This story has been updated to include a corrected description of land ownership. Information initially provided to Coastal Review had incorrectly identified the owner.

More people moved to North Carolina last year from different parts of the country than any other state in the nation.

North Carolina’s population grew by almost 150,000 people, trailing behind only Texas and Florida, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released last month.

As political leaders grapple with the demands that growth is placing on essential services like water and sewer, public safety and education, pressure is mounting on conservation groups to acquire, conserve and preserve land.

This month, more than 2,000 acres in coastal counties have been secured for permanent protection from development.

These newly protected areas are filled with natural landscape features that reduce flood risk, improve water quality, and provide habitat for plants and animals that are increasingly getting squeezed out by encroaching development.

In Brunswick County, one of the fastest growing in the state, North Carolina-based conservation nonprofit Unique Places to Save acquired land that serves as a corridor between two protected natural areas, bridging what amounts to nearly 10,000 acres of conserved landscape.

“We really want to be able to maintain large, connected natural areas for habitat for species and to maintain biodiversity of our natural areas,” Unique Places to Save Executive Director Christine Pickens told Coastal Review in a recent telephone interview. “And, particularly, in the southeast of North Carolina, we have some really cool endemic species and really wonderful habitats that you don’t find anywhere else.”

Within the 1,040-acre tract nestled between the towns of St. James and Boiling Spring Lakes are forested wetlands, Carolina bays, sandy pine and wet sandy pine savanna.

The tract, referred to as Boiling Springs Wilderness, specifically connects thousands of acres of privately conserved land including Orton with the North Carolina Boiling Spring Lakes Plant Conservation Preserve.

“When you connect these large areas, you’re connecting a mosaic across the landscape and there’s tiny variations of habitat availability,” Pickens explained. “What that does is allow species that use that area for habitat or refuge or migration to use those slight variations of habitat. When we experience extremes in weather, precipitation or drought or big storms, having just a little bit of wiggle room in terms of available habitat goes a long way to allowing species to be resilient to some of these extremes and some of these changes.”

Habitat that is free from being sliced up by ditches or roads is valuable to species that rely on that habitat, she said.

Take the red cockaded woodpecker, for example. These birds, which were reclassified in late 2024 from endangered to threatened, live in groups, or clusters, helping each other raise their young.

They depend on large, connected natural areas – typically anywhere from 125 to 200 acres – where living pine trees, preferably mature, longleaf pine forests, grow.

Boiling Springs Wilderness includes varying types of soils that support different sets of plants, trees, shrubs and forbs, more commonly referred to as herbs.

A good deal of pond pine and a “little bit” of young longleaf pine grace its landscape, Pickens said.

The headwaters of Orton Creek are within the project area, as are wetlands that blanket the Castle Hayne aquifer, a drinking water source for thousands of Brunswick County residents and tens of thousands in other coastal North Carolina areas.

“That’s a long-term way to protect water quality,” Pickens said. “The areas around streams act as buffers to absorb nutrients, runoff, excess components in surface water that soak in, and they get absorbed by the plants and the roots and the soils around streams. That prevents excess nutrients getting into waterways.”

Then there are the wetlands, which function like nature’s sponges, absorbing stormwater that might otherwise flood developed properties.

“Every chance we get to conserve wetlands is really important right now,” Pickens said.

That’s because state lawmakers decided to align North Carolina’s definition of wetlands with that of the federal government, which is in the process of changing the interpretation of waters of the United States that may omit protections for millions of acres of wetlands in the state.

“It may result in more wetlands being nonjurisdictional, therefore a lot more likely to be converted to uplands through ditching and draining. These conservation easements are perpetual. Once we protect it, that’s it,” Pickens said.

The Boiling Springs Wilderness project was funded through a $3.68 million North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant.

Unique Places to Save will own and manage the tract, while the state will hold the conservation easement. The Coastal Land Trust will steward that easement.

Last year, Unique Places to Save applied for another state Land and Water Fund grant to protect about 500 acres of predominately wetlands between the town of St. James and N.C. Highway 211.

“We’ve got a provisional award from the Land and Water Fund so if they have enough funding we may get funded this year for that effort,” Pickens said.

She touted efforts among other groups that work to conserve land throughout the state, including the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, The Nature Conservancy, North Carolina Plant Conservation Program, North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, and Cape Fear Arch to name a few.

Tyrrell County parcel transferred

Last week, national nonprofit The Conservation Fund finalized the transfer of ownership of about 1,550 acres of coastal wetlands and forestland in Tyrrell County to the Coastal Federation.

“This partnership reflects years of careful conservation planning and cooperation,” Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis stated in a release. “This acquisition protects important coastal wetlands that help filter water, support fish and wildlife habitat, and provide natural flood buffering in on the of the state’s most ecologically significant regions.”

Portions of the Tyrrell County property, which is valued at an estimated $1.7 million, are in the Land and Water Fund’s Stewardship Program, one designed to establish, monitor and enforce perpetual conservation agreements.

The property will be included as part of the Coastal Federation’s Land for a Healthy Coast program, which focuses on protecting estuaries, reducing polluted runoff, buffering floods, and boosting long-term coastal resilience.

“Some lands are simply too important to risk losing,” Coastal Federation founder and senior adviser Todd Miller said in the release. “When a property protects water quality, supports fisheries, and strengthens the natural defenses of the coast, we believe it’s our responsibility to step forward and ensure it is permanently conserved and well managed.”

The Holden Beach Turtle Patrol has announced its 2026 T-shirt design, one chosen from 23 design contest entries from five states.

Its message “tells a conservation story, and it represents the teamwork and dedication required to protect sea turtles today and inspire conservation-minded leaders for the future,” the all-volunteer nonprofit said Wednesday.

The 2026 contest winners are Addison Hedin, a freshman at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, and Terrie Buchner, an active member of the Holden Beach Turtle Patrol. 

Their collaborative design, “Every Turtle Counts … Every Action Matters,” “reflects the shared commitment to sea turtle conservation, education and environmental stewardship that defines our Turtle Patrol mission,” according to the organization.

Merchandise featuring the new design, also including hats and bags, is now for sale at the organization’s website at www.hbturtlewatch.org. 

Use the “Shop & Donate Here!” pull-down menu or click the online shopping link on the homepage to view the catalog and make a purchase by credit card or check. 

The merchandise is also available to purchase at The Lighthouse Gift store on the causeway to Holden Beach, 3434 Holden Beach Road.

Sea turtles face increasing threats from habitat loss, artificial light, human disturbance, and climate-related challenges, according to the Turtle Patrol, which works each nesting season to monitor nests, protect hatchlings, and educate the public on how simple actions, such as filling holes, limiting light pollution and respecting marked nests, can make a difference. Proceeds from merchandise sales support the patrol’s ongoing conservation efforts.

