RIEGLEWOOD — Fifteen feet above the water and perched on a two-foot wide gate, Ranger Tom Charles swiftly spins one of eight wheels that raise and lower the butterfly valves that help to regulate water flow at Cape Fear Lock and Dam No. 1.  “It is still a manual operation,” he smiles.  “Just like when the lock was built.”

Fortunately for Charles and the other lockmasters, opening and closing of the gates is now automated.  “Before, the lockmaster had to use a large key that acted like an Allen wrench to manually work the gates.”  The automation cut the time nearly in half for locking a vessel through.

The 200-mile-long, murky and mysterious Cape Fear River finds its start at the confluence of the Deep and Haw Rivers in Chatham County, just below the Jordan Lake Dam. From there, the river meanders slowly through the sandhills to the coast through Fayetteville down to Wilmington.

In the early days of Colonial America, the river was the major transportation route to the interior from the coast. Today, the river is only navigable from Wilmington to Fayetteville, thanks to the three locks and dams that provide a deep channel for boat traffic.

Before the first lock and dam was built by the U.S. War Department in 1915, only shallow drift paddlewheel vessels could make their way upriver and down, while large, flat–bottom barges and rafts carried goods downstream from Fayetteville.

Lock and Dam No. 1 is on a curve at King’s Bluff in Bladen County, a few miles west of East Arcadia and Riegelwood and 43 nautical miles north of Wilmington. Construction began in 1911 and was completed in 1915 at a cost of about $2.4 million. The 20-foot wide and 200-foot long lock structure included an eight-foot lift, which was increased to 11 feet in 1934, with the first of only three major renovations.

A total of three locks and dams were built and are operated by the Army Corps of Engineers. All are in Bladen County. Lock and Dam No. 2 at Browns Landing in Elizabethtown was built in 1917, and the William O. Huske Lock and Dam completed in 1935 are at Tolar’s Landing, just south of the Cumberland County line.

Each lock and dam included two lockmaster homes. The lockmasters and their families lived on site, manning and maintaining the locks. Today, only one house remains at each location. The 100-year-old white clapboard house at Lock and Dam No. 1 is used for offices and a small environmental education center.

In the early years of the navigation structures, traffic on the river averaged close to 500,000 tons annually and included mostly barges hauling pulpwood and petroleum products to the coast. The commercial traffic steadily dwindled to a few vessels a year after 1995, but recreational traffic has seen an increase since then.

“Boaters can put in at Fayetteville at sunrise and be down to Carolina Beach by sunset,” said Charles, a park ranger for all three locations. “These locks still make the river navigable from Fayetteville to the coast, just like they were intended for 100 years ago.”

Major renovations at Lock and Dam No. 1 were completed in the 1930s and 1960s, but the most recent renovation that drew national recognition was the installation of a “rock arch ridge” in 2013 to serve as a fish passage for the species that move upriver to spawn. A new fishing pier with adjacent parking was also added.

Over the last century populations of many native migratory fish populations in the Cape Fear River, including striped bass, shad, river herring, Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon have declined by as much as 90 percent. Much of this decline was attributed to the loss of spawning habitat caused by the construction of the three large lock and dam facilities.

“The pools above the locks and dams are used for water intake for municipal water supplies downstream, so the dams cannot be destroyed,” Charles said. The rock arch ridge provides a viable solution to returning fisheries to the natural state. The first of its size along the East Coast, the success of the fish passage is being tracked by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

“Before the ridge, we were manually locking the fish upriver to spawn,” Charles said.  “We would open the lower gate, attract the fish in, and lift them.” This manual operation lasted from March to May during the traditional fish spawning season. Now, the fish migrate naturally upriver through the rock arch ridge, which includes pooling areas for the fish to rest during the trip.

The Cape Fear River Watch has partnered with the Corps of Engineers in a formal cooperative agreement since 2013. Kay Lynn Plummer-Hernandez is a wildlife biologist and serves as the education coordinator for the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch. “With the construction of the rock arch rapids complete, we advocate for fish passage at Lock and Dams 2 and 3 in order for anadromous fish, including the striped bass, to reach their original spawning grounds.”

Another recent addition to the King’s Bluff facility is an interpretive boardwalk along the river just north of the lock. The elevated boardwalk allows visitors to walk into a bottomland hardwood forest that serves many critical roles in the habitat and ecology of the lower Cape Fear River Basin.

The boardwalk was funded with the assistance of International Paper Co., which operates the nearby Riegelwood Mill, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and included creation of a large rain garden at the center of the newly constructed parking lot near the river.

“Interpretive signs will be placed along the boardwalk shortly, and that will complete a plan enabling groups to experience one-hour tours of the rock arch rapids, the rain garden and the boardwalk, with an option to have tours led by Cape Fear River Watch,” Plummer-Hernandez said.

RIEGELWOOD — On Saturday, Oct 3, the Lock and Dam No. 1 will officially celebrate its centennial. Festivities include guided tours, exhibits, games, and food. Gates open at 10 am.

Ranger Tom Charles looks forward to a large crowd.  “This is a great opportunity to show the public what Lock and Dam No. 1 has to offer.”

Kay Lynn Plummer-Hernandez is a wildlife biologist and serves as the education coordinator for the nonprofit Cape Fear River Watch.

“I am excited to celebrate the partnership, the volunteers that keep things moving there, and the Cape Fear River at the Centennial Event,” Plummer-Hernandez said. “There is a lot to celebrate, considering that an economist from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates an annual boost to our economy of $5.5 million if the striped bass population recovers and the fishery re-opens.”

Exhibits, Activities and Tours

Roger Shew, a professor of geology, oceanography and environmental science at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and also a board member of Cape Fear River Watch, will lead boardwalk tours.

The N.C. Wildlife and Resource Commission’s 300-gallon mobile aquarium and live animals from the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher will be on display.

New Hanover and Brunswick County cooperative extension services and the Cape Fear River Partnership will have booths.

Members of the Cape Fear River Watch education committee will host fun and educational activities for children and offer prizes for corn hole competitors.  Two local vendors will sell food at the event.

