The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission has changed an oceanfront development rule to allow wheat straw bales be used under certain conditions as an alternative to sand fencing to try and fend off erosion, a move environmental and wildlife groups oppose.
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Bald Head Island’s abundant deer spur management talks
The village council is in discussions on how to manage the growing number of deer that populate the Brunswick County island.
Preventing Environmental Hazards Act a commonsense bill
Guest opinion by Congressman Greg Murphy: Allowing National Flood Insurance Program payouts to remove a threatened oceanfront structure before it collapses, rather than wait until it creates an environmental disaster, will add flexibility while mitigating risks.
Don’t be bugged by bugs, they show us if a garden is healthy
In today’s Budding Wisdom, Heidi Skinner writes about the two kinds of bugs: “the ones we love and the ones we loathe” and “whether we like them or not, insects definitely have their place.”
Senate bill pushes for prohibiting, fining for balloon releases
After lobbying, letter writing, cajoling and presentations, “one-woman crusader” Debbie Swick of Southern Shores has seen her efforts to ban balloon releases become a bipartisan-supported senate bill.
Historian David Cecelski: Carolina coast still worth the fight
The recent shackling of the Environmental Protection Agency “foreshadows the breathtaking descent back into the worst days of our coastal past, when our estuaries, our beaches, our fisheries and the sources of our drinking water were a free-for-all, open to plunder, pillaging and poisoning.”
For gardening success, it’s all about timing — and old wisdom
The endless old sayings about when to plant are never failsafe, but there is ancient understanding of the natural world, and following its cycles can improve your odds, no matter what kind of gardener you may be.
Moratoriums threaten aquaculture, environment, say farmers
Shellfish farmers say their industry’s positive benefits have been proven elsewhere in the country, but holds on new state aquaculture leases and a moratorium that Topsail Island residents want could sink businesses.
Fishing hooked newspaperman Rip Woodin far from coast
Rocky Mount Telegram Publisher Rip Woodin, who spends free time at his Atlantic Beach getaway, didn’t grow up fishing, but a gift of a fly rod from his boss in Wyoming decades ago lit the passion.
Hatteras windsurfing spot mirrors US-Canada tensions
A windsurfing and kiteboarding destination off Hatteras Island known as Canadian Hole and the businesses that support visitors from up north have become a microcosm and barometer of a newly fraught international relationship.
Budget proposal would toll free ferries, hike fees on others
The state Senate’s proposed budget approved Thursday includes new tolls to ride the currently free state ferries and increases costs to transit rivers and sounds elsewhere along the coast.
Agencies set to spread word on mandatory harvest reporting
Division of Marine Fisheries and Wildlife Resources Commission, the two agencies that manage state fisheries, are working to prepare recreational and commercial fishermen for the mandatory harvest reporting rules that are to go in effect Dec. 1.
Fishermen, scientists differ on whale mortality, wind energy
Opinions up and down the North Carolina coast differ on the reasons behind rising numbers of Atlantic whale deaths, but marine researchers say the science is clear.
Groups move for disclosure of Chemours’ sealed documents
The advocacy organizations’ motion against the chemical company argues that unsealing the 21,000 pages of documents “will help communities understand the harm the facility has caused, and will continue to cause, to their own health, their property values, and even the lives of future generations.”
‘Working Lives’: Canning sea turtles, Marshallberg, NC, 1938
When the cannery that opened in Marshallberg, a little village in Down East Carteret County, in 1937 ran out of oysters, tomatoes or other crops to can, they turned to canning sea turtles, writes historian David Cecelski.
Tariffs not a long-term fix for shrimping industry: shrimpers
While U.S. shrimpers lauded the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported shrimp, their message to the government is to stop subsidizing foreign shrimp production.