The Holden Beach Turtle Patrol was founded in 1989 to monitor and protect the sea turtle population on Holden Beach. The organization operates under the authority of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

For more information about the Holden Beach Turtle Patrol, visit the website or follow on Facebook and Instagram.

Two coastal communities have been awarded grants from the state for stream restoration, water-based recreation and water management projects.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources awarded the grants totaling more than $1.5 million to nine local governments, including Morehead City in Carteret County and Windsor in Bertie County, the agency announced Wednesday.

“These grants will boost public waterfront access in unique places around the state, including rare forests along the coast and the Mayo River north of the Triad,” DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson stated in a release.

Morehead City has been awarded $200,000 for the Spooner Creek Conservation Nature Park. The project includes acquiring almost 23 acres of undeveloped land to create a publicly owned nature park that provides public waterfront access and conserve shoreline including rare, maritime forestland.

Windsor was awarded $200,000 to retrofit Hoggard’s Millpond. The project includes reconstruction of a breached mill dam, removal of damaged mill infrastructure and replacement of a naturalized fish passage structure to reconnect more than 50 miles of potential stream habitat and also to store stormwater.

A full list of the awards is online. More details are available on the Water Resources Development Grant program website.

New Hanover County commissioners have approved the purchase of more than 28 acres along the Cape Fear River’s western bank across from downtown Wilmington.

Commissioners on Monday afternoon unanimously agreed to the $2.24 million land deal, one that includes two undeveloped tracts that will remain preserved once under county ownership.

The purchase signals the county’s commitment to protect land along the western bank, which has in the past several years been eyed by developers who have come to the county with proposals to build a hotel and spa and a luxury high-rise condominium complex.

All that remains before the purchase is finalized are the results of soil and groundwater samples taken on one of the properties where an oil storage facility was operated for roughly a decade until the mid- to late 1990s.

Soil found to have been contaminated by fuel leaks in an area of the 17.13-acre tract west of U.S. 421 was excavated more than a decade ago and stacked on the property, where it is being remediated onsite in bioreactors. A 2007 environmental study of the site concluded that contamination was not flowing into the river.

The county expects to receive the results of the latest soil and groundwater samples no later than next week. County staff have indicated they do not expect the results to give them cause for concern.

“We have heard the public tell us repeatedly how important preservation is in our community,” Commission Vice-Chair Dane Scalise said Monday. “This is another example of us doing it.”

He pointed out that County Manager Chris Coudriet recently emailed commissioners saying that, if they moved forward with the purchase, the county will have acquired more than 100 acres for preservation within the past seven months.

“We have heard the community over and over again tell us that they want preservation and particularly in that area and we are committed to doing that,” Commission Chair LeAnn Pierce said. “That is something that we’ve pivoted on and we have decided that that is what we want to do is preserve open space and green space and mitigate some of the building that’s going on in New Hanover County. And this is the only way we can do it is by buying that property when it becomes available to us.”

The latest purchase also includes an 11.42-acre riverfront tract just north of Point Peter, an undeveloped area that was a few years ago the subject of a highly controversial proposed development.

Look back: New Hanover Board denies new zoning district

Point Peter is a plot at the confluence of the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers along an area already feeling the effects of sea level rise.

Environmental, historical and cultural preservation groups, and community members banded together in opposing a request by developers to rezone roughly 8 acres so that they could move forward with plans to build a complex of three high-rise condominiums overlooking the river and adjacent downtown Wilmington.

Commissioners ultimately denied the rezoning request in late 2021 and pursued revising an amendment to the county’s 2016 comprehensive land use plan to create a new conservation “placetype” specifically for the western bank at the confluence of the rivers. “Placetype” is a planning term used to describe the mix of compatible uses within an area.

The riverfront tract at 1450 Point Harbor Road that the county intends to buy includes a little more than six acres within the Cape Fear River waterline.

The plot was once used as a railroad terminal yard. The land has not been identified as having known environmental conditions by any regulatory agency, according to county staff.

The tract across the highway at 1209 N. U.S. 421, is adjacent to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office’s target shooting range. This property would prevent encroachment to the shooting range and provide river access for the sheriff office’s marine unit.

Funding to buy the tracts will be pulled from reserves from the county’s revenue stabilization fund, which will be replenished through annual reimbursements of $266,130 from the county’s general fund for the next 10 years.

The purchase is expected to be complete by Dec. 31.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust has transferred the Pasquotank River Preserve in Camden County to the state for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to manage.

The 303.5-acre property lies along 1.7 miles of the Pasquotank River, a blackwater system within the Pasquotank River basin, and part of the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System. The preserve neighbors the commission’s North River Land Game.

Turning the 300-plus acres over to the commission will facilitate long-term coordinated conservation management of both properties, the Coastal Land Trust said.

“We’re proud to see the Pasquotank River Preserve become part of North Carolina’s public conservation lands,” Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said in a statement. “This transfer ensures lasting protection for vital wetlands, wildlife habitat, and water quality in the Pasquotank River basin.” 

The nonprofit purchased the property in March 2008 with funding provided by what is now called the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.

“The Pasquotank River Preserve lies within a North Carolina State Ecosystem Enhancement Program’s Targeted Local Watershed and is considered to be a wetland of exceptional significance by the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management,” the press release states. “The Preserve is also located adjacent to the Whitehall Shores Hardwood Forest State Significant Natural Heritage Area and southeast of the Shipyard Landing Natural Area, also a State Significant Natural Heritage Area.”

The nonprofit organization said that it has focused on conserving fish and wildlife as well as protecting the property’s extensive forested riparian buffer and bottomland hardwood forest from commercial logging and major soil-disturbing activities.

“This property protects important wildlife habitat beneficial to game species and for species of concern like the prothonotary and black-throated green warblers, and provides an opportunity to the public for hunting, fishing, and other wildlife-associated recreation,” Commission’s Land Acquisition Specialist Crystal Cockman said in a release. “Thanks also to the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund which helped provide funds for North Carolina Coastal Land Trust to acquire the tract originally. This is a great addition to our game land program.” 

Coastal Review will not publish Thursday and Friday in observation of the Thanksgiving holiday.

Think of it like a menu, one brimming with choices on how to slow the loss of tree cover and grow greener, healthier canopies in urban and rural communities.

Alliance for Cape Fear Trees has designed a guide offering just that, a policy resource to help local planning departments and governments, developers and community advocates shape green development.

“Code & Canopy” is 45 pages chock full of policies and practices that aim to create and maintain robust tree canopies, a core mission of the Wilmington-based nonprofit.

“Local planners, elected officials, they can look at this and see what is most applicable to their community and their community’s needs,” Alliance for Cape Fear Trees Executive Director Isabelle Shepherd said. “Cities and counties regularly update their land development codes and we plan to, piece by piece, introduce some of these ideas into our local codes and ordinances. This is a full menu of possibilities.”