Facilities include a concrete boat-launching ramp, fishing pier, elevated boardwalk, comfort station, water fountains, picnic tables, charcoal grills, a picnic shelter and canoe access steps for portage around the dam during off hours. These facilities are available free of charge and are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Directions

Lock and Dam No. 1 is at Kings Bluff, about 39 miles north of Wilmington. Lock and Dam No. 1 is accessible to public use via state road 1734, Lock No. 1 Road from N.C. Highway 87. The address is 996 Lock No. 1 Road, Riegelwood, N.C. 28456. Phone: 910-655-2605.

KURE BEACH — It is no secret that the southeastern coast of North Carolina is home to a complex and biologically diverse ecosystem – a mix of dense forest, grassy lowlands and essential river systems that enter sensitive estuaries. It is also known that this area is one of the fastest growing in the country and is threatened by constant development.

It wasn’t until recently, however, that a team of researchers from three environmental groups uncovered a well-hidden secret: The immense variety of wildlife living in and traveling along a green highway – a stretch of several thousand acres surrounding the Northeast Cape Fear River between New Hanover and Pender counties.

This secret is on display this summer in the Spadefish Gallery at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The Northeast Cape Fear River Wildlife Exhibit, a combination of print and digital displays, showcases an assortment of the 31 species captured by cameras over a two-year period.

More than 100 images were printed on two-foot square mounts and include wild turkey, deer, bear, raccoon, coyote, bobcat, fox, snakes and birds. Color prints were made from daytime shots and black-and-white prints from the night shots. There is a young bobcat prowling near a beaver dam, a unique hybrid wild turkey with brown and red feathers and a 500-pound bear scratching his back on a tree.

Ron Sutherland is a conservation scientist with the Wildlands Network in Durham and was involved with the photography project. “We wondered what would happen if we could document the wildlife in an extended area around Wilmington,” he said.

This extended area faces a triple threat: urban sprawl from Wilmington along Interstate 40, possible contaminants from a former chromium mine that is now an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site and the proposed construction of a Titan America cement plant in Castle Hayne.

“The corridor is one of the most threatened natural areas on the East Coast. It is a critical wildlife link that people should know about,” Sutherland said.

He teamed with Kemp Burdette, riverkeeper with the Cape Fear River Watch, a nonprofit organization founded in 1993 to protect and improve the water quality of the Lower Cape Fear River Basin and Mike Giles, a coastal advocate with the N.C. Coastal Federation.

“The project was a great success,” Sutherland said. “I never imagined we would get so many images that are so clear. It is really amazing.”

The project began in January 2013, when the team surveyed the area searching for game trails and signs of wildlife. Next, they installed 24 Reconyx PC900 wildlife cameras along a 10-mile stretch of the river. Locations included private and state lands and property owned by the Coastal Land Trust.

The cameras took pictures every fifth of a second. Twelve of the cameras were placed on land reachable by vehicle or by foot, the other 12 were placed in areas only reachable by boat. All were mounted between two and three feet from the ground, at animal level.

The cameras were checked every three to four months and for safety reasons were always visited by a team of two or three people.

“One morning, an intern reached down to pull the boat closer and was inches away from a cottonmouth,” Giles, said during an interview in the gallery, as he pointed to a colorful print of an extremely large snake coiled and ready to pounce.

The weather-proof cameras were equipped with eight-gigabyte memory cards and rechargeable batteries that were exchanged on the visits. The cameras captured well over 50,000 clear and usable images of just what goes on in the forest when no one is looking

Giles said he was right at home during the project. The Charlotte native and N.C. State University alumnus grew up hunting and fishing and spending a lot of time outdoors.“This was really exciting,” he said. “We were really fortunate to have captured images of some amazing native species.”

Giles was excited not only with the captured images of the species, but also the glimpses into their behavior. His favorite? The black bear.

“We couldn’t believe how many images we had of some really large bears doing things we normally don’t see bears doing. Night and day, we saw how they all moved around the habitat,” Giles said.

The cameras also captured visitors of the human variety – hunters, kayakers, hikers and people riding horseback – captured by the cameras, which operate nearly silently and use an infrared flash as to have minimal impact.

“Most unusual were the pictures of the animals looking at the camera,” Sutherland said. “It makes you wonder, is it possible they were alerted by the vibrations?”

Everyone involved agreed the results of the project document how the area serves as an important wildlife corridor connecting the more than 17,000-acre Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County to the 75,000-acre Holly Shelter Game Lands in Pender County.

On a larger scale, the area may also connect habitats ranging from the Francis Marion National Forest in South Carolina and the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge in Columbus County all the way north to the Croatan National Forest in Carteret and Craven counties and the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in the northeastern part of the state.

“This green and blue patch is vital not only for habitat, but for species interchange from Hyde County to South Carolina,” Giles said. “Now we have to take this show on the road and educate the public. We need to show this unique stretch of land that is under threat. At the very least, our legislators need to see these images. The proposed expansion of the Titan cement plant alone would impact over 3,000 acres of this area.”

N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher Director Peggy Sloan said she was pleased to partner with the N.C. Coastal Federation on the project.

”Each day, our guests make valuable connections to animals found along the waters of the Cape Fear River, from fresh water streams to the open ocean,” she said. “Hosting the exhibit offers an additional opportunity to learn about local wildlife and the importance of preserving natural areas right in our own backyard — our guests will see in these dynamic photographs so many different animals they may not expect.”

The exhibit is to be formally dedicated at the aquarium in July. After the three-month run, the team hopes the exhibit will travel to the other state aquariums at Pine Knoll Shores and Roanoke Island.

Meanwhile back in Durham, Sutherland is optimistic others will get to see the images.

“We’d love to have this exhibit come to the Triangle,” he said.

The exhibit will remain at the N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher, 900 Loggerhead Rd., Kure Beach, until September. For hours and admission prices, visit www.ncaquariums.com.

WILMINGTON — Nestled on 65 acres of the nearly 3,200-acre Eagles Island, the USS North Carolina has long been a favorite destination for North Carolinians. She sits in a muddy berth, permanently moored in a hurricane-protected slip, surrounded by a salty tidal pool.

