The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center is rolling out this week a new speaker series that delves into the relationship between people and place.

A similar format to its annual Parlor Talks offered every Thursday afternoon in the summer, the “Water/Ways” speaker series set to launch at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the museum on Harkers Island is an extension of the Smithsonian’s traveling “Water/Ways” exhibit on display until Aug. 9.

The exhibit “explores the centrality of water in our lives including its effect on the environment and climate, it’s practical role in agriculture and economic planning, and its impact on culture and spirituality,” organizers said.

Geoffrey Adair, an area historian from Beaufort, is to give the first talk this week on waterfowling traditions. Other topics for the series include water and the arts with Connie Mason July 8, water and a changing coast with Dr. Reide Corbett July 15, water as recreation with Frank Tursi July 22, and water as a way of life with Wayne Davis and Staci Davis Basden July 29.

The museum began its fifth year of Parlor Talks, which focus on the history, heritage and the research taking place in Carteret County, earlier this month.

Next on the schedule is Dr. Nathan Hall who will focus on “Our Amazing Seagrass.”

Hall is a research assistant professor and director of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Institute for the Environment’s Morehead City Field Site at UNC Institute of Marine Sciences. His primary research focuses on understanding the factors that control microalgal biomass and community composition in lakes, rivers, and estuaries.

His talk Thursday afternoon will highlight why seagrass matters and why it need lots of light, what factors determine how much light reaches the seagrasses, and why scientists are worried about the current state of seagrass. Hall plans to wrap the talk up with what data exists on water quality where there are seagrass beds, and new efforts led by the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership to improve understanding of water quality.

Parlor Talks summer schedule:

• July 9: “The Wit & Wisdom of Ordinary People of Harkers Island” with Joel Hancock.
• July 16: “Opening Season for the Krakens” with Carteret Community College.
• July 23: “Everyone Has a Story” with Wayne and Staci Davis.
• July 30: The Atlantic Hotels of Morehead City with Geoffrey Adair.
• Aug. 6: Cape Lookout Foundation’s restoration of the U.S. Coast Guard Station with Bud Doughton, Mason Williams and Garry Brown.
• Aug. 13: “Coastal Heroes: An Old Newsman Looks Back at Those Who Fought to Make a Difference” with Frank Tursi.
• Aug. 20: “Growing Up in the Promise Land and the Inevitable Changes” with Promise Land friends.
• Aug. 27: “100 Years of Shark Research off Cape Lookout” with Dr. Joel Fodrie, who is moving from his role as UNC-IMS director to director of Duke University Marine Lab.
• Sept. 3: “Songs & Stories We Love the Best” with Connie Mason

Fittingly, it was a Carolina blue sky that greeted University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee H. Roberts as he joined Institute of Marine Sciences researchers for a boat ride Tuesday morning to Cape Lookout National Seashore’s undeveloped barrier islands, a stark contrast to the celebratory gridlock on Franklin Street that the Orange County city can expect after a big win.

Roberts was in Carteret County to meet with faculty and students and learn more about their research at the lab in Morehead City, one of the handful of stops for the chancellor’s second summer tour this year in eastern North Carolina.

The first summer tour in 2025 covered the western part of the state. The 2026 tour began May 29 with two days at Fort Bragg. After Carteret County, he stopped in New Bern, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington and the USS Battleship North Carolina.

Roberts told Coastal Review Tuesday afternoon from inside the institute that these tours are the university’s connection to the state, and its people are “the source of our strength at Carolina.”

Because most of the state’s people do not live in Chapel Hill, Roberts explained that “it’s important to get out around the state and see people where they live and work and see as many communities across the state as we can.”

Roberts continued that most communities don’t have a facility like this one, “where we’ve made a large investment for a for a long time, and so this has been a particularly important part of Carolina’s history, having the physical outpost here, but the work Carolina scientists and researchers are doing is in every nook and cranny of the state, trying to help move the state forward.”

His visit Tuesday included a tour of the lab with a small group, including area media, led by Institute of Marine Sciences Director Dr. Joel Fodrie, a professor in the Earth, marine and environmental sciences department.

Fodrie said that the institute is approaching its 80th year, and the existing building was built about 25 years ago to house research for environmental processes, like water quality, biogeochemistry and geology.

Throughout the tour, Roberts was able to observe research as it was happening and speak to the scientists as they analyzed microbiomes on the coast’s shark species, collected data on how much sediment flows downstream from inland waterbodies, and harvested seagrass seeds for large-scale seagrass restoration. Fodrie also made a point of introducing Roberts to the facilities and administration staff as well, highlighting their important role in keeping the the lab running smoothly.

During a pause by the office of Dr. Rick Luettich, former institute director, the alumni distinguished professor out of his office to talk about an ongoing flood data collection initiative called the Sunny Day Flooding Project.

Luettich said they’ve been working with people on campus, in city and regional planning, and with N.C. State University on the project that uses sensors installed in storm drains and ditches to record water levels.

Luettich pointed to the neighboring office where research specialist in physical oceanography Tony Whipple was building the sensors that measure in real time how “frequently flooding is occurring now, not when a big storm comes, but just when it’s a King Tide, or with sea level rise.”

Luettich said there are sensors in New Bern, Beaufort, Carolina Beach and Down East Carteret County, and there’s a website that shows in real time what the water levels are in these understudied areas.

“We haven’t been really paying attention to whether they flood, but we’re seeing that they flood very frequently, and more and more often as sea level’s rising. So really interesting collaborative project that we’re kind of right at ground zero for,” Luettich said.

On the second floor, UNC Institute for the Environment Director Dr. Michael Piehler paused working on what he called a “really cool experiment” looking at salinity intrusion in farms to chat with Roberts.

Piehler said the “experiment is working on a farm where salinity is coming in and seeing how that affects both the way that the farmers experience the soil and the way we see it as a processor of nutrients, so it’s just another great case of IMS being a beautiful thing.”

When Fodrie directed the group outside of the facility, he gestured to what looked like abstract sculptures with concrete-saturated rope as the medium.

He said these were different types of structures used to build living shorelines, and the university is collaborating with the companies that make these alternatives for hardened bulkheads and seawalls for shoreline restoration.

“We get to play a valuable role,” Fodrie said. “We’re engaging a lot of companies that are doing that to help them refine their projects and protect shorelines better, and in more environmentally friendly ways” he said about what he called the bourgeoning industry.

Fodrie also used the tour to show the chancellor existing needs at the research lab.

The outdoor experimental tanks are high on Fodrie’s list to be modernized and be more accessible to all students for experiments and research, and they’re looking to expand the 2,100-square-foot dormitory that sleeps about 20.

“We would love to have students here,” for the semester, Fodrie said from inside the cramped living space beside the lab, and want to expand the dorm to accommodate about 32 beds. “We have the footprint. We have the space” and plans have been drawn.

“Our grad students have had an increasingly hard time finding a place to live,” Fodrie said. They used to rent beachfront homes and “that game is over. So, we have a real housing crunch.”

In the past, students could pool their resources and together rent the larger beach houses for a reasonable amount, but the by-owner vacation business has priced the students out.  

In the shorter term, Fodrie said IMS is going to invest in turning the existing dorm into four apartments that sleep four each.

“We’re going to actually reduce capacity to 16,” and the apartments will be small, but they’ll be perhaps livable for a whole semester. That only gets us to 16 and we’re trying to get to 32. It’s a good short-term fix, but not a long-term solution,” Fodrie said.

Roberts told Coastal Review after his tour of the lab that the university has had a presence on the coast for 80 years, and “when you spend time here, you realize why. How important it is to undertake the kind of research that our scientists and faculty are pursuing.”

The coast is crucial to the state and to its future, from standpoint of fisheries and the environment, the research into sustainability, oyster farms, and dozens of other areas of research everywhere you look.

“We have 75 people here year-round. It’s a remarkable effort supported by the people of North Carolina, and, and for a good reason, because what’s happening here is integral to North Carolina’s future,” he said.

In a follow-up interview, Fodrie told Coastal Review that the facility serves as UNC’s vanguard for meeting challenges facing the coast, as well as for discovering solutions in focal areas that include coastal resilience, water quality, human health, and fisheries.

“Knowing how broad and diverse the chancellor’s responsibilities are, we are very gratified and appreciative that he would choose to visit the Institute to learn more about our ongoing efforts to serve North Carolina and also explore with us ways to expand our capacity in research and teaching/mentoring,” Fodrie said.

Roberts’ choice to visit the institute also highlights the unique and high-impact role that it has played in UNC’s mission over the last 80 years, since the institute was created, Fodrie continued.

“In this regard, one telling statistic we discussed related to the Impact Awards that UNC uses to recognize graduate students that conduct research focused on serving the needs of North Carolina,” Fodrie said, explaining that IMS-based graduate students represent less than 0.2% of all UNC graduate students during the last decade but represent about 14% of all award recipients over that same period.

“In turn, we also appreciated the chance to learn more about the chancellor’s broader goals and priorities for UNC during his team’s visit, and therefore how IMS might continue to grow our impact within and beyond the university.”  

The scorching sun, nearly unbearable humidity and the impenetrable clouds of insects are no deterrent for the thousands who spend the day exploring either Shackleford Banks or the Rachel Carson Reserve, the natural environment for Carteret County’s wild horse herds.

Once visitors board the passenger ferries on the mainland that head to the undeveloped barrier islands, they are forsaking modern conveniences to observe the protected species as they graze in the marsh, feast on sea oats or, if the stars align, witness the extraordinary moment when a newborn foal attempts its first steps on wobbly legs.

Shackleford Banks is the 8-mile-long southernmost barrier island of Cape Lookout National Seashore, part of the National Park Service, that has a herd of more than 100 wild horses. The Rachel Carson Reserve, which is visible from the Beaufort waterfront, protects a herd of between 20 and 30.

The National Park Service co-manages its herd with the nonprofit Foundation for Shackleford Horses Inc. that was formed in 1996 since the Shackleford Banks Wild Horses Protection Act was signed in 1998. The Rachel Carson Reserve is one of 10 sites under the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve, part of N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management.

The organizations have rules and guidelines in place that allow visitors to make the most of their experience while also preventing the animal from becoming habituated, and losing its “wild lifestyle.”

In an effort to help protect the public and the herds, the two agencies and the foundation have partnered for the fourth year on the Pony Patrol program. The trained volunteers, identifiable by their bright yellow T-shirts or vests, commit to spending three or four hours a few times a month during peak season at either location to help manage wildlife and visitor interactions.

“As residential growth and tourism surge along the Crystal Coast, more people than ever are encountering the wild horses that define this place,” the reserve’s Stewardship Coordinator Paula Gillikin said. “Protecting the wildness and well‑being of these iconic animals — while also ensuring public safety and enjoyment — has never been more important. The Pony Patrol volunteer program offers a powerful way to safeguard the horses, educate visitors, and create safe, respectful experiences for everyone.”

Foundation President and Chairman Margaret Poindexter told Coastal Review last week that this year’s group 50 or so volunteers, referred to as the “Pony Patrollers,” is the biggest yet and “We’ve been blown away by their enthusiasm.”

All Pony Patrollers, both new and returning, went through training in April and began May 14 their three- and four-hour shifts, giving the organizations and volunteers time to smooth any wrinkles ahead of the notoriously busy Memorial Day weekend.

“The new folks have paired with veterans to get the benefit of their experience and insight. We’ve had coverage that exceeds what’s required, and we were well-staffed over the holiday weekend, which can be crazy sometimes,” Poindexter continued. “Going into June, signups for shifts outpaces the minimum commitment from the volunteers.”

Poindexter said that in conjunction with the foundation’s 30th anniversary celebration this year and to recognize the service of the Pony Patrol volunteers, the foundation is sponsoring a photography exhibit and competition to be on display at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center’s gallery at 806 Arendell St. in Morehead City. Core Sound is a community-focused history museum and gathering place on Harkers Island. The gallery is part of its outreach programming.

The opening reception is from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 6, at Core Sound’s Morehead City gallery. The exhibit will be on display all summer.

Poindexter said the foundation wanted this exhibit to be different from others the organization has hosted in the past.

“We wanted to create an opportunity to recognize the service and dedication of our Pony Patrol volunteers, and we have some really gifted photographers among them,” Poindexer said.

“We thought an exhibit of photos, showcasing not only their talent, but more importantly, demonstrating their passion and love for the wild horses would help us show the public how fortunate we are to have this unique group of folks serving on Pony Patrol,” she continued. “As the Foundation turns 30, it’s gratifying to know that we have such a committed group of volunteers looking out for the wild horses going forward.”

Mark and Lynn Golitz, owners Bluesail Golitz Studios in downtown Morehead City, are judging the competition. Winners will be announced at the reception.

“Mark is a potter and Lynn is a painter, and together they are a creative force in our community. They are advocates for our local wild horses, they have wholeheartedly supported the work of the Foundation for years, and we are so grateful for their support,” Poindexter said.

There will also be a chance for folks to vote for People’s Choice while exhibit is up and the winner will be announced at the end of the show. 

Pony Patrol began as an idea in the late 2010s but didn’t take off until four years ago.

“We started meeting in 2019 about the program details, scheduled it for its first season in 2020, and then it was shelved because of the pandemic. We were able to get it back on track and launched it in 2023,” Poindexter explained.

The all-call for volunteers for the 2026 season went out early in the year and those selected were required to take part in a training session held April 15 in the N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

The volunteers learned the history and goals of the program, heard from representatives of the National Park Service, NCDEQ, local law enforcement, how to speak with visitors and what is needed to prepare for the shifts that require being able to trudge through sand while dealing with extreme sun, heat, humidity, wind, and bugs.

There were a lot of new faces at the training, including Kim Ridel, a resident of Morehead City.

She said in an interview that she volunteered for the program when a friend who’s been a Pony Patroller since it started shared information with her about its purpose.

“I have been coming to this area all of my life, and I’ve been fortunate enough to live here full-time for the last several years. The ponies have always been a part of my best Carteret County days, and I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned about them through Pony Patrol, with visitors and locals alike,” Ridel said. “I’m also very committed to educating people about how important it is to let these incredible animals continue to live their best natural lives, by watching from a safe distance, keeping pets on leashes and not interfering with them — which will hopefully allow us to continue to coexist in the best way.”

When Ridel first spoke to Coastal Review on May 15, she said she expected to be “flying solo” during her first shift May 21, but was paired with an experienced Pony Patroller. Ridel said in a follow up email asking about her first shift, that the afternoon “went great.”

“The weather was beautiful,” Ridel said Wednesday in a follow-up email. They spotted nine horses during the shift, “all of which seemed to be doing well. The people we talked to were curious and respectful and it was a great first time.”

Currituck County’s America 250 NC Task Force has launched a yearlong challenge to visit 10 of North Carolina’s lighthouses as part of the country’s celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Called the NC Lighthouse Challenge, participants must visit the 10 sites and submit their photos with the lighthouse visible to nc.lighthouse.visit@gmail.com by the Dec. 31 deadline. Those who complete the challenge will be awarded a personalized certificate from Currituck County upon completion, and earn a free lighthouse climb.

Organizers noted that Hatteras, Lookout, Ocracoke, and Bodie are not offering the free lighthouse climb because of either long-term maintenance or National Park Service rules.

Register at https://www.eventcreate.com/e/nc-lighthouse-visit to receive the official set of rules.

“Long before modern navigation systems, lighthouse keepers and members of the U.S. Life-Saving Service stood watch along North Carolina’s treacherous coastline. Their dedication—often in isolation and through severe weather—helped guide ships safely and protect countless lives,” organizers said in a release.

“These early services were eventually unified under the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939, continuing a legacy of vigilance and service that remains today. The NC Lighthouse Challenge honors that legacy, inviting participants to walk in the footsteps of those who helped ‘light the way’ for a growing nation,” they continued.

The 10 historic sites include the following:

• Old Baldy on Bald Head Island, built 1817.
• Ocracoke Lighthouse, 1823.
• Cape Lookout Lighthouse, 1859.
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 1870.
• Bodie Island Lighthouse, 1872, on Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
• Currituck Beach Lighthouse, 1875.
• Oak Island Lighthouse, 1958.
• Roanoke River Lighthouse, 1886, in Edenton.
• Roanoke River Lighthouse 1867 replica in Plymouth.
• Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse 1877 replica in Manteo.

Tony Cerri, a member of the county’s celebration task force, said that at its core, the challenge is about more than visiting beautiful places.

“It’s about recognizing the vital role North Carolina’s lighthouses — and the people who served in them — played in guiding commerce, protecting lives, and supporting the growth of our nation,” Cerri added in the release.

Currituck County’s America 250 NC Task Force is one of the county committees that plan and organize events, projects, and initiatives at the county level as part of America 250 NC. The state’s official commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary is a program of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

On a clear day, the Cape Lookout Lighthouse is visible from the entrance of the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center on Harkers Island.

The black-and-white diamond lighthouse built in 1859 is the centerpiece of the Cape Lookout National Seashore, but it isn’t the only structure of historical significance on the protected, 56-mile-long barrier island system.

Construction began in 1916 on the Cape Lookout Coast Guard Station, one of three stations built on Core Banks in Carteret County, and the waterfowl museum is hosting a celebration to honor the building and what it represents: the county’s Coast Guard history and its guardsmen.

The event, “U.S. Coast Guard Station at Cape Lookout 110th Anniversary Celebration Day:  Honoring Carteret County’s Rich Coast Guard History and It’s Continuing Role in Our Community” is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the museum, 1785 Island Road.

“All U.S. Coast Guard veterans, especially those stationed at Cape Lookout, are invited to spend the day remembering and sharing the stories of Cape Lookout Station during a celebration of the 110th anniversary of the U.S. Coast Guard,” organizers said.

Coast Guard veterans, families and descendants are encouraged to bring photos for a memorial table to remember those who served, as well as photos that can be scanned and added to the museum’s collection.

Throughout the daylong event, there will be a slideshow of photos of Cape Lookout courtesy of Core Sound, National Park Service and N.C. Maritime Museums, and staff and volunteers will be conducting short interviews with those who served at Cape Lookout.

The official welcome is at 11:30 a.m., followed by lunch at noon. Reserve your spot for lunch at coresound.com/uscg.

The informal program begins at 2 p.m. with a roll call and include an update on the ongoing restoration work of the lighthouse with Cape Lookout Foundation, an event sponsor.

Cape Lookout’s Coast Guard history

The first Cape Lookout station was completed in August 1887 and a cookhouse was added five years later. In 1916, a new station was proposed for the original site, and the 1887 station was moved 60 feet away, making way for work to begin. The station was completed in 1917 and inhabited a year later. A boathouse was added in 1924, according to the U.S. Life-Saving Service Heritage Association.

The 1887 station was remodeled in the 1920s and used as living quarters for the Navy’s Radio Compass Station until the end of World War II. When the Cape Lookout Lighthouse was automated in the 1950s, the Coast Guard demolished several buildings in 1957 and sold the 1887 life-saving station building and the 1923 boathouse.

Cape Lookout Station mission and personnel were merged into the larger Fort Macon Coast Guard Station in 1982 and Cape Lookout Station was decommissioned.

The publicly owned buildings and property were transferred two years later to the Cape Lookout National Seashore. The 1887 station and boathouse were privately owned until 2003 when both buildings were turned over to the National Park Service. In June 2000, the Cape Lookout Village historic district was listed on the National Register.

The 1917 Coast Guard station was used in the early 2000s by the Maritime Museum for environmental education, research and conservation. Between 2018 and 2020, preservation and restoration efforts took place, according to the association.

Editor’s note: Second in a series on the newest work by coastal geologist Stan Riggs, the following is an excerpt from “Cape Lookout National Seashore: Paradigm For A Coastal System Ethic.”

The book, with a foreword by conservationist Tom Earnhardt, a North Carolina Coastal Federation board member, is the first in the “North Carolina Land of Water” book series and focuses on the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

The nearly 300 photographs, maps and illustrations of shifting dunes, barrier islands and coastal wildlife are interwoven with carefully crafted maps and drawings, “tracing our coast from its ancient past through the centuries to our modern present,” according to NCLOW, the nonprofit founded by Riggs and fellow coastal geologist Dr. Dorothea V. Ames.

NCLOW’s stated mission “is to sustain NC’s dynamic water, land and air systems for generations to come.”

Land-Water-Air Interface: Nature’s Coastal Systems

I like to think that actively evolving coastal systems are like the human body with its totally interdependent array of subsystems: skeletal, muscular, circulatory, pulmonary, nervous, and endocrine systems driven by the incredible brain, heart, and lungs. It is difficult to live a healthy life without all these bodily components working intimately together. Likewise, our coastal system is dominated by an interdependent array of complex subsystems: landscapes, waterscapes, and airscapes all interacting at the land-water-air interface. The geographic conditions, geologic dynamics, meteorologic forces, and chemical-biological characteristics are critical variables that interact to produce a living, breathing, and evolving coastal system. Major coastal system drivers are the Earth’s physical landscape dynamics (uplifting of mountains and opening of ocean basins), its space partners (creating climatic zones and setting the waterscape and airscape into motion), and the life-giving energy from the almighty Sun (driving the hydrologic cycle and atmospheric circulation that dictates the resulting biosphere).

Throughout the world, wherever a water body (ocean, sea, lake, or river) meets the surrounding land, a coastal system occurs. Because all water bodies and land masses are uniquely different, no two coastal systems are alike. Rather, they each display the influence of multiple variables producing continuums of coastal system types. The landscape may be mountainous or low flatlands dominated by hard rock, sand and mud sediment, or rich and black organic matter; located in the polar, temperate, or tropical regions; or it may occur in a stable tectonic zone, an active earthquake zone, or an area dominated by volcanic activity. Likewise, the size, location, and physical-chemical-biological characteristics of the water body are also determining characteristics. A critical third component also occurs at every land-water intersection; this is the overlying atmosphere and its climatic characteristics that help determine the ultimate character and are the drivers of change for each coastal system.

Like the human body, coastal systems tend to be extremely dynamic, changing in response to energy input at several different time scales. Volcanic activity (Hawaiian Island coasts) and earthquakes (US Pacific coasts), the dominant sources of energy, occur over decades, centuries, and millennia. However, the energy input from atmospheric storm dynamics affects all coastal systems and is the dominant energy source along the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts, occurring at irregular but frequent short-term time scales. An extremely active atmosphere with rapidly changing climatic conditions is the overwhelming cumulative force that routinely produces short-term changes and long-term evolution associated with most southeastern US coastal systems. The ultimate driver of these climate systems and associated storms is our space partner, the Sun.

Natural Function of Barrier Islands: Limits to Growth, Development

Barrier islands and their associated water bodies have a set of dynamics that are established by the natural functions of Earth’s systems. The word “function” relative to the interactions between the land-water-air interface means assigned actions, activities, duties, or role. The function of interstate highways is to get vehicles from point A to point B very fast. Yes, I can ride my bike or have a picnic on an interstate, but it is guaranteed suicide for me to do so. I might instead ride a bike on a dead-end backcountry road or on a former railroad bed that has been disconnected from the grid, as these now have totally different functions. Rest areas with picnic tables and dog parks are already major components of most interstate highways and they might have separately constructed bike lanes in the future, but not today.

Absolute limits exist as to the number, size, and speed of vehicles that can use a one-lane dirt road. Absolute but different limits occur when it becomes a paved two-lane road. Soon the two-lane road becomes overwhelmed, and it is expanded to a four-lane highway, and with continued growth and development in expanding urban areas, it will evolve into six- and eight-lane segments. At some point in the situation of unlimited growth and development the function of each system will break down. Then society is generally forced to come up with new rules or zoning conditions essential for developing an upgraded or new roadway system that requires new land and higher-grade building materials for new types of vehicles that need higher speed limits, and so on.

Similar rules, or zoning, what I call geo-zoning or eco-zoning, must now be considered for natural landscapes, waterscapes, and airscapes confronted with the pressures of unlimited growth and development. The problem is that society generally sets economic rules concerning natural dynamics that maximize profits and minimize the cost of living. For example, many laws require state and federal contracts to go to the lowest bidder or require projects to have a certain cost-benefit ratio.

Often this requires that new roadways go straight through natural areas or over waterways. These laws also often eliminate or divide impoverished and minority urban areas, as well as promote minimum water drainage structures and shorter project life expectancies. Rarely do they take into consideration the cumulative impact or unintended consequences on complex, interdependent systems. In addition, a general lack of understanding of the scientific dynamics of many Earth systems leads directly to minimizing the use of scientific data relative to the economic impact of a project. Good societal and natural reasons exist for limits and constraints on our riding bikes on interstate highways; the same is true for living in active riverine floodplains, discharging waste into waterways, or building houses on ocean shorelines.