The guide, which officially dropped Oct. 14, is a culmination of nearly a year of investigating codes and ordinances that shape development in the Lower Cape Fear Region, specifically Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.

But Shepherd, who, with the support of the alliance’s board members and senior advisers, researched and wrote the guide, believes that what she set out to create as a local effort can be extended to other regions throughout the state.

“We wanted to make sure that it was all well-researched, but also that it was presented in a way that’s easy for the public to understand and for local governments to enact,” she said. “Fundamentally, we’re trying to make it easy for local governments to stand up for trees.”

The guide entails a variety of policies and rules that municipalities and counties can adopt to promote slow tree canopy loss, boost healthy canopy growth, and strengthen existing protections.

For example, communities may establish “tree save areas,” which require developers to preserve a percentage of undisturbed, natural areas and protect significant trees, or those that hold particular importance because of their size, age, cultural significance, or rarity, within a building site.

The city of Charlotte has such a requirement in its unified development ordinance, or UDO.

Wilmington and New Hanover County have regulations protecting certain species of mature trees, but Shepherd said the alliance would like for the city and county to include protections for all species of trees that are 24 inches in diameter at breast height or larger.

“That said, other municipalities and counties across the region do not have any protections for mature trees. That’s something that we are pressing for,” she said.

The guide suggests ways municipalities and counties can incentivize developers to preserve natural areas.

It also highlights several policies local governments can implement to protect and grow tree cover, including establishing conservation resource areas, revising performance subdivision rules, identifying high-value nature areas and strengthening zoning protections, and requiring annual training that focusing on tree protection protocols for general contractors and site supervisors.

“Code & Canopy” includes samples of resolutions municipal and county boards may adopt and letters those boards can send to the North Carolina General Assembly to advocate state legislators restore local zoning powers.

In December 2024, legislators amended Senate Bill 382, known as the Disaster Recovery Act of 2024, restricts the authority of local governments to “down-zone,” or rezone a property to reduce the density or intensity of a how a piece of land may be developed.

Alliance for Cape Fear Trees was founded 10 years ago as an advocacy organization for urban forestry depleted by coastal storms such as hurricanes, rapid development, and climate change.

The organization planted more than 3,000 native trees and distributed more than 15,000 throughout the region. It also offers educational programs and events that teach residents how to care for newly planted trees.

Since 2016, Wilmington’s tree canopy has shrunk from covering 48% of the city to about 40% today.

In unincorporated New Hanover County, more than 3,000 acres of canopy disappeared between 2014 and 2022.

Shepherd attributes those losses in what she described as a collision of climate stress and development pressure.

“Absolutely hurricanes like Florence play a major role in that, but development is also a primary driver of this loss and the costs go beyond aesthetics,” she said. “Mature forests intercept hundreds of millions of gallons of stormwater, reducing flood risk and improving water quality. Their roots stabilize soils. Their shade cool streets. When large trees and natural areas are removed without adequate replanting, the region loses vital green infrastructure.”

As part of their researcher, the alliance reached out to municipal and county planners, as well as developers who “demonstrated care toward the canopy,” for feedback.

A New Hanover County spokesperson said in an email that “Code & Canopy,” “will serve as a resource guide for the county’s Sustainability Manager to collaborate with departments in developing or updating policies that advance the county’s Strategic Plan goals for Sustainable Land Use and Environmental Stewardship.”

McKay Siegel, a partner with Chapel Hill-based development firm East West Partners, a sponsor of Alliance for Cape Fear Trees, lauded the organization for extending an invitation to developers to get their input.

“Developers don’t wake up and think about cutting down trees,” he said. “Whenever you take something from raw land to build, it’s not as though all you consider are the trees. There’s a whole lot of other factors – zoning, parking, stormwater. I think that ACFT is really doing their best to wrap their heads around some of the compromises that can be made in all the different areas, and what’s really best for the trees. I think ‘Code & Canopy’ is a good start. At least they’re giving us an opportunity to tell our side of the story, which is really neat and I think that the document reflects a lot of those conversations and hopefully it’s a good launch for the future.”

More than $4.6 million will go to coastal conservation efforts such as property acquisition and living shoreline projects out of $36 million in statewide grants through North Carolina Land and Water Fund, the state announced earlier this week.

The fund gets appropriations from the N.C. General Assembly to support projects by local governments, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations that restore and protect the state’s natural and cultural resources.

“North Carolina is home to remarkable natural beauty,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a release. “These grants will help preserve that beauty.” 

These projects, which “will support North Carolina’s $28 billion outdoor recreation economy,” are broken up into four types: acquisition, stormwater, planning and restoration, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Coastal Resources said in the announcement.

Property acquisition projects selected for the coast are:

• $1.57 million to Kill Devil Hills for land at Nags Head Woods.
• $1.06 million to North Carolina Coastal Land Trust for land at Powells Point on the Albemarle Sound.
• $1.27 million to the town of Leland for the Silver Timber Tract – Nature Park.
• $752,000 to the North Carolina Coastal Federation for land in Carteret and Onslow counties.
• $3.5 million to Unique Places to Save for the St. James — Boiling Spring Lakes Wetland Complex, however this is a provisional award and depends on if the funds are available before July 1, 2026.
• $335,000 to The Nature Conservancy for land in Onslow and Pender counties. One of the three awards is provisional as well.

In addition to property acquisition, the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, has been selected for just shy of $1 million for the following projects:

• An update to the Oyster Blueprint for Action Restoration and Protection Plan.
• A stormwater plan for the Ocean City Jazz Festival site on Topsail Island.
• The second phase of a living shoreline for Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
• A living shorelines cost-share program.

Sound Rivers Inc. has been awarded $243,200 for a stormwater wetland education site in Craven County and nearly $30,000 for a watershed plan for a section of Slocum Creek.

A North Carolina State University-sponsored program in Onslow County has been awarded $234,241 for a stormwater infrastructure maintenance robot.

New Hanover County has a $75,000 grant for a Pages Creek feasibility plan.

A statewide list is available online.

Previously the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the fund was put in place in 1996 to protect the state’s drinking water sources. The General Assembly expanded the fund’s mission to include conserving and protecting natural resources, cultural heritage and military installations.

A development company proposing to build a neighborhood on land in New Hanover County that includes a forest of centuries-old trees will “continue to fight” to see its plans through, the company’s founder said.

Copper Builders founder Wade Miller earlier this week called out what he referred to as misconceptions about Hilton Bluffs, a neighborhood proposed within a 4,000-acre tract that includes a nationally threatened forest.

In front of a crowd of opponents of the proposed development, Miller stressed at a New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting that trees in Sledge Forest would not be cut, wetlands would not be developed, 1,000 acres would be reserved as open space, and he reiterated a desire to conserve more than 1,100 acres on the tract.