The nearly 75-year old battleship is both a national historic landmark, a local historic treasure that attracts more than 250,000 visitors a year and a vivid reminder of service and sacrifice.

“Most importantly, she is the memorial for the 10,000 men and women from North Carolina who served and died during World War II,” noted Capt. Terry Bragg, a Jacksonville native who took the helm in 2009 as the battleship’s executive director.

But the old girl needs immediate attention. Since arriving at her berth across from Wilmington’s waterfront in 1961, wind and water at the tide line have left the hull paper-thin in places and in danger of giving way. Her last major dry docking and repair work was done in 1944 while she was still engaged in the war in the Pacific.

The Generation Campaign was launched in April to finish raising the $17 million needed to replace sections of the steel hull, to add a walkway around the ship and a new education and nature trail on Eagles Island.

The ship, really a city at sea, is a handful, with over 100 tanks, thousands of meters of piping and appurtenances. The ship undergoes annual state and federal inspections, and painting and repairs take place year-round. “We are constantly monitoring our systems,” says Bragg, a retired Navy captain with more than 30 years of service.

The Navy retains proprietary interest in the ship as a heritage site in perpetuity. Its contract with the state requires that North Carolina maintain the battleship in good condition for visitors. The Navy conducts a thorough annual inspection for compliance.

“When the Navy ‘donated’ the Battleship to North Carolina back in 1961, it was with the stipulation that the state would maintain it according to naval protocol,” Bragg notes.

In the past few years, the Navy has redefined the standard on how frequently a donation ship should have a major hull repair – a minimum of every 20 years. The Battleship North Carolina hasn’t had one since 1953. During a 2012 repair on the bow hull, it became very obvious that major work was needed.

So Bragg and his team looked at all the options and researched preservation successes around the world. One plan involved a $35 million dollar investment and at a minimum, a one year trip to Virginia for repairs, which would have required the dismantling of the super structure to fit under the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, pulling the ship out of the mud and towing it through unpredictable seas. There was no guarantee that it would survive the journey.

The team decided instead on a safer and less expensive plan that would leave the ship in place and allow her to remain open to the public.

“Basically, we will build a watertight cofferdam, or a steel wall around the ship and then pump the water out to repair the hull,” Bragg explains.

It is a very technical solution that has been approved by the Navy and the state Division of Coastal Management, which issued a CAMA major permit for the work. The cofferdam and steel repairs are estimated to cost nearly $13 million. The dam will remain in place to allow for easy repairs in the future, Bragg adds.

After the repairs to the hull, the 1,700-foot-long cofferdam will sit in the shadows of a new Veteran’s Memorial Walkway to be built all around its exterior. Through a donation from the State Employees’ Credit Union, the 14-foot-wide, 11-foot-tall walkway will provide visitors a panoramic view of the ship, and allow views of the port side that have never before been seen.  At the south end, a 2,800-square-foot uncovered “quarterdeck” is planned, with two 600-square-feet covered pavilions to provide much needed shade for summer visitors.

In addition, the CAMA permit covers a new Expedition Walkway, a 2,300-foot-long, 10-foot-wide boardwalk and adjacent platforms to serve as outdoor classrooms along the river. The battleship is a coalition to preserve Eagles Island, and Bragg and his team have worked closely with other members to design a plan that would benefit everyone.

Dawn York is president of the Cape Fear River Watch. She is excited about the new project. “Cape Fear River Watch will be able to engage the public in riverine field activities including monitoring water quality, observing sea level rise effects, recording native versus invasive marsh plants and providing a framework for fisheries restoration discussions,” she explains.

York thinks the battleship has proven its commitment to conserving and managing the natural and cultural assets of Eagles Island, one of the last remaining freshwater tidal marshes in the state, by developing the new walkway.

“The battleship, under the direction of Captain Terry Bragg, is North Carolina’s biggest environmental steward and has repeatedly demonstrated support for Cape Fear River Watch and the environment in general,” she says. “The battleship is a model for ecotourism in the state by maintaining its mission of representing our history as well as preserving local native estuarine habitat important to many species in southeast North Carolina.”

Cape Fear River Watch is a partner for the walkway and has developed a proposal for an educational kiosk that would provide hands-on activities for young people to engage in the outdoor natural setting of Eagles Island.

The island is a part of the Brunswick River and Cape Fear River marshes — one of the largest and most exemplary tidal freshwater marsh complexes in the state, notes Michael Schafale, a terrestrial ecologist for the state’s Natural Heritage Program. “The marshes are home to a number of rare species, including the only place remaining in the state for one, the rare skipper (Problema bulenta), and one of only two remaining habitats for another, the Carolina bishopweed (Ptilimnium ahlesii),” he says.

There are other rare species, including viviparous spikerush (Eleocharis vivipara), white doll’s-daisy (Boltonia asteroids) and riverbank evening primrose (Oenothera riparia).

“Several others have not been seen in many years but might still be present,” Schafale adds. “These include the rainbow snake (Farancia erythrogaster) and diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin).”

Bragg is well aware of the sensitivity of the ecosystem surrounding his workplace. Walking around the deck he is quick to point out a family of American white ibis that has grown up nearby. A biologist at heart, he enjoys the many species visible from the ship. “Our three alligators are Charlie, Charlene and Clyde,” Bragg says. “We see pelicans, osprey and I even saw a blue kingfisher once,” he laughs. “Coincidentally, our plane on deck is a Kingfisher, too.”

And those ibis? “We watched the chicks turn from brown to white,” he smiles.

How to Donate

There are several ways you can give: • Text the word Battleship to the number 41444 • Visit www.battleshipnc.com and click the donate button • Mail a check made out to Friends of the Battleship North Carolina, P.O. Box 480, Wilmington, NC 28402. Please note on the memo line “Generations Campaign.” • Visit the battleship for an onsite donation. If you have further questions on pledges or other ways to give, contact Marty Feurer, Campaign Director, at 910 251-5797 x3019 or at development@battleshipnc.com.