Barrier islands and their beaches are only mobile piles of sand at the intersection of land, water, and air. Yes, this is real estate that can be subdivided into house lots and developed from shore to shore. However, shoreline lots are not equal to those in the middle of an island since they are direct products of regular storm dynamics on the adjacent water body. A waterfront house for living is like camping on the interstate. The only good news is that your eventual demise will be a bit slower on the beach. With unlimited growth and development, all possible island lots are plotted, sold, and built on. This increased growth soon pressures us to replace our ferry boats with two-lane bridges that quickly become overloaded. Then new four-lane bridges are justified on the premise of the need to get more people safely off the islands during storms. Family beach cottages are rapidly replaced by big businesses that rise vertically as rental McMansions, condominiums, hotels, and full urbanization sets in.

Because sea level is rising and storms continue to impact the barrier islands with more people and larger shoreline structures attempting to prevent the shorelines from moving, beach sand begins to disappear. Pumping new sand onto the islands becomes essential, but it is soon gone even as the islands continue to be developed. The natural coastal system is now destabilized, requiring construction of groins, jetties, and bulkheads to desperately hold a beach and stop shoreline recession. Ultimately, the islands will be encased in steel, concrete, and rock walls with little to no sandy beach along an increasingly steeper shoreface.

When economic development wins the battle, with permanently fixed commercial islands in the ocean covered with urban accoutrements ranging from shopping malls to freshwater parks, the islands will have new economic functions. What happened to the barrier island with its unique natural functions and ecosystems associated with high energy sand beaches, dune fields, tide flats, and marshes that harbored the ghost crabs, sea turtles, and shorebirds? Natural barrier island limits have been violated by unlimited growth and development, and once again the stage is set for the perfect conflict between humans and their natural environment.

Similar to barrier islands, other geographic basins on Earth’s surface and in wet climatic zones (swamps, ponds, lakes, or ocean) have a function of holding water. If the geographic basin is linear and open-ended, its function might be to carry a moving flow of water, generally known as a river. Each type of water system has its own specific functions, each dictating different limits to contiguous growth and development.

Absolute limits to growth and types of development exist for high energy and mobile barrier island sand piles, riverine floodplains, swamp-forest pocosins, and estuarine marshes. Similarly, limits pertain to other landscapes, including the savage clear-cuts of the northwest US rain forests, excavations of Appalachian Mountain tops for coal, the vast deforestation of the Amazon jungle—these are all tracts of insatiable consumption driven by the indigenous American spirit monster of self-destruction. “Unlimited” human consumption has consequences; infinite growth on a finite planet is generally not compatible with natural law. We must embrace the radical notion that all of Earth’s natural resources and crucial ecosystem services are essential if we are to maintain a sustainable and high quality of life in society’s future.

Fortunately, some barrier islands, estuarine water bodies, riverine floodplains, and pocosin swamp forests have been protected from the perils of total modification and urbanization by establishing different forms of protected status such as national seashores, wildlife refuges, coastal preserves, state parks, and conservancy lands. The preservation of Cape Lookout National Seashore, or CALO in 1976 clearly demonstrates the critical interdependence between storm dynamics and the barrier island buffer zone. For these intermediary habitats to continue functioning as nature’s speed bumps, storms must unleash tremendous energy across the coastal wetlands—flooding marshes, reshaping shorelines, and maintaining the shifting sands of healthy barrier islands that buffer the uplands from the sea.

Developing a New Coastal System Ethic

In 1949, Aldo Leopold presented to the world his critical concept of a land ethic. This ethic was primarily focused on Earth’s land-based environments in general; it did not directly address either water or air as discreet components with equal voices to that of uplands. However, in the real world of our planet, land-water-air all form a crucial and highly interwoven trinity, a complex and totally integrated system of subsystems not unlike the human body or every other living organism whose component systems are interactive and interdependent parts of the whole. Society needs to apply Leopold’s land ethic to the total tripartite system of the whole Earth and its multitude of land-water-air based environments. One of the most dynamic parts of that system is the coastal component where the planet’s water world meets land, and wherever this occurs, the resultant climatic conditions tend to drive the energetic forces. This new variant of a coastal system ethic places boundaries around those regions where land and water meet and operates in response to atmospheric dynamics. In these uniquely high energy regions where forces collide, change is dominant and will always prevail.

Coastal geologist Stanley R. Riggs is scheduled to be at the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center this weekend to officially launch his three volume, 10-book North Carolina Land of Water series that explores the state’s coast.

He will be at the Harkers Island museum at 3 p.m. Sunday for a discussion and to sign copies of the first book in the series, “Cape Lookout National Seashore: Paradigm for a Coastal System Ethic,” which was released in October. A reception is to follow. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.

Riggs has spent more than six decades “studying North Carolina’s barrier islands, documenting how they shift and evolve as living systems shaped by wind, waves and storms,” organizers said.

Related: Coastal geologist Stan Riggs sets out on 10-book project

He joined East Carolina University in 1967, where he taught for more than three decades before becoming a distinguished research professor. He has served on the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s science panel and Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change, and was recognized in 2022 with the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor.

“Riggs’ latest book establishes the geologic and climatic framework needed for understanding and learning to live with our changing coast,” according to R.A. Fountain, the book’s publisher. “He demonstrates that Cape Lookout is a model for how our barrier islands should be treated–compared especially to its northern neighbor, Cape Hatteras–while also engaging his readers with a fascinating social and cultural history of an island that’s now become America’s grandest national seashore.”

The books are geared toward a general audience and use “research, history and hundreds of photographs, illustrations and maps to show how wind, waves and storms reshape the coast and how North Carolinians can adapt,” the publisher continued.

Core Sound’s Executive Director Karen Amspacher said the museum is “honored to be the ‘official celebration’ of this amazing body of work and Stan Riggs’ life commitment to Eastern North Carolina. Here in the Hook of Cape Lookout this story is ours and we welcome Stan back to give to this community his research, but also his love for this place, its people and its beauty. Welcome home Stan.”

To have a copy signed before it is shipped, purchase the book online through the museum. The book is also available through the publisher rafountain.com, and all proceeds of book sales will go to various nonprofits throughout the region as part of the author and his wife’s commitment to give back to coastal conservation, preservation and education.

A group of volunteers spent peak visitor season this year under the blistering sun and swarmed by thick clouds of flying insects, all to make sure the wild horses, including the newborn foals, inhabiting Cape Lookout National Seashore and Rachel Carson Reserve were undisturbed by the thousands who make their way to the barrier islands that are only accessible by boat.

The volunteers are part of the Pony Patrol program, which trains the “Pony Patrollers,” as they’re called, to share with visitors how to safely observe the two herds. One herd is on Shackleford Banks, the national seashore’s southernmost island, and the other is on the reserve site that is across Taylors Creek from downtown Beaufort.

The National Park Service, Foundation for Shackleford Horses and reserve staff organize the outreach effort that just wrapped up its third year. The foundation is the federally designated co-manager with the park service of the herd.  

Rich Rehm, a volunteer who leads the program for Cape Lookout, explained that the goal of Pony Patrol for the park service is twofold. First is to make sure guests on Shackleford Island stay at least 50 feet from the horses and keep their dogs leashed. Second, as representatives of the National Park Service, is to answer questions visitors may have about the horses, the island, or the seashore.

Paula Gillikin, stewardship coordinator for the 10 reserve sites, has been the longtime manager for the herd at Rachel Carson Reserve, one of 10 protected sites along the coast managed by the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve, under North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

“The Pony Patrol plays a vital role in supporting the Rachel Carson Reserve and our partners by helping us educate the public about the wild horse population that makes the reserve such a unique part of North Carolina’s coastal heritage,” Gillikin said. “When the public understands what the horses need to survive and be healthy, they are more likely to give the horses the space they need to thrive. This understanding also keeps our visitors safe.”

Foundation President Margaret Poindexter told Coastal Review that the 2025 season had been the largest “and undoubtedly our most successful,” despite its “very difficult start.”

What made 2025 special, she continued, was the determination and resolve of the close to 50 volunteers.

The rocky start began when the first foal of the year from either herd was born at the Rachel Carson Reserve in early May, Poindexter said.

“Her presence was immediately known — lots of eyeballs in Beaufort are constantly on that herd. Just a few days after her birth, and within days of the Pony Patrol season launching, a group of visitors got too close to the foal, the anxious stallion gathered up his mare to get away from them, and the foal was stranded on the oyster rocks unable to keep up with its mama,” she explained.

Though the reserve staff was able to intervene and reunite the two, the Pony Patrollers “were very disappointed that something so potentially tragic could happen so early into the season, before the real rush of visitors even started,” Poindexter said.

Then, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, a newborn foal was found alone on the east end of Shackleford, on the oceanside. The foundation “made the difficult decision to remove it in order to save its life. Again, the Pony Patrollers were discouraged, afraid that perhaps human intervention had caused the foal to be separated from its mother,” she continued. 

Another foal on Shackleford was separated from its mother 10 days later, found in the mud on the sound side, likely as the result of a stallion fight. It too was removed to save its life, Poindexter said.

Volunteers Margo Hickman and Laura Palazzolo, both Carteret County residents, agreed it was particularly heartbreaking to see the foals removed from the island earlier this summer. Hickman said it was uncertain if they would survive.

“’The Americas’ TV episode about Shackleford was beautiful, but it drew a lot of attention — and with that came more pressure on the horses,” Palazzolo said. The first episode, “The Atlantic Coast,” of the NBC series dated Feb. 23 began with the wild horses at Cape Lookout.

“There were multiple incidents of visitors getting too close, trying to take selfies, or even attempting to pet the ponies,” Palazzolo explained. “We can’t say for sure why two foals were abandoned on the east end, but human interference could certainly have played a part.”

Poindexter continued that “Shortly after those incidents, a filly was born on the west end of Shackleford, in an area that receives significant visitation because of its close proximity to the ferry drop and the crossover to the beach. The Pony Patrollers committed themselves to ensuring the safety and survival of this little girl.”

The volunteers scheduled regular tours in the area around the pair and reported to each other after their shift about the whereabouts and well-being of the foal and her mother. “They intercepted numerous visitors who were curious about her, moving them away from her so as not to interfere with her nursing and nap times, but sharing insider information about her and her harem to create a unique and enhanced visitor experience,” Poindexter said.

Some of the volunteers that have been with the program since the first season, including retirees Hickman and Deb Walker, have been captivated by the filly.

Walker, who grew up in Newport and returned after retiring in 2015 from several decades as an educator in Mississippi, said a major highlight for her this summer was the newborn filly.

Hickman called the filly’s birth “the icing on the cake” for her. “We all became part of her family as her honorary aunts. We weathered heat and humidity and some god-awful mosquitoes daily to check on her.”

Fellow Pony Patroller Cindy K. Smith, who began volunteering in 2024, was the first of the group to spot the filly.

Smith, a Straits resident, said she was fortunate to be leading a tour that day in June when she spotted the foal shortly after birth. “Her little legs wobbled to steady herself against her Mama.”

Smith is photographer, naturalist and guide who has been visiting Shackleford and Rachael Carson for 30-plus years and joined Pony Patrol because, like so many others, she has a “fascination with the ‘ponies.’”

Smith said once realized the foal was a newborn, she began calling seashore staff and other patrollers.

“We were all elated,” Smith continued, adding that knowing that the Fourth of July week, and the associated influx of visitors, was near, the volunteers knew extra precautions would be needed to keep her safe and at a distance from human interaction.

The volunteers were given guidance from seashore and foundation staff to developed a plan to quietly watch from afar, Palazzolo said, adding they always kept a respectful distance. “At least one Patroller was stationed on the dunes, watching and ready to gently intervene if visitors wandered too close.”

Smith reiterated that the volunteers “went over and above for this little girl, perching on dunes, hiding behind bushes or whatever it took to make sure she would not be approached. Individuals went out on their own and watched over her even when it was not a shift. I think this camaraderie bonded us in a way that made each of us better and as a whole, a more cohesive unit.”

The foal is thriving now, Palazzolo explained, and along the way, “visitors got to experience something really special. We’d share what we’d learned from our reports — her habits, her routine — and people would sit quietly to watch. We’d tell them, ‘If you stay back and give her space, you’ll see her nurse, nap, or maybe even get the zoomies.’ It became this magical moment of connection — respectful and joyful all at once.”

How Pony Patrol began

Poindexter explained that the first year in 2023 was truly a pilot, and began with around 30 participants.

“We only sent volunteers to Shackleford that first season. Rich Rehm, one of the seasoned volunteers at Cape Lookout National Seashore, stepped up and offered to be the program coordinator. Truly, without his willingness to fill that role, the program likely would never have gotten off the ground,” Poindexter said.

Rehm retired as an environmental consultant in the Research Triangle Park area and moved to in 2016 to Merrimon with his wife. He began volunteering with the seashore in 2017.

When Rehm was asked in 2019 to coordinate the program for the National Park Service, he said he passed on the opportunity. Then, the program was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, he decided he would take up the role.

After that first year in 2023, the seashore “was pleased with the success of the program and we expanded the program to include Rachel Carson Reserve,” Rehm said. “In 2025, we expanded the program again to include the east end of Shackleford Island.”

Though the 2025 season wrapped up in late September, a call for volunteers will likely go out in the coming months from both the National Park Service and Rachel Carson Reserve ahead of the 2026 season. Gillikin, with the reserve, said Pony Patrol applications for both herds will likely be launched in January or February.

Poindexter said that those interested in joining the Pony Patrol should know that conditions are rough. “Walking over dunes, in sand, through mud and marsh, often in extreme heat and humidity, while being besieged by mosquitoes,” she said.

Despite the challenges like the heat, the bugs, the mud, and the occasional rude visitor, Palazzolo said the horses make it all worth it.

“There’s nothing like standing on those dunes, watching them go about their day. It reminds you that wildness still exists — and that it’s fragile,” she said. “I’m looking forward to checking on her this winter — and jumping right back in next summer.”

Rehm added, “If you can put up with the heat, the humidity, the bugs, and the storms by all means you should volunteer.”

Coastal Review will not publish Tuesday in observation of Veterans Day.

The 18.8 million visitors to North Carolina’s nine National Park Service sites in 2024 injected $2.3 billion into the state’s economy, second only to California’s $3.7 billion, finds a recent report.

Of that $2.3 billion statewide, around 4.7 million visitors spent $732.2 million in the communities around the coast’s five National Park Service sites, according to “2024 National Park Visitor Spending Effects: Economic Contributions to Local Communities, States, and the Nation” made available to the public Sept. 25.

Park service officials release the annual report detailing what visitors paid the previous year on lodging, camping fees, restaurants, groceries, gas, local transportation, recreation industries and retail in gateway regions, which are the communities or areas that surround a site. An easy-to-use interactive online tool breaking down the report is on the website.

With the ongoing government shutdown that began Oct. 1, and ongoing at the time of this publication, next year’s numbers will likely show a different story.

Visit NC Executive Director Wit Tuttell told Coastal Review that the report “makes it clear that national parks, seashores, historic sites and trails enrich our state and local economies.” Visit NC is the state’s official destination marketing organization.

The study looked at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, all on the Outer Banks, Cape Lookout National Seashore in Carteret County, and Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County, and, in the western part of the state, Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site.

“Beyond the monetary impact, there’s endless value in preserving our scenic wonders and the experience of what humans as well as nature have achieved,” Tuttell continued. “Travelers come here to channel the Wright Brothers, camp on the beach at Cape Lookout, and view the foliage along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Knowing there’s an economic boost to go along with these priceless experiences makes us doubly appreciative.”

Nationwide, more than 85 million acres make up the 433 federally managed sites found in every state, Washington, D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The report states that across the country in 2024 a record 332 million park visitors spent an estimated $29 billion in gateway regions at the 404 sites that counted the number of visitors. The previous record was set in 2016 with 330.9 million visits.

Total visitor spending estimates increased by almost 10% in 2024 compared to 2023, which the report authors credit to a 2% park visitation increase of around 6.36 million. Data also shows that more than 55% of parks had an above-average off-season in February-June and October-December. 

Using this report, the National Park Conservation Association estimates that the National Park Service is losing $1 million a day nationwide from fee revenue for each day the government is shutdown.

“Based on the Park Service’s shutdown plan, almost 9,300 people (nearly two-thirds of Park Service staff) are now being put in the scary position of not knowing when their next paycheck will arrive. Additionally, park concessioners and partners now face the prospect of lost revenue and further economic hardship — local economies could lose as much as $80 million in visitor spending every day parks are closed in October,” the association stated on its website.

National Park Service on the coast

On the Outer Banks, Wright Brothers National Memorial saw 407,000 visitors who spent around $28.6 million. The site in Kill Devil Hills “encompasses the spot where Wilbur and Orville made their world-changing first flights, the historic sand dune where they did most of their gliding, and the location they lived while they were experimenting in the Outer Banks,” the park service states.

Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is on Roanoke Island and its 275,000 visitors brough in an estimated $19.3 million to the local economy. The site “preserves and interprets the site of the first English Colony in the New World, is the site of the theatrical production, The Lost Colony, and interprets the historical events of the Native Americans, European Americans, and African Americans who lived on Roanoke Island, North Carolina,” according to the park service.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore saw 2.8 million park visitors in 2024 spend an estimated $650 million. This national seashore is roughly 70 miles from north to south and is made up of Bodie, Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. The nation’s first national seashore, Cape Hatteras was established in 1937 “to preserve significant segments of unspoiled barrier islands along North Carolina’s stretch of the Atlantic Coast,” the National Park Service said.

Bryan Burhans is the director of Outer Banks Forever, the official nonprofit partner of three parks, and a branch of Eastern National, a nonprofit that promotes America’s national parks and other public trust partners.

“The National Parks are a money generator. They generate a lot of tourism dollars for the Outer Banks,” he said, but more importantly, these sites are “such an integral part of the fabric that makes up the Outer Banks, which he called “a unique and special place.”

Outer Banks Forever is the official philanthropic partner and does not receive any federal funding. Its work is funded by local businesses, donors, state and county partners, and through various grants. “And our goal is simple. It is to preserve and enhance the visitor experience of our national parks here on the Outer Banks,” Burhans said.

One of the group’s recent projects is the pathway at Cape Hatteras connecting the lighthouse to the beach. It’s in the second phase of the project and is under contract with a company to build a restroom facility with outdoor showers with hot water. “The restroom facility alone is about a $380,000 investment by Outer Banks Forever.”

Cape Lookout National Seashore in Carteret County brought in 552,786 visitors that spent $28.9 million. The site protects a 56-mile stretch of barrier islands where sea turtles and shorebirds nest, a herd of wild horses roam free, and Cape Lookout Lighthouse and two historic villages are a snapshot into the past.

“People come to Cape Lookout National Seashore to recreate at the beach and end up supporting the U.S. and local economies along the way,” said Katherine Cushinberry, the acting superintendent, in a release. “We’re proud that Cape Lookout generates $32 million in revenue to communities near the park.”

Moores Creek National Battlefield is an 88-acre site in Pender County that welcomed 691,000 visitors who spent about $5.4 million. The battlefield preserves the site of a Feb. 27, 1776, Revolutionary War battle. “Loyalist forces charged across a partially dismantled Moores Creek Bridge. Beyond the bridge, nearly 1,000 North Carolina Patriots waited quietly with cannons and muskets poised to fire. This battle marked the last broadsword charge by Scottish Highlanders and the first significant victory for the Patriots in the American Revolution, according to the website.

“The two leading drivers of tourism are natural resources and history. Moores Creek National Battlefield is rich in both,” Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism Executive Director Tammy Proctor said in an interview.

“This national park is a treasure that attracts thousands of visitors each year, not only from the Pender County beaches but from the Wilmington area and Brunswick Isles,” she said, adding that the park and its history “had a significant impact on the Revolutionary War. Those fighting for independence from England experienced their first decisive victory at Moores Creek Bridge.”

Moores Creek is a tributary flowing to the Black River and a perfect kayaking location, with a kayak launch at the park. “The creek is pristine and leads to one of the nation’s most pristine rivers. The trails in Moores Creek provide visitors with an experience of the great outdoors and a walk among historical events,” Proctor continued.

“Regarding Moores Creek National Park staff, I can’t say enough about the educational opportunities, programs, and events this staff orchestrates in collaboration with the Friends of Moores Creek Battlefield Association, the nation’s oldest National Park friends organization,” she said.

National Park Service and the shutdown

As of Wednesday, the United States Government had been shut down for three weeks because, according to Oct. 10 post by the National Conference of State Legislatures, on Oct. 1, “lawmakers failed to resolve a budget deadlock, halting some federal operations and putting approximately 750,000 employees on unpaid leave. Triggered by partisan clashes over funding beyond Sept. 30, the shutdown has created uncertainty for many federal programs.”

The National Conference of State Legislatures was created in 1975 by state legislators and legislative staff to provide research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers, according to its website.

During a government shutdown, the organization continues, “the administration retains limited spending flexibility by prioritizing funding for programs that the president deems essential for public safety or national security, such as military operations or emergency services.”

As a result, national parks have remained partially open to the public. Many of the sites advise that some services may be limited on their official Facebook page by way of a reshare from the National Park Service dated Oct. 1, with a link to the Department of the Interior’s “Operations in the Absence of Appropriations” that includes the park service’s contingency plan dated September 2025.

Lincoln Larson, an associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at North Carolina State University, explained to Coastal Review that during a government shutdown, much of the park staff is furloughed, “meaning they don’t work and aren’t paid but retain their job and benefits when the shutdown ends. Overall, a shutdown presents enormous challenges for park management, members of the public who want to visit parks, and for the park employees themselves.”

In most cases, the decision to close depends on the park itself, but many park managers want to keep their sites as open and accessible to the public as possible. However, that is difficult to do with limited staffing, he continued.

While basic services such as roads and restrooms are usually open, they are not monitored or maintained at the same level as during regular operations, and other services, including visitor centers, entrance kiosks, campgrounds, websites, programming and permitting systems, might not be available at all.

Most National Park Service staff view stewardship of natural and cultural resources as a major part of their job, but when they’re not available to protect and conserve these valuable assets, many threats arise, including the effects of overtourism.

Threats like littering, graffiti, human waste, and off-trail behavior often increases under these conditions, causing irreparable damage to fragile park resources. “We saw this happen during the COVID-19 pandemic, when excessive visitation and limited staffing created unprecedented challenges for parks,” Larson said.

Limited staffing also creates safety issues, particularly if law enforcement or search and rescue operations are negatively impacted, which led to many parks closing during the pandemic because of concerns about degradation in the absence of enforcement. A government shutdown poses similar problems.

Larson said it’s difficult to quantify the broader economic impacts of park closures or service reductions.

“Although a shutdown clearly impacts operations within a park itself, the negative effects outside of parks can take an even greater and longer-lasting toll on nearby communities,” Larson explained. Adding, in many parts of rural America, including eastern North Carolina, national parks are major economic engines that, through outdoor recreation and tourism, power local economies.

“These gateway communities depend on park visitation to survive and thrive. Many park workers also live in communities near the parks, and their salaries breathe life into these towns. When parks shut down, many of these economic benefits are lost, making life much tougher for people living nearby. If shutdowns happen during peak tourism seasons, the economic impacts can be even more devastating and leave a lasting effect on the social and cultural landscape of an area,” Larson said.

The National Park Conservation Association urged in a Sept. 29 letter that the National Park Service close all parks during the shutdown to avoid the damage to infrastructure, vandalism and sanitation issues, like human waste and trash, many of the federally managed parks experienced during the last shutdown that lasted 35 days in December 2018 to January 2019.

“NPCA will not stand by and watch history repeat itself… We know what happened last time park staff were forced to leave parks open and unprotected, and the impacts were disastrous … If the federal government shuts down, unfortunately our parks should too,” NCPA President Theresa Pierno said in a release.

National Park Service officials announced Friday that Cape Lookout National Seashore facilities would be reopening this weekend from closures related to Hurricane Erin.

The visitor center at Harkers Island reopened Friday. Its hours of operation are daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The light station visitor center and pedestrian boardwalks from the lighthouse ferry dock leading up to and around the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and to the oceanside pedestrian beach are open. Its hours of operation are daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Passenger ferry service via Island Express Ferry Service to South Core Banks and Shackleford Banks from Beaufort and Harkers Island is back in service.  For information, call 252-728-7433, or visit islandexpressferryservice.com. The ferry departs daily from Beaufort every 30 minutes between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and from Harkers Island daily, every hour from 8:15 a.m. until 5:45 p.m.

South Core Banks opened Friday to pedestrians and beach driving only because of standing water on the backroads and is expected to open Saturday to vehicle traffic.

As of Saturday, Aug. 23, the Great Island Cabin Camp will reopen. For information regarding cancellations or upcoming reservations, call 877-444-6777, or visit www.recreation.gov.

Visitors with vehicle ferry reservations may call for more information regarding schedule and/or reservations for Cape Lookout Cabins and Camps Ferry Service, Davis, at 252-729-9751.

On Sunday, Aug. 24, the Keeper’s Quarters Museum will reopen. Its hours of operation are daily from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Also on Sunday, North Core Banks will reopen to vehicles. Visitors with vehicle ferry reservations may call Morris Marina in Atlantic for more information regarding schedule and/or reservations at 252-225-4261.

