A lawsuit to stop a controversial pilot study to treat the cyanobacteria in the 40,000-acre freshwater lake has stalled both the plans and the funds.
Habitat Restoration
Sugarloaf Island hybrid restoration project sees progress
Work is moving forward on a project to install wave attenuation devices, a living shoreline and seagrass to help restore the rapidly eroding barrier island that protects Morehead City’s downtown waterfront.
A million new acres: Cooper sets lofty conservation goals
Environmental advocates are calling the governor’s latest executive order to conserve and restore forests and wetlands and plant 1 million trees in urban areas “ambitious and important.”
Mattamuskeet carp numbers likely to be ‘a continual issue’
Refuge Manager Kendall Smith says the $1 million project to remove invasive common carp from the state’s largest freshwater lake will also require regular maintenance to restore vegetation and improve water quality.
Morehead City’s Sugarloaf Island restoration project begins
With $6.6 million in state funds, restoration recently began on rapidly eroding Sugarloaf Island, a storm barrier that has long protected the Morehead City waterfront.
USFWS plans to chemically treat part of Lake Mattamuskeet
The EPA warning label for an algaecide proposed for use in a trial project at algal-bloom-plagued Lake Mattamuskeet cites the product’s potential risks to birds.
Oyster Highway Project reaches milestone with final phase
This year marks the project’s third and final phase for the project to revive and restore the New River, which had become nearly choked to death by wastewater pollution.
Refuge’s 15-year water plan a conservation balancing act
Maintaining the natural dynamic between fire and water in Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is key in the latest plan to restore, protect and conserve this unusual landscape.
Edenton culvert upgrade to open up habitat for river herring
Funds from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will go to replace a culvert over an Edenton creek that will allow river herring to reach important spawning ground.
Volunteers help remove Venus flytraps from harm’s way
The perennial, carnivorous plants have migrated to ditches alongside the roadsides in Boiling Spring Lakes, but imminent development has made their relocation a race against time.
NOAA to fund oyster sanctuary, marine sciences program
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration is awarding $14.9 million to the North Carolina Coastal Federation for oyster habitat restoration and a program to encourage underrepresented university students to study marine sciences.
Albemarle-Pamlico resilience gets $27.25 million boost
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced funding for the agency’s National Wildlife Refuge System for Albemarle-Pamlico restoration initiatives.
As development looms, effort on to protect Corolla horses
An initiative announced in November aims to acquire and preserve habitat for the wild Banker horses of the Currituck Outer Banks one-third acre at a time.
Coastal restoration firms show off living shoreline tech
Companies in shoreline stabilization and restoration recently presented their techniques and materials for a statewide steering committee of scientists, federal and state agencies, and nonprofits.
Officials celebrate funding of Sugarloaf Island restoration
The legislature appropriated $2 million to restore Morehead City’s Sugarloaf Island, a barrier protecting waterfront attractions from coastal storms that has been rapidly eroding for decades.
Water clarity standard to save seagrass an ongoing process
Water quality degradation from nutrients and sediments reduce light penetration needed for seagrass survival and is a threat to coastal fisheries.