First of two parts 

WRIGTSVILLE BEACH — Ranger Patrick Amico will soon be firing up his four wheeler each morning to slowly scour the nine miles of sandy beaches at the Fort Fisher State Recreation Area for new sea turtle nests that may have been laid overnight.

“From May to September, the first staff member on site always does the turtle run,” he laughs. “I don’t mind at all.”

Turtle-nesting season begins May 1 along the beach of North Carolina, and park rangers and volunteers up and down the coast will begin watching the beaches for the tell-tale signs of activity.

At Fort Fisher, the first item of business is to look for tracks, and when a nest with eggs is discovered, the fun begins. GPS coordinates are recorded and a careful count of eggs is made. One egg is removed and sent out for a DNA study. A cage is installed around the nest to protect from predators, and the monitoring continues until the nest hatches – from 50-60 days later.

In its fourth year, the regional DNA study is returning some interesting data. “For example, one mother has nested at Fort Fisher four times in one season,” Amico says. “Another has laid nests in Florida, South Carolina and Fort Fisher all in one season and a single turtle laid five nests in one season.”

Following the data has been exhilarating for the staff, however there was only one problem: Too many eggs were being lost to predators.

“Predation levels were really devastating to the nests,” says Park Superintendent Jeff Owen.

Birds and ghost crabs have long been a threat to sea turtle nests. At Fort Fisher, red fox and coyote are now disturbing the nests, and eating a large percentage of eggs. Sometimes the animals dug up the nests before the rangers arrived to cage the nests in the morning. Other times, the fox completely undermined the cages to steal the eggs.

The numbers were shocking. In 2009, fox disturbed nine out of 14 nests, or 64 percent. A year later, it dropped to 32 percent, but increased to 42 percent in 2011. “The loss of eggs ranged from a few, to a dozen, to an entire cultch of up to 90 eggs,” Amico says.

It only got worse in 2012. Nineteen of the 30 nests at the park were disturbed by foxes. In one nest 52 eggs were taken. Two nests were a total lost, Amico said.

Amazingly, fox were even coming up to the nests at night, closely approaching the volunteers who were sitting with the nests. “We knew then that we had an extensive problem,” Owen notes. “We knew we had to change tactics.”

Owen joined Fort Fisher in 2008, and had followed a predator management plan that was initiated by the previous park superintendent. “For those first few years, our plan was simply to work to eliminate red fox and coyote from the park only when we saw them,” he says. Admittedly, they had little success.

After extensive research, Owen conferred with Kip Futch, a ranger at neighboring Carolina Beach State Park. Futch had been removing predators for years and agreed to lend a hand down at Fort Fisher.  “We saw evidence of a large canine population in the back dunes,” Futch says. “So we concentrated our efforts there.”

In December of 2012, the increased removal efforts began. Over a 10-day period, 15 fox and two coyote were permanently removed. Concentrated removals have continued twice a year, once in December and again in May before the peak nesting begins.

The fox population has been greatly reduced, Owen said. More importantly, predation levels of sea turtle nests have decreased significantly. “In 2013, only one nest was predated by fox, and in 2014, zero nests were predated,” Amico says.

Owen is amazed at the results. “To have such a sudden decrease in predation levels is incredible,” he said.

The Fort Fisher beach is home to between 15 and 50 nests a year. Each nest typically holds from between 80 to 110 eggs. Helping to ensure that these high numbers of eggs survive to hatch each year goes a long way to ensuring the future of sea turtles along the N.C. coast.  “When we consider that only one in 1,000 hatchlings survive the first year, and only one in 10,000 survive the 25 years until the time they begin to nest on their own, we know that every egg counts,” Owen smiles.

Ever the biologist, Amico is excited as well. “When I worked at Bald Head Island, I saw interns try many different techniques for prevention from spraying bobcat and coyote urine to sprinkling hot pepper and other organic items, but nothing really proved successful – physical removal has given us a great outcome,” he said.

The staff has noticed an additional benefit from removing the fox population. For the first time in nearly a decade, colonial shorebirds have returned to nest at Fort Fisher. “We saw least tern chicks as well as two American oystercatcher chicks,” Amico smiles. “It has been years since these birds were able to successfully hatch chicks on the beach here.”

Tuesday: On the Outer Banks with N.E.S.T.

HOLLY RIDGE — It is a tale as old as time — the story of the birds and the bees. Well. bees, anyway.

Since the beginning, humans have relied on a partnership with nature to survive. So it is only natural that when the tiniest workers in the human food chain are in danger, it is time to give them a little helping hand.

That’s exactly what the students at Dixon Elementary School in Holly Ridge intend to do this spring.

Onslow County’s Dixon Elementary will be home to a new quarter-acre pollinator garden for bees and butterflies, thanks to a partnership with their neighbors at the N.C. Coastal Land Trust. The students will plant native grasses and pollinators like milkweed, asters, purple coneflower, Indian grass, bee balm and wild indigo.

Teacher Kristen McCutcheon is excited about the project. “This is more than a garden. This project has given select students in first through third grade a wonderful opportunity to solve real world sustainability issues,” she said.

“Taking this piece of overgrown land and turning it into something beautiful is a learning experience that will become a lasting memory for these children. And hopefully even for some, be the start of a budding love and interest for the environment around them,” McCutcheon said.

Janice Allen, deputy director of the land trust agrees. “We are very pleased to work with our neighbor to create the pollinator garden,” she said. “It is a great way to get kids involved with nature.”

The land trust owns a 250-acre tract along Everett Creek, across the road from the school. Much of the property is currently being restored to a longleaf pine forest. Now, the land trust will add a pollinator garden as well.

Allen hopes that the partnership will expand to include the school using the Everett Creek property as an outdoor classroom. “The land will serve the extended community as a nature preserve, so it is only natural that it be used for elementary education,” she said.

Recent statistics about the decline in pollinator species are daunting. Honeybee populations have been in steady decline for a decade, and just last year the number of Monarch butterflies migrating south has been the lowest ever recorded. As a result, in 2014, President Obama issued a memorandum to all federal agencies to promote the health of honeybees and other pollinators across the country.

“For Monarch populations to rebound, it is vital that we act now,” said John Ann Shearer, N.C. coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. “So much of their habitat has been lost in our state due to development and regular mowing.”