National Park Service staff are to continue monitoring ongoing recovery efforts regarding Hurricane Erin and will post updates as needed on the park website and via Facebook and Instagram.

Update 4:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Gov. Josh Stein declared a State of Emergency Tuesday ahead of the anticipated impacts from Hurricane Erin, which was about 650 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras and moving at 10 mph at around 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“Hurricane Erin will bring threats of coastal flooding, beach erosion, and dangerous surf conditions,” Stein said in a statement. “North Carolinians along the coast should get prepared now, ensure their emergency kit is ready, and listen to local emergency guidelines and alerts in the event they need to evacuate.” 

Original post 6 p.m. Monday:

Eastern North Carolina should expect to see impacts from Hurricane Erin, including coastal flooding, starting Tuesday.

The center of the storm was predicted to remain off the coast by a couple hundred miles, but “We still expect impacts across eastern North Carolina, specifically coastal areas,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Erik Heden said during a webinar briefing at lunchtime Monday.

Effects will likely include dangerous surf and rip currents, storm surge, damaging beach erosion, major coastal flooding and overwash.

The storm was about 820 miles south-southeast of Buxton, or 810 miles south-southeast of Morehead City, according to the National Weather Service’s 5 p.m. Monday update. The Category 4 storm was moving northwest at 10 mph.

A storm surge watch and tropical storm watch were issued for eastern Carteret County, Hatteras Island, the northern Outer Banks and Ocracoke Island.

From Duck to Cape Lookout, water levels could reach up to 4 feet above ground, and 1 to 3 feet north of Duck and south of Cape Lookout.

“Elevated water levels will likely be accompanied by large and destructive waves,” forecasters said, adding peak storm surge forecast is generally provided within 48 hours of storm surge occurring in the area.

Heden, who is with the National Weather Service’s Morehead City/Newport office, said Monday that meteorologists began watching the storm Friday, and the storm is expected to increase in size in the coming days.

Updates throughout the weekend showed that as of midday Saturday, the storm was a Category 5, which has winds at 157 mph or faster on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The major storm weakened to a Category 4, then to a Category 3, with winds from 111 to 129 mph, by Sunday evening.

The storm restrengthened overnight Sunday to a Category 4, with 140 mph winds, Heden said. Sustained wind speeds for Category 4 storms range from 130 to 156 miles per hour.

Forecasters said Monday that tropical storm force wind gusts were possible for the coast, with the highest probability for the Outer Banks, but stronger gusts were possible in any passing outer rainbands associated with Erin.

“The earliest reasonable time of arrival of tropical storm force winds for the immediate coastline is sometime Wednesday morning,” forecasters said. “However, the most likely time this area could see tropical storm force winds will be during the evening on Wednesday.”

The main concern with the winds will be the potential for soundside flooding on a north to northeast wind for Down East Carteret County, Ocracoke and Hatteras Island on Thursday.

Coastal flooding could begin as soon as Tuesday, more than 24 hours before any tropical storm force winds arrive, peaking Wednesday into Thursday and slowly easing up later in the week, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters also advise that extensive beach erosion could occur because of strong, long periods of wave energy with waves as high as 15 to more than 20 feet in the surf zone. These waves will also make the surf extremely dangerous Wednesday into Thursday, as well as the life-threatening rip currents expected the majority of this week.

Hyde, Dare counties

Hyde and Dare counties have issued states of emergency and were evacuating Ocracoke and parts of Hatteras Island ahead of the storm’s arrival Monday.

States of emergency went into effect for Dare County at 6 p.m. Sunday, and for Hyde County’s Ocracoke Island at 8 p.m. Sunday.

Dare County officials announced Sunday afternoon a mandatory evacuation had been issued for Hatteras Island Zone A, which includes all of Hatteras Island, including the unincorporated villages of Rodanthe, Waves, Salvo, Avon, Buxton, Frisco, and Hatteras.

Visitors were to evacuate by 10 a.m. Monday and residents must begin evacuating beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The mandatory evacuation order for Ocracoke visitors began at 8 p.m. Sunday and for residents starting at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

“It is extremely likely that Hyde County EMS services will not be available in Ocracoke due to Highway 12 being inaccessible. Please take this warning seriously, especially if you have medical issues or are likely to need special care,” Hyde officials said in a release, adding plans to continue monitoring the forecast and issue advisories as appropriate.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation’s ferry division announced Monday that only residents, homeowners or vendors with an Ocracoke re-entry sticker on their vehicles will be allowed on ferries inbound to Ocracoke, in coordination with the mandatory evacuation order.

“While we don’t expect Hurricane Erin to make landfall on the Outer Banks, there will likely be large waves, ocean overwash and major coastal flooding that impact Highway 12,” said Ferry Division Director Jed Dixon. “We hope everyone will heed the evacuation orders for their own safety.”

No visitors will be allowed access to Ocracoke Island until the evacuation order is lifted.

Priority boarding will be suspended for all vessels leaving Ocracoke, and tolls have been waived for ferries heading from Ocracoke to Cedar Island or Swan Quarter.

The Ocracoke-Hatteras, Ocracoke-Cedar Island and Ocracoke-Swan Quarter routes will run the published schedules until the evacuation is complete.

Service on the Ocracoke Express passenger ferry, which runs between the village of Ocracoke and Hatteras Island, is suspended until further notice.

For real-time travel information, please check NCDOT’s DriveNC.gov and the agency’s social media accounts. People can also receive text or email notifications on ferry schedules and changes through the Ferry Information Notification System, or FINS.  

National Park Service

To be consistent with Dare and Hyde counties, Cape Hatteras National Seashore will be closing beach accesses and facilities, the National Park Service said.

“The Coastal Flood Watch indicates that extreme beach erosion and coastal damage is likely along the oceanside, resulting in a significant threat to life and property. Large, dangerous waves will likely inundate and destroy protective dune structures,” according to the press release. “Severe flooding will likely extend inland where there is vulnerable or no protective dune structure, flooding homes and businesses with some structural damage possible. Roads will likely be impassable under several feet of water and vehicles will likely be submerged.”

Museum of the Sea at Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the Discovery Center on Ocracoke Island will close by 5 p.m. Monday. 

Cape Point, Frisco, and Ocracoke campgrounds were to close by 3 p.m. Monday and Oregon Inlet Campground will close at noon Tuesday. Bodie Island Lighthouse will close Wednesday and Thursday.

Off-road vehicle ramps were to close by 9 p.m. Monday. To view the status of beach access ramps, visit http://go.nps.gov/beachaccess.

Due to the presence of threatened oceanfront structures, the Seashore will close beach access in Rodanthe from the terminus of Old Highway 12 to the end of the Ocean Drive and in front of the village of Buxton southward to Ramp 43.   

Visitors should stay off the beaches completely and discontinue use of all beach trails and boardwalks beginning Tuesday morning.

Hurricane Erin is forecast to be a potential threat to Cape Lookout National
Seashore, with North and South Core Banks expected to experience the most significant impacts, Lookout officials said, adding that coastal flooding will likely be a long duration issue with impacts lasting late into the week.

Cape Lookout National Seashore officials plan to close facilities starting at noon Tuesday, including the Light Station Visitor Center and the Keepers Quarters Museum, through at least Friday.    

Island Express Ferry Service will cease operations out of Beaufort and Harkers Island beginning Wednesday through Friday.   

Great Island and Long Point Cabin Camps reservations have been canceled for Tuesday through Friday. The closure could extend beyond Friday, depending on the impact on the seashore. 

“I hope Erin will remain off the coast and head out sea, but hope is not a good way forward.  I really hate to impact people’s plans, and we aim to reopen as soon as possible afterwards,” acting Superintendent Katherine Cushinberry said Monday in a statement.

The National Park Service staff will be monitoring ongoing developments with Hurricane Erin and will post updates as needed on the park website at go.nps.gov/stormwatch.

A chance to climb to the top of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and look over the expanse of uninhabited barrier islands, sounds and the Atlantic Ocean might be in the foreseeable future now that a much-anticipated, multiyear, projected $15 million renovation project is expected to begin this month.

National Park Service officials announced Friday that Stone and Lime Historic Restoration Inc. received the contract and the work that should start soon could take up to three years to complete.

“The Cape Lookout Lighthouse has long stood as a sentinel for mariners navigating the treacherous waters of the Southern Outer Banks. Time and elements have taken their toll on the structure, prompting the National Park Service to initiate a full preservation effort aimed at safeguarding the lighthouse for future generations,” officials said.

The Cape Lookout Lighthouse is a double-walled, 163-foot-tall tower with a spiral cast iron staircase winding through the interior. First lit on Nov. 1, 1859, the structure, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, replaced the 1812 lighthouse that previously stood on the island. The National Park Service established in March 1966 the Cape Lookout National Seashore, which is made up of 56 miles of undeveloped barrier islands in Carteret County.

“This renovation marks a pivotal step in preserving one of North Carolina’s most iconic landmarks,” Acting Superintendent Katherine Cushinberry said in a statement. “The lighthouse is not only a critical aid to navigation but also a symbol of our coastal heritage.”

Cushinberry is in the temporary role following the retirement this summer of the seashore’s previous superintendent, Jeff West.

Chief of Interpretation and Public Information Officer BG Horvat told Coastal Review that the restoration project includes the repair or replacement of the 200-plus metal stairs, handrails, landings, glass panes, windows and doors, plus new paint for the black-and-white exterior, which will allow the original bricks to “breathe,” or allow air to flow throughout the tower, as it was designed.

Stone & Lime has overseen several lighthouse projects for the National Park Service, including the multi-year restoration of Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which is suffering from similar structural and cosmetic concerns, the company said.

The Massachusetts-based restoration company in a June 6 press release announced that it had been selected to manage the Cape Lookout Lighthouse project and will “oversee a variety of historically sensitive repairs that ensure the public will be able to have access to the Lighthouse in the future while fortifying it against the impacts of the ocean environment, especially as hurricanes and other meteorological events growth in strength and frequency.”

Horvat told Coastal Review that the restoration company won the contract because “their bid was the most successful based on the needs of the project, their experience in historic preservation work, and what the park’s needs were to get the work done with high quality and historic preservation in mind.”

Safety issues for the structure are numerous, which is why the public climbing season stopped after an annual inspection of the tower in 2021, prompting discussions about a renovation, Horvat said.

The concerns were first noted during a preseason safety inspection early that year. That’s when staff pinpointed compromised structural components such as stairs and handrails. Engineers were then brought in for more in-depth inspections, resulting in a list of things to consider repairing.

“The lighthouse was built in 1859. The iron components of the tower are all original. In many areas it is corroded away, or deteriorating. For example, some of the landings are bowing. The metal doorway to the gallery at the top has a small hole in it. The handrails and stairs are rusty in several places,” he said. “The list is pretty big considering the age of all this metal that acts like the ‘bones’ of the whole structure.”

While the tower is undergoing repairs, “the biggest thing” visitors may notice is the refurbishing the ironwork of the watch, lantern and dome levels at the uppermost section of the lighthouse, Horvat said.

“The whole top of the lighthouse will come off, and a temporary cap will be placed atop of the lighthouse tower until the refurbishment is complete. Then, the top of the lighthouse will be placed back where it belongs, new and improved, adhering to historic preservation standards,” he explained.

Visitors will also notice that the lighthouse exterior will be stripped to bare red brick — the first time since 1873 — and then repainted with a breathable paint to help stabilize the moisture content of the bricks. 

Although the lighthouse was completed on Nov. 1, 1859, with its original red brick tower, back in those days, the Lighthouse Board “decided that each coastal light would have its own day-mark pattern, allowing mariners a way to note their location during daytime, as each lighthouse displays a distinct flash pattern at night,” he said.

The Bureau of Lighthouses, established in 1852, replaced the Lighthouse Board in 1910. The U.S. Coast Guard absorbed the bureau in 1939, caring for the lighthouse until 2003, when ownership was transferred to the National Park Service.

“In 1873, Cape Lookout Lighthouse was painted with its distinctive black-and-white diagonal checkers, or diamond pattern,” Horvat said. “Since then, there have been numerous paint jobs to brighten up the day-mark pattern on the lighthouse,” and for some of those layers, oil-based paint was used, which doesn’t allow the exterior to breathe and damages the masonry.

The more breathable types, such as water-based paints, “work with the original red brick masonry to allow moisture built up in the bricks to move freely, or evaporate rather than create pockets of condensation within the tower. Trapped moisture accelerates the deterioration of the bricks and lends to the corrosive problems on the interior metals as well,” he said.

Also, there have been various types of cements used inappropriately for patchwork over the years.

“Of course, materials like paint and cement have all changed over the last 166 years,” Horvat said.

Money for the restoration comes from a combination of sources, including National Park Service line-item construction funds, Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act revenues and cyclic maintenance funds.

“These resources enable us to enhance and maintain our facilities for the benefit of the public,” Horvat said.

While the lighthouse and the immediate area are closed to the public during the renovations over the next few years, visitors are encouraged to explore the rest of the park, like the scenic beaches, and the cultural historic sites. Interpretive programs and updates on the restoration progress will be available through the seashore’s website and social media.

Cape Lookout National Seashore officials plan to hold its annual duck blind permit lottery through the National Park Service’s official reservations website later this month.

The permit allows duck hunters to place and leave temporary duck blinds in the park from Sept. 12 to March 31, 2026.  Construction of permanent duck blinds is illegal, and the temporary blinds must be removed by the permittee no later than March 31, 2026.

The lottery will open on recreation.gov at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, and close at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28. There is a $10 registration fee to enter the lottery.

Lottery slots are a limited in number. Those who want to enter the lottery are encouraged to create an account before the lottery opens.

After the lottery closes, the lottery order will be randomly selected from the pool of applicants and a time assigned for the required in-person, 15-minute appointment sometime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12. Those selected will be notified by email.

During the appointments in the visitor center at 1800 Island Road, Harkers Island, lottery winners will be able to select where their blinds will be located, complete the permit paperwork and pay their permit fees.

Hunters are limited to two blinds. There is a $50 permit fee for the first blind, and a $25 fee for the second blind, or $75 for two blinds. The fees are used to administer and monitor the program. 

Applicants must bring a valid driver’s license or identification card, a North Carolina hunting license, and a signed federal duck stamp or federal e-stamp.

“If you arrive for an in-person appointment without ALL these documents, you will not be issued a permit and will forfeit your scheduled lottery appointment,” rangers said (their emphasis).

Those not selected during the lottery or who can’t make their scheduled appointment time are welcome to go to the visitor center to be seen on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Sept. 17.

Hunting is authorized within the national seashore, subject to State of North Carolina hunting regulations and federal law. 

Hunters are advised that failure to obtain a permit or failure to remove blinds at the end of the permit period may result in penalties, a bill for the cost of removing the blind, and exclusion from the program in future years. Illegal duck blinds found in the park will be removed without notice and the cost of removing illegal and abandoned blinds significantly adds to the cost of the program and may have to be passed on to the hunters in future years.

Commercial hunting or fishing guides must obtain a permit to conduct commercial activities in a national park.  To obtain a Commercial Use Authorization, or CUA, permit, guides should contact park business manager Katherine Cushinberry at 252-838-8899. 

Guides with a CUA permit may advertise that they are an authorized hunting guide for Cape Lookout National Seashore. Those caught guiding without a CUA permit may be prosecuted and lose lottery and hunting privileges for a minimum of two years.

For more information regarding the 2024-25 Duck Blind Lottery at Cape Lookout National Seashore, contact Ranger Evan Knight at 252-838-8929.

HARKERS ISLAND — It takes countless hours of work for the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center to fulfill its mission of preserving Down East Carteret County’s heritage.

Located next to Cape Lookout National Seashore’s visitor center on Shell Point, offering on most days a view of the diamond-patterned lighthouse across the sound, the museum spotlights the history and traditions of the 13 unincorporated communities in the eastern part of the county through exhibits, programs and events.

While Executive Director Karen Willis Amspacher and about a dozen volunteers were busy setting up the morning of July 3 for the annual All-American Shrimp Fry taking place that Saturday, July 5, she told Coastal Review that “It’s the work that makes this place what it is” and the museum “was built on volunteers.”

From converting an old doctor’s office to the gift shop housed in the facility, clearing land and pulling stumps from Willow Pond behind the museum, to creating beautiful quilts and feeding thousands fresh local seafood and sweet puppies, “Core Sound has always been and still is — and hopefully will always be — grounded in the hard work, talents and dedication of the people of our community,” she explained.

So, when Gov. Josh Stein inducted Amspacher and nine others June 25 into the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor in the state, she didn’t tell a soul.

Amspacher, who has been leading Core Sound since it was established in 1992, had been in Raleigh that last week of June with others fighting against a proposed law that would ban commercial shrimp trawling in the state’s inland waters and within a half-mile of the shore. The House chose not to push the contentious bill through.

She was reluctant to accept the award at the time because, she said, it wasn’t only her who had made the museum a success, and didn’t feel like a time to celebrate. Amspacher decided to meet with the governor anyway because it was a chance to speak to him about the proposed trawling ban.

She wrote in a social media post a week later a “confession of guilt for accepting something good that belongs to everybody that I have mommicked all along the way.”

Amspacher thanked everyone for their congratulations, “but know … WE have accomplished NOTHING alone. Since I moved back home in 1982 it’s been quite a journey, thank you to everyone who is still holding on for our fishing communities no matter what it takes,” she wrote, adding that she hopes her daughter, Katie, remembers when she “puts me in the ground on #redhill under those oaks to post a sign somewhere .. ‘Work is love made visible.’ I believe that … I do love ‘my crowd’ … and love means work.”

Amspacher paused between tasks the morning of July 3 to reiterate that she’s truly grateful for all of the volunteers, especially the young ones “who keep showing up to do the work it takes to keep the museum’s work moving forward.”

Her “shrimp boys” Liam Calabria, Nick Davies and Jackson Saunders, were among those setting up tables and chairs. The three best friends grew up together in Raleigh.

Calabria explained during a break that the nickname came from when he and his older brother, who is in college now, began helping at Core Sound about five years ago.

The first few years, “We had to clean all the shrimp, so that was the main focus, and then we would just help out where need be,” Calabria said. “Now we set up all the tables, chairs, water stations, and we’ve helped serve the food recently, and that’s the fun part because we make​ it a friendly competition.”

His family began in 2020 splitting their time between Carteret County and the state capital, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Core Sound decided to hold the shrimp fry again after pausing during the pandemic, Calabria said that his brother, who was in ninth grade at the time, needed volunteer hours and wanted to help the community.

“I decided to tag along with him,” and his family decided to continue to help. “Now, we started dragging our friends along,” Calabria explained, gesturing to Davies and Saunders.

Davies started helping about three years ago. Currently attending Wake Tech Community College, Davies said it’s “a lot of fun” at Core Sound and he gets to spend time with his best friends.

This is the first year for Saunders, who said he decided to join because he needed some community service hours for scholarships, and “thought it’d be fun to hang out with my friends. So I was just like, why not tag along?”

Calabria added, “We just love the community, and we’ve made a lot of friends and connections through Harkers Island over the five years we’ve lived here, so we just like to see them enjoying the time here and meeting up with some friends.”

Nearby, high school senior Thomas Lathan was helping his grandfather Bill Lathan, a board member for more than 20 years, hang banners that thanked the shrimp fry’s sponsors.

Thomas Lathan has helped at past events, but this is his first summer as an intern. He’s been working with a doctoral student to interview residents about their experiences with tropical storms and how the natural disasters affect and change the culture. He plans to present the findings when he’s done.

Bill Lathan, who still works full time as an attorney in New Bern, said he heads to Harkers Island whenever he’s available and decided to join Thomas that Thursday to help.

Amspacher explained in a later interview that many of the youth that help have been volunteering as shrimp cleaners and trash collectors since they came with their parents and grandparents when they were 9 and 10 years old.

“Now they are high school and college students and they are returning as interns and as the ‘power’ behind our events and projects. They care and each of them know they are part of us and always will be,” she said. “Troop 252 of Davis has been part of our events from the first year we were in this building in 1999. Many of them have children who are now Scouts, doing what they did.”

After the event, Amspacher told Coastal Review that the shrimp fry was a success. This year highlighted the Crystal Coast Water Rescue Team who traveled to Black Mountain during Helene response in fall 2024 and welcomed the Black Mountain Fire Department who called on Carteret County for help.

Core Sound has been reaching out to leaders in the mountains since Hurricane Helene caused untold destruction last fall to the western part of the state to help cope with the destruction and heartache.

Recognizing “our water rescue team traveling to help Black Mountain Fire Department was the same story. The shared experience, the bond that tragedy builds, the ever-knowing that we are all one storm away from needing them to come help us was heavy on everyone there. It was a moment that we will all hold dear,” said Amspacher. “The All-American Shrimp Fry is just that: communities coming together to celebrate our homes, our families and the traditions we hold sacred from across North Carolina.”

As with any interest or hobby, gardening has its own vernacular.

Plants have unique names, sometimes specific to localities, such as the shrub we around this part of the coast call “myrkle,” otherwise known as Southern wax myrtle.

That’s where the scientific names for plants come in handy. Whether you call it “tallow shrub,” “bayberry,” “candleberry” or “myrkle bush,” the scientific name is Morella cerifera.

Plants can be named for where they originated, i.e. Chinensis means China, while Japonica indicates Japan. Some plants are named for the person who found them and made them garden staples. Some plants are named for their distinguishing characteristics.

For instance, our own beloved blanketflower, or Gaillardia, is named for a famous French botanist, Maître Gaillard de Charentonneau. Visitors to the Cape Lookout National Seashore may have seen it blanketing the sand around the lighthouse.

There are numerous different varieties of this flower, but most of them have a vibrant orange or red center with a bright yellow ring around the outer edge. Very attractive to pollinators, these tough plants are drought-hardy, salt-tolerant, deer-resistant and they thrive in sandy soil, making them ideal for coastal gardens. Gaillardias can be annuals or perennials, depending on the variety.

Wait, what? That’s a whole lot of gardening gibberish!

Gaillardia pulchella is the scientific name for the blanketflower most common around here.

“Attractive to pollinators” is self-explanatory — big words for nectar-rich flowers that attract bees and butterflies and sometimes moths or beetles.

“Drought-hardy” means these plants can survive with minimal rainfall or water.

“Salt-tolerant,” well, that’s another one that’s self-explanatory.

“Deer-resistant”… one can only hope blanketflower tastes horrible and eating it gives them a severe bellyache. Deer seem to devour everything else quite happily and with no qualms, and it seems like the more expensive the landscaping is, the better they like the human-provided buffet.

“Tolerant” and “resistant” are somewhat iffy descriptions. Neither means immune. “Salt-tolerant” means a plant can take more salt, either spray or windblown or around its roots, than more delicate plants that salt can burn. “Resistant” means less likely to be eaten but it’s not a guarantee. “Resistant” can also mean that even if the deer eat all the leaves off the plant, it has a better chance of rebounding.

“Annual” means the plant has to be planted every year, or annually.

“Perennial” — longer word = longer life span — means the plants come back on their own year after year.

Annuals tend to bloom over a longer period, while perennials usually only bloom for a short while. A good mix of both will insure a longer season of bloom time.

Just like flowers, vegetables have differing terms. Annual vegetables like tomatoes have to be planted every year, while perennials like asparagus only have to be planted once and then a well-tended bed can last and be enjoyed for decades.

Some descriptors for tomatoes are “determinate” and “indeterminate.” “Determinate” means a big flush of tomatoes and then the plant is pretty much done. Determinate tomatoes, while perfectly acceptable for eating, are especially great for canning or freezing.

Indeterminate — again, the longer word is a great memory jog — bear fewer tomatoes at a time but over a longer season than determinate varities.

Determinate tomato plants tend to stay relatively smaller, while indeterminate get sprawly-crawly, since they bear fruit on new growth.

Green beans can be bush or pole varieties. What difference does that make, other than one you don’t have to cut poles for and for one you do?

Bush beans, like determinate tomatoes, bear a big crop all at once. They’ll have a few more, maybe even another crop, depending on the weather.

Pole beans, on the other hand, need something to climb. While they don’t bear as many beans at one time as bush beans, they bear over a much longer season.

Another interesting gardening tidbit: Maybe you’ve heard the older folks talk about planting by the moon. What difference could the moon make? We’re not planting on the moon!

Within our insular homes, cocooned by year-round heat and air conditioning as well as electric lights, many humans barely notice the night sky, much less what stage the moon is in.

You have to figure that anything capable of moving all the water on the planet four times a day must also have an effect on everything else, so …

… while it may sound silly to let the moon tell you when to plant or harvest, it actually makes sense.

Phrases like “by the dark of the moon” or “on a growing moon” were once commonplace and people back then innately understood the references.