“This means over 60% of the property will be protected if we achieve this goal,” he said. “We know this path comes with tradeoffs. We lose some density. We lose our golf course. We will lose one home per acre conserved. This is our preferred plan. This is what we are trying to do. We’ve invested considerable time, resources and energy into all this and we will continue to fight for it.”

Miller, as well as several people opposed to the development proposed for Castle Hayne, addressed commissioners during the board’s public comment session Monday afternoon.

Prior to the meeting, nearly 150 people gathered outside of the county’s historic courthouse in downtown Wilmington for a Save Sledge Forest rally.

The board meeting came on the heels of an announcement late last week that the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources had rejected a nonprofit’s multimillion-dollar grant request to purchase hundreds of acres of wetlands in Sledge Forest.

Unique Places to Save, in partnership with the Charlotte-based development company, had applied for a $15 million North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant to purchase 1,160 acres.

Opponents of the proposed neighborhood argue that the entire tract should be spared from development.

Sledge Forest rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River in northern New Hanover County and is part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

More than 20 years ago, the Natural Heritage Program of North Carolina identified the forest as a significant natural area, one that includes bald cypress trees up to 500 years old, longleaf and loblolly pines older than 300 years and some of the Southeast’s largest remaining Atlantic white cedar.

The forest was added to the Old-Growth Forest Network’s national list of threatened forests earlier this year.

“With abundant wetlands and rising waters, the entirety of this site, not just a portion, must be preserved to maintain the site as a nationally significant heritage area,” geologist Roger Shew said during the commissioner’s meeting.

Shew, a senior lecturer in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Ocean Sciences and Environmental Sciences department and a conservationist, warned that developing the upland area of the tract would impact adjacent wetlands with stormwater runoff “or subsurface flow that may exacerbate flooding and contaminant movement.”

“We already know that contaminants have moved off the GE site into the wetlands,” he said. “In fact, Copper Builders is petitioning to have a small brownfield site designated there.”

The tract being eyed for development is adjacent to a state-designated inactive hazardous site contaminated from drums of calcium fluoride and lubricants that were stored in unlined trenches during the 1960 and 1970s.

That contamination spread across two parcels, including one owned by General Electric, and the other owned by Nuclear Fuel Holding Co. Inc., a GE affiliate.

Miller did not address concerns raised about contamination. He did, however, point out that development would occur in areas that are farmed regularly for timber.

The current owners of the property have the right to clear cut all of the land, he said.

“We don’t want that to happen,” Miller said. “We want to save Sledge Forest through honest conversation efforts, not through an ask for legal or regulation changes. I’m an outdoorsman. I want to protect it. I care deeply about it.”

A petition of more than 13,000 signatures of those fighting the proposed development was presented to commissioners.

Because the proposed development is on land that does not have to be rezoned, the project does not require approval from a public body, effectively omitting the opportunity for public comment.

“It’s been a year since we learned about that project, since we learned that a developer had found a loophole in our ordinance that would allow him to build perhaps the largest residential project in the history of New Hanover County, while also allowing him to block any input or review by you, our elected officials, or by us, the community that will be impacted,” Castle Hayne resident and Director of Save Sledge Forest Kayne Darrel said Monday. “Due to this loophole, we were told by that developer that this massive project was a by-right development that gave us no voice in the decisions. Our ask is that you make a decision to join us in being part of the solution because we believe, and we want you to believe, that together we can fix this mistake and we can save Sledge Forest.”

NEWPORT — Duke Energy Foundation has awarded the North Carolina Coastal Federation, based here, a $50,000 grant as part of its effort to support local conservation efforts and environmental impact programs across North Carolina.

The nonprofit organization founded in 1982 works toward and advocates for clean coastal waters, abundant salt marshes, thriving oysters, effective coastal management, and a coast that is free of marine debris. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

“North Carolina’s natural surroundings are an asset to our communities, our residents and our economic growth,” said Kendal Bowman, Duke Energy’s North Carolina state president. “We’re proud to work alongside local nonprofits to promote our state’s natural resources and build communities that are great places to live, work and play.”

The money will be used to support the Coastal Federation’s new Coastal Leadership Institute, a six-month-long program designed to strengthen leadership across North Carolina’s coastal communities. Led by the Coastal Federation, the institute will “bring together a diverse cohort of emerging and established leaders to explore the complex issues shaping our coast through six monthly sessions exploring topics including applied coastal sciences, growth and economic development, natural resource conservation and restoration, disaster preparedness and resilience planning, and coastal policy and management,” according to the announcement.

The institute is set to launch in 2026 in Carteret County.

Duke Energy Foundation has provided grants totaling $6.6 million to support environmental impact programs across North Carolina over the past five years.

For more information visit the Duke Energy Foundation website.

To learn more about the Coastal Federation, visit nccoast.org.

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.

Note: National Estuaries Week is Sept. 20-27

When most people think about fighting climate change, they think about cutting tailpipe emissions, swapping coal plants for solar panels, or driving electric cars. But there’s another powerful tool right in front of us: coastal habitats like salt marshes and submerged seagrass meadows. These living ecosystems are not just fish nurseries, wildlife havens and storm buffers — they are also massive storehouses for carbon, helping slow the pace of global warming.

Nature’s Carbon Vaults

Every blade of marsh grass and every seagrass frond pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and water through photosynthesis. Some of that carbon goes back into the atmosphere when plants die and decay — but much of it gets buried in the wet, oxygen-poor soils beneath. Think of these habitats as nature’s deep freezers: once carbon is locked in the muck, it can stay there for hundreds or even thousands of years.

This storage is so effective that acre-for-acre, coastal wetland ecosystems can hold several times more carbon than forests on land. That’s why scientists call this “blue carbon.”

Beyond Storage: The New Science of Carbon Flux

For years, we assumed the carbon benefits of these habitats came mostly from how much carbon they locked underground. But new research — including work my colleagues and I have been doing — shows that the story is bigger.

Wetlands and seagrass beds aren’t closed systems. They interact constantly with surrounding waters, exchanging organic matter and nutrients in what scientists call lateral flux. In plain English: tides, currents, and groundwater move carbon in and out of these habitats.

Here’s the exciting part: the more we study this flux, the more we see that coastal habitats are exporting “good carbon”— forms that stimulate carbon storage in seawater or reduce greenhouse gases in the water column. In other words, their climate benefit isn’t just what they store in their soils, but also how they influence the chemistry of surrounding waters.

Early estimates suggest this added benefit may be as large, or even larger, than the carbon stored directly in the soil. That means we’ve been dramatically underestimating how valuable these habitats are for slowing climate change.