The Fish and Wildlife Services works regularly with the land trust and is chipping in on the pollinator gardens.

“We were already working with the land trust to restore longleaf pine on private lands,” said Shearer. “We were able to add $33,000 to that cooperative agreement this past December to fund several projects to create pollinator gardens and in particular, to provide milkweed for Monarch butterflies.”

Pollinator gardens that include milkweed plants provide habitats for the Monarchs to reproduce. Other native pollinator plants provide essential food for the migrating butterflies. Shearer says, “Across the state, the gardens will provide essential habitats but also serve to support educational and outreach efforts associated with pollinator habitats.”

The land trust is heading up the statewide effort and will distribute money to other groups as part of the mission. The North Carolina Botanical Garden will propagate native milkweed plants for planting across the state. The garden also owns undeveloped land in the Piedmont, where they will plant milkweed plugs.

Other partners include the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and Wake County and Raleigh parks and recreation departments. These groups will receive milkweed plants to place in existing fields, under power lines and along the edges of streams and rivers. At least 30 acres will be planted, mostly by volunteers. Educational materials will also be developed as well.

In rural Montgomery County, the federal-state partnership will develop butterfly and insect habitats along a community walking trail at Star Works Center for Creative Enterprises. The garden plantings will include a mixture of native grasses and wildflowers, with the specific focus on milkweed to benefit Monarchs.

In Mecklenburg County, the parks and recreation department will plant milkweed plugs to enhance 30 acres of prairie habitats owned and managed by Mecklenburg County Natural Resources and along county rights-of-way. They will continue to manage and maintain these areas as pollinator habitat into the future. Youth programs at the County Interpretive Center will focus on Monarchs and the importance of milkweed plants.

“Growing milkweed in old fields and meadows and even in small gardens can provide more habitat for Monarch butterflies,” explained Shearer. “Everything we can do to educate the public about the importance of preserving pollinator species will help to increase their numbers in North Carolina.”

A music video featuring the U.S. Army Strings playing Rimsky-Korsakov’s famous “Flight of the Bumblebee,” featuring very active bumblebees.

Shearer is excited about this new team effort. “It amazes me how they continue to find opportunities to encourage landowners to return the land to its natural condition for the benefit of native wildlife and their willingness to support Monarch projects across the state is a fine example of their commitment to native habitats,” he said.

Back in Holly Ridge, the students at Dixon Elementary are ready for spring. “It has been a long, cold winter,” McCutcheon laughed. “We’re all excited to begin planting these pollinator plants in the classroom. By charting plant growth and making observations of our pollinators it will give us a little look at what we are about to accomplish with our partnership with the N.C. Coastal Land Trust.”

To prepare for the project, students will plant seeds supplied by Mellow Marsh Farm in Siler City. “The mix that we were given is going to be a science experiment in itself. The students have pictures of what the plants look like from seed all the way to the full-grown specimens,” McCutcheon explained. “It will be up to them to determine the type of plant that is in each pot as it grows. Through careful observation, compare and contrast, and using deductive reasoning they will be taking on the role of wildlife experts in the classroom,”

“We are working with the County Cooperative Extension to prep the soil for this project,” said Jennifer Avesing, the land trust biologist who is working closely with McCutcheon on the Dixon garden. “Now it is time to get to work — the kids are ready to get outside and get their hands dirty.”

WILMINGTON – Sandie Cecelski got the chills as she watched the N.C. Coastal Federation’s new coastal education center makes its way to its new home at Wrightsville Beach. As one of the group’s board members and a high school marine science teacher, this was a proud moment.

“The board worked so hard to get this,” she says, recalling when the historic beach house floated by barge up the Intracoastal Waterway in June, 2013. The Fred and Alice Stanback Coastal Education Center officially opened 11 months later in May, 2014, providing educational programming to people of all walks of life.

“There is something going on there all the time,” Cecelski says. “It really serves as a hub of coastal educational outreach all year long.”

To say Cecelski is fond of coastal education would be an understatement. She’s dedicated the last 30 years of her life as an enthusiast and ambitious marine science teacher in New Hanover County. The Harrison, Tenn., native moved here in 1986, after graduating from the University of Tennessee with a degree in biology. She took her first job at the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.

“It was a part-time summer job, but a great place to work,” she says.

In fact, it’s where she met her future husband, Richard. By August Cecelski was hired to teach science at Hoggard High School in Wilmington. And when E.H. Ashley High School opened in 2000, she joined the faculty.

Cecelski instrumental in co-creating a marine sciences program there, known as the Marine Science Academy. It has a college-level curriculum for high school juniors and seniors around the county. Also, the academy is one of only three such programs on the East Coast that offers college credit courses in marine science and oceanography for students continuing their education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington or Cape Fear Community College.

The academy was a career-long dream for Cecelski, who was thrilled when it finally took off. “It was an idea waiting to happen for 20 years,” she laughs.

The year-long course includes a combination of summer enrichment activities, rigorous classroom work and hands-on field experiences. The students learn about coastal art, regional history, scuba diving and more. Also, students must participate in the National Ocean Science Bowl.

The veteran teacher is committed to ensuring the academy continues long after she is retired, by involving parents, science teachers, local environmental groups and marine industries.

When she isn’t in the classroom, driving a school bus to one of the academy’s many off-site programs, kayaking, fishing or wading in a tidal pool, you might find her working on a boat for Carolina Ocean Studies.

The eco-tourism company is owned and operated by her husband and offers a variety of educational programs up and down the coast of North Carolina. While its Cape Lookout Discovery program that combines history and coastal science is very popular, Cecelski likes the boat tours of Masonboro Inlet, which can host 60 to 140 students at a time.

“I love everything to do with the local coast and outreach education, so it’s perfect for me,” she says.

Cecelski and her husband have been members of the N.C. Coastal Federation for over 20 years. The veteran teacher became more involved with the group as she began collaborating Ted Wilgis, one of the federation’s coastal educators.

“Ted and I have worked together on a variety of projects,” Cecelski says. “He provides an in-depth oyster lesson for my classes each semester, including oyster dissection.”

