A recent dredge project has turned back years of erosion for a dredge spoil island near the federal channel in the Cape Fear River that supports colonies of royal terns and sandwich terns.
News & Features
Group funds education on shared NC, Virginia watersheds
A North Carolina nonprofit and another from Virginia have been awarded a combined $40,000 by the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership to help teachers educate students about the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine region.
NC has $1.3M in federal funding for watershed restoration
Grants from Section 319 of the Clean Water Act are now available for communities to address pollution from stormwater and flooding.
Topsail Island towns float plan to reduce plastic pollution
Topsail Beach officials are drafting what could be the state’s first ban on unencapsulated polystyrene for floating dock repair and construction, part of a Topsail Island-wide anti-pollution initiative.
Some N. Topsail Beach owners want Surf City annexation
A group of property owners in the Phase 5 area of North Topsail Beach’s beach nourishment plan says it wants out and to be annexed by neighboring Surf City.
Frustrations mount over imperiled Outer Banks houses
Few options are available to deal with the problem of oceanfront houses at risk of collapse on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, except to try and clean up the debris once they fall.
Plastic pollution policy stalled but litter hasn’t: Duke study
Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions found that the introduction of plastic pollution policies stalled on a national and global level when COVID-19 emerged, but the fight against plastic pollution in coastal North Carolina continues.
Still no answers from sampling of PFAS-laden foam
A statewide investigation of foam containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in areas including Brunswick County beaches has yet to identify the potential sources.
Lionfish an example of needed invasive species awareness
This week is National Invasive Species Awareness Week, and the red lionfish has gained increasing attention since the nonnative predator first began to appear in waters off the NC coast about 20 years ago.
UNCW event examines history of environmental injustice
Student-led People of Scientific and Equitable Achievement hosted the panel discussion.
NC Supreme Court: Environmental grants can continue
The 6-0 decision means millions of dollars that Smithfield Foods pays as the result of a 25-year deal with the state nearly 22 years ago may continue to be administered through the state’s Environmental Enhancement Grant program.
NC efforts offer cold-stunned sea turtles second chance
Aquariums, state agencies and volunteer organizations work together every winter to rehabilitate sea turtles that get caught close to shore when temperatures plunge.
Commission OKs turnaround area, sandbags for NC 12
The Coastal Resources Commission has given the N.C. Department of Transportation approval to build a turnaround and sandbag structure perpendicular to the shoreline where the existing highway will come to a dead end once the Rodanthe “jug handle” bridge is opened to traffic.
Cleanup of fallen house begins; beach near site closed
The owners of the oceanfront house that collapsed in Rodanthe last week have hired a contractor to clean up the site and the miles of Cape Hatteras National Seashore beach, temporarily closed because of the widespread, dangerous debris.
Officials tout economic boom from offshore wind industry
Offshore wind manufacturing could bring an estimated $140 billion and tens of thousands of new jobs to North Carolina by 2035, if steps are taken now, say those who spoke during the first meeting last week of a state Commerce Department task force.
Prospects improve for effort to save wild red wolves in NC
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is ramping back up the endangered red wolf recovery program, which had struggled amid declining political support and increasing cases of wolf shootings, poisonings and vehicle strikes.