Research Coming to North Carolina

This fall, I’ll be bringing this research to North Carolina, where salt marshes play a defining role in both the coastal landscape and economy. With support from the North Carolina Coastal Federation, my team and I will be monitoring marshes in the state to measure their carbon values. These field studies will help determine just how much carbon is being stored and exported — and how that compares with other places along the East Coast and nationwide.

By putting real numbers on the carbon services provided by North Carolina’s salt marshes, we can give policymakers, landowners, and communities the science they need to make smart investments in protecting and restoring them.

More Than Just Carbon

Of course, carbon storage is only one of many economic and ecological gifts coastal wetlands and seagrasses provide. They buffer shorelines from storms, filter pollutants, support fisheries, and provide nurseries for countless species. Protecting and restoring them is not just smart climate policy — it’s smart coastal policy, period.

A Call to Action

We’re still learning just how much carbon benefit these habitats provide, but one thing is clear: Every acre we lose is a lost opportunity to fight climate change and protect coastal communities. Protecting and restoring degraded marshes and seagrass meadows is one of the rare win-win strategies that helps people, wildlife, and the planet’s climate at the same time.

As new science on lateral flux continues to emerge — and as fresh fieldwork in North Carolina fills in key data gaps — we’ll have an even stronger case for investing in these natural climate powerhouses. Protecting coastal habitats isn’t just about saving pretty places — it’s about giving our coastal communities and working lands a fighting chance against rising seas and extreme storms.

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

This week, Sept. 20-27, is National Estuaries Week, an annual opportunity to raise awareness and encourage protection of these natural resources,

Sponsoring organizations Restore America’s Estuaries, National Estuarine Research Reserve Association and the Association of National Estuary Programs are partnering with the National Environmental Education Foundation to highlight estuary conservation projects as a part of National Public Lands Day Saturday, Sept. 27.

National Public Lands Day is a single-day volunteer event for public lands on the fourth Saturday in September. Groups hosting a clean-up or restoration project may submit the project description via an online form to be featured in a 2025 National Estuaries Week Project Map.

National Estuaries Day was first observed in 1988 as a way to promote the importance of estuaries and the need to protect them.

“Estuaries — where salty seawater mixes with fresh water draining from the land — are one of many coastal habitats in which we work. Estuaries provide homes for fish and wildlife and support recreation, jobs, tourism, shipping, and more,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Estuaries are called “nurseries of the sea,” because numerous marine animals reproduce and spend the early part of their lives in estuaries, which include habitats like marshes, seagrass beds and oyster reefs.

“Most of the fish and shellfish we eat — including salmon, herring, crabs, and oysters — spend some or all of their life in estuaries. Estuaries provide habitat for nearly 70 percent of the United States’ commercial fish catch and 80 percent of recreational catch,” NOAA explains in a release highlighting National Estuaries Week.

These natural resources provide a home for species that help improve water quality. Oysters are filter feeders that trap and remove pollution from the water. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day.

In addition to being a home for marine life, nearly 40% of Americans live on or near a major estuary, which also serve an economic role. An analysis by Restore America’s Estuaries found 39% of jobs are connected to estuaries and support 47% of economic output.

Another benefit to estuaries is that “habitat like salt marshes and seagrass beds serve as natural infrastructure. They protect communities from flooding and erosion by soaking up water and dissipating storm energy,” NOAA said.

Saturday evening was one of celebrating coastal stewards, supporters and volunteers during North Carolina Coastal Federation’s annual Pelican Awards and Taste of the Coast fundraising event.

The nonprofit organization that publishes Coastal Review was established in 1982 with the mission to protect and preserve the state’s coast and has offices on the Outer Banks, the central coast and Cape Fear region.

Held in Carteret Community College’s Joslyn Hall, the staff presented 15 Pelican Awards to those who have shared “their time and talents, through leadership, education, hands-on projects, and volunteer efforts, to inspire others and create lasting change,” according to the organization.

The Taste of the Coast fundraising celebration followed the ceremony next door in the Crystal Coast Civic Center, where there was food, live music and a silent auction.

This is the 22nd year that the organization has recognized “exceptional contributions” with Pelican Awards.

Federation Board of Directors Vice President Kenneth Chestnut told the roughly 200 in the audience that the Pelican Awards annually “recognize and celebrate the organizations, agencies, partners and the extraordinary people who work together for a healthy coast.”

He continued that the awards are “about partnerships and coming together for a common cause, and that’s the protection and restoration of our beautiful coast.”

Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis presented one of the two Lifetime Achievement Awards this year to Dr. Hans Paerl, “For a Distinguished Career Dedicated to Coastal Research, Protection, and Restoration.”

Paerl, who recently retired after 47 years, is a Kenan Professor of Marine Environmental Sciences at University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City.

“Paerl has spent decades uncovering the secret of healthy waterways and applying that knowledge to protect the coast,” Davis said.

Paerl’s accomplishments include establishing the FerryMon program, where he turned state ferries into long-term water quality monitoring stations for the Albemarle and Pamlico sounds.

“His groundbreaking research has shown how nutrients and climate affect water quality, how harmful algal blooms form, and most importantly, what we can do to safeguard our estuaries and coastal waters for future generations,” Davis said of Paerl, whose work has appeared in 600 scientific publications. His many honors include the 2003 G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award for work in oceanography, the 2011 Odom Award in estuarine science, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Harmful Algal Bloom committee.

Paerl took the podium with ease and explained to the crowd that he was thrilled to be able to talk about the scientific achievements made in the state to help protect its waters, particularly going way back to the phosphate detergent ban enacted in the 1980s, and the establishment of a total maximum daily nitrogen load for the Neuse River, “which has been effective, and I’m glad to say that we’re seeing some really good results from that now.”

But, Paerl continued, “more importantly, I think I’d like to share this award with all the students, technicians, faculty and collaborators that have worked with me.” He called himself “more of a facilitator” who knocks on doors in the legislature to point “out that good science brings good management and good decisions.”

Though he’s retired, Paerl said he is indebted to those he has worked with and hasn’t stopped knocking on doors and talking to folks and collaborating.

“I’m still showing up at work, and we’re all dedicated — I’m really speaking for all the folks that I’ve worked with — we’re all dedicated, from the science perspective,” Paerl said, to make North Carolina an example for other states, the country and the world, “in terms of using science to really make a difference, in terms of protecting our environment, saving it and making sure it’s sustainable for the long run.”

Federation Coastal Management Program Director Kerri Allen of the Wrightsville Beach office presented to David Cignotti a Lifetime Achievement Award “For Outstanding Community Leadership, Collaboration, and Dedication to Coastal Stewardship.”

Cignotti is someone “who embodies the heart and soul of this community,” Allen said, and “is one of those rare people who leads a quiet strength, deep humility and a genuine love for nature that you can feel in everything he does.”