Savvy farmers would only plant on certain dates, knowing that planting at the right time resulted in better yields with less insect damage. Usually reserving days with a waxing, or growing, moon for above-ground crops, while a waning, or shrinking, moon was deemed better for root crops. Time between the new moon and the full moon is considered to be waxing, while between the full moon and the new moon is waning.

Not only that, but harmful insects often hatch out in greater numbers around the time of a full moon, so dusting or spraying your crops beginning a few days before the full moon and keeping them dusted or sprayed until a few days after the full moon can significantly dent the insect population.

Oftentimes, if there’s going to be cold or inclement weather, it’s also usually around a full moon.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac, which is getting harder and harder to find in print form, has long been a staple for information about moon phases and cycles. Benjamin Franklin, considered the father of the modern almanac, published his lunar calendar in order to help farmers.

In earlier times, some people would only set eggs to hatch, or get a haircut, or even start building or dig a hole on the right moon. While some moon-tales reek of hoodoo, a great deal of moon lore is spot-on.

While many of us plant whatever whenever the ground is ready and we have a minute, or a day off, paying attention to the kind of plant you’re installing and where the moon is in its cycle at that time can help you reap unexpected benefits.

Cape Lookout National Seashore’s first Horse Sense and Survival tour for the year is slated for the morning of Saturday, June 21.

Leading the tour is seashore’s Resource Manager Dr. Sue Stuska, who will explain the relationships, behavior and survival of these wild horses on Shackleford Banks.

“This is an excellent opportunity for visitors to witness and begin to understand the wild horses,” Cape Lookout Superintendent Jeff West said in a release. “The Shackleford horses are truly a unique aspect of what makes Cape Lookout National Seashore a special place.”

The program is free, but space is limited to 20 participants. Reservations are required and can be made at CALO Wild Horse Reservations. For reservations and to ask questions, call the park at 252-728-2250, ext. 0.  

After reserving a spot with the park, reserve a ferry tickets, which are $24 for adults and $17 for ages 3 to 11, at www.islandexpressferryservices.com or by calling 252-728-7433.

Participants will need to gather at the Island Express Ferry Service depot in Beaufort by 8:15 a.m. June 21. The ferry will depart at 8:30 a.m. and head toward the soundside shore of west Shackleford Banks to walk a moderate-level trek off the beaten path to find horses to watch from a distance. The ferry will return around 12:30 p.m.

Seashore staff recommend visitors arrive prepared for a day in the sun, climbing dunes, walking through brush, and navigating in deep sand. Shoes that protect your feet and stay on in the mud are required. Participants should bring water, snacks, bug repellent, sunscreen, sun hat, binoculars, and camera with a telephoto lens in a daypack or shoulder bag.

Additional tours are scheduled for July 20, Aug. 3 and Sept. 20. October and November programs will be announced. For more information, including meeting places, times, and ferry costs on the tours planned for later this year, see http://go.nps.gov/horsewatch.

Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center has announced its summer Parlor Talk Series schedule.

The museum is headquartered on Harkers Island, and has a satellite location at 806 Arendell St., in downtown Morehead City, where the talks will take place.

The talks are scheduled for 2 p.m. every Thursday from June 19 to Aug. 28 and will be in the upstairs parlor. No reservations are needed. Accessible accommodations are available.

The following is the 2025 summer series schedule:

• June 19 “The Education of an Island Boy: Growing up on Harkers Island” with author Joel Hancock.
• June 26 “Menhaden: A Biologist’s Thirty-Two Year Journey with the Fish and the Fishery” with author Joe Smith.
• July 3 Horses of Shackleford Banks with Cape Lookout National Seashore Wildlife Biologist Dr. Sue Stuska and Foundation for Shackleford Horses.
• July 10 “Growing Up in Old Beaufort” with Geoffrey Adair, lifelong resident.
• July 17 “Eastern North Carolina’s Baseball Heroes” with Frank Tursi, author of “Tar Heel Boys of Summer: North Carolina’s Major League Ballplayers.”
• July 24 “Songs & Stories About the People I Love” with Connie Mason.
• July 31 New programs at Carteret Community College with its president, Dr. Tracy Mancini.
• Aug. 7 “Language and Life on Ocracoke” with two of its authors, Candy Gaskill and Walt Wolfram.
• Aug. 14 “The Value of Diamonds: A coastal North Carolina Down East Novel” with author, Lura J. Salter Hill.
• Aug. 21 “Flooding – More Than You Know” with researchers James Collins, Ryan McCune, Dr. Katherine Anarde and others.
• Aug. 28 “Fish House Liars Keep Telling The Tales” with Rodney Kemp and Chris Yeomans.

The satellite site and gift shop in downtown Morehead City is open year-round and carries curated collection of locally sourced gifts, art, home and outdoor decor, books, jewelry and much more.

The museum at 1785 Island Road on Harkers Island houses permanent exhibits on Carteret County’s heritage and history, traveling exhibits and serves as a community meeting place.

Past parlor talks are archived for viewing on the museum’s website.

This year’s Crystal Coast Star Party and celebration of International Dark Sky Week is set for this weekend on Harkers Island.

The Cape Lookout National Seashore, Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center and the Crystal Coast Stargazers are hosting the two-day event that includes stargazing, children’s activities and a special presentation by a NASA leader.   

The event is being offered at no charge but organizers ask those who plan to attend to register using the online form for planning purposes.

Cape Lookout National Seashore was certified as an International Dark Sky Park in December 2021 for “exceptional quality of the night skies of the park and the opportunities for astronomy-based experiences. Cape Lookout National Seashore is the first Atlantic coastal Dark Sky Place in the NPS to receive this certification,” according to the National Park Service.

As part of the star party programming, NASA’s Nagin Cox, mission lead on the Mars Perseverance Rover and the Curiosity Rover, will give a special talk starting at 4 p.m. Saturday titled, “Dare Mighty Things: Mars Rovers Paving the Way” in the museum’s education hall.

Cox graduated from Cornell University and was commissioned as an officer in the Air Force. She worked in F-16 Aircrew Training and received a master’s in Space Operations Systems Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. While captain, she served as an Orbital Analyst at NORAD/Space Command in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs.

Cox joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1993 has been a systems engineer and manager on multiple interplanetary robotic missions including NASA/JPL’s Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rover Missions and the Kepler telescope mission to search for Earth-like planets around other stars, according to the NASA website.

Other activities include public stargazing at the seashore’s visitor center on Harkers Island starting at 8:30 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. Crystal Coast Stargazers will have their telescopes set up for public stargazing and NASA Solar System Ambassadors are to be on-site.

From 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, NC SciFest Kids’ Astronomy Activities with Cape Lookout Ranger Sabrina Godin will be held in the museum’s education hall, and NASA Solar System Ambassador Jimmy Fulks will be on hand for solar viewing at the seashore’s visitor center.

The starlight cruises to Cape Lookout Lighthouse scheduled for both nights are fully booked and the wait list is closed.

Update March 18: The post has been updated to include the correct email address. The previously published email address was provided to Coastal Review in error.

Got a kayak, smart phone and basic math skills?

If the answer is yes, you’re eligible to participate in this year’s Terrapin Tally.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal management Coastal Reserve program and partners from the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. State Parks, Bald Head Island Conservancy, N.C. Audubon, N.C. Aquariums and National Park Service are seeking volunteers to count the elusive diamondback terrapin in their coastal habitat from Carteret County to Brunswick County.

This year marks the 11th Terrapin Tally, a community science project created to collect a snapshot of the diamondback terrapin population numbers in the state. Literal headcounts are conducted from volunteers on kayaks during specific times and predetermined routes.

These surveys, over time, will provide wildlife biologists with population statistics and trends of diamondback terrapins. Tallies collected have contributed to new research projects and management programs for terrapin populations at Masonboro island Reserve and other coastal sites.

“Many NC Coastal Reserve sites provide ideal habitat for diamondback terrapins, and we are excited to continue these efforts for the 11th year alongside the NC Wildlife Resources Commission,” Elizabeth Pinnix, Coastal Reserve southern sites manager, said in a release. “These data are important in understanding terrapin population trends and contribute to informed management decisions to protect this estuarine turtle.”  

Diamondback terrapins are the only reptile that can tolerate brackish waters, where salinity levels constantly change as freshwater runs off land and mixes with ocean saltwater.

The turtles were once abundant in salt marshes, estuaries and mangrove swamps along the country’s East and Gulf Coasts. But coastal development, habitat loss, commercial harvest and fishing interactions have contributed to a population decline.

Diamondback terrapins are a species of special concern in North Carolina.

“Data from the past ten years of Terrapin Tally events has helped point us to areas where further study is needed and has supported management actions that provide additional protection in specific coastal areas,” Wildlife Resources Commission Eastern Wildlife Diversity Supervisor Hope Sutton said in the release. “We hope to continue to contribute to broader conservation goals related to this special little turtle. It will take time and substantial effort, considering the extensive area of its potential habitat here in N.C.”

Volunteers must register to attend one training session in which they will learn how to use a smartphone application and sign up for at least one field collection session scheduled sometime between April 25 and June 15.

Training sessions will be held in-person 10 a.m.-noon April 12 at Carolina Beach State Park visitor center, Hammocks Beach State Park visitor center and via Zoom.

Collection sessions will be conducted in two-hour blocks on the following dates:

• April 25-27.
• May 10-11 and May 15-18.
• June 12-15.

Times may vary by site depending on the tide. Volunteers may choose the dates and number of sessions they would like to complete.

Tally sites this year include Cape Lookout National Seashore, Rachel Carson Reserve, Calico Creek, Hammocks Beach State Park, Lea Hutaff Island, Masonboro Island Reserve, Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, Zeke’s Island Reserve, Bald head Island and Bird Island Reserve.

For questions, email terrapintallync@ncwildlife.org.

Volunteers are needed to help the organizations that care for the wild horses on Shackleford Banks and Rachel Carson Reserve raise community awareness during the busy season.

Cape Lookout National Seashore, the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve and the Foundation for Shackleford Horses Inc. have joined efforts for the second year to offer the volunteer program dubbed “Pony Patrol.”

Interested candidates can apply online through Friday, Feb. 21. The positions will be competitive because there are limited spots available. Those selected will be contacted for an interview in early March, organizers said.

Those selected will go through training before walking the Rachel Carson Reserve in Beaufort, Shackleford Banks, which is part of Cape Lookout, or both locations to talk with visitors about how to best experience wild horses in their habitat and understand “the importance of giving wild horses space to be ‘wild’,” according to the release.

Candidates must be at least 18 years old, a United States citizen or permanent resident. Volunteers will be expected to work three- to four-hour shifts, at least three times per month, and must be able to walk the islands’ sandy terrain, and tolerate the extremely sunny, hot humid, windy and buggy environments.

Volunteers in 2024 conducted 254 patrols and interacted with more than 3,800 visitors.

Featured Image

Kevin Hardy of Wilmar, near Vanceboro, fishes along Cape Lookout National Seashore as a commercial fishing trawler offshore heads southwest. Photo: Dylan Ray

A recent U.S. Geological Survey study projects that rising sea levels and stronger, more intense storms will exacerbate four specific coastal hazards and associated management challenges for Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Rising waters and eroding or sinking lands may be unsurprising on the coast, but the findings are troubling for anyone on or near a barrier island, those slivers of sand so popular with visitors and vital to protecting mainland folks.

“Accelerating sea level rise (SLR) and changing storm patterns will increasingly expose barrier islands to coastal hazards, including flooding, erosion, and rising groundwater tables,” according to the study titled, “The projected exposure and response of a natural barrier island system to climate-driven coastal hazards,” published in Nature scientific reports.

The authors explain in the study that their findings illustrate “viability of this barrier island system will be compromised by increasingly severe flooding, rising groundwater, erosion, and land subsidence over the next century.”

Three of the paper’s authors, oceanographer Jennifer Thomas, coastal geologist Patrick Barnard and research oceanographer Sean Vitousek, told Coastal Review in a joint response that the study looks at the coastal hazards related to sea level rise and storms on Cape Lookout National Seashore, which is just a short boat ride from mainland Carteret County.

The scientists are based at the Geological Survey’s Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California.

“This study shows model projections of overland flooding, groundwater depths, and shoreline change for a series of plausible sea level rise and storm scenarios over the next century. Vertical land motion is derived from satellite observations,” the scientists said.

The team explained how sea level rise can increase the impacts of coastal hazards.

A higher sea level means that high tides can more easily cause sunny day, or nuisance, flooding, and that waves and storm surge can reach higher elevations, which can then lead to overwash, erosion and flooding farther inland. This can also cause groundwater tables to rise, they said.

Since the land is also sinking, that makes relative sea level rise even higher, intensifying these hazards.

Barrier islands, like those in the Cape Lookout study area, “buffer storm impacts for the mainland coast. However, the barrier islands themselves are at an increased risk compared to mainland coasts, as they can experience the hazards of SLR and storms on all sides. Vulnerable barrier islands can lead to more vulnerable mainland coastlines in the future,” the study states.

The researchers told Coastal Review that without intervention, flooding and erosion will be pervasive across barrier islands over the next century.

“As these islands are the first line of defense for mainland communities, reduction in this natural protection will create more hazard exposure in the future,” the team continued. “Managing coastal resources under a changing climate will be extremely challenging.”

Cape Lookout Superintendent Jeff West told Coastal Review that the report findings confirmed what the park staff has seen happening over the years: “an increased number of flooding events, and more devastation” from storms.

“Not only does it confirm what we have been seeing, but it helps detail what to expect in high visitor use areas — places we have infrastructure assets,” West said.

Managed by the National Park Service, Cape Lookout is made up of barrier islands off mainland Carteret County, and is home to several threatened and endangered species, a herd of wild horses, the still-operational 1850s Cape Lookout Lighthouse, historic villages, campsites and ferry landings.

Based on these projections, West said that he thinks the park service and visitors should expect to see places they love begin to disappear over the next two decades.

“They will have environmental impacts that change where and when they can visit, and I expect they will see a change in services they have come to expect and that the NPS provided.”

Cape Lookout Wildlife Biologist Sue Stuska monitors the horse herd along with management partners the Foundation for Shackleford Horses Inc. She told Coastal Review they are trying to determine how to plan for the herd with the upcoming changes.

Models project that emerging groundwater will likely not cause flooding on Cape Lookout National Seashore because, by the time sea level rises high enough to cause that, overland marine flooding will already be occurring, according to the study.

Stuska said that while she has not seen groundwater emerging at the surface, “I have documented three new places in the middle (between ocean and sound) of Shackleford Banks where the horses are digging for fresh water in swales where they never dug before. I have theorized that the water table is rising, giving them access there where it would have been too deep before.”

Rising sea level, higher risk

The Geological Survey team explained that the National Park Service requested summaries of recent research of the region relevant to coastal management concerns at Cape Lookout National Seashore.

The team pulled data specific to the national seashore and determined that with 0.5 meters, or 1.6 feet, of sea level rise, 47% of barrier island surface area would flood daily, and the type of storm nearly certain to strike each year would flood 74% of island surface area. During a storm of the intensity likely to come only once every 20 or so years, more than 85% of the island can be expected to flood.

Flood risk for extreme storm events doubles with just 2 to 4 inches of sea level rise, “and therefore, in the coming decades, hurricanes will likely cause more severe impacts than in the recent past for coastal North Carolina,” according to the study.

And a third of Cape Lookout National Seashore is currently sinking at a rate of more than 2 millimeters — about the thickness of a nickel – each year, further accelerating erosion and habitat loss.

With 3.3 feet of sea level rise, models project that shorelines will retreat an average of 178 meters, or 584 feet, if there’s no intervention. That would cover more than 60% of the current island width at its narrower locations. Shoreline retreat is what happens when an area experiences long-term erosion. 

Researchers note in the study that the results are relative to sea level rise values, not the amount of time those levels are anticipated to be reached, to “decouple the uncertainty of timing” from future sea level rise. “However, in the Discussion section, we relate results to time, using the SLR values closest to local estimates for the intermediate-high scenario for the years 2050 (0.46 m) and 2100 (1.60 m),” or 1.5 feet in 2050 and 5.24 feet in 2100. Authors cite projections that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released in 2022.

The researchers said it’s up to the National Park Service to make the difficult decisions on how to manage sea level rise and storm impacts. “Hopefully this study can provide valuable information as a guide to the short- and long-term coastal hazards to consider.”

Cape Lookout plans on sea level rise

Superintendent West said that while management is facing “mounting pressure to balance the needs of human safety and environmental preservation in a landscape increasingly shaped by climate change,” as the Dec. 4, 2024, press release states, he recognizes how much these changes will affect those fond of the national seashore.

Federal and state managers are facing pressure, “but people who live and work in coastal areas, people that visit and love these areas, well, they will suffer from emotional loss,” West said.

He added that while the park service has planning in place and is adaptively managing its resources, people tend to reject change.

“Gradual devastating change is harder to accept. You don’t see it unless you are living it, and even then, people can get use to things and then fail to see the bigger picture,” he said.

Cape Lookout changes every day. Five years from now it will be different than it is today, 10 years from now it will be dramatically different, West said.

The park service is taking action, West said, but, “I am not sure how humans truly plan for that which they do not know or fully understand. Still, we are trying.”

Park officials had already assessed Cape Lookout’s built assets, like the lighthouse and historic structures, and they know how vulnerable they are to storms, sea level rise, storm surge, wind and historic events.

“We know which buildings we are not going to rebuild in their current locations should they be damaged, we know the options we have for each asset,” which are to raise and rebuild with sustainable materials, move, or demolish and abandon the location, West said. “A number of structures that were continually battered by storm have been demolished and removed. We are not investing repair or rehabilitation dollars in structures that have that kind of exposure. There are currently five additional structures on that list that will not be reconstructed if they are storm damaged or flooded.”

New construction takes all factors into consideration, West said.

He said the camp on North Core Banks is an example. Long Point Camp was at one of the narrowest and most frequently affected parts of the island, with 7,000 feet of underground utilities, generators, and wooden buildings. It was subject to both ocean and sound-side flooding.

West said the park service replaced underground infrastructure routinely, and has done over 20 reconstruction or repair projects after storms between 1995 and 2019, when Hurricane Dorian devastated the camp yet again.

They found a site 5 miles to move the camp that’s north on one of the highest parts of the island. The new site sees little coastal erosion.

“The camp itself is designed to take environmental impacts yet be low-cost to build and maintain. Almost no underground utilities, all structures on raised platforms, buildings are principally oceangoing containers modified for residential or utility use, all power is provided by solar and wind generator systems,” West said.

Construction started in December.

To repair or rebuild docks, the park service elevates the structure and uses decking made of concrete that allows water to flow through without undermining the supporting structure, and pilings are driven to a minimum depth of 28 feet.

“We did a large beach nourishment project at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse to protect the lighthouse complex and are currently monitoring it for erosion. Once the data is in, we will look at options to try and hold that beach in place,” West said of the work completed early last year.

“Marsh restoration and protection are currently being planned,” West said. The state will lose about 85% of its current marsh area over the next 25 years.

“We are starting the process of protecting what we have and restoring some of what we lost now to try and stay ahead of sea level rise,” he explained.

West said that the park service approaches each project by posing a series of questions with sea level rise and storms in mind: “Do we need it? If we need it, is it in the right place and/or where is the right place? Can we build it better? Can we fund it? If we can do it, should we?”

Cape Lookout National Seashore officials are set to begin preseason sales of off-road vehicle permits and start accepting reservations for the 23 rustic, oceanfront cabins on South Core Banks.

Starting at 10 a.m. Jan. 4, 2025, Great Island Cabin Camp reservations and off-road vehicle permit purchases can be made through Recreation.gov.

Cost for preseason off-road vehicle permits is $35 between Jan. 4 and March 12, 2025, up $10 from 2024. Permits for the regular season will cost $75 starting March 13, 2025, through the remainder of the year, up $25 from the current year. Permits must be purchased before bringing a vehicle to the seashore.

The season is mid-March through Dec. 31. Vehicles are only allowed on the oceanside beaches, ramps, the back road of Portsmouth Island and Davis Island. The only way to get a vehicle to the islands is by vehicle ferry.

Great Island Cabin Camp is scheduled to be open March 13 to Nov. 29, 2025, and only accessible by vehicle ferries or a personal watercraft.

The “rustic, wooden cabins at Long Point and Great Island offer beachfront views of the pristine, undeveloped barrier islands of Cape Lookout National Seashore,” according to the National Park Service. “The cabin camps can only be reached by boat, adding an element of both privacy and adventure. The park’s sandy beaches are prime locations for fishing, shelling, swimming, birding, and simply relaxing.”

Cabins range from 288 to 960 square feet in area, and have a water heater, private bathroom with shower, table and chairs, kitchen with a propane oven/stove with propane included, bunkbeds with mattresses, and a charcoal grill.

All are wired for 120-volt power but campers must bring their own generator. Campers will need to bring their own linens, bedding, cookware, food and food storage, coolers, first-aid supplies and anything else needed during their stay. Most bring flashlights or lanterns. Ice and fuel are available at the camp office.

Black Heart’s sighting wasn’t necessarily unusual, but exciting nonetheless.

The North Atlantic right whale, around 19, made her celebrated debut a little more than 2 miles east of Cape Lookout National Seashore’s High Hills on Nov. 20, five days into the start of calving season.

The mom of one, on the record at least, was spotted roughly 1,000 feet above by a small survey team panning ocean waters off North Carolina’s shores.

And, until April 15, when another calving season comes to an end for the critically endangered species, this same survey team will take to the skies every day. Weather permitting, of course.

It’s been five years since the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute’s North Carolina Early Warning System, or NCWS, survey team was financially resurrected by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Since the early 2000s, three-person teams collected information and aerial imagery off the North Carolina and South Carolina coasts regularly before the mid-2010s, when funding ceased for the program.

Now survey teams, including one based in Beaufort, one in Georgetown, South Carolina, another in St. Simons Island, Georgia, and a survey team with Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, take to the skies to scour hundreds of miles of the southern eastern seaboard each week through this crucial five-month period for right whales.

“More eyes in the sky has been fantastic,” said Melanie White, a research biologist and North Atlantic Right Whale Conservation project manager. “We’ve seen that there are sightings of whales that are being seen in the past years off the North Carolina coast that have not made their way further south into South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Every single whale is so vitally important to the population, especially those adult females. Anything that can be done to help give these animals a chance is really, really important because their numbers are so small.”

There are an estimated 370 North Atlantic right whales. About 70 of those are reproductively active females, which carry their pregnancies one year and birth no more than one calf in a season.

Researchers can only hope Black Heart has made her return to warmer waters to give birth this season. It’s simply not possible to tell whether a female is pregnant, White said.

Several hours after White spoke with Coastal Review, Oceana publicly confirmed the first whale calf of the 2024-25 season had been spotted with its mom by a boater off Cape Romain, South Carolina.

The yet-to-be identified mom and calf were first documented four days after Black Heart was spotted by researchers.

“The first calf of every calving season brings hope and excitement for the future of this critically endangered species, with only around 370 remaining,” Oceana Campaign Director Gib Brogan said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this first calf also evokes the fresh and painful memory of the first calf from last season that was killed by a boat strike after only a few months of entering this world.”

North Atlantic right whales migrate hundreds of miles between their northern feeding grounds south during calving season.

Their long-distance treks along the East Coast of the United States make them particularly vulnerable to human activity.

Boat strikes and fishing gear entanglement are the leading causes of right whale deaths.

“So, part of the reason for us to be conducting these surveys is to know their location so that information can be relayed to the maritime community,” White said.

When a whale is sighted, its location is added to a whale map, which is a public site.

Information gathered during each sighting is share between various research organizations, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Georgia and South Carolina’s departments of natural resources, Corps of Engineers, U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command, U.S. Navy, Duke University and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

“We’re really just trying to keep these animals safe,” White said.

By federal law, vessels must remain beyond 500 yards of right whales.

Seasonal management areas have been designated offshore from North Carolina down to northeast Florida to reduce the risk of vessel strikes. During calving season, vessels 65 feet and longer must maintain a speed of 10 knots or less.

Mariners also play an important role in helping report right whale sightings because they have an advantage aerial survey teams do not. Right whales are capable of holding their breaths for almost an hour at a time, which means they can be submerged and out of sight as a Cessna flying a survey team overhead makes a sweep of the area.

“The more eyes on the water the better,” White said. “Even though there are four aerial survey teams that are conducting work in the southeast each winter, we can’t be everywhere at the same moment so we do rely heavily on any public sighting information that comes in. Every sighting is an important sighting.”

Every good weather day – clear skies with winds 15 knots or less — aerial early warning system survey teams typically remain in the air around six hours at a time before landing, refueling and, as daylight allows, returning to the sky to what are called track lines. There are 107 track lines, well over 400 miles nautical miles of coast line, between North and South Carolina.

These track lines are flown in an east-to-west direction up to 40 miles offshore.

While two members of a survey team look out for whales, the third is a dedicated ground contact, relaying information about the airplane’s location to a field team on the ground.