The duo also created a stormwater education program for ninth graders. She works with other members of the federation on projects that include salt marsh habitat restoration and water quality protection. In 2013, the group gave Cecelski a Pelican Award for exemplary commitment as a teacher in helping to protect and restore the N.C. coast.

Cecelski has served on the federation’s board of directors since 2011, and she’s with the abundance of work that the group does in the southeast region. “I love the direction the federation has taken,” she says. “They have impacted the local community in such a positive manner, investing in our natural resources while helping to support economic growth.”

Cecelski and her husband are the proud parents of two children, Lauren and Jake. Lauren is a chief resident at the University Alabama Birmingham Department of Dermatology and recently accepted a position to join the dermatology faculty at Yale in June, 2015. Jake is a junior at UNCW majoring in environmental studies.

Even when she’s vacationing, Cecelski is researching and learning. The couple travelled to Scotland last year, where they toured the coastline and learned about the similarities and differences between Scotland’s coast and the barrier islands here. “It was an amazing adventure,” she shares. The couple hopes to travel to more coastal locations in the next few years.

In fact, Cecelski plans to retire in the not too distant future. In addition to travelling and spending time with family, her plans to volunteer in educational outreach with the federation. She loves the classroom environment and has relished her time with New Hanover County Schools, she says, but after nearly 30 years, she is looking forward to a more informal approach to education.

“Once a teacher, always a teacher,” she grins. “I hope the federation doesn’t tire of me!” It’s a sure bet that with the experience, energy and enthusiasm that Cecelski shares with others, the federation will keep her busy in the years to come.

When he was inspired by the movie Roots to document the heritage of his hometown of Navassa, in Brunswick County, Eulis Willis had no idea that it would take more than eight years to complete.

He spent hundreds of hours scouring tax records and tracing deeds in Bolivia, the county seat, and took a few road trips to the state archives in Raleigh for his book, Navassa, The Town and Its People: 1735 to 1991, which was published in 1991.

“Writing the book changed everything for me,” Willis says. “We have been living here all our lives and knew next to nothing about our roots.”

The Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor extends from the northern border of Pender County, N.C., to the southern border of St. John’s County, in Fla. It was established by Congress to preserve the heritage of the people who descended from West African slaves. Map: The Nubian Message

Willis, the mayor of Navassa, was first elected in 1999. He didn’t know he was Gullah-Geechee until 2006 when he was approached by the board of the newly formed theGullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

Congress established this corridor to preserve and share the heritage, data, artifacts and historic sites of the Gullah-Geechee people, the descendants of West Africans slaves. The corridor extends from the northern border of Pender County in North Carolina to the southern border of St. John’s County in Florida and 30 miles inland.

The corridor closely matches the areas along the Southeast coast where the Gullahs were most prominent, but today the Gullah area is largely confined to the South Carolina and Georgia low-country, including islands off those states’ coasts.

“Gullah” was originally used to designate the variety of English spoken by Gullah and Geechee people, but over time it has been used by its speakers to formally refer to their creole language and distinctive ethnic identity as a people. The Gullah people and their language are also called Geechee, which some scholars speculate is related to the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Ga.

Living in relative isolation in rural areas, the Gullah developed a culture that has preserved much of their African linguistic and cultural heritage while absorbing new American influences. They speak an English-based creole language that contains many African words and is influenced by African languages in grammar and sentence structure. Gullah story-telling, rice-based cuisine, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions all exhibit strong influences from West and Central African cultures.

Willis is a seventh generation North Carolinian who is descended from the African slaves who worked on one of the five rice plantations in what is now known as Navassa. “Growing up in the 1960s, we called ourselves Geechee,” he shares. “But it was just a word. We really didn’t understand what it meant.”

His grandmother spoke the Gullah-Geechee language, but the folks of his generation thought it was just broken English or poor grammar. “We didn’t know what we had,” he smiles. “But she made the best necks and rice,” he says, referring to his favorite pork dish.

Once here, the Gullah-Geechee developed their own language, a combination of at least three African languages and English, which is still spoken today.

Eulis Willis

Willis’ wife, Terryce, cooks his necks and rice now, making him a very happy man. She traced her ancestors back to the nearby Mears Bluff Plantation, where her great-great-great grandfather was an overseer. “George Weston came from West Africa and knew everything about rice,” Willis says.

After the Civil War, many Gullah-Geechee remained near the plantations and, like Willis’ family, have only migrated to larger cities during the past two generations.

“The people stayed here, because it’s where their families were,” Willis says. “They didn’t have cars or money for a train, so most people remained.”

“Navassa is a Gullah town,” Willis says. He believes that the same goes for the towns that sprouted up along the Cape Fear and Brunswick rivers where the former rice plantations were.  “Belleville, Navassa, Northwest in Brunswick County – these are all Gullah towns,” he says.

Sylvia Ezelonwu is a N.C. commissioner who helps manage the corridor. The Cape Fear Community College instructor is a native of Loris, S.C. She learned she was Gullah-Geechee around the same time as Willis, when the corridor was established in 2006.

“We too grew up Geechee in South Carolina,” she says, “but we didn’t really know what that was.”

When she discovered her Gullah-Geechee heritage, she was excited. “Now I know why my mother cooked rice every single day of her life!”

Ezelonwu recently began researching the lives of the Gullah-Geechee longshoremen who worked the coastal ports. She hopes to capture the stories of these men before they are gone. She was inspired by her own father, who worked the ports his entire life but is now deceased. “I hope to preserve their story before it is too late,” she smiles.

Beverly Smalls is also a program coordinator at the community college and helped to coordinate the 2012 Gullah Conference in Wilmington. “We are so proud that CFCC sponsored the event,” she says. “It was instrumental to sharing the Gullah-Geechee culture locally. There are so many folks in Wilmington that did not know their heritage.”

Smalls hopes to organize another event like it in the next few years. She is a Wilmington native who also grew up with rice as a constant dish on the table. Once she discovered that she was Gullah-Geechee, she was thrilled.