A lifelong educator, former mayor of Wrightsville Beach and dedicated steward of the Coastal Federation, he helped launch a membership drive that brought in more than 60 new families, has been a site coordinator with an international coastal cleanup effort for at least a decade, and is a cofounder of Save Our Seas NC. Cignotti also served on the Coastal Federation’s southeast advisory committee, its board of directors, and he chaired the audit committee.

“When the coast needs a voice, he speaks up,” Allen said, whether that’s bringing attention to the use of bird poison on Wrightsville Beach, protecting trees from unnecessary clearcutting, or making sure local businesses have a say in offshore drilling proposals.

Cignotti expressed his gratitude, adding that he couldn’t think of another organization with more than 40 years of advocacy for the coastal environment, and “cannot imagine getting an award that I would cherish more than what I’m getting tonight.”

He continued that one of his favorite quotes is from Jacques Cousteau, “that people protect what they love. And I think that pretty much sums up what we’re doing here tonight. Everybody that came tonight loves North Carolina’s coast and is here to support the coastal Federation’s mission.”

Northeast region awards

Alyson Flynn, coastal advocate at the Coastal Federation’s Wanchese office, presented three awards for the Outer Banks area.

“All three of our recipients in the Northeast embody the spirit of the Pelican Award in their own unique way, from on the ground restoration work to grassroots volunteerism, to forward thinking leadership that shapes the future of our coast,” Flynn said.

Volunteer Donnie Sellers was recognized “For Exceptional Contributions and Stewardship of Our Coast.”

Sellers said he appreciates what the Coastal Federation does and all the hard work of the staff, which he says he sees firsthand at the northeast office, “but mostly I’m grateful for how generous and kind they are, because that’s — It’s probably not what I should say — but that’s really what keeps me coming back.”

Volunteer Leonard “Len” Schmitz was awarded “For Outstanding Volunteer Efforts to Advance Oyster Shell Recycling.”

Schmitz told the audience he wanted to share the award with his fellow recyclers on the Outer Banks, adding “we couldn’t do this without the help of the restaurants.”

National Park Service’s Outer Banks Group Superintendent David Hallac was honored “For Leadership and Dedication to Coastal Protection, Recreation and Cultural Resources.”

The group includes Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Wright Brothers National Memorial and Fort Raleigh National Historic Site.

Flynn explained that Hallac had since 2015 managed one of the most iconic and dynamic barrier island systems in our nation and faces regular challenges, such as rising seas, chronic erosion, collapsing homes, petroleum contamination and increasing fragility of N.C. 12, the state highway, all while welcoming over 3 million visitors each year.

“From 1985 until 1999 I came from a small town right outside of New York City to the Outer Banks,” Hallac said as he accepted his award.

“I spent the entire year dreaming about coming to the beach there. I had no idea I would end up managing the three lighthouses there and 80 miles of beaches and 200 miles of incredible coastal marshes, it’s been just absolutely amazing,” Hallac continued. “It’s a little bit ironic at the same time that all of the things that shape these beautiful places, sometimes it appears we’re fighting against it. And so it’s my goal. It’s our goal, to find ways to change, to adapt to the things that are shaping our coastline, to be able to coexist in these places and also to preserve them for future generations.”

Central Coast awards

The nonprofit Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail received a Pelican Award “For Dedicated Partnership to Protect and Restore Coastal Water Quality and Habitats.”

Water Quality Program Director Bree Charron, based in Carteret County, explained that the Friends group has, over the past five years, worked to secure and help purchase 787 acres to create an 11-mile-long trail through the North River Wetlands Preserve in Carteret County. The Friends supports the trail that connects Jockey’s Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Ben Jones, a project manager with the Friends group, said its members were excited to help restore and showcase the preserve.

“There’s lots of land we still need for the trail anyway,” he said, “and I hope this is just the beginning, too, because it’s really important for us to provide access for people to these special places that we’re protecting.”

Jessica Guilianelli with Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point was recognized “For Supporting, Promoting, and Advancing the Use of Living Shorelines.”

April Hall is with the salt marsh program and said when she joined the Coastal Federation staff a few years ago she took over a living shoreline project along the Neuse River at Cherry Point.

“At the time, the Federation had secured funding to support construction of roughly 2,000 feet of a much larger 12,000-foot living shoreline project led by Jessica Guilianelli,” Hall said. “And in case anyone is trying to do the math, 12,000 feet is about 2.3 miles. So to say this was an ambitious project would be an understatement.”

The site had experienced severe shoreline erosion, losing more than 100 feet in some areas since 1994, and worsened by Hurricane Florence in 2018.

Under Guilianelli’s management, air station brass committed to a hybrid solution to repair critical bulkheads while incorporating living shorelines and native marsh plants to reduce wave energy and restore natural shoreline functions.

“I’m in a really, really interesting position as natural resources manager for the Marine Corps,” Guilianelli said, adding it’s a balance that challenges her daily. “It’s such a cool thing to be able to balance our military mission with conservation, and I’m grateful to be in that role.”

Lauren Johnson and Tamarr Moore, who recently earned their master’s degrees from N.C. Central University, were recognized “For Partnership and Inspiration to Advance the Next Generation of Coastal Professionals.”

Coastal Educator Rachel Bisesi of the Coastal Federation’s Newport office noted that the two women are the first graduates of a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program under their adviser, Dr. Caressa Gerald. The NOAA program supports students of color in environmental sciences.

“Lauren and Tamar have shown remarkable courage and resilience entering scientific spaces where representation is still far too limited. They broke barriers and paved the way for students of color to pursue coastal research. Their work has inspired others and opened the door for the next generation of environmental professionals and I can’t wait to see where their journey leads them, Bisesi said.

The graduates both thanked their parents and adviser, Gerald, who Moore said “opened a lot of doors for me and put me in many rooms that I would not have otherwise been in.” Johnson added that she was “very grateful to be in this room right now, along with other professionals” with the same drive and motivation.

Southeast region awards

Photographer Alan Cradick was honored “For Outstanding Volunteer Service to Our Coast.”

Coastal Education Coordinator Bonnie Mitchell explained that Cradick has been behind the camera “quietly and generously donating his time, energy and professional photography skills to help us tell the story of our work.”

Cradick, in accepting his award, said that it’s a privilege to be recognized, but that’s not why he volunteers. “I do it because I just love photography. I love the coast. I love working with professionals and professional volunteers who do so much wonderful things for the coast and for advancing the health of the of the ecosystems.”

Feletia Lee and Anna Reh-Gingerich were honored “For Dedicated Partnership and Commitment to Advance Watershed Restoration.”

Reh-Gingerich, watershed coordinator of Wilmington’s Heal Our Waterways Program, and Lee, chief sustainability officer at University of North Carolina Wilmington, have been working with the Coastal Federation on stormwater pollution in the Bradley and Hewlett creeks watershed.