Each whale that is spotted is photographed and can be individually identified by the callosity pattern on its head. These patterns are similar to human fingerprints.

Right whales are born with these patterns, which are rough patches of skin, on their heads. Within the nooks and crannies of these rough patches live colonies of tiny crustaceans known as cyamids. Cyamids are bright white, which allows researchers to see a whale’s callosity pattern.

And this is how many, but not all, of the whales get named, “based on that kind of pattern on the top of their heads,” White said.

All of the whales are, however, identified by a four-digit code that is referenced for cataloging purposes.

As of last week, Koala and Curlew have been tallied in the sightings this calving season.

Anyone who sees a right whale is asked to call 1-800-WHALE-HELP or go to SCG on VHF Ch. 16. #givethemspace

Featured Image

The 1859 Cape Lookout Lighthouse reaches 163 feet skyward beyond shorebirds hunkered down recently on a jetty across the bay at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center at Shell Point on Harkers Island. Photo: Dylan Ray

A near-vanished island popping up from the channel between the Cape Lookout Lighthouse and Harkers Island has been restored, offering itself once again as a haven for waterbirds.

Around since at least 1970, Sandbag Island is a human-made, dredge spoil island built up by the sand, mud and other material scooped and sucked up from clogged waterways.

The island, owned and managed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission sprawled as large as 18 acres in the late 1990s.

But it began slowly disappearing after that time. Dwindling in 2019 down to 2 acres and, by last winter, 0.1 acre, land where waterbirds gathered to nest, rest and forage in peace was erased.

A $6.9 million dredging project to improve waterway access at Cape Lookout National Seashore has brought new life to the little island, plumping it with 135,000 cubic yards of dredge material and expanding it to a footprint of about 5 acres, according to the Army Corps of Engineers Wilmington District.

That’s good for waterbirds, explained Wildlife Resources Commission’s wildlife diversity biologist Carmen Johnson.

“Many of the birds that use these islands, they need that open, sandy habitat,” she said. “They like going to the beach too, but whenever they’re nesting they need areas that are free from disturbance.”

On islands like Sandbag, waterbirds can incubate their eggs and, once their chicks hatch, raise their young away from beaches popular to locals, tourists and their dogs.

Johnson said state wildlife officials were eager to be part of discussions with the Corps about where the dredged material — tens of thousands of cubic yards of it — might go in hopes of getting at least some of that material to build up Sandbag Island.

The dredge project, a collaborative effort between the National Park Service, Corps of Engineers, and Carteret County wrapped in mid-May, leaving boaters a channel between Harkers Island and Cape Lookout Lighthouse that is 100 feet wide with depths ranging from 7 to 9 feet.

In all, 167,000 cubic yards of material was dredged to improve navigation from Back Sound channel through Lookout Bight, Wilmington District Public Affairs Specialist Jed Cayton said in an email. Of that, 32,000 cubic yards of material was injected onto Barden Inlet beach directly in front of the lighthouse.

“All beach compatible material (sand) was placed on the beach, providing some protection for the historic lighthouse,” Cayton said. “The material placed on Sandbag Island was a silty sand (not quite beach compatible), and was a great based to help rebuild an eroded bird island.”

Two pairs of American oyster catchers, a state species of concern, settled in to nest on Sandbag Island mere days after the dredge crew finished the project, Johnson said.

“We’re hoping that next year, because the work is now completed, that some other species will come in and use it as well,” she said. “It’s been very interesting to see the history of birds that have nested there over time.”

Waterbird colonies have been surveyed in North Carolina roughly every three years since 1977.

These surveys have allowed biologists to witness a shift in where waterbirds chose to nest as Sandbag Island shrank, preferring to settle in on nearby, beefier islands.

“As the surveys have continued throughout the years, we’ve seen different species using the island,” Johnson said.

When the island has been injected with material that leaves open, sandy habitat, birds that favor that terrain – black skimmers, common terns and least terns – have gravitated there to nest.

“Whenever there was more vegetation on the island we were seeing some of the gulls nesting out there. We also had brown pelicans nesting there at different times. Now that the island has been restored to this open, sandy habitat we’re expecting to see some terns and skimmers potentially return, which is exciting,” Johnson said.

Terns have not been documented to nest on Sandbag Island since the 2000s. Skimmers were last documented to nest there in the 1980s.

Johnson will visit the island to document the types of species and numbers of birds nesting there next spring.

Sandbag Island is a protected island, one that is posted March 1 to Sept. 15 each year warning people to steer clear of its shores. Anyone caught trespassing during that timeframe may face a civil penalty.

It’s important to leave these islands undisturbed, Johnson said.

“That is something that we do see a problem with,” she said. “We know that people love to see the birds and so the best possible thing to do is, if you can admire them from your boat, bring your binoculars and watch them from the boat. That’s the best thing.”

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

One can feel helpless at times as to what one can do in the face of large-scale environmental catastrophes such as the unfathomable amount of plastic in the ocean. But individuals can take some actions that can make a positive difference and keeping the night as dark as possible is one of them.

Kaye and Rick Kohler are longtime vacation visitors to Ocracoke, during their visit in June they discussed their efforts in a talk in the Ocracoke Community Library: “Dark Skies: How to Preserve and Protect One of the Island’s Natural Wonders.” Rick also was a guest on WOVV’s “What’s Happening on Ocracoke.” 

The Kohlers live in Rappahannock County by the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.

As longtime members of the Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection, they have been concerned with the harmful effects of artificial lighting on the health of people and wildlife.

In 2019, the League, working with others, was successful in getting the Rappahannock community park certified as a Silver-Tier Dark Skies Park by the DarkSky International (IDA).

The IDA’s mission is to raise awareness about the negative effects of artificial light at night on human health, wildlife, and to provide the public with information and resources to help restore the night.

They have their work cut out as every year light pollution is increasing by about 10 percent around the USA, Rick said in his talk.

Rick and Kaye’s talk focused on what the IDA says, there is overwhelming evidence that light pollution can have harmful impacts on both people and wildlife and they provided examples.

Like many animals, humans have biological clocks called circadian rhythms regulated by the natural light-dark cycle.

Artificial lighting can disrupt these rhythms, which can cause insomnia, eye strain, headaches and lead to stress, anxiety and depression.

Artificial light can harm animals and even plants.

Nocturnal frogs and toads rely on darkness to make their mating calls. Excessive lighting can adversely impact their reproduction rates.

During nocturnal migration, birds become disoriented by bright lights causing millions of deaths every year by fatal collisions with tall lit buildings, some with reflective glass walls.

Last October, more than 1,000 birds were killed striking just one lit building in Chicago which lies along a major migratory route.

Fireflies are facing a worldwide decreasing population. Their flash of light is their mating signal and without darkness, they cannot find mates.

Some plants rely on specific lengths of daylight to trigger flowering and artificial lighting can cause them to grow more rapidly, flower out of season or not at all. Light pollution can disrupt the behavior of nocturnal pollinators like moths. One study showed that moths flew toward the street lamps and away from flowering plants. This resulted in a reduction of plant pollination. 

Artificial lighting can cause sea turtle hatchlings to become disoriented and wander inland, where they often die of dehydration or predation by ghost crabs, raccoons, opossums and coyotes, according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy.

Its website notes scientists believe the hatchlings have an innate instinct that leads them to the brightest horizon, which, historically meant over the ocean.

The Cape Hatteras National Seashore provides information on how artificial light is harmful to hatchlings and what steps can be taken to reduce lighting.

Coastal communities around the world have passed ordinances that require residents to turn off beachfront lights during turtle nesting season, but not everyone complies.

In the upper Outer Banks, when sea turtles are getting ready to hatch, physical barriers, like screens or shades, are put up to block light from reaching the beach.

Ocracoke village is surrounded by dark skies, which makes stargazing and astronomy an attraction.

But Ocracoke village has grown brighter in the last several years, creating what is known as a sky glow that reduces the ability to see the stars at night.

The Kohlers say a lot of this diffused light can be remedied by using down-shielded light fixtures that direct the light downward where it is needed and does not allow the light to go upward.

Other steps include using warm-colored LED bulbs with a color temperature of 3000K or lower. These bulbs emit less blue light, which is more likely to scatter in the atmosphere.

Smart lighting systems, motion sensors and timers ensure that lights are only on when necessary, thereby reducing overall light output.

In 2021, Cape Lookout National Seashore became an International Dark Sky Park designated by the IDA. It joined 121 other national parks and is the first to receive this certification on the Atlantic Coast. This was achieved by community support from the Crystal Coast Stargazers Club, the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center and the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore has completed some steps in the process, but an official application has not been submitted, according to Mike Barber, the public affairs specialist.

Unlike the challenge of combatting human-caused climate change, reducing light pollution is as easy as simply leaving lights off at night whenever possible and by directing outside lighting downward.

So, comparatively, drastically reducing one of our many forms of pollution is as easy as, well, the flick of a light switch.

Also from the Ocracoke Observer: Let’s get Cape Hatteras National Seashore designated as an International Dark Sky Park

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review Online partners with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast.

Boaters should have an easier time navigating the often challenging waters at Cape Lookout National Seashore, and visitors will have more beach to enjoy in front of its iconic lighthouse now that the Louisiana-based Next Generation Logistics has completed a monthslong dredging project.

The National Park Service, Army Corps of Engineers and Carteret County government with support from the state, collaborated on the $6.9 million project to improve access to Barden Inlet and the Cape Lookout Bight.

“I am very happy that we can support safe and accessible waterways at Cape Lookout National Seashore,” Superintendent Jeff West said about the dredge work. “This project has greatly improved access to the park for ferry services, local businesses, and public boaters. The use of dredge sands to expand and protect the lighthouse beach will be greatly beneficial for years to come.”

The channel between Harkers Island and Cape Lookout Lighthouse has been widened to 100 feet with depths ranging from 7 to 9 feet. The dredge spoil was then used to renourish the area of Barden Inlet beach directly in front of the lighthouse, the park service announced Wednesday.

About 30,000 cubic yards of dredge sand was placed there, creating a wide and deep beachfront, and additional dredge sand was placed on Sandbag Island, also called “Bird Island,” just southeast of Harkers Island, officials said.

“We’re proud to be the local partner in this collaborative effort with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and National Park Service to complete the Back Sound to Lookout Bight dredging project,” Chairman of the Carteret County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jimmy Farrington said in a release. “This project is a significant win for Carteret County, improving access to Barden Inlet and the Cape Lookout Bight by providing safer, more reliable waterways for navigation. This channel is critical for many private and commercial users, and its improvement has a direct economic impact on our community.”

The Coast Guard is expected to place navigational aids marking the channel once final surveys are completed, according to the park service.

While the dredging is complete, the process of demobilization continues. Officials said that over the coming weeks, Next Generation Logistics plans to continue removing dredge equipment, supporting vehicles and other supplies from the area.

The areas of Harkers Island that had been used for staging during dredge operations are to slowly be returned to their previous uses.

“Working closely with NC Wildlife Resources Commission (who manages Sandbag Island) and the other resource agencies, the Corps is proud to have helped reestablish a nearly lost nesting and foraging island for our states’ shorebirds” said Bret Walters, USACE Wilmington District Planning and Environmental Branch Chief in a statement. He added that the Corps is looking forward to continued working together “to beneficially use dredged material in the enhancement of coastal habitats for coastline protection, public recreation, and the conservation of our shared natural resources into the future.”

Now uninhabited and listed on the National Register of Historic Places and part of Cape Lookout National Seashore, the 250-acre Portsmouth Village established in 1753 was the largest settlement on the Outer Banks by 1770. 

As the former port town’s bustling industry declined and the Civil War forced islanders to leave, the island’s population dwindled from 685 in 1860 to a mere 17 by 1956. After the death of Henry Pigott in 1971, Portsmouth’s last two residents, Marion Babb and Elma Dixon, moved inland.

Though the village just south of Ocracoke doesn’t see much foot traffic these days, hundreds will be showing up by boat – the only way to get there – Saturday, April 27, for the Portsmouth Homecoming. Coordinated by Friends of Portsmouth Island and Cape Lookout, the homecoming is held every two years.

Friends of Portsmouth Island Vice President Connie Mason said that this year’s homecoming will highlight the 130th anniversary of the U.S. Life-Saving Service Station, which was established here in 1894 and closed in 1937.

There will be an area for descendants to share family photos and scrapbooks, the post office will be open, as well as the school house, Annie and Theodore Salter House and Visitor Center, Methodist Church and the U.S. Life-Saving Station, which features exhibits of rescue methods.

“We have a hymn sing in the church about an hour before a program under the tent and then a covered dish lunch on the grounds after the program. Plates and utensils are provided by the Friends, so bring something yummy to share,” Mason said.

Friends member David Quinn is the grandson of the late Dot Salter Willis, one of the last people born on Portsmouth Island. He has been a history professor at Carteret Community College for the last 23 years and since 2022, has served as county commissioner representing the western part of Carteret.

His favorite part of the homecoming: “Getting to see friends and extended family members that I only get to see while they’re at the homecoming. Unfortunately, you just don’t get to see them except for that particular occasion. Getting reconnected with my family history and just being on Portsmouth Island itself is just an absolute joy.”

Quinn said he assumed the role of what he called “unofficial historian of homecoming” when his grandmother, who had recounted the history, died in September 2010.

Since 2012, Quinn has shared the history of the island from its earliest settlement during the Colonial period until it was taken over by the National Park Service in 1976.

Quinn said it seems like life was hard for the people of Portsmouth, but he doesn’t think they viewed their lives that way.

“In speaking with my grandmother, even having lived all the way until 2010 — she was born in 1922 — she yearned to return to Portsmouth,” Quinn said. He often includes her in his presentations on Portsmouth history, “and she would get very upset with anybody that referred to Portsmouth Village as a ghost town. She hated to hear people say that. She’d say, ‘No, no, Portsmouth is not a ghost town, it is still alive.”

This year, Quinn said his role is going to be slightly different.

Quinn was asked to fill the role of emcee upon the unexpected death of author and Portsmouth descendent Jim White. He also has brought in his sons to help.

He said his youngest, 16, led the Pledge of Allegiance at the 2022 program and is to deliver a portion of the history this year, and he thinks his older son will lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

About the homecoming, Friends of Portsmouth

Quinn told Coastal Review that he’s attended every homecoming since it was just a family gathering in the late 1970s, when he was very young, before it became an official event.

Mason explained that the Park Service held a homecoming in the early ’80s but the organizer was transferred to a different park, and no more where held. 

“That was one impetus for the need for a Friends of Portsmouth Island group,” Mason said.

Mason said she served as oral historian for Cape Lookout National Seashore from 1980 to 1988.

“My area of collection was Portsmouth Village,” she said. “I could not have done a good job without the friendship and respect of the former residents who trusted me with the telling of their family histories and about their lifestyles on an isolated island.”

After leaving the park service to become curator of collections at the North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, “I wanted to do more to help preserve Portsmouth” and began working with descendants, community leaders and others who love the village, Mason said. 

The nonprofit Friends group formed in 1989 under the sponsorship of the Carteret County Historical Society and with the assistance and support from Jack Goodwin and Kay Hewitt, both now deceased, Feb. 23, 1990, became its “birthday.”

In 1991, the Friends began the campaign to reach more people and to build its membership by having booths at area festivals manned by devoted members. “Since those early days membership has grown,” Mason said.

Planning for the Homecoming

Quinn recommended that those who plan to stay in Ocracoke make overnight accommodations as soon as possible.

Visitors will also need to make ferry reservations starting in early April to travel from Ocracoke to the island with Rudy Austin at 252-928-4361. Cost is $25 per person, round trip.

Attendees can take the state ferry to Ocracoke from Cedar Island, or from Hatteras the morning of, and then catch the passenger ferry to Portsmouth from the same dock.

“The easiest way to come is to catch the earliest ferry from Cedar Island as a passenger only. No reservations required. Once at Ocracoke Rudy picks you up just as you get off state ferry, so there is no need to bring your car,” she said.

Mason added that there will be golf carts to tote coolers and those with difficulty walking. 

Cape Lookout National Seashore Superintendent Jeff West encouraged dressing for the weather.

“It can be hot or cold and wet in April. The wind may be blowing. It usually does,” West explained. “Insect repellent can be important if it is not cold or windy. It may be muddy. You will have to be able to endure a 20-minute boat ride, climb out of the boat, and walk down the dock.”

West reiterated that there will be walking, even with the transportation from the dock to the event. “Comfortable shoes are important.”

From the superintendent

West said preserving areas like Portsmouth is important, and the reasons vary.

Park service professionals will likely say they’re legally bound to preserve and protect cultural and historical artifacts, and “it is the very foundation of the National Park Service mission to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values” for the “enjoyment, education, and inspiration” for this and future generations.

“Most of us were attracted to the NPS in the first place by the mission, and most of us come to love and care personally about the areas we care for,” West said.

Historians will tell you that Portsmouth “was one of the most important ports of entry” in the state from about 1780 to 1860, and “maritime activities and development led in a major way to the success and importance of the state and in no small way to the emergence of the United States as a world power.”

Historians can point to the commerce generated to support this, from wood for shipbuilding, turpentine production, the trade in human beings, cotton, the list goes on and on. And, the fact that a marine hospital was built there, an early life saving station, a customs house was established, and so forth, West continued.

“They will also tell you it relates the story of a violent and harsh existence of people on a barrier island — the suffering and constant storms with little warning people endured, and they will tell you the history can teach us how to survive today,” West said. “They will tell you what came before us matters so that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past, and perhaps help us cope with our own struggles today — shared human experiences are a strong measure of humanity.”

From a descendant’s perspective, they will say Portsmouth is “about ‘place’ and capturing a piece of where they are from in their hearts and minds. Being able to walk the same paths, experiencing the same environment, seeing many of the same scenes provides that connection for many — a human connection that cannot be equaled by a passage in a book, or a video clip, or a family story handed down through time. We have the ability to go to Portsmouth and pretty much see it as it was … I think maybe that is why people appreciate it so much.”

West said the village is still recovering from Hurricane Dorian that hit the area in August 2019.

“Every structure in Portsmouth and four cemeteries were damaged by the storm, and several structures were destroyed,” he said. “It takes a great effort, many resources, and money to recover from a devastating storm like Dorian, especially in a remote place like Portsmouth.”

West explained that the national seashore has a dedicated historic preservation team “that has worked miracles to rehabilitate and harden the structures — hopefully making them more resilient for future storms.”

Hard decisions were made in the process, such as choosing what buildings could be saved with the limited resources at hand. They considered relative importance of the structures both historically and functionally, the condition and estimated costs of repair, the vulnerability of the buildings and what resiliency measures could be taken to help protect them from future storm impacts.

“And, then there is climate change,” West said. “Monthly flooding without storms continues to become more pronounced and frequent. All of these things figured in the equation.”

Only the Armtec House was completely destroyed by the storm, West said. The Frank Gaskill House will likely have to come down because it is too exposed and too badly damaged. The Mason-Dixon house, and the Wallace House are still awaiting repairs.

As a ranger, West said he looks forward to talking to and interacting with family and visitors.  “Nothing like folks sharing personal stories and the meaning of the island — it adds the human connection.”

See why Cape Lookout National Seashore in Carteret County is a certified International Dark Sky Park during the Crystal Coast Star Party scheduled for the first weekend in May.

The seashore is collaborating with the Crystal Coast Stargazers astronomy club, Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center and Island Express Ferry Service to host the party with the theme “Discover the Night” May 3 and May 4.

Except for the cost of ferry transportation for the Starlight Cruise, all activities are being offered at no charge. Registration is open at https://ccgazers.com/crystal-coast-star-party/

The Crystal Coast Stargazers will have telescopes set up for visitor viewing opportunities at 8 p.m. on both days of the star party. If anyone wants to bring their own, they will need to be set up no later than 7:30 p.m.

This year, an area will be designated within the telescope viewing area for astrophotography. Visitors in the telescope and astrophotography areas should not use white lights as they will spoil night viewing and ruin photographs. Red lights are encouraged, and loaner red lights can be provided by the National Park Service at no cost, organizers said.

Though there is no camping on the visitor center grounds, attendees may stay with their telescopes throughout the night. Organizers encourage visitors to bring their own chairs, blankets, bug spray and other comfort items.

All events are child friendly, and there will be hands-on astronomy activities coordinated by Fort Macon State Park ranger Paul Terry and the Crystal Coast Stargazers 1-3 p.m. May 4 at the seashore’s visitor center on Harkers Island.

Robert Harrison, a NASA Solar System Ambassador, will host an ASIAIR Astrophotography Workshop at 4 p.m. on May 3 in the education hall of Core Sound Waterfowl Museum. ASIAIR is a software system that makes the first steps into astrophotography straightforward and exciting for all experience levels.

Ray Lundquist, NASA system engineer for the Artemis Mission will present at 4 p.m. on May 4 “Returning to the Moon – Preparing for Mars,” also in the education hall of the waterfowl museum. He will share some of the results of the many NASA missions he has worked on, as well as behind-the-scenes stories from NASA.

Island Express Ferry Service, the park’s authorized passenger ferry service, will offer starlight cruises on Saturday and Sunday with a NASA Solar System Ambassador who will provide a laser-pointed presentation of the night sky from the Cape Lookout Lighthouse area. The ferry is to depart the Harkers Island visitor center at 7:30 p.m. and returns from the lighthouse dock at 9 p.m. for an arrival back to Harkers Island by 9:30 p.m.

Reservations for this cruise must be made in advance. Call Island Express Ferry Service at 252-728-7433.

For more information on astronomy at Cape Lookout, visit the website.

Officials with Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Foundation for Shackleford Horses have released their annual report on 117-horse Shackleford Banks herd.

The year-end 2023 report found that the herd is 62% female, 38% male.

Of the oldest horses, those 17 years and older, 23 are female and one is male.  The oldest living horse on the island is a 29-year-old mare.

The report numbered five foals born during the spring and summer, and herd mortality averages 6% between 1991 and 2023.

Park service and foundation officials said the most important factor in protecting the wild horses is public education. That’s why they have increased efforts – media communications and park programs — to inform the public how best to watch the horses without interacting with them or interrupting their natural behavior. 

The park offers “Horse Sense and Survival” tours monthly in the summer and fall.

In 2023, the new Pony Patrol launched with 26 Volunteers in Parks (VIPs) making 2,100 visitor contacts during the summer, officials said. 

You can also learn more about the wild horses by taking part in the Junior Ranger Wild Horse Protector activity. This is designed for students in sixth through eighth grades with the help of an adult, so it requires a parent, guardian, or youth leader to check out a backpack with instruments needed to complete activities like those done by the wild horse biologist. Upon completion, students receive an award and are certified as Wild Horse Protectors.

Learn more at the national seashore’s wildlife management report page.

Reprinted from a Feb. 25 Carteret County News-Times report

Nearly two months after crews and equipment began arriving, a contractor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started dredging Barden Inlet inside and outside Cape Lookout National Seashore.

“The Cape Lookout National Seashore dredging project is currently underway with Next Generation Logistics (NGL) on site,” Carteret County Shore Protection Office Manager Ryan Davenport said Thursday. “According to NGL, dredging has begun, but progress has been impacted by recent weather conditions, including high winds and low tide cycles in the area.”

Davenport said Next Generation Logistics is prioritizing the safety of workers and closely monitoring weather conditions and adjusting its approach as needed to ensure the project’s successful completion by April 1, which is when federally protected sea turtles generally begin arriving in the area.

But Cape Lookout Superintendent Jeff West said even if the work is still incomplete at the deadline, officials are fairly confident the Army Corps could get an extension.

Dredged material will be placed to slow erosion of the beach at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse site and in other strategic areas in the national seashore.

At some point after the sand is in front of the iconic lighthouse, the National Park Service plans to put in a living shoreline to help keep it in place. A living shoreline uses rocks or shells, along with vegetation, and is an increasingly popular and often more effective erosion control method than seawalls.

The whole project is a joint venture of the Carteret County Shore Protection Office, the National Park Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In November, Army Corps announced the more than $6 million contract had been awarded to Next Generation Logistics LLC for $6.9 million. The company is based in Metairie, Louisiana.

Related: Dredge firm to begin $6.9M project in Cape Lookout waters

Fishermen and other boaters have been clamoring for the project for many years. The last time the inlet was dredged was in 1977-78, and significant shoaling has occurred since then, making passage to the seashore difficult for many years. 

The federally maintained Barden Inlet includes not only the inlet, but also the “drain” and the “S turns.”

Shoaling in Barden Inlet became a serious problem in late 2017.

It was a complicated process to get to this point.

Due to the majority of the channel lying outside Cape Lookout, the National Park Service needed partners to get Barden Inlet dredged. The park service formed a cooperative management agreement with county commissioners and the Carteret County Shore Protection Office in 2019 with the purpose of establishing and maintaining waterways to various areas in the park, according to West.

County and NPS officials then negotiated with state officials and the Army Corps for the dredging effort. In the process, they found the last environmental assessment for the Barden Inlet channel was in 1975, which West said was “way out of date.”