This 140-year-old chapel in Navassa, in Brunswick County, was the worship center of many former slaves after the Civil War. Today a group of locals hopes to preserve it along with their Gullah-Geechee heritage. Photo: Denice Patterson

“When he was growing up, my father, who was from Georgetown, S.C., noticed that you could visit three different houses on the block, and all three families spoke different dialects – now I know why that was,” she says, referring to the language. “We were all Gullah-Geechee.”

Smalls has done extensive research into the slave narrative, listening to the oral histories of former slaves and descendents of slaves. Her paper, Lifting Gullah Voices: Bound by Political Correctness, is currently undergoing peer review. It is just the beginning for Smalls.

“I want to present in their own words how they viewed their lives after the plantations,” she says. That is how she intends to preserve the Gullah-Geechee presence locally.

For many years, the Gullah culture was pigeonholed to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia. However, when historians compiled research on the national corridor, they realized the Gullah-Geechee culture was spread up and down the Southeast coast. Anywhere there had once been a coastal plantation, there were descendents of the West African slaves who remained in the area.

Back in Navassa, Mayor Willis and a group of local residents have formed a foundation to preserve a chapel building from the former Cedar Hill Plantation on Indian Creek. The 140-year old building was moved to a one-acre plot on Cedar Hill Road in the early 1900s. Known now as the Reaves Chapel, the historic structure would be an ideal setting for a small library and Gullah-Geechee resource center. The chapel itself was built by and a place of worship for many local former slaves after the Civil War. After it was relocated, it served as an African Methodist Episcopal congregation until the late 1990s. Today, it is vacant, but if Willis and his team have their way, the Gullah-Geechee story will have a permanent home in Navassa.

“Now that we know who we are,” Willis says, “we plan to preserve everything we can.”

David Paynter is doing a little bird watching at Congaree National Park. He’s the treasurer for the N.C. Coastal Federation’s board of directors. Photo: Cary Paynter

WILMINGTON — David Paynter eases his kayak through the marsh grass of Hewlett’s Creek.  It’s something the N.C. Coastal Federation board member enjoys doing. Today he sees a little green heron preening its feathers and a least tern taking flight.

Years ago he and his children swam in the creek. Now it’s closed to shellfishing because of high bacteria levels. That’s just one of the reasons that Paynter has been serving on the board of the environmental nonprofit for the last 10 years.

Born in Denver to a former WWII pilot and his English wife, Paynter and his family moved around the world when he was growing up. Much of his childhood was spent abroad in Germany, Spain and England. His favorite place was their home in England, a 16^th century Tudor house in Cookham Dean — the village that is famous as the setting for Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows.

“It was really quite a remarkable house,” Paynter says. “It was built of old brick and dark oak beams with a stone foundation that went back to the 11^th century.”

The gardens were quite untamed. Paynter thinks perhaps exploring its orchard and ponds is where his love for nature and the outdoors began.

“Even as a young boy, I was interested in landscapes and what was unique about them,” he says. He still remembers at age eight his fascination with the high plateau of Madrid and his surprise in seeing snow there during Easter.

Once he and his brothers built an underground fort near their home along the bank of a tributary to the Missouri River, unbeknownst to their mother and father. They disappeared for hours on end, day after day playing in that underground fort among the snakes and frogs. Later he would collect snakes to the dismay of his father, who would never set foot in his bedroom.

The brothers’ path diverged after high school when his twin brother attended the University of Virginia and he went to University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. “I always thought that it was a good choice to go to Carolina at that time, Virginia was not yet co-ed,” Paynter laughs.

It was at college that he met his wife, Cary. The two were married when he graduated and then they moved to Cary’s hometown of Fairfield, Conn., where Paynter became the city’s assistant library director. After a few short years, the South beckoned and the couple relocated to Florence, S.C.

In 1982, the director position opened up for the New Hanover County library system and Paynter jumped at the opportunity.

David Paynter at the Grand Canyon in 2011. Since he’s retired from his job as the director of New Hanover County library systems, he’s enjoyed having more time to travel with his wife, Cary. Photo: Cary Paynter

“We drove over the Cape Fear River and saw this compact city below us. It reminded me so much of Europe where there is often a much sharper definition between country and city,” he says.
Then, Wilmington was a mix of the Old South, a growing arts community, historic preservationists and people from all over the world making it a home. The couple settled in and raised their children:  two daughters, Adele and Sprague, and a son, Stuart.

Paynter’s curiosity was stirred in 1982 by a group of people meeting at his library to form an organization called the N. C. Coastal Federation in order to confront the threats posed by peat mining. Little did he realize that years later he would become intimately involved with the federation.

Paynter and his wife joined the federation in the early 1990s. They supported the work of Bill Ducker, the president of the Bird Island Preservation Society, who was working to preserve the island near Sunset Beach. He was a close family friend. Ducker was on the federation’s board and recommended Paynter’s appointment in 2004.

Paynter became treasurer in 2012 and currently serves on the executive committee. While on the board, he has been involved in two successful capital campaigns and served on several committees.

“Todd Miller, the executive director, provides outstanding leadership, which is complemented by the staff that he has hired over the last 30 years. Financially, it is very well run and that reputation assists in securing grant funds, which form the basis of the federation’s annual budget. Every board member has great pride in the federation’s accomplishments,” says Paynter.

Living in Wilmington, Paynter is very worried about the proposed Titan cement manufacturing plant along the Northeast Cape Fear River. He says the federation has done great work in organizing opposition to this plant and exposing the adverse environmental effects it will have.

“There are so many unanswered questions — what is the impact on our groundwater, which supplies drinking water to New Hanover County residents, the effects on air quality, the effect of strip mining on our rivers, the impact on our infrastructure, and so on,” he says.

The Northeast Cape Fear River is one of the last freshwater tidal marshes along the East Coast and the only one in North Carolina. “It is a beautiful river and should be preserved for its uniqueness. Like the Cape Fear River to the south, it forms one of those boundaries, which define our urban area.

David Paynter’s view from his kayak on Hewlett’s Creek. He volunteers with several environmental organizations besides the N.C. Coastal Federation. Photo: David Paynter

“If we want to keep the Cape Fear area as a place where people want to come,” Paynter says, “we should be highlighting our natural resources and not destroying them.”