Over the years, the project has resulted in rain gardens being installed and the use of permeable materials that absorb rain to retrofit parking lot drainage systems. The sites also serve as living classrooms, Coastal Federation Special Projects Manager Lauren Kolodij explained.

Reh-Gingerich said that she and Lee were honored to be recognized and thanked the Coastal Federation for supporting the effort. “This work is really easy to do when you have great partners to do them with.”

Paddling organization We the Water was honored for “For Excellence in Community Education and Inspiration for Coastal Protection and Restoration.”

The Wrightsville Beach Outrigger Canoe Club’s members paddled the state’s entire coast to advocate for clean water. The team paddled more than 340 miles along the coast over the course of three summers to raise awareness about the importance of clean water and raised more than $50,000 for the Coastal Federation, Kolodij said.

The Coastal Federation’s Kerri Allen, who is part of the outrigger club, accepted the award on behalf of the entire team.

“Every stroke counts, and when you get it right, you move as one, as a single force gliding through the waves,” Allen said, adding that “it’s a perfect metaphor for protecting our coast, we’re all on the same boat. Literally and figuratively, the threats and challenges we face are considerable, but we go farther and stronger when we move as one.”

Statewide awards

The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries Habitat Enhancement Section was recognized “For Dedicated Service and Collaboration for Oyster Habitat Creation.”

Marine Debris Program Director Ted Wilgis of the Coastal Federation’s Wrightsville Beach office, said that the division’s habitat enhancement section had since 1996 built almost 800 acres of oyster sanctuary and a cultch-planting program, where oysters can be harvested.

Jason Peters, program supervisor for restoration work, said he and Enhancement Section Chief Zach Harrison were accepting the award on behalf of all of the dedicated and hardworking state employees who are involved.

“We’ve got a crew of vessel operators, equipment operators, divers, field biologists, supervisors all play an integral role in this work. And we’re just, we’re very fortunate to have such great staff,” Peters said.

Harrison added that he and his team were “honored and humbled to be just a small cog in such a big machine driving the North Carolina coast forward and environmentalism in the U.S. forward.”

Worth Creech of the firm Native Shorelines was honored for “For Advancing Community Oyster Shell Recycling and Coastal Restoration”

Coastal Resiliency Manager Sarah Bodin said Creech “has been an absolute transformative force in the world of oyster shell recycling and coastal restoration through tireless dedication, community engagement and innovative thinking.”

He did this by building public awareness, and relationships with restaurants, volunteers and restoration professionals. “His efforts have directly contributed to restoring oyster habitats, enhancing biodiversity and protecting shorelines from erosion,” Bodin said.

Creech told the crowd that you never know what you’ll get a passion for in life, and “you certainly don’t know whether it’s going to be something as stinky as oyster shells, but it happened to me with Native Shorelines,” adding he’s always “inspired by those who did this hard work before me.”

The Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership was recognized “For Cultivating Coastal Collaboration and Empowering Educators”

Bisesi said the program empowers “educators to lead in both the classroom and the community, and provide immersive experiences and professional development by equipping teachers to with the tools they need to inspire the next generation.”

Associate Director Mark Townley told the audience that since connecting eight years ago with the organization, “I can honestly say that the Coastal Federation is an exemplar of what a partnership should and can look like to really make a huge impact with K-through-12 public school education in the state of North Carolina.”

Attorney John Harris was recognized “For Outstanding Business and Community Collaboration to Advance Coastal Stewardship”

Coastal Federation founder and Senior Adviser to the Executive Director Todd Miller, said that Harris began working with the organization in 1997 on the Hoop Pole Creek project in Atlantic Beach. Harris is a partner in the Wyatt, Early, Harris, Wheeler firm’s Morehead City office.

“John’s legal work made it possible for the Coastal Federation to buy out a condominium and marina development and permanently protect 30 acres of rare maritime forests,” Miller said, adding that it was the first property ever purchased in the state using the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

“Since then, John has finally helped us conserve nearly 15,000 acres of coastal lands, forests, marshes, creeks, all protected because he made sure every deal was done right,” Miller added.

Harris told the crowd that he was “honored to be able to preserve clean water in our wetlands and to help them purchase land for our grandchildren and generations to come to enjoy what we have Here at the coast.”

Each year since 1994 the members of the Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program have produced and sold a new T-shirt design as the organization’s major fundraiser. Again this year, you have a chance to design the shirt.

The 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1989 monitors, protects and preserves Holden Beach’s sea turtle population, works to foster community-based conservation and education and operates under the authority of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The group is also known as the Holden Beach Turtle Patrol.

If you love sea turtles and have a talent for graphic design, consider donating your design. The program’s 2026 T-shirt design contest is open Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

The winning 2025 T-shirt design was by Lois Palermo, a local sea turtle lover, and her sister Alyson Natale, of Woodlands, Texas, with “Let the Sea Set you Free.”

Submissions of original hand-drawn designs for the 2026 season T-shirt must meet the following requirements:

• Only one design submission allowed per individual.
• The design must include a sea turtle.
• The design must be an original hand-drawn design.
• The design is limited to two colors.
• The design must be in a PDF format to allow for possible changes in printing constraints.
• The chosen design will become the property of the Holden Beach Turtle Watch Program.

Submit your design to orders@hbturtlewatch.org by 11:59 p.m. Oct. 15. All submissions will be acknowledged upon receipt.

Designs for all past T-shirts can be viewed at www.hbturtlewatch.org; click “Shop T-Shirts, Hats, & Bags.”

Hatteras Islanders will not soon forget Hurricane Isabel, which formed a new inlet and destroyed the only highway connection when it slammed the island Sept. 18, 2003.

The storm and its aftermath further increased residents’ sense of isolation and their appreciation for the people who make their living on the water and are credited with restarting the local economy.

Nearly a quarter century later, an annual event celebrates the hurricane’s heroes, the commercial fishing and commercial charter operators, and the islanders’ perseverance amid the devastation. This year’s Day at the Docks is set for Sept. 19-20.

The family-friendly event offers numerous activities along the waterfront and docks in Hatteras Village.

Events include a fishing contest, live music, maritime storytelling and cooking demonstrations. There will be an education tent that features a variety of organizations that support the coast through advocacy, education and habitat restoration and preservation.

The groups include the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review and whose representatives will be on hand to share information about National Estuaries Week, Sept. 20-27, and its work in partnership with the South Atlantic Salt Marsh initiative.

At the Coastal Federation tent, visitors can join interactive activities to learn about nature-based solutions and ongoing projects that strengthen the community’s coastal resilience. Guests will also be invited to share the places that matter most to them, helping guide future efforts to protect and restore the coast.

The organizers’ website has more information and Day at the Docks event schedules.