It took a lot of time, including a public comment period, to get the environmental assessment approved.

This story is provided courtesy of the Carteret County News-Times, a newspaper published in Morehead City. Coastal Review partners with the News-Times to provide our readers with news of the North Carolina coast.

Dr. Stan Rule is Cape Lookout National Seashore’s 2023 Volunteer of the Year.

National Park Service officials announced Monday that Rule, over the course of the last year, had been instrumental in researching and documenting cultural history tied to the southern Outer Banks.

“He has opened doors into community homes and made a permanent record of historic content that is incredibly important to the park’s cultural history timeline,” officials said in the announcement. “In particular, Dr. Rule was responsible for in-depth research on the history of cabin culture inside the park. Dr. Rule interviewed first-hand sources, scanned documents and family photographs, and recorded oral interviews. In addition to collecting this material, he organized it into a public-facing website that serves as a living document for his research.”

Rule is a pediatric physician with a practice in Morehead City.

In addition to his research into cabin culture, Rule also served as a consultant on a variety of historic topics, officials said. He assisted with verifying the accuracy of interpretive and educational material and served as a reviewer on several interpretive panels for structures such as Casablanca and the Battle Brothers Hunt Club.

His research, knowledge and experience proved invaluable through his feedback on the display panels currently in development for an update to the seashore’s Harkers Island visitor center.

Rule directly assisted in ongoing park research by working closely with a cultural anthropology research intern, according to the announcement. He shared relevant information he found during the course of his own research, and provided the intern with leads that might assist in her own research. He continues to work closely with the Interpretation and Education Division to review and provide historic feedback on all matters of historic relevance.

“On top of his outstanding work in research, documentation and consulting, Dr. Rule has also done a fantastic job of sharing his information with the public,” officials said. “In addition to his publicly accessible website, he has also presented his research at public gatherings on several occasions. Dr. Rule’s passion for Cape Lookout’s history, and his willingness to collect it and accurately present it to the public make him stand out amongst his peers.”

Cape Lookout National Seashore Superintendent Jeff West has been watching for weeks as a Louisiana-based company gets ready at the seashore’s visitor center on Harkers Island to begin maintenance dredging in the nearby waterways.

Next Generation Logistics, the company contracted for the work, will not only make the channels to the federally protected barrier islands safter and more accessible, but the suitable sand that’s dredged during the project will be used for beach nourishment to protect Cape Lookout Lighthouse and nearby historic structures from continual, soundside erosion.

Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Specialist Emily Winget said Wednesday that the company, which was awarded the contract in November for $6.9 million, plans to mobilize two cutter-suction pipeline dredges to work on this contract and had planned to begin work by the end of January.

But because of issues, like weather impacts to mobilization, the contract has not started dredging, she said. “We anticipate that dredging will start next week,” referring to the week of Feb. 5.

The Department of Defense Operation and Maintenance Funds, National Park Service, state and Carteret County are “all project stakeholders helping to cover the cost of this project. In addition to providing navigation access through Lookout Bight this maintenance dredging will help ensure access to Cape Lookout National Seashore. Dredging the channel is critical for safe and consistent access to frequently visited areas at Cape Lookout National Seashore. Once dredging is complete, the channel will be open to commercial boats and deep draft vessels,” Winget wrote in an email response.

The suitable material dredged during the course of the project will be placed on the interior beach next to National Park Service structures, including the lighthouse. The remaining material will be added to an open water placement island, being called Sandbag Island, to contain the dredge material and provide habitat for nesting shore birds.

“The preservation of our coast is of paramount importance to us in Carteret County,” County Board of Commissioners Chairman Jimmy Farrington said in November when the contract was announced. “This project not only ensures the safety and accessibility of our waterways but also reaffirms our commitment to the environment. We are proud to partner with the National Park Service and the State of North Carolina to undertake this project, ensuring that the Cape Lookout National Seashore remains a natural treasure for generations to come.”

Winget said the estimated cost to dredge 165,000 cubic yards in the federal fixed channel in Back Sound is around $3.2 million and another 30,000 cubic yards will be dredged through the inlet for $585,00.

To dredge the 8,000 cubic yards in the channel used to approach the passenger ferry dock where the lighthouse is located is expected to come in at $156,000. Sandbag Island is expected to cost about $910,000 to create.

Other costs include the $1.8 million to set up for the project and then demobilize after.

The route used by the passenger ferry between Harkers Island visitor center and the lighthouse has the most amount of sand, West explained in a recent interview, and that will be pumped over the Bird Island. They’ll use geotextile tubes, much like elongated sandbags, to hold the sand in place.

Getting the project off the ground has taken six or seven years, West said, with the COVID-19 pandemic being one of the delays.

He said that the National Park Service worked with the Army Corps of Engineers, state and county to work together to manage the funds for the property.

Once the funding was in place, the first thing they had to do was get through the environmental assessment process, which took about a year. The environmental assessment was put out for public comment in April 2023 to give state and federal agencies, organizations and the public a chance to weigh in and address those comments. The finding of no significant impact was then released September 2023, and the contract announced in November.

He said the sense of urgency comes from the fact that the channels are filling in, and it’s been getting worse over the years. That’s a main public access to Cape Lookout from the Park Service visitor center on Harkers Island. It’s also an important channel for a lot of private and commercial users.

He expounded that the sand dredged will be placed at the beach by the lighthouse complex, which is where the passenger ferry docks. Between the lighthouse and the shoreline are the Keepers Quarters and the summer kitchen. The summer kitchen right now is right at the high-tide line and the Keepers Quarters is about 30 to 35 feet from the high-tide line.

“It will take “roughly 34,000 to 38,000 cubic yards” and will stretch from 150 to 200 yards north of the lighthouse complex to 200 yards 250 yards south, West said. “Depends on how much sand is compatible with the beach there and then it will be graded out to match the current profile.”

The next phase, if the funds are available sometime in the near future, will be to put in a living shoreline or another type of device to try to hold that sand in place this time. “As opposed to how we did in 2006,” he said, referring to a beach nourishment project, “people really weren’t thinking about using living shorelines at the time.”

Right now, the deadline to finish the work is April 1, because of marine wildlife protections, but they could apply for an extension. Once they start dredging operations are supposed to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  

West added that they’re allowing the contractors to stage at the visitor center to help with logistics and the company has secured housing on Harkers Island.

The company anticipates having about 5,000 feet of pipe out at any given time, he said. They have a 10-inch pipe and 18-inch pipe and depending on the volume, they’re moving, they’ll use whatever is appropriate.

When it’s completed and opened back up the channel it will be a 7- to 9-foot-deep channel and will be 100 feet wide. “I mean, it’ll be the cat’s meow as far as getting back and forth,” between Harkers Island and the lighthouse, West said.

Visitors to the Cape Lookout Lighthouse, Keepers Quarters Museum, and Light Station Visitor Center this winter should exercise caution while a construction project to completely replace the existing boardwalk with weather-resistant materials takes place.

While winter is Cape Lookout National Seashore‘s slowest visitation season, those who do visit the island where the lighthouse is located in the coming months will be impacted, National Park Service officials said Friday.

During construction, access to the area may be limited, especially for those with mobility issues, and visitors should avoid work crews and heavy equipment.

The new boardwalk is expected to be finished no later than April 1, 2024. An exact date will be announced closer to the project’s completion.

Nick Pulfer will be leaving his current post as field operations supervisor for Denali National Park and Preserve in Denali Park, Alaska, to act as the new chief of visitor and resource protection for the Cape Lookout National Seashore.  

Expected to arrive in Carteret County mid-December, Pulfer will be responsible for oversight of the park’s law enforcement, emergency medical services, search and rescue, and fee collection programs. 

Jill Jaworski was previously in the chief of visitor and resource protection role and is now the superintendent of Fort Scott National Historic Site in Kansas.

“I want to thank Superintendent Jeff West for the opportunity to serve as Chief Ranger for Cape Lookout National Seashore. I look forward to meeting the community members, park staff, and stakeholders,” he said.

Pulfer began his career with the National Park Service in 2012 working seasonally for Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colorado. While there, he gained an appreciation for engaging with the public and protecting park resources, which has helped shape his management mindset.  

In 2014, Pulfer accepted a position at Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Cleveland, Ohio. There he gained experience in criminal investigations and program management, and was the park’s emergency medical services coordinator, volunteer program coordinator, and park liaison for state and local agencies.    

At Denali National Park, he managed the day-to-day field operations for the park’s law enforcement, emergency medical services, and search and rescue operations.   

Pulfer holds a bachelor’s in science from The Ohio State University and a master’s in park and recreation management from Slippery Rock University.

A Civil War-era community in Craven County, where thousands of formerly enslaved people found sanctuary, will be the first “site of significance” for the new African American Heritage Tour of eastern North Carolina. 

Still in the early stages, the tour to highlight the area’s African American heritage is a partnership of the nonprofit Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality and the National Park Service.

“During the Civil War, more than 10,000 refugees from slavery came to Union-occupied New Bern seeking freedom,” according to the James City Historical Society, which was founded in 1991 to honor this community and act as caregivers for the onsite cemetery and mid-19^th century slave quarters.

“By 1865, there were nearly 3,000 formerly enslaved people living in the Trent River Settlement opposite New Bern in Craven County. The community was renamed James City, after Rev. Horace James, Superintendent of Negro Affairs for the North Carolina District. In the decades to come, James City residents created a proud history of fighting for self-determination,” the society website states.

Planners of the African American Heritage Tour have scheduled an official site of significance dedication for the James City settlement at 11 a.m. Saturday at 911 Howell Road, New Bern. The ceremony should last about 45 minutes and will be followed by a reception and time to visit the grounds.

At the James City Historic Site, there is the 1850 slave quarters that was renovated and moved from its original location on an antebellum farm, now the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Neuse boulevards.

The society also cares for the Far Cemetery, used by freedmen in the area during the Civil War. “The Far Cemetery was used by freedmen in the area during the Civil War. Its location is marked on an 1866 U.S. map as quite large, and burials continued until 1930. An archaeological investigation in 1979 revealed the location of 522 graves – about half belonging to children under the age of 13,” the society states.

James City Historic Site is the first to be dedicated as part of the African American Heritage Tour, Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality Executive Director Heather Walker told Coastal Review. 

Society Chairperson William Hollowell said that having the African American Heritage Tour begin at James City is in line with the organization’s mission to preserve the history and legacy of the community.

“This is something big,” he said, adding that with so much history in the New Bern area, he hopes more markers for the tour will be established in the vicinity.

The tour partners have gathered enough data and research for 20 sites to add to the trail. These will likely be established in Beaufort, Edenton, Elizabeth City, New Bern, Plymouth, Portsmouth Village, Washington, Wilmington and other coastal towns.

“We’ve actually been collaborating with different sites for about two years now,” Walker said, and everyone’s energized and ready to kick the project off. 

The plan is to have tour markers along the entire coast, both on the mainland and on the barrier islands, Walker explained. Once more sites are dedicated, a website with tour information will be launched and there will be maps available. 

Walker said that the Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality organization began a few years ago to get support to install a marker in Beaufort indicating that town was a Middle Passage arrival site. 

The marker dedicated in October 2021 at Topsail Marine Memorial Park on Front Street in Beaufort is part of the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, which honors the 2 million captive Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the 10 million who survived to build the Americas.

The foundation was also the momentum behind a Middle Passage marker at Portsmouth Village, a now preserved, historic site that is part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Related: Event marks Portsmouth Village’s role in Middle Passage

“We started the nonprofit as a way of getting some community engagement, some input and some contributions. And then so from there, it just kind of became a mission to continue to mark significant places,” Walker explained.  

Walker learned about James City’s significance when she began researching eastern North Carolina’s African American history. It was the first site she visited, which will always have a “special place” in her heart. 

Now on the board of directors for the James City Historical Society, Walker said the organization has installed an exhibit with artifacts and furniture inside the slave quarters. While the building has been restored, and not everything is original, “it’s a very special cabin” because it had a wood plank floor, not dirt. 

And at the fireplace hearth, you can put your hand right in the same place where the enslaved person who made the bricks actually left their handprint. 

“It’s an amazing experience. You can kind of live the history for just a minute,” she said.

Walker said her interest in African American history was inspired by her youngest son while he was still in kindergarten.

“He’s mixed, Black and white, and he came home from school one day and he was angry because the Thanksgiving program that they were doing, they wouldn’t allow him to be a pilgrim, and so they made him an Indian because of the color of his skin,” Walker said. “He was angry. He threw his little feather cap down and he said ‘I want to be one of the good guys’ and so I had to have a hard conversation with my 6-year-old at that time, and say listen, just because someone’s skin is lighter, it doesn’t mean they’re better. And from that moment on, I thought it was very important that I fulfill my obligation as a parent to let my children know from whom they came.”

Not only that, she continued, “but also for them to be proud of their ancestors, regardless of the color of their skin. Because there are stories of strength and resilience and hope in those situations that our children need to know so they can kind of push through today.”

Walker said the partnership with Cape Lookout National Seashore began a couple years ago when she shared with the previous chief of interpretation, B.G. Horvat, that she had been researching the region’s African American heritage. Since then, highlighting that history has been a joint effort of the seashore and foundation.  

Cape Lookout Chief of Interpretation & Education Nate Toering, who took on the role after Horvat, told Coastal Review that the National Park Service helped with the Middle Passage marker effort in Beaufort because “it is absolutely relevant to our story, with Beaufort being one of the primary access points for visitors headed to Cape Lookout” and the more recent marker established at Portsmouth Village this June.

The Portsmouth Village marker was the result of research by the foundation that proved through a historic newspaper clipping the longstanding assumption that Portsmouth had participated in the Transatlantic Human Trade. 

This new endeavor, he said of the African American Heritage Tour, stretches farther outside park boundaries but absolutely aligns with Cape Lookout’s historic sphere of influence. 

“James City and the New Bern area were historically fed supplies via the Neuse River during the age of sail. Large shipping vessels docked in and around Ocracoke Inlet and their supplies were offloaded onto ‘lightering’ vessels for transport inland,” he said. “Those supplies were piloted through shallow water in small crafts, often captained by enslaved Black sea captains based out of Portsmouth Village and departing on their way to towns like New Bern and Edenton.”

In addition to the local and park significance, there is national significance. 

The “America 250” National Park Service draft plan for interpreting the agency’s 250th anniversary as a country aims to advance equality and justice for all, acknowledge and honor people of African descent, advance educational experiences, spark lasting connections with youth, and unlock the power of place, which includes establishing new and improving existing park facilities and interpretive infrastructure.

The National Park Service shares America’s stories, Toering said, and these stories don’t end neatly at the borders of the country’s national parks. 

“Partnering with organizations like these allows us to expand and interpret the story of American history in the spaces where it is most important and relevant,” he said, which is an example of one of the anniversary’s themes, Unlocking the Power of Places. 

Additionally, these partnerships allow for National Park Service educators, specialists like those at the foundation and community organizations like the James City Historic Society to come together.  

“Ultimately, the goal is to turn a series of unaffiliated historic sites into a much larger linked cultural corridor, and hopefully share the incredibly moving stories captured within each of these sides to a larger audience,” he said. “Many of these stories are historically under told if not intentionally excluded. If we can share them thematically and accurately to a broader audience, we’ll be doing a great thing, even if it takes a while to get there.”

Contact Walker for questions or to nominate sites of significance at equalityforenc@gmail.com.

As the year ends, so too will Cape Lookout National Seashore’s presence in Beaufort.

Since 2013, the National Park Service has had a visitor information center in Beaufort town hall, located in the historic post office building on Front Street.

In the 10-year agreement expiring Jan. 1, 2024, the town provided at no charge to the National Park Service space in town hall for a visitor center, use of the dock on Front Street for ferry transportation through a concessionaire, and part of a town park for national seashore signage.

In addition to the visitor center closing permanently in January, “suspension of ferry transportation from Beaufort to Cape Lookout National Seashore will likely follow sometime thereafter,” National Park Service officials said in an announcement Thursday. “With no agreement in place between the town and the National Park Service, there is no way the NPS can require a ferry service to operate out of Beaufort. This change opens the door for the ferry service to choose another location, negotiate with the town independently, or discontinue the service completely.”

According to the town, the National Park Service notified Beaufort officials in August of its plans to terminate the existing lease. The 10-year contract had the option for the park service to extend the lease an additional three years, expiring Jan. 1, 2027.

In early negotiations to renew the agreement, town officials “expressed a desperate need for space to expand services” for residents and proposed using the visitor center space for new offices for town employees, according to the park service. There were also complaints about a lack of parking in Beaufort.  

“The town suggested the NPS pay ‘fair market value’ to continue use of the portion of the building currently housing the visitor center. Unfortunately, there are no federally allocated funds to pay for this change,” the park service said.

National Park Service officials noted in their announcement that there was the option to for a three-year extension to retain the visitor center through the end of 2026.

“However, there is no viable reason to execute this extension for the visitor center beyond the end of the current ferry service contract. Cape Lookout National Seashore intends to close the visitor center at the end of the season in 2023 to provide the town with the office space they have requested,” the park service release continues.

Park Superintendent Jeff West said he made several attempts to discuss this with the town leaders. During the town commissioners meeting in August, it was “confirmed that without direct financial compensation, they were not interested in retaining a National Park Service presence in Beaufort,” West said.

“I think a lot of Beaufort,” he said, adding that he believed the visitor center was “great for the community economically, and great for visitors to experience such a wonderful place. I am greatly disappointed that we were not able to reach any kind of viable agreement with the town.”

Beaufort Mayor Sharon Harker said that she values “the great partnership between the National Park Service and the Town of Beaufort. Although our partnership is not over, I respect their decision to close the visitor information center. I appreciate the many years the visitor center has provided information about the Park Service and Beaufort to visitors near and far.”

The town explained in a news release Thursday that it is “uniquely poised to undertake significant rehabilitation investments to the waterfront area” and could include the reconfiguration of the east end of the boardwalk and dock facilities. “The scope of the project is yet to be determined; therefore, the Town is not prepared to re-enter a long-term lease on the facilities at this time.”

HARKERS ISLAND – About a quarter-mile along the Soundside Loop Trail behind Cape Lookout National Seashore’s visitor center is a two-board wooden fence, indicating that hikers need to make a sharp left turn to stay on the path.

In addition to guiding foot traffic on the 0.8-mile-long trail through maritime forest, the fence at the bend is where a new public science project called “Chronolog” was recently installed. The online tool helps track changes in the environment. In this case, the ghost forest on that side of the island.

When hikers walk by, they can place their smartphone in the gray bracket attached to the top of the fence post to align their photo, take the shot, then email it to Chronolog. Once received, the photo will be added to that location’s time-lapse almost immediately.

Chronolog houses crowd-sourced time-lapses of parks, nature centers, wildlife organizations, schools and museums. Currently, there are more than 500 Chronolog stations in 45 states. The Cape Lookout station is the 18^th on the coast and there have been 10 submissions so far in the month since it was installed.

On a breezy morning in late June at the visitor center, Nate Toering, Cape Lookout’s chief of interpretation and education, explained that the Chronolog allows them to make informed decisions for managing that area of the park and provides “a better understanding of what’s going on in the environment around us.”

This Chronolog is part of a bigger project with the National Park Service, North Carolina State University and Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center. Four NC State undergraduate students worked with three mentors at the university on a ghost forest communication strategy for a senior-level course. The students wrote and designed a brochure as well as a “glideshow” that’s similar to a slideshow, called “Ghost Forests: The Dead Trees Down East.” Down East is a group of more than a dozen rural communities east of Beaufort. 

Ghost forests occur when healthy coastal forests are repeatedly exposed to saltwater through high winds, tides or storms, making the plants, or trees, with low salt tolerance die off, eventually being replaced by salt marsh habitat.

From the Chronolog photo station down the trail, Toering pointed out the gradual transition of the dead trees that are rotting and breaking, but farther inland, there are super healthy trees.

He said that they’re finding at the National Seashore more salt-tolerant species in areas that didn’t have salt-tolerant species before, and are interested in observing the growth of the ghost forest and potential erosion in that area.

Jutting past the ghost forest, several yards away from the existing station, are the jagged remnants of a walkway across a salt marsh that had been destroyed by Hurricane Florence in 2018.

Toering said there are plans to rebuild the walkway, hopefully by the end of the year. When that build is complete, there will be a second Chronolog installed looking toward the ghost forest in the direction of the existing Chronolog, to provide a panoramic view.

Long term, especially after the second Chronolog is installed, there will be a more site-specific assessment of the growth of the ghost forest, such as how fast an area that used to be a forest is transitioning into salt marsh, he explained.

Toering said that as a ranger, he provides frontline messaging on ghost forests and encourages visitors to participate in this public science project. Adding, he’s trying to get people engaged, more knowledgeable about their environment and more caring about what’s going on around them. “Because one way or another, it impacts all of us.”

Part of that frontline messaging is providing to visitors the brochure, “Ghost Forests: What are they and how can you spot one?” that the NC State students designed for their senior course, called a capstone project.

Dr. Erin Seekamp, distinguished professor of resilience and sustainability and director of the Coastal Resilience and Sustainability Initiative at NC State, coordinated the project.

Seekamp has been working with the Down East community since 2015 on adaptation planning for Cape Lookout’s historic districts, and had discussed with Core Sound Museum and Heritage Center Executive Director Karen Willis Amspacher that ghost forests are a good indicator of the vulnerabilities in these communities. 

When Seekamp was approached by a colleague to design a capstone project for the interdisciplinary degree, environmental sciences, she said she immediately connected the two. 

Serving as community liaison, Seekamp brought in as a ghost forest expert for the project Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources associate professor Dr. Marcelo Ardón, who has been behind installing Chronologs on the coast, and science communicator Michelle Jewell with the Department of Applied Ecology and president of the Science Communicators of North Carolina.

Seekamp said that this project helps students recognize how applied science is important, and integrating that with community engagement. Engaging students in the process of observation opens the door to being more aware of your environment and watching change, as well as using science to understand the changes that are occurring.

The idea is to grow the project in future semesters. “We really want to embed the next phases to include integration of schools and that intergenerational learning component,” with parents and grade-school students, and have further conversations about the future and adaptation, Seekamp said.

Amspacher said Core Sound is dedicated to learning and sharing more about the changing environment along the coast and especially Down East.  

“Partnering with NC State and other universities has opened doors for us to be involved with the important research taking place around us. We are very thankful to bring the community into this conversation. We look forward to working with local students to use this Chronolog project as a way to increase their — and their families’ — understanding of how saltwater is already impacting our landscape.”

Students on the project were Rachel DeChicio, Andrew Barfield, Jordan Strickland and Arden Lumpkin, who each graduated this year with a bachelor’s in environmental sciences.

DeChicio told Coastal Review that one of her biggest takeaways from this project is how important it is to focus on a community’s culture and values when communicating about climate change topics such as saltwater intrusion and ghost forests. 

“Harkers Island has an amazing community that loves their home and has deep ties to the land, so it is important to create educational materials on climate change that inspire curiosity and not fear,” DeChicio said. “I hope people who visit the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center are able to learn a little bit about saltwater intrusion and ghost forests from our products, and are then able to identify why their coastal forests are dying. I hope seeing the formation of ghost forests on Harkers Island and having the knowledge to name that occurrence empowers people to learn more about combating climate change.”

Barfield added that he learned through this project how ghost forests are a very visible aspect of our changing climate. 

“It is my hope that ghost forests can be used as a tool to further educate the public on the many ways that our world around us is changing. The more involvement that we get from local communities, then the better chance we have of adapting to these changes moving forward,” Barfield said.

Strickland said in an email that the two main things he learned while working on this project are the technicalities of designing and developing science communication products and ghost forests in general. 

“One of the main reasons why I chose this project as my top pick when we were deciding teams, was because I never heard of the term ‘ghost forests’ before,” he said. “Of course, I knew they were not referring to an actual haunted forest, so it intrigued me.”

After learning what ghost forests are, and how they have begun to spread on the coast of Harkers Island, he said he wanted to help provide the community with information about what ghost forests indicate.

“I knew if me, as an environmental science major, didn’t know much about ghost forests, then that means most of the general public doesn’t as well. Ghost forests are not only an indication of climate change and sea level rise, but also foreshadow how our coastal forests could end up as these two factors continue to impact the NC coast in the coming years,” Strickland added.

Lumpkin said the project taught her the importance of properly communicating climate science through the lens of who it impacts. The ghost forests that are popping up and growing quickly along the coast of these Down East communities are a tangible example of the effects of sea level rise and saltwater intrusion. Viewing this issue through the eyes of a community member gives you a wider perspective on the best way to communicate it. 

“The Down East community has a rich, generational history and connection with their land and have persevered in the face of many challenges,” she said. “My biggest hope with our project is that it will spark curiosity and conversation about climate change among the community. The Core Sound Waterfowl Museum is such an important place visited frequently by residents and I hope that our project can, at the least, be the start of a conversation about climate change impacts.”

