Guest commentary: As we welcome 2025, let’s make this the year we reimagine our relationship with North Carolina’s coast by leveraging natural processes and resources to enhance biodiversity, protect habitats and promote resilient communities.
beach nourishment
Coastal geologist Orrin Pilkey, 1934-2024: An appreciation
“With Orrin, the stories never stopped,” writes author and Coastal Review contributor Gilbert M. Gaul of the acclaimed Duke University scientist who died Sunday. “Some of them were even true.”
Surf City’s 50-year sand plan calls for 22 million cubic yards
The town’s federal coastal storm risk management project – more than 20 years in the making – will put a total of 21.8 million cubic yards of sand on the beach over the course of a half-century.
Corps to discuss Surf City federal nourishment project
Corps of Engineers officials will review a draft report and environmental assessment of Surf City’s proposed federal beach nourishment project — said to be the largest on the East Coast — during a public meeting Tuesday.
Some coastal NC towns’ beach sand needs may go unmet
Amid a tug-of-war over claims to available nearshore borrow sites and studies pointing to critical shortages of beach-quality sand, some North Carolina beach towns are looking for sources beyond state waters.
Bald Head Island seeks to change hardened shorelines law
The first North Carolina beach to build a terminal groin after state lawmakers lifted a 30-year ban on erosion-control structures like those is asking legislators to allow more.
Cape Lookout dredging, beach nourishment work complete
The channel between Harkers Island and the lighthouse has been widened to 100 feet with depths of 7 to 9 feet, and the sand was used to renourish the beach in front of the lighthouse.
Rouzer’s bill loosening sand-mining rule clears US House
A bill introduced by Rep. David Rouzer would allow barely a handful of East Coast beach towns to continue using sand from federally protected coastal zones for their nourishment projects — a measure the Audubon Society opposes.
Bald Head voters approve bonds for beach work
Bald Head Island voters on Tuesday passed a pair of multi-million-dollar bond referendums to fund a beach nourishment and fill project.
Dredge firm to begin $6.9M project in Cape Lookout waters
Louisiana-based Next Generation Logistics is contracted to open channels to the national seashore with suitable material to be used for beach nourishment to protect Cape Lookout Lighthouse and nearby historic structures.
$10M available for coastal storm damage recovery projects
The Division of Water Resources oversees the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund that provides grants to local governments for beach nourishment or dune projects.
Sand nourishment to begin in Wrightsville Beach
Wrightsville Beach’s long-awaited beach renourishment project is expected to get underway this week.
Murphy assures Dare board: Corps will do study if funded
The Corps of Engineers is committed to conducting the required feasibility study of a sand project along the highly erosion-prone Rodanthe beach on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore if funded, Rep. Greg Murphy has told Dare County officials.
Corps allows channel sand for Wrightsville Beach project
The Army Corps of Engineers will exercise a federal Coastal Barrier Resources Act emergency exception and take sand for Wrightsville Beach nourishment from the Masonboro Inlet/Banks Channel borrow source instead of an offshore borrow site.
Park service seeks 10-year dredge, beach sand permit
For the first time in more than a decade, the National Park Service hopes to unclog two channels that passenger ferries and private boaters use to access Cape Lookout National Seashore, and place the material that is dredged onto the soundside beach in front of the lighthouse compound.
Buying out threatened oceanfront homes is not a crazy idea
Dr. Rob Young, director of the Western Carolina University/Duke University Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, compares the costs of a possible buyout of 80 highly exposed properties in Rodanthe to the costs of beach nourishment, which could be triple that amount over 15 years.