Paynter is all too aware that the local community has changed dramatically since he first arrived in the early 1980s. Suburban sprawl has eaten up farms and forests, and unchecked development has affected the freshwater marshes.

“It bothers me that there seems to be no real planning on how we want our communities to grow,” he says. “We had urban density surrounded by rural wetland areas three decades ago. It no longer looks and feels the same.”

Both the city and county are involved in a new planning process, which Paynter hopes will address this concern.

Since Paynter retired as director of the county’s library system in 2008, he’s had more time to get involved with other organizations. He continues to be a member of the Rotary Club and enjoys the outings organized by the Southeast Chapter of the Native Plant Society. Besides the federation, he also serves on the boards of directors for the Cape Fear Audubon Society, the N.C. Conservation Network, the N.C. Audubon Society, and the Library Foundation of New Hanover County.

Retirement has been good to him, Paynter says. He and his wife travel and spend more time doing the things they love – reading, gardening, kayaking, bird-watching and spending time with family. This summer, David and Cary welcomed their first grandchild.

“Now I will have to drop some of my outside activities and concentrate on other things,” Paynter smiles. Next summer, Paynter hopes to plan a kayak ride with his granddaughter to show her the beautiful birds along Hewlett’s creek.

Sue Weddle points to Bird Island, the coastal reserve she helped fight to protect over 20 years ago. She’s been keeping an eye on the coastal environment of Sunset Beach ever since. Photo: Daniel Patterson

SUNSET BEACH — Sue Weddle gingerly climbs her neighbor’s high dune, as the afternoon wind whips soft, silver curls around her face. She surveys the vast area between Sunset Beach’s westernmost beach access and Bird Island, the N.C. Coastal Reserve she fought to protect over 20 years ago. Moments later she scurries back down.

“Isn’t that incredible?” she asks.

Incredible, indeed, when you consider that this  stretch of oceanfront is the last large undeveloped area on this ancient barrier island – and if and when land next to it is developed, the petite grandmother of three will be watching very, very closely.

Sue Weddle is no stranger to the preservation of coastal land. The 2014 recipient of a N. C. Coastal Federation Pelican Award has worked diligently for the past two and a half decades to ensure that her beloved Sunset Beach retains some of its natural character. She was a founding member of the Bird Island Preservation Society, a group that accomplished what is considered one of the great conservation victories in N.C. history – the state purchase of 1,500 acres of barrier island, wetlands and estuaries.

“We started working for Bird Island in 1992, when Bill Ducker led the effort,” Weddle notes.

For 10 years the group coordinated with state and federal agencies and private property owners from Sunset Beach to arrange the purchase of the large natural tract. The accomplishment is heralded at an educational kiosk that was dedicated in 2013.

“When it was over, we won the Governor’s Award for Conservation Group of the Year in 2002,” the St. Louis native adds softly with a smile. “But we realize now, the work is far from over.”

The enchanting environmentalist and her husband, Owen, moved to North Carolina in 1985 when he accepted a job at N.C. State University.

Sue Weddle won a Pelican Award for being a dedicated, persistent and effective advocate for our coast. Photo: Daniel Patterson

“We had just left the lousy Houston housing market and decided to wait on purchasing a home,” Weddle says.

While in Raleigh, the couple rented in the historic Oakwood district. A few years later the Weddles decided to take a chance and bought a marsh-front lot on the west end of Sunset Beach. When Owen Weddle took a job at Brunswick Community College, the couple moved to their beach house.
The house, lovingly christened “The Odyssey,” was completed in 1989. That first spring, after a hard rain, Weddle sat on her back porch and saw a large sediment plume flowing her way. “It seemed to have a sheen of oil on top. It was then that I became an environmental activist,” she says with a big smile.

The humble Weddle sails under the radar as a typical activist. She is thoughtful, reserved and extremely cautious. She fully recognizes the rights of property owners to develop their land; however, it is behind the scenes that she works her magic helping to ensure that regulations are followed. She is always on the ready, educating herself about new rulings, following developments in the state legislature and working the phone and emails.

The refined and soft spoken senior has compiled a much-coveted email list of over 800 property owners, which she uses to keep them informed about new issues on their island. For the past few months, she has had to use the list more than she would like. The inlet that once separated Bird Island and Sunset Beach has closed. This year, the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission removed the inlet hazard designation for old Mad Inlet, thus loosening developmental rules for the area. According to Weddle, “The developers have waited for the sewer and waited for the bridge and now all heck is breaking loose.”
The undeveloped area is a vital component of the ecosystem because the high dunes protect the important marshes and estuaries, she said, and with the inlet gone, the land is now connected to the sensitive Bird Island reserve. Now that the regulations have loosened up, the developer plans to build a 500-foot-long bridge from the end of Sunset Beach over the marsh to the property.  They intend to build a private resort along the oceanfront.

“The ambiance of Bird Island retains the character of what the North Carolina coast looked like before one European stepped foot here,” Sue Weddle says. “Any development of the area will certainly have an impact on the environment.” Photo: Daniel Patterson

“The ambiance of Bird Island retains the character of what the North Carolina coast looked like before one European stepped foot here,” Weddle says. “Any development of the area will certainly have an impact on the environment.”

For now, Weddle is on the watch, contacting federal and state agencies to determine the best course of action. She knows the rules and plans to ensure that the developer knows them as well. “I am going to watch and make sure that every ‘t’ is crossed and every ‘i’ is dotted,” she grins.

As Weddle and her husband sit on the back porch of the Odyssey, a spectacular sunset splashes amber and coral hues across the marsh. She reflects on the olive tree she and Owen planted in her front yard. They planted it from a single seed.

“Everyone said it wouldn’t grow here,” she says. Not only has the olive tree survived, it has thrived, and for the first time ever, it is bearing fruit.

“When we planted our oak trees, our neighbors laughed at us saying we would not be alive to enjoy them. ‘That’s OK,’ we told them. ‘We don’t plant for ourselves, we plant for the ages.’”