Jewell explained to Coastal Review that this type of class project works all the way around: “The community’s needs are heard and answered, the students receive training and experience in co-creation and science communication, and the researchers will get more data from this changing landscape. Truly encapsulating the N.C. State mission of research, teaching, and extension.”

Science communication is an iterative process, and the hope is that this piece is the first of many touchpoints, Jewell said. “Our aim is to create a space for community members to engage with the changes happening around them. And that engagement can come in many forms,” from submitting photos at the Chronolog site, to being able to identify and understand ghost forests. 

The Chronolog station on Harkers Island is one of the nearly 20 that Ardón with NC State has either installed or helped coordinate the installation along the coast.

He said in an interview that the idea to have the public help monitor ghost forests dates back a few years and was asking the public to submit photos through an online platform before discovering Chronolog while on vacation on Bald Head Island.

Chronolog’s process appealed to Ardón. Rather than photos being submitted from all over, have the public take photos of the same location to make tracking the changes easier to observe.

He explained that these forests and marshes change on the scales of decades to centuries, but they’re probably changing a lot faster, on the scales of years to decades, “but that’s still pretty slow for us to see on a regular basis. I think the idea was if we have these photographs, then maybe it’ll become a little bit easier to see the change of these ecosystems.”

Ardón said in addition to looking at change over time, he wants to use the photos to study how the seasons change the landscape. 

With a grant through the National Science Foundation, Ardon began in 2021 installing Chronolog stations at Goose Creek State Park, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, E. Merle Waterfowl Impoundment, and Swan Quarter National Wildlife Refuge.  

After installing the first round, he said N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources officials liked the project and decided to fund 11 more stations. He worked with the site managers to determine the best location for each Chronolog, depending on what they wanted to document, such as a marsh or a living shoreline.

“For the ghost forests, I’m really interested in looking at how long the snags, the standing dead trees, actually last, because there’s been some studies of those snags but there’s not a lot of good fine-scaled information of: How often do they fall over? Is it just after big storms? Is it small storms? Is it just after time that eventually they fall over? So those are the kinds of questions that I want to answer with these stations,” he said. 

HARKERS ISLAND – The Hannah, a sailing ship blown off course on its voyage from Sierra Leone in Africa to Charleston, South Carolina, arrived at Ocracoke Inlet for provisions in 1759. Its cargo was human, 301 captives, but the records provide no details on what happened to the 258 or so surviving Africans who disembarked at Portsmouth Island.

Those and at least 343 other documented captive African people were honored and remembered Saturday during a ceremony at the end of the road on Harkers Island. The event was to dedicate identical markers to be placed at Portsmouth Village and about 39 miles south at the Cape Lookout National Seashore visitor center on Harkers Island acknowledging that this North Carolina port was part of the horrific Middle Passage.

Tyisha Teel of Beaufort was one of the speakers during the ceremony on the grass overlooking Back Sound at Shell Point, just across the road from the visitor center. She described how history is painful and embarrassing at times, but those feelings should motivate people to bring positive change.

“We should be motivated to take what we know and to do more with it to bridge the divides of inequality, of racism, of ageism — any of the ‘isms’ that are out there,” Teel said. “How do we make it a lasting change? We start first with acknowledgement, which is exactly what this ceremony is doing, acknowledging the history of where we come from, of the Africans who were enslaved and brought over through the Middle Passage, and the Black history of this country. But yet, I want us to remember that our Black history is American history. It happened here, it is the Americas, it is us, it is all of us.”

Cape Lookout National Seashore Superintendent Jeff West said that from its establishment in 1753, Portsmouth was an important maritime port to the central North Carolina region. He said that throughout Portsmouth’s history until about 1861, half of the population of Portsmouth were enslaved people.

“Enslaved African Americans were brought to Portsmouth to labor. They served as stevedores. They served as lighter tenders. They served as pilots. They served as sailors,” West said. “Another large contingent of enslaved people were brought in through Portsmouth to be sold and traded inland into a life of bitter slavery.”

West said he finds the topic difficult to discuss.

“I’m a historian by training. So, as a historian, I have absolutely no problem reviewing facts, placing them in context, explaining why things happen from a strictly factual perspective. As a human being I, to this day, I cannot understand or see how people could treat other people that way. I can’t understand it. That’s the human side of me.”

West said that part of the National Park Service’s mission is to tell the story of people and places and to tell it honestly and without prejudice.

“I’ve had to do that in many different places. Sometimes it’s hard, but it is the truth. Truth is important,” he said.

Middle Passage refers to the roughly 80-day voyage that was the middle part of the journey from Europe to West Africa, to the West Indies and North America, before the ships returned to Europe – the Triangle Trade. It’s when the vessels were packed with humans bound for slavery, and it was brutal and often deadly.

Heather Walker, executive director of the Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality, is a subject matter expert and a research historian. Walker volunteers as an independent consultant and has worked closely with the National Park Service, North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, and the James City Historical Society.

“Roughly 12.5 million African people were forced to endure the brutality of the ocean voyage known as the Middle Passage,” Walker said.

She said that much like prisoners of war, when African nations would break out in conflict, people would be held by those rivals until either the conflict was over or they could be traded for one of their captured people.

“The Europeans took advantage of this and began to purchase these prisoners of war. And when there were none left to purchase, they began staging raids with rival African nations. And then they started kidnapping and selling those that they were able to capture. And this was all done in order to supply the Americas with an enslaved labor force, lowering their overhead,” Walker said.

She cited the words of African slave trader turned abolitionist and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” John Newton, who described unsanitary and horrid conditions aboard the vessels and how the captive Africans were stacked beside and on top of each other “like books upon a shelf,” and with insufficient food and water.

“Those who were forced to embark on the journey of the Middle Passage endured unimaginable cruelty in the form of physical, emotional and psychological torture,” Walker said. “This is evidenced by the following excerpt from an article in the North Carolina State Gazette, dated February 12, 1789. It says, ‘A young Negro woman, with her infant at her breast, was kidnapped away from her husband and parents and offered by the dealers in human flesh to this commander for sale. He was willing, he said, to purchase the young woman but could do nothing with the brat. However, as they could not be separated, he purchased them both at the same time, dashed out the brains of the infant on the deck of the ship, and threw it overboard in the mother’s presence. As she was a woman of uncommon beauty, in less than an hour, she was dragged by the captain to his bed and was forced to endure the embraces of her child’s murderer.’”

She said that about 2 million African people perished along the journey to the Americas, through acts of resistance and acts of violence such as this. “And although it’s commonly referred to as the Black Holocaust, the United States has yet to recognize the transatlantic human trade as a crime against humanity.”

Walker said that, like elsewhere in the Colonies, people in Portsmouth Village forcefully bred enslaved people and sold their children like cattle to turn a profit.

“It was the unpaid labor of those children that created wealth in this country. Enslaved people piloted these waters and lightered the ships at Ocracoke Inlet. It was their unpaid labor that made this a once-thriving maritime trade center. Enslaved people brought with them from Sierra Leone their knowledge and technique for making and mending fishing nets, a technique, mind you, that we still use here today. It was their unpaid labor that built and sustained our area’s fishing industry. Enslaved people worked these lands and built the settlements, some of those which we still call home. It was their unpaid labor that made survival possible,” she said.

She said that, sadly, a lot of the “bad stories” have been erased from history.

“But the real injustice here is that the good stories have been erased too. Those stories are gifts left to us by the ancestors. Those stories belong to us. Those stories are our stars of hope. Being deprived of these stories also deprives us of hope,” she said.

Walker said that from the foods we eat to the color we use to paint our porch ceilings, the traditions brought by enslaved Africans have become American traditions.

“Have you ever wondered why we hang ornaments on a tree, or why we bury our dead facing east? But for the strong, resilient and intelligent people who risked death to give us hope by smuggling rice seed and grain in the braids of their hair, we wouldn’t have okra or black-eyed peas, we wouldn’t have the sweet summertime treat that we call watermelon. But most importantly, we wouldn’t have hope,” she said.

Also during the ceremony Saturday, North Carolina native Rhonda Jones delivered the invocation, reciting a poem to the rhythm of attendees tapping together stones and seashells. The poem included the following verse:

In Your Honor, we stand on the island of Harkers,

To place a permanent reminder of your arrival, 

With a marker.

It is often said that we are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.

It is your DNA that we carry,

Deep within our genes.

All Africans who came before and after the Hannah,

It is you we celebrate.

I call you to rise and take your place,

As you elevate.

There is recent evidence that trauma and abuse, even when the details are lost to history or intentionally obscured, can leave a genetic imprint on future generations. Teel said that understanding history also means acknowledging how it has affected the descendants of enslaved Africans.

“Oftentimes, we wonder why African Americans are on the bottom of all the good lists and at the top of all the bad ones. And I’m here to tell you that part of it is because of the psychological trauma that is passed down through the generations and through the genes of those who come from enslaved people,” Jones said.

She said the lasting impacts of trauma are social and health related.

“And so you may wonder, why is hypertension and why is diabetes so high in the African American community? Well, oftentimes, it’s because we are still dealing with the impacts of those psychological traumas, and that has affected how our bodies actually respond to our environment today,” she said.

Understanding leads to empathy, she said, and that can lead to change.

“But that change requires time and understanding and the willingness to fight for what is right,” Teel said. “The question, when you leave here, that you must ask yourself as individuals is, are we willing to fight, are we willing to hold to the good fight, to stand up for what is right?”

HARKERS ISLAND – Officials with the Cape Lookout National Seashore announced Friday that recent research has uncovered documents confirming that Portsmouth Village was a middle passage arrival site, meaning it was directly involved in the trans-Atlantic human trade. 

The research was conducted by Eastern Carolina Foundation for Equity and Equality Inc. The nonprofit organization has partnered with the National Park Service and the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project to create a permanent marker and to organize a ceremony to acknowledge this history.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, June 10, the national seashore will host a remembrance ceremony and unveil the historical marker.

The ceremony is to honor the African ancestors who survived, and those who perished, on the journey through the middle passage. The marker is to acknowledge this history and the contributions of Africans and Americans of African descent, officials said.

After the unveiling, the marker will be permanently placed in Portsmouth Village, now a historic site that is part of Cape Lookout National Seashore.

The event will take place at Shell Point, adjacent to Harkers Island Visitor Center, at 1800 Island Road, Harkers Island. In the event of inclement weather, the event will be held indoors at the neighboring Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center at 1785 Harkers Island Road.

The historic Portsmouth Village at Cape Lookout National Seashore is being recognized this weekend by the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project as a documented arrival location of Africans in the 18^th Century. 

The dedication ceremony is free for the public and will take place at Shell Point, across from the Harkers Island Visitor Center, at 11 a.m. Saturday.

From the 16^th to the 19^th centuries, merchants transported around 12 million Africans across the Atlantic as human property. The most common routes formed what is now known as the “Triangle Trade,” connecting Europe, Africa and the Americas, according to the National Park Service.

From 1560 to 1850, about 4.8 million enslaved people were transported to Brazil, 4.7 million to the Caribbean, and at least 388,000, or 4% of those who survived the Middle Passage, arrived in North America. Between 1700 and 1808, the most active years of the international slave trade, merchants transported around 40% of enslaved Africans in British and American ships.

The Middle Passage lasted roughly 80 days on ships ranging from small schooners to massive, purpose-built slave ships. Ship crews packed humans together on or below decks without space to sit up or move around. Without ventilation or sufficient water, about 15% grew sick and died. In addition to the physical violations enslaved people suffered, they were ripped away from their families, homelands, social positions, and languages.

Documentation shows at least 258 captive Africans disembarked at Ocracoke Inlet/Portsmouth Island in 1759. Records show at least 343 more captive Africans passed through the inlet and were sold into slavery at ports such as Bath, Edenton and New Bern. 

The vessel, Hannah, arrived at Portsmouth, England, on Feb. 22, 1759. It cleared that port and went to Sierra Leone. It then left Sierra Leone, headed for Charleston, South Carolina, after 301 captive Africans embarked. While at sea, the ship ran into some trouble and the voyage was delayed while the crew brought it into Ocracoke for a supply of provisions. There, the crew of the Hannah was able to secure provisions to sustain themselves and unload people. The Hannah then continued its journey to Charleston after the delay.

The nonprofit Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project was established in 2011 to honor the 2 million captive Africans who perished during the transatlantic crossing known as the Middle Passage and the 10 million who survived to build the Americas.

For more information, visit the Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project website or the Cape Lookout National Seashore website.

Special to Coastal Review

On a clear day, Portsmouth Island can be seen from Springer’s Point on neighboring Ocracoke Island.

From this side of Ocracoke Inlet, it appears to be nothing more than a mottled patch of marsh on the horizon, a mirage dancing across the sparkling sound.

These days getting to the island’s village is possible only by boat. The grassy Portsmouth Village Airstrip officially closed in 1996, eliminating air travel. In 2019 Hurricane Dorian cut new inlets through the long stretch of beach extending southwest from the village like a sandy comet’s tail, eliminating four-wheel-drive access from areas farther south.

Most people arrive from Ocracoke, ferried by captains Rudy and Donald Austin, who run Portsmouth Island Boat Tours. They follow in the footsteps of their late father, waterman Junius Austin.

On the 25-minute boat ride this day, the passengers, many of them descendants of the island’s families, watched the church’s steeple rise above the marsh as they crossed Ocracoke Inlet under a pristine sky. At the sight of it, they knew they were home.

Portsmouth’s last three inhabitants left the island in 1971 and it now only welcomes visitors.

But every two years, the island returns to life as hundreds gather in the historic village for the beloved Portsmouth Homecoming ceremony.

The event is jointly sponsored by the Friends of Portsmouth Island and the Cape Lookout National Seashore, has taken place every two years since the tradition formally began in 1992, informally before then.

But like many special occasions in 2020, it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it a painfully long four-year wait to celebrate the island’s rich heritage once again.

Given the hardships since its last occurrence in 2018, the return home was especially sentimental. The theme, “Portsmouth Rises,” was fitting for the island’s recovery after Hurricane Dorian brought devastation to the village in September 2019, flooding and damaging virtually every building and structure.

The Cape Lookout National Seashore staff, led by Superintendent Jeff West, along with the Friends of Portsmouth Island were undaunted in their efforts to restore the village. While some would have written off the village as irreparable, they devoted themselves to building repairs and groundskeeping, understanding the importance of place and that no appraisal could ever quantify the value of home.

The National Park Service, which manages the historic village, along with the many Friends of Portsmouth Island volunteers, welcomed around 400 guests April 23 for the long-awaited homecoming.

After walking down the long haulover dock, folks stepped onto the island and perhaps for a brief moment felt like they had gone back in time. They headed to the staging area, the Salter-Dixon House, which now serves as the visitor center.

At the nearby signup table, volunteers followed the tradition of handing out commemorative pins. The design features a beaming sun rising behind the church and reads “Homecoming 2020,” a reminder of how life as we know it was put on hold for the past two years.

A film crew made the trip across the water with their equipment and moved around the island throughout the day. The Tamassee Group, a nonprofit independent filmmaking group in collaboration with The Southern Documentary Fund, is producing a documentary for PBS North Carolina on the cultural and environmental history of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. They found the homecoming and the maintained village an ideal place to begin filming their project, which aims to capture the rich history of the Outer Banks before it is obscured due to rising sea levels and the rapid development of the area.

Generations of descendants with this shared history had the opportunity to meet up with old friends, to see firsthand how the village’s foliage and buildings fared over the past four years and to visit their family cemeteries nestled among the reeds. A few in attendance had lived or spent time in the village as children and were able to visit their family homes.

Frances Eubanks, descendant, author and photographer, and a founding member of The Friends of Portsmouth Island, has fond childhood memories in the village. Her grandparents were postmistress Annie Dixon and Theodore Salter. Their home, the Dixon-Salter House, is now the visitor center for Portsmouth Village.

Frances’ mother, Clara Salter Gaskins, as well as Annie and Theodore Salter, were born on Portsmouth Island. Clara was born in 1917, a year the sound froze over, causing the recording of her birth at the Carteret County Courthouse to be delayed. Clara grew up on Portsmouth, graduating from Ocracoke High School. After she was married, she returned to the island during summer vacations with her daughters to instill in them not only a love of her grandparents but also a love of Portsmouth.

Frances treasures a photo of herself around age 2, helping “Granddaddy” feed the chickens in the backyard; another, circa 1944, of her seated in a wooden, child-sized chair with a side view of the Dixon Salter house in the background;  as well as the 1949 Cape Lookout National Seashore photograph in front of the church in which Frances appears with her mother (who was pregnant with Barbara Gaskins-Eugene at the time) along with other relatives and Portsmouth residents.

“I was really glad somebody had a chance to take those pictures,” she remarked, gazing toward the house. “Not everybody had a camera back then, so it’s special. They’re priceless.”

Former village caretaker Dave Frum was in attendance as well. While not an ancestor of Portsmouth, one could say Frum is the next best thing. For 28 years he looked after the village part-time, taking his skiff over from Ocracoke. He retired in 2016 and was pleased to have a reunion with West, his former boss, and his predecessor, acting superintendent Bob Vogel.

In attendance also were Kenneth Burke, renowned scholar on the history of Portsmouth village, who traveled from his home in Washington, D.C., and Chester Lynn of Ocracoke with long ties to Portsmouth and the man responsible for organizing the hanging of wreaths at Christmastime on the doors in the village.

A favorite stop for many during homecoming is the Henry Pigott house, a storybook cottage painted a charming yellow with green shutters and a cozy front porch. Henry Pigott was one of the last three people to live on Portsmouth Island and, as historian and descendant David Quinn put it in his remarks to the gathered crowd, “Henry Pigott’s heart became the beating heart of the island.”

After Henry’s death in 1971, daily life in the village could no longer be sustained and the two remaining residents, Elma Dixon and Marian Babb, left the island.

Henry inherited his house from his grandmother, Rose Ireland Abbot, who was the only formerly enslaved islander to remain in the village. As a midwife, she was an important member of the isolated community and safely delivered its children, while raising a large family of her own.

Of the remaining 20 buildings of a once-thriving village, 11 of them were open to the public.

The Portsmouth Island post office, a tidy white building that once also housed the general store, closed its doors in 1959 after 119 years of service. But on this day, it welcomed visitors who could have their post cards and envelopes processed with the Portsmouth Island Cancellation stamp by Melissa Garrish Sharber on assignment from Ocracoke’s post office and Hatteras Post Office Postmaster Vivian Barnett.

The schoolhouse embraced the return of children, their laughter carrying across the island. In its heyday around 1860, about 100 pupils attended school, but enrollment dwindled steadily over the years, leaving only one student when it was permanently closed in 1943.

And for one day, the long-silent sanctuary of the Portsmouth Methodist Church was once again filled with a harmony of voices for the traditional hymn singing that took place after a christening performed by Pastor Ivey Belch of Ocracoke’s Life Saving Church.

The Homecoming has a tradition of an hourlong formal ceremony beginning with a Presentation of Colors by the U.S. Coast Guard. Kathy McNeilly, president of the Friends of Portsmouth Island, welcomed the attendees. Author, educator and Portsmouth Island descendant Jim White served as the Emcee.

David Quinn, grandson of Dot Salter Willis, presented a brief history of the island and said in his opening remarks that “Home is where you go to find solace.” Quoting Lakota leader Crazy Horse, he added, “My home is where my people lie buried.”

Superintendent West provided an overview on the current state of the village and the many building repairs following Hurricane Dorian. He extended a heartfelt thank you to his staff and volunteers for their dedication to upkeeping the village, especially noting longtime caretakers and volunteers Ed and Renee Burgess for over 20 years of service in the village. This year will be their last.

Just as music was a vital part of village life in years past, it plays a key role at the homecoming celebrations. Folk singer Connie Mason sang her stirring composition, “Marian’s Song,” in honor of Marian Babb. Carol Scheppard, granddaughter of Sarah Lincoln and James Archie Newton, the lighthouse keeper at Cape Lookout during World War II, sang a cappella the “Mingulay Boat Song” for the crowd before performing it on bagpipes.

The Roll Call of Families concluded the ceremony as descendants proudly rose from their seats upon hearing their family names.

The day ended the way a community bonds best — over food. The homecoming’s traditional potluck lunch left no one hungry and brought together the celebration’s organizers, attendees, old timers and newcomers alike on their beloved island at the edge of the sea.

The Portsmouth Homecoming is set for Saturday, April 23, in historic Portsmouth Village. 

Cape Lookout National Seashore and the Friends of Portsmouth Island are inviting the public to join this year’s event where the theme is “Portsmouth Rises,” recognizing Portsmouth’s recovery after Hurricane Dorian in 2019 and the cancellation of the Portsmouth Homecoming in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The once-bustling sea village is now deserted except for National Park Service personnel and holders of park service leases. It’s a protected historic and archeological site that accessible only by boat. But the island is also treasured by countless families who trace their lineage to its former inhabitants.

Among the activities planned for the daylong celebration are a christening service and a traditional hymn singing in the Portsmouth Methodist Church. The U.S. Post Office in Portsmouth is to be open for that day only and feature a special postal cancellation stamp for mailings from Portsmouth. A special “Descendant House” is to be set up at the McWilliams house next to the church, where Portsmouth families can share their family photos, scrapbooks and family trees for others to see.  

A traditional homecoming program featuring one of the village’s descendants playing the bagpipes and a dinner-on-the-grounds are also planned. Attendees are encouraged to bring a covered dish to share at the potluck.

Reservations for the passenger ferry from Ocracoke should be made with Rudy Austin’s Portsmouth Island Boat Tours by calling 252-928-4361. Ferry reservations are required, and the cost is $25 per person for the round trip. 

For more information, visit the Friends of Portsmouth Island or the Cape Lookout National Seashore websites: www.friendsofportsmouthisland.org, or their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/friendsofportsmouthisland, or the Cape Lookout National Seashore: https://go.nps.gov/pvhomecoming

Reprinted from Ocracoke Observer

Update: Covid/Omicron variant watch. There may be restrictions on participating in these two bird counts, especially for Portsmouth Island. If you are interested in participating, contact the compiler right after Christmas when we will have a better idea of a possible new wave spread.

Following tradition, the Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island Christmas Bird Counts will be held on the last days of the year, with Portsmouth on Dec. 30 and Ocracoke on Dec. 31.

This year, the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, now in its 122nd year, is expected to have nearly 80,000 volunteers to tally birds in more than 2,600 locations across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Each individual count is performed in a count circle with a diameter of 15 miles. The data gathered from these surveys help to track bird populations and can flag declining or increasing numbers of a given species.

The two local counts will be entered into the NC Bird Atlas, in its first of a five-year project to gather information about the state’s bird populations.

Ocracoke has run a count every year since 1981 and Portsmouth since 1988, with a couple of cancellations due to adverse weather. The historical results of these counts can be found on the Audubon Christmas Bird Count website.

To participate or for more information, contact the compiler Peter Vankevich, text/cell 202-468-2871 and petevankevich@gmail.com.

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. 

This month’s Astronomy Night at Cape Lookout National Seashore Friday will begin with a presentation on fall constellations before heading out to look at the night sky from the seashore’s Harkers Island Visitor Center.

The 45-minute presentation with NASA Solar System Ambassador Matthew Bruce on “Fall Constellations — What to look for!” begins at 7 p.m. Friday. The program will introduce visitors to various celestial objects in the autumn sky that can be viewed with the naked eye and a telescope. 

Immediately after the presentation, park staff and astronomers from the Crystal Coast Stargazers, a NASA Night Sky Network astronomy club, will host a Star Party, depending on the weather, that will offer participants the chance to witness the moon and other sky-bound objects above the Southern Outer Banks through the lens of a telescope. 

Organizers recommend coming prepared by wearing a mask, which is required, especially in groups while using the telescopes, to dress for the weather and bring chairs for seating, water, snacks, bug repellent, and a flashlight with a red filter that helps in maintaining everyone’s night vision. 

Visitors can bring their own telescopes to learn tips from members of the Stargazers club. 

For more information, go to http://go.nps.gov/astronomynight.    

President Trump on Tuesday signed into law a bipartisan bill that will tap energy revenues to address a $12 billion backlog of maintenance projects on federal lands, including more than $459 million in national parks in North Carolina.

Introduced in 2019 by the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the Great American Outdoors Act also makes funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund permanent. Earlier this year, the Trump administration had proposed significant cuts to the fund.

Republican 3^rd District Congressman Greg Murphy voted for the bill, which the House passed July 22.

Murphy’s office noted in a press release in July that Cape Hatteras National Seashore will receive $49,834,106, and Cape Lookout National Seashore will receive $27,718,515 as a result of the legislation.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund supports national forests, refuges and parks, including the Croatan National Forest, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge, Currituck National Wildlife Refuge, Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Swan Quarter National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

The bill establishes the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to support deferred maintenance projects on federal lands. For the next five years, an amount equal to half of energy development revenues from oil, gas, coal and alternative or renewable energy development on federal lands and waters is to be deposited into the fund, up to $1.9 billion for any year.

