring hydrology on drained farmlands. The restoration project is strategically located to benefit coastal water quality and fisheries habitats, such as oyster reefs.

The goal of the restoration project is to replicate, as much as possible, historical hydrology to improve the water quality of adjacent coastal waters. Restoration work for both farms involves continued meetings with stakeholders for design approval, obtaining permits, securing contractors to plug or fill farm ditches, contouring land, creating impoundments for peak flow mitigation, planting thousands of trees and shrubs and installing water-control structures. The project will redirect pumped agricultural drainage from being directly discharged into the prime shellfish waters of North River, Ward Creek and Core Sound into newly restored wetlands that will retain, filter and provide natural treatment of the runoff.

Oyster landings had dropped dramatically in the state over the past 100 years. Loss of wetlands and declining water quality are among the major reasons for these declines. Promoting healthy oysters by restoring wetlands encourages enhanced water quality two ways: The quality, volume and rate of runoff into estuaries is conducive to oyster growth, and each oyster in more productive oyster reefs filters and cleans up to 50 gallons of water each day as it feeds.

The project is also a hive of research activity. At least three generations of faculty and students from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at North Carolina State University have started and continued their careers at the project site. In the beginning, they worked with landowners to devise drainage methods. Now, they are testing the most efficient and cost-effective wetland restoration methods. One of our main restoration design engineers, Dr. Mike Burchell, has published extensively about his work at North River Farms and funded multiple graduate students. Faculty and students at Duke University’s Marine Laboratory can say the same–one professor, Dr. Bill Kirby-Smith, has monitored water quality there for more than 15 years.

Research at the Farms

The 6,000-acre North River Farms serves of the headwaters for several tidal creeks that drain into Core Sound. The federation started the project in 1999 when it bought 1,991 acres of the farm. Then in 2002, we bought another 2,168 acres. The federation paid $4.1 million for the land with grants then-new N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund. We then worked with partners to secure the rest of the farm in 2002: An environmental restoration and mitigation company bought 386 of the remaining acres and a private hunting club purchased 1,435 acres.

Students at Vanderbilt University plant trees at North River Farms.

Since that time, 3,426 acres have been restored and preserved as fresh, forested and tidal wetlands and tidal streams. The remaining land will be restored in the next few years as farming operations phase out on the final acreage of the farm. About 1,750 acres of the farms have been placed under easement by the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetland Reserve Program, and another 2,100 acres of the farm will be under the program’s easement this year.

N.C. State research at North River Farms will continue through this year with money from a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The federation is also partnering with the U.S. Geological Survey and scientists at N.C. State and Duke University to measure how much carbon from greenhouse gas emissions is being taken up by the plants in our restored salt marshes. It will be the first attempt to measure what effects the restoration of wetlands at the farm might have on climate change. Salt marsh plants, like all plants, take up or “sequester” carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, converting it and water to sugar and oxygen. According to a United Nations’ study, salt marshes, along with seagrasses and mangroves, are among the most significant carbon “sinks” on earth, capturing and storing carbon emissions equal to about one-half of the carbon dioxide emitted each year by global transportation sources. This new research and partnership will measure greenhouse gases released from the soils at the restored North River Farms site and will relate these measurements to salinity, vegetation type and the global carbon budget. This work will provide data on carbon sequestration in restored salt marshes that have previously been omitted from national evaluations of carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions.

Lessons Learned So Far

Partners and Strange Bedfellows: The More, the Merrier
The federation has discovered that once one agency signs on, other agencies’ interests will be piqued. Everyone likes to be part of a successful project, and a vote of confidence from one provides reassurance. After the project reaches a certain critical mass, the funding and funding sources snowball. These projects benefitted from funds from dozens of federal, state, local, and private groups (see accompanying story for details).

Getting Partners Onboard
Demonstrating how your project meets an agency’s mission, trust resources and other partners’ goals is critical to getting partners onboard. For instance, habitat for migratory birds in an important flyway brings in a program of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program. The quantifiable water quality benefits bring in EPA and the Clean Water Management Trust Fund. The restoration itself brings in the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Wetlands Reserve Program and Restore America’s Estuaries and others.

For the farmers, the restoration meets multiple goals, too: it builds in “breathing room,” allowing them to get out ahead of regulation of the runoff many of them anticipate producing. The work helps prevent the saltwater intrusion that is poisoning their fields as time progresses. The restoration also provides supplementary income from selling the conservation easements and performing the restoration that  partners pay for.

Once people start hearing about the projects, momentum builds. The work has garnered substantial in-kind resources in owner donations and volunteer sweat equity, sometimes multigenerational. At North River, one volunteer has passed his love of the project on to his daughters.

Eric Pake’s first job out of high school in the 1980s was to help drain and clear the farm. Later, as an adult, he took up fishing and watched over time as water quality and catches declined in the North River and Ward Creek. When he discovered that the federation and our partners were restoring the farm to improve water quality, he was one of the first to sign up to help. He’s driven tractors, planted trees and done all manner of other work and has gotten his two then-teenaged daughters involved as well. Pake also reports that both fishing and oystering have improved in the six years of restoration. And that indeed may be the case: in 2007, the state agency charged with monitoring the health of shellfish for harvest reopened to shellfishing 124 acres of North River adjacent to our restoration work.

Relationships and Mutual Trust Must Develop Over Time

Be prepared for project timelines measured in terms of decades, rather than months or years. This scale of restoration requires patience and persistence on everyone’s part. Once the relationships are there, the strangest bedfellows can become one’s biggest and most effective advocates. The farming and the environmental communities have often been at odds in North Carolina. We have managed to overcome that history.

Reducing Volume Is More Effective Than Reducing Sources

The sources of bacteria that contaminate the coastal waters have always been there, and they (birds and other wildlife) are not going away, at least not in any way that would not cause a public furor. Fortunately, no extermination is necessary. The drainage pattern has changed and because of it, these sources are no longer settling into the ground to be filtered out before they slowly make their way toward coastal waters. Instead they are concentrated and flushed out through canals within hours, transporting all in their path.

Bigger Is Not Always Better

At North River Farms, N.C. State designed an intensive test of three different restoration techniques varying in complexity and cost (from least to most): simply plugging the ditches, filling the ditches or removing the crest and contouring the field. Based on their analysis from 2003-2008, they determined that, among other things, that there were no statistically significant differences between the simplest and the most complex. This has large implications in the practice of wetlands restoration, and allows us to maximize our ongoing efforts.

North River Farms Partners

The groups and people who have partnered with the federation on the North River Farms restoration are:

Farmers, Restoration Systems LLC, Wildlife Partners LLC, the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, EPA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Restore America’s Estuaries, Natural Resources Conservation Service, N.C. State University, Duke Uniiversity, N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program, multigenerational volunteers, U. S. Geological Survey, county Extension agencies, , Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program, private foundations, N.C. Coastal Land Trust, the N.C. Attorney General’s Office of Environmental Enhancement Grants, The Nature Conservancy, Fish American Foundation and National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.