The fund must be used for priority deferred maintenance projects in specified systems that are administered by the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Education.

Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt announced Tuesday that entrance fees paid by those visiting lands managed by the department would be waived Wednesday. Bernhardt also announced that Aug. 4 will be designated “Great American Outdoors Day,” a fee-free day each year to commemorate the signing of the act. Fees such as camping and cabin rentals and others will remain in effect.

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

It takes about a half hour by boat from Ocracoke’s Silver Lake harbor to the loading dock at Portsmouth village.

A group of birders took the ride in the early morning of the last day of 2019 to participate in the island’s annual Christmas Bird Count. This census started in 1988 and attracts between 15 to 25 participants who walk the village and beach identifying species and counting the number of individuals seen or heard.

A total of 18, though not all were hardcore birders, came over that morning. One was Allan Fairbanks, chief photojournalist for WCTI-TV 12 of New Bern. He was intrigued by both Portsmouth and the idea it would make a good story to cover the activity and provide a story on how Hurricane Dorian impacted the 20-plus structures. The news stories produced by WCTI-TV are available here and here.

Usually, Capt. Rudy Austin or his brother, Donald, of Portsmouth Island Boat Tours drops the birders off on the sound side to a long, empty dock, covered with broken shells dropped from above by herring gulls.

This year was different. Waiting to greet the group was Jeff West, Cape Lookout National Seashore’s superintendent and the park’s Lead Biological Science Technician Chelsey Stephenson and Evan Knight.

This count would be different in another way. The observers would get to see how changed the village was from the peaceful tranquility they experienced the previous December. Hurricane Dorian on Sept. 6 delivered to Portsmouth village the same 7-foot plus storm surge that devastated Ocracoke.

Portsmouth, part of Carteret County, was established in 1753 by the North Carolina Colonial Assembly and served as a point for shipping and fishing. Its heyday was the 1860s with a peak population of 860 residents who engaged in fishing and shipping and functioned as a lightering port, where cargo from oceangoing vessels could be transferred to shallow-draft vessels capable of traversing Pamlico and Core sounds to the mainland. Over its two centuries, there was never any electricity or running water.

The village went into decline as alternative means for getting goods to the mainland were used. The last residents left in 1971 and it is now administered by the National Park Service as part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore.

Over the centuries, Portsmouth has withstood many hurricanes, some a direct hit such as Isabel in 2003. The 21 structures remaining today include a post office/store, church, school and a large lifesaving station. The rest are mostly homes and a few sheds. On the edge of the village, ocean side, are the park service infrastructure buildings for a generator, maintenance and to store tractors.

West thanked everyone, saying the longtime data gathering from the bird counts gives people a good idea of what species spend the early winter there. Over the 30 years, nearly 200 species have been identified in varying numbers from year to year.

Heading into the village, which is still officially closed to visitors, the group stopped at the Salter-Dixon house, which serves as the visitor’s center, to leave some gear on the porch and get their coverage assignments. Flying overhead was a flock of white ibis, and a clapper rail could be heard clucking in the marsh. Absent this year was a Merlin which often perches on a nearby tree, serving as a sentry.

The birders divided into four teams, two headed out to the dunes and beach, the other two carved up the village. West stayed with one of the village teams while Fairbanks filmed him talking about the damage and recorded the count activities.

West is a high energy, hands-on, blue collar administrator who loves to talk Portsmouth. When Ocracoke islander Dave Frum retired several years ago as the village’s part-time caretaker, he was not replaced due to budget constraints.

To make up for it, West often spends weekends there landscaping and doing small but much-needed repairs. He knows every building in the village and their status. None of it is good news.

After Dorian, West headed to the village by boat to assess the damage and take photographs. All of the structures were damaged and some may have to be torn down, he reported. Soon after, 68 volunteers and contractors, making up the National Park Service Incident Management Team, descended on the village for about three weeks to assist in cleaning up debris and stabilizing the buildings. The Arrowhead Fire Crew from Sequoia, California, sent 23 of their members.

The George Dixon house suffered so much damage that it may have to be demolished, West wrote in a report in the Doctor’s Creek Journal, recently published by the Friends of Portsmouth Island. He chronicled damage to all the structures in the village, two cemeteries and the infrastructure of the roads and docks.

And it wasn’t only the buildings that Dorian impacted. Fifty-four new inlets were carved into the Cape Lookout National Seashore. Almost all of them have since been filled in, but four remain.

Birds in the village can vary from year to year, or for that matter week-to-week or even day-to-day. After heavy rains and there are puddles in the grass around the church, shorebirds such as greater yellowlegs, dunlin and a few species of plovers can sometimes be seen foraging. Not this year.

The only shorebirds were a flock of nine killdeer that flew overhead. The large majority of shorebirds for this count were observed on the beach and along the inlet, including 300 short-billed dowitchers and 350 dunlin. The ubiquitous myrtle warblers were present throughout in good numbers as usual.

The presence of birds in an area where they are relatively unscathed by human presence can bring surprises and this year yielded some. On the beach area of Ocracoke Inlet near Doctor’s Creek and the Methodist Church was a resting flock of American oystercatchers and 60 were visible with the use of a high-powered spotting scope. Oystercatchers, normally solitary or in pairs, can congregate in large flocks like this in winter.

Numbers like this are normally farther south and this count usually gets about 10 to 12 individuals. About an hour later, an adult bald eagle glided by that spooked them into flight which permitted a more precise count of 94 individuals. It’s nice  when a bald eagle decides to help a Christmas Bird Count.

“Ocracoke and Portsmouth provided the perfect landscape for breaking in our new Muck boots!” said Elizabeth Cisne and Janeen Vanhooke jointly when asked about the day. They traveled from Nebraska and Chicago, respectively, to participate. “This was our second time at Portsmouth, and the show put on by the American oystercatchers there was amazing. Never have we seen such a large flock of them in flight. Where’s the camera when we need it?”

The other amazing feature of the count was the high number of brown pelicans. Tom and Susse Wright of Ocracoke ventured out to the beach on foot. There they encountered a long line of brown pelicans that they estimated to be 5,000. Again, that’s a large number to be in North Carolina this time of year. To pile on, the Ocracoke count that took place the day before had nearly 2,000 pelicans. Brown pelicans have been increasing in the mid-Atlantic and expanding into the Chesapeake Bay.

Since the temperatures have been seasonally much warmer and there is an adequate number of fish in the waters, these two factors may explain why so many are still in the region and not farther south.

Another high number was 154 royal terns. There is a large nesting colony of these terns on the dredge island at Big Foot Slough off Ocracoke where the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries pass. Again, most winter in the warmer waters farther south.

Another special find was a blue-headed vireo, photographed in the village by Jeff Beane, another longtime veteran of the count. This was only the fourth time this vireo has been observed in the 30 years of the count.

Spending the last day of the year on Portsmouth Island located in this “watery part of the world,” to borrow from the title of Michael Parker’s well-written veiled novel about Portsmouth, is both an adventure and a memorable experience.

Portsmouth Island Christmas Bird Count list for Dec. 31, 2019:

• Snow goose: 4
• Brant: 80
• Gadwall: 110
• American black duck: 74
• Mallard: 2
• Redhead: 7,000
• Scoter sp. (unidentified species)
• Bufflehead: 2
• Hooded merganser: 14
• Red-breasted merganser: 6
• Northern gannet: 80
• Double-crested cormorant: 2,225
• Brown pelican: 5,000
• American bittern: 3
• Great blue heron: 2
• Great egret: 5
• Snowy egret: 4
• Little blue heron: 2
• Tricolored heron: 7
• Black-crowned night heron: 7
• White ibis: 58
• Northern harrier: 10
• Sharp-shinned hawk: 1
• Cooper’s hawk: 1
• Bald eagle: 2
• Clapper rail: 17
• Virginia rail: 1
• Oystercatcher: 94
• Black-bellied plover: 61
• Killdeer: 9
• Willet: 1
• Yellowlegs sp.: 18
• Sanderling: 200
• Dunlin: 350
• Peep sp. (small sandpiper unidentified by species): 1
• Short-billed dowitcher: 300
• Ring-billed gull: 1,547
• Herring gull: 29
• Great black-backed gull: 58
• Royal tern: 154
• Black skimmer: 1
• Belted kingfisher: 5
• Northern flicker: 7
• Eastern phoebe: 6
• Blue-headed vireo: 1
• House wren: 1
• Sedge wren: 5
• Marsh wren: 2
• Carolina wren: 8
• Golden-crowned kinglet: 1
• Ruby-crowned kinglet: 1
• American robin: 64
• Gray catbird: 6
• Northern mockingbird: 10
• Cedar waxwing: 40
• Common yellowthroat: 3
• Palm warbler: 2
• Yellow-rumped warbler: 378
• Chipping sparrow: 3
• Savannah sparrow: 4
• Song sparrow: 2
• Swamp sparrow: 1
• Eastern towhee: 20
• Northern cardinal: 3
• Red-winged blackbird: 4
• Eastern meadowlark: 5

HARKERS ISLAND – Officials with the Cape Lookout National Seashore announced Friday that Portsmouth Village is now reopened to the public.

Because of the effects of Hurricane Maria which caused beach erosion from higher than usual tides and rough surf in late September, the park was evacuated for safety of visitors and staff.

Portsmouth Village was spared damage, but the grounds were flooded and it has taken time for the grounds to dry enough to allow for safe access.

Officials said visitors should use caution when visiting Portsmouth as the ground may still be moist in low-lying areas.

Learn More

• Cape Lookout National Seashore

Reprinted from Ocrocoke Observer

OCRACOKE — Dave Frum recently motored his small boat to Portsmouth Island for the last time recently. On May 23, he retired as the National Park Service’s part-time maintenance man for the last 28 years.

His solitary stewardship of the abandoned village has been a labor of love.

Like many islanders, taking care of Portsmouth was his second job in addition to his work at Ocracoke’s water plant.

Frum’s work over these many years did not go unnoticed.

At the Friends of Portsmouth Island spring meeting in May at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, or NCCAT, facility here, he was presented an award for his dedicated service.

Frum was the first to see the damage Hurricane Isabel did to the village in 2003 and wrote a feature of it in the Ocracoke Observer newspaper back then. The eye of that powerful storm passed over Ocracoke Inlet.

“It was devastating,” he said.  “Trees were down everywhere, the dock was torn up and there was lots of damage to several houses including those of Henry Piggott and George Dixon, and the Life-saving Station,”

The next year, Hurricane Alex hit with major flooding from the Pamlico Sound causing more destruction.

“With those two storms, I spent a lot of time clearing brush and doing repairs,” he said.

As Portsmouth is part of the National Seashore, no chemical control for mosquitoes is done on any Park Service Land and he does not use mosquito spray. So, in spite of the village’s notoriety for mosquitoes, Frum has the non-chemical solution.

“The best deterrent to handling mosquitoes is to ignore them,” he said laughing. “Unlike what many believe, they are not horrible all the time.”

Frum takes exception to Portsmouth’s description as a ghost town.

“Ghost town implies that the village is dead, which it is not,” he said. “It’s vibrant. I feel the spirit of the village’s past like no other place.”

On Portsmouth and often the only person present, he hears the distant roar of the Atlantic Ocean at times as well as the silence while communing with nature.

“I’ve loved every bit of it,” he said. “Every day I witnessed the wildlife, like Great Horned Owls raising their young in a tree in the village, otters playing in the creeks and the Indigo Buntings passing through in the spring.”

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke island. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast. You can read more Ocracoke news here.

PORTSMOUTH ISLAND — It’s not every day you see a big red squid alive on a beach in Carteret County. If it were, folks might be a bit alarmed. They are, uh, different-looking when they’re big. Maybe not the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” different. Weird enough, though.

But Winterville resident Carey Walker, who was driving down Portsmouth Island in late March, wasn’t alarmed, just curious, when he saw the unusual specimen. He picked it up, and like any good visitor to Core Banks, cared enough about marine life to put it back in the water, after getting a photo or two, of course.

He never saw the squid come back. But he has wondered what it was. And so have many others who’ve seen the photos.

“It was low tide, and we were coming back to the cabins at about 5:30 p.m., and I just saw this thing out of the corner of my eye down at the edge of the water,” Walker recalled. “I actually went past it. But I wanted to see what it was, so I backed the truck up and got out and saw that it was still alive. So I picked up and we got a couple of pictures, and then I put it back in the water.”

Walker and his companions were there for a few more days, and never saw the squid on the beach again. Nor did anyone else they talked to.

“We saw some seals and some other things, but we never saw the squid again,” he said. “It was really just a five-minute encounter, but it was pretty cool. It’s not something you see every day, that’s for sure.”

Walker, who works for Barnhill Construction Co., estimated the squid weighed 35 to 40 pounds and was about 3 1/2 feet long, maybe 4 feet including its tentacles.

“I’ve caught some little squid before, but I’d never seen anything this size, and it was really red,” he said.

Walker thought that was the end of it. Eventually, though, through mutual friends, Carey’s photos wound their way to Todd Miller, executive director of the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

Miller emailed the photos to Charles H. “Pete” Peterson, a longtime and renowned marine biologist at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. Peterson has been around the watery block a few times, and he’s also a frequent beachgoer.

But he had no clue.

“Todd thought I might know, because he knows I’ve seen some weird stuff on the beach, but I didn’t,” Peterson said. “I’ve heard reports of giant squid around here, but I’ve never seen one.”

Although Carteret County is home to a wide variety of marine biologists and oceanographers – at Peterson’s lab as well as the North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Science and Technology, or CMAST, also in Morehead City, and the National Marine Fisheries Service on Pivers Island near Beaufort, Peterson didn’t know of any “big squid” experts in the area.

But Miller did some research on the internet, and turned up the name of Steve O’Shea, who, indeed, is a marine biologist and environmentalist known for his expertise on giant squid.

He began working with the creatures with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, or NIWA, in New Zealand in 1996, and became director of the Earth and Oceanic Sciences Research Institute at the Auckland University of Technology, or AUT, in 2005. He was a Discovery Channel Quest Scholar until 2009, when he resigned to focus on research on coastal conservation, environmental matters and postgraduate supervision and teaching; but has remained involved in squid research and their preservation.

He’s even got a squid named for him: AUT science student Heather Braid, according to the university’s website, discovered a new species in the Mastigoteuthidae family a few years back and named it “Magnoteuthis osheai” for the man who had inspired her, years earlier, to get into squid research. It’s got to be a bit unusual for someone to inspire you to get into squid research.

But O’Shea would be the one to do that. He’s published more than 40 papers on squid, octopus, whales, fisheries and conservation, and has been involved in many documentaries.

So, you think that O’Shea might know the identity of the squid Carey Walker found on the Portsmouth Island Beach, just by looking at an emailed photo or two? Indeed, he did. After a couple of days of back-and-forth emails – it can be difficult to connect consistently with a world-famous man who lives now in Australia – he reported that, while unusual to be seen on beaches in our parts, this was not a particularly unusual squid: It was a diamondback squid, known in scientific nomenclature as Thysanoteuthis rhombus.

T. rhombus, also known as the diamond squid or diamondback squid, is a large species that grows to about 100 centimeters in length, which translates to about 39 inches, and ranges in weight from 20 to 30 kilograms, which translates to 44 to 50 pounds. Which means that, if nothing else, Carey Walker is pretty good at estimating the weight and length of big red squids he picks up on remote beaches.

O’Shea said the species occurs worldwide, throughout tropical and subtropical waters. Its arms have two sets of suckers, while the tentacles have four sets. Its named for its fins, which run in equal length along its mantle, making it look sort of like a rhombus, everyone’s favorite middle school geometrical shape, unless of course one favors parallelograms.

In his email, O’Shea said “There’s a significant commercial fishery for this species in more tropical waters,” and internet sources specifically mention the waters around Okinawa and Japan.

“Every now and then you get a stray, and that may well be the case with this one,” O’Shea wrote. “I’ve had them from (about) 127 metres (466 feet) depth at almost 55 degrees South, subAntarctic waters, south of New Zealand.

“Whether this has anything to do with changes in oceanography, currents, eddies or climate in general I don’t know, but of course anything is possible.”

There could, he said, have been a warm-water eddy, or a general warming of the surface layers of the water in the area, “bearing in mind this squid may have been living at depth. Whatever way you look at it, it is an important museum specimen and I hope it has been saved.”

Alas, it might have been saved, thanks to Carey Walker, but not for a museum, just for a longer life. Surely a squid expert would prefer that …

For his part, Walker conceded the thought of “calamari” crossed his mind when he saw the squid, but those thoughts didn’t prevail.

Nor would it have been worth a whole lot to take the thing to a fish house, because squid just aren’t worth a lot ‘round here. According to North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries statistics, the top year for commercial squid landings was in 2004, when watermen brought in 2,465,394 pounds, worth $522,115. That’s about 21 cents a pound. Landings by 2015 had decreased to 25,516 pounds, worth $22,212. That’s 87 cents a pound. It wouldn’t have been a big payday.

*Editor’s note: this story was completed prior to Hurricane Sandy’s arrival on the East Coast. Once again the Outer Banks experienced transport disruption and flooding. Our thoughts are with everyone in North Carolina and up the coast affected by the storm.

North Carolina’s Outer Banks – that string of narrow islands that wrap a protective barrier between the Atlantic Ocean and the mainland’s inner coast – is the first line of defense against devastating effects of winds and surging flood waters from hurricanes, nor’easters, and other coastal storms.

By default, those barrier islands also are on the front line of the effects of climate change and sea level rise.

A recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) looks specifically at the threats of climate change to seven national seashores along the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral.

North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras National Seashore and Cape Lookout National Seashore – which together comprise nearly 200 of the state’s 325-mile ocean shoreline – are among the most vulnerable,  according to the study titled “Atlantic National Seashores in Peril: The Threats of Climate Disruption.”

Human-caused climate change is the greatest ever threat to Cape Cod (Mass.), Fire Island (N.Y.), Assateague Island (Md.), Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, Cumberland Island (Ga.), and Canaveral (Fla.) national seashores, according to the 2012 report.

“Protecting the resources and values of these special places is among the many reasons for acting now to protect our climate,” the report states.

For the study, the researchers considered seashore temperature records and long-range projections, historical weather patterns, sea-level rise vulnerability, visitor access and economic impacts.

USGS images of Pea Island over time 2008-2011.

The seashores are year-round destinations for tourists who enjoy access to miles of undisturbed beaches, history, culture, nature and wildlife.  Bird watchers, in particular, are drawn to unique spectacles of colonial and migrating shore birds.

National Park System records for 2010 show that more than 11 million visitors spent more than $5.6 million at all Atlantic Coast national seashores. That includes close to 2.2 million visitors to Cape Hatteras National Seashore and more than a half-million visitors to Cape Lookout National Seashore spending about $150,000 in combined local economies.

Rising temperatures and seas

For the report, the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization researchers compared seashore temperatures from the single decade – 2000-2011– with temperature trends from 1961-1990.  They found temperatures rose 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit at Cape Hatteras and 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit at Cape Lookout.

Alarmingly, the heat-up will continue – unless future emissions of heat trapping pollutants can be held to lower levels.

For example, with medium-high future emissions, average temperatures by 2051-2060 could increase by 3 degrees Fahrenheit at Cape Hatteras National Sea Shore; and, by 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit at Cape Lookout National Seashore.

And, by 2081-2090, temperatures could increase as much as 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit at Cape Hatteras, making it “as hot as recent summers in Galveston, Texas”; and by 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit at Cape Lookout, making it “as hot as Fort Meyers, Florida.”

The RMCO study indicates that some computer models project even higher averages for those same decades.

The researchers assert that the future heat-up would negatively impact seashore visitation: When temperatures are in the 100s, the outdoor experience could be a lot less enjoyable.

The study also underscores the vulnerability of these low-lying seashores in the face of rising sea levels.

Rising sea levels are attributed, in part, to the melting of land-based ice, including mountain glaciers and Arctic ice caps. Also, warming sea-surface temperatures make the waters expand and rise.

The researchers looked at a recent U.S. Geological Survey assessment that ranked the relative vulnerability of different portions of the Atlantic coastline based on tidal range, wave height, coastal slope, shoreline change, geomorphology, and historical rate of relative sea-level rise.

As a result, RMCO researchers suggest that Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout and Assateague Island – with lands that are less than a meter (39.4 inches) above current sea level – are “in a top tier of vulnerability.”

The National Academy of Sciences project that even with lower future emissions, the global average sea-level rise could be about 20 inches by 2100; with higher emissions, 55 inches.  (Many coastal scientists say the most likely scenario for North Carolina is at least 29 inches by 2100.)<

“Higher seas especially make a difference in magnifying the effects of coastal storms.  With a higher initial sea level, storm surges push farther inland than they did when beginning atop earlier, lower seas,” RMCO researchers say.

Increased risks

The study suggests that human-caused climate change is delivering a one-two punch to the national seashores: rising seas and more frequent and severe coastal storms.

Hurricane Sandy does damage to Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Photo by Kermit Skinner

“As a result, the seashores now are being shaped not just by natural forces, but by a new mixture of natural and unnatural forces, which yield different consequences,” the study states.

Visitor access to the national seashores may be at risk in the face of potential loss of roads and bridges.

“In the long term, the current transportation infrastructure may not be adequate, forcing permanent closures of the current roads and their replacement with alternative methods of access,” the study states in general.

The authors single out the repeated and costly efforts to rebuild washed out sections of roads leading to and through Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  And, they cite boat and ferry service to Cape Lookout National Seashore as alternative access methods.

An altered climate affects historic and cultural resources, including lighthouses and other physical assets.  Already, the National Park Service relocated Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1999 at a cost of more than $11 million.  Additionally, the historic lightkeeper’s station and Coast Guard Station at Bodie Island Lighthouse, also on Cape Hatteras National Seashore, have been moved out of harm’s way in recent years.

Hotter temperatures, stronger storms and rising seas also pose threats to ecosystems and wildlife, including nesting endangered sea turtles and birds, and the myriad wildlife dependent upon each unique coastal habitat.

Additionally, marine life will most certainly feel the effects of climate change as ocean waters become warmer and more acidic.

Stemming the tide

To stem the tide of threats to national seashores, RMCO researchers and the Natural Resources Defense Council officials say new actions are needed on “an unprecedented scale.”

They call for reducing emissions of climate-changing pollutants, which come mostly from burning fossil fuels. Key steps include:

• Establishing mandatory limits on carbon pollution by at least 20% current levels by 2020 and 80% by 2050;
• Protecting the current Clean Air Act authority of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency;
• Overcoming barriers to investment in energy efficiency to lower emission-reduction costs; and
• Accelerating development and deployment of emerging technologies to lower long-term emission reduction costs.

Responding to challenges

Change is a constant at national seashores. And planning for change is constant, say Cape Hatteras Acting Superintendent Darrell Echols and Cape Lookout Superintendent Patrick Kenney.

“Climate change is indeed part of the National Park Service long-range planning strategies. That includes concerns with sea level rise,” Kenney says. “The rate of acceleration may be uncertain, but what is certain is that we are at the leading edge of the sea and it’s an obvious concern.”

Both men have been involved in developing adaptive management strategies to apply the best science available to address climate change and sea level rise.  For starters, each site is going through a self-examination process to identify ways to reduce its “carbon footprint.”

“There are many areas of concern for national seashores, including storm frequency and intensity.  Beaches are eroding, structures behind the dunes are threatened,” Echols points out.

Those structures behind the dunes include lighthouses and other historic buildings.

As the RMCO report points out, Hatteras Lighthouse and the Bodie lightkeeper station already have been moved at considerable expense.

“There is no guarantee that there will be enough money to move all structures in the future. It may come to making priorities based on historical and cultural significance.  Perhaps beach nourishment will be part of a long-term remedy in some situations where retreat is not an option.  The point is, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to managing these dynamic environments,” Echols says.

For example, the responses to climate change, sea level rise and extreme coastal storms is quite different at Cape Hatteras versus Cape Lookout.

“It’s quite complicated in terms of long-range planning, considering Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge and eight unincorporated villages are located within the boundaries of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore,” Echols adds.

When Hurricane Irene in 2011 cut new inlets through Pea Island and ripped open multiple sections of Highway 12 – the only road on the island.  It stranded about 2,500 people on Hatteras Island.  Local, state and federal expertise and resources were cobbled together to rebuild what local residents call “our lifeline.”

Meanwhile, at Cape Lookout National Seashore, Hurricane Irene pushed open an old inlet. In time, wind and waves closed the breach. With no roads or residents, officials could let nature find a remedy.

To Kenney, “We are laboratories for studying change.  Barrier islands are dynamic systems with moving sands, constantly being shaped, reshaped and relocated.”

Researchers from the National Park Service and several universities are involved with monitoring and studying coastal processes, habitats and wildlife at both sites.