MANTEO – The Dare County Board of Commissioners, in the face of strident pushback from residents and coastal advocates over a proposal to gut special protections for an area around the Buxton Woods Reserve, voted Monday to keep in place those development restrictions officials had previously called “unenforceable.”

The longstanding restrictions on multifamily dwellings within the half-mile buffer around the 1,007-acre Buxton Woods Reserve on Hatteras Island are part of a zoning ordinance that created the 1,868-acre special environmental district, also known as SED-1, which also includes protective areas around the island’s drinking water wellheads.

A company called OBX Timber Trail LLC in March had requested that the county remove the zone’s dwelling density limitation for multifamily development, townhouses, or condominium projects. The request from company manager and New Jersey resident Brian Suth was so he could add a fourth apartment for year-round occupancy to his commercial building in Frisco.

That request was ultimately granted in a unanimous vote Monday, but only after it had triggered questions among county officials about the validity of the 1988 zoning ordinance in place, and fears among Buxton residents and others that the special protections would be erased.

Dare County Planning Director Noah Gillam said during a meeting in April that the ordinance didn’t appear to meet state standards because it hadn’t been properly indexed or codified.

Others disagreed.

“The ordinance was properly adopted in 1988, “Southern Environmental Law Center attorneys Derb Carter and Julie Youngman wrote in a letter to Dare County Manager Bobby Outten dated Aug. 1.

When Suth submitted his request, Gillam found there had been no reference to the ordinance since the 1990s. Consequently, there had been no development that would have challenged its wording.

Concerned about confusion and possible legal challenges, Gillam proposed striking the ordinance entirely.

That’s not what happened Monday commissioners opted instead to approve a text amendment for the fourth apartment rather than remove the entire ordinance.

“Our original amendment for the text amendment was solely to lift the limitations on density, not to eliminate the entire ordinance,” said Joseph Anlauf, engineer for the project, during the commissioners’ discussion.

During a commissioners meeting May 6, the board, after hearing from Buxton residents who were vocal in support of the overlay district and a preliminary opinion from Outten that the county might lose a court challenge on the issue of improper indexing, postponed a vote to allow time for a firmer legal opinion.

Outten’s concern were confirmed by Outer Banks attorney John Leidy that it was likely the county would lose a court challenge. Outten was also worried about the implications of a state law passed late last year that prohibits downzoning, or placing a more restrictive use on a property after it has been purchased, as could be the case in enforcing SED-1 restrictions.

But the Southern Environmental Law Center pushed back in its letter, holding that, although state statutes require indexing, “it does not specifically state that an ordinance cannot be enforced if those requirements are not precisely satisfied.” Nor does the law provide a “definition of ‘indexing’ or any directions for how to do it properly.”

Other officials had submitted their written concerns about removing the development restrictions, including David Owens, who was with the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management for a decade, notably serving as its director at the time the ordinance was adopted, an author, historian in land use law and retired professor of public law and government at the University of North Carolina School of Government.

In his letter, Owens recalled that the “Dare County Board of Commissioners, the county planning staff, and the county attorney all strongly argued for local regulation, contending the standards the county would adopt would be comparable to the state standards being considered.”

John Taggert, who in the 1980s and 1990s was the Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Reserve manager, had urged in a letter that commissioners “retain the ordinance with consistent enforcement to permit development within the buffer that will reasonably protect Buxton Woods from significant loss of adjacent vegetative cover and allow sufficient natural infiltration for sustainable recharge of the underlying aquifer system.”

lan Weakley, professor of botany and conservation biology at UNC, also wrote to commissioners, noting that the county had approved the zoning regulations to bolster coastal protections.

“In the 1980s and early 1990s,” Weakley wrote, “the state Coastal Resources Commission relied on the Dare County zoning protections in deferring regulation of Buxton Woods as a CAMA (Coastal Area Management Act) Area of Environmental Concern. The decision was that the zoning regulations, as written and implemented, would maintain a buffer with sufficient natural character, including canopy closure, to protect the natural values of Buxton Woods.”

The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores has planned a handful of one-time events for August, in addition to its regular weekly programming.

The aquarium will open its doors for a special “Sip and Paint” night for ages 21 and older starting at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11. Participants will paint a beach sunset scene in front of the 306,000-gallon “Living Shipwreck” habitat. Bring your own snacks.

Teachers and educators can have a bit of fun during the “Project WILD” teacher workshop 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 14. “Project WILD” offers wildlife-based conservation and environmental education that fosters responsible actions toward wildlife and related natural resources. Educators will receive the “Project WILD” activity guide, containing 81 activities focused on terrestrial habitats and wildlife, and qualify for continuing education unit credits and Early Education and Care Criteria I credits.

To learn more about either of these events, visit www.ncaquariums.com/pks-special-events.

Regular weekly programs include the “Sea Turtle Trek” that takes place 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Aquarium staff shares information on the conservation work the aquarium does to help these endangered and threatened marine reptiles before heading to a nearby public beach access to see the sea turtle habitat and learn about the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission volunteer sea turtle monitoring project. For ages 5 and up. $20 per person.

The aquarium staff lead kayak paddle trips on Mondays and Wednesdays and stand-up paddleboard trips every Friday. Both programs are 9 to 11 a.m. and are weather permitting. Ages and prices vary.

During the “Fishing Fanatics” program held 6 to 8 p.m. every Wednesday, participants ages 5 to 12 can enjoy the sights and sounds of the maritime forest along Bogue Sound just before sunset. Staff will help bait hooks and offer instruction on casting and information on sustainable fishing practices. Gear and bait provided. Cost is $25 per person.

More information and registration can be found about these programs at www.ncaquariums.com/pks-outdoor-programs.

There are plenty of behind-the-scenes tours offered daily inside the aquarium. “Feeding Frenzy” takes place every Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. “At A Glance,” which offers a view of the largest exhibit in the facility, is held daily. And “Shark Snack” takes place Tuesday and Friday.

For behind-the-scenes tours visit www.ncaquariums.com/pks-behindthescenestours

Located 5 miles west of Atlantic Beach, the aquarium is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The aquarium is under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

To purchase tickets for entry to the aquarium, visit www.ncaquariums.com/pine-knoll-shores or call 252-247-4003.

A New Hanover County forest that includes centuries-old trees has been added to a national list of threatened forests.

Sledge Forest, where bald cypress trees up to 500 years old tower over the forest floor, longleaf and loblolly pines are more than 300 years old and some of the Southeast’s largest remaining Atlantic White Cedar stand, has been added to the Old-Growth Forest Network’s national list of threatened forests.

The forest, one advocates point out is the last of its kind in the region, has been making headlines in recent months because it is situated within a parcel currently eyed for development.

The designation, announced Wednesday by the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees, or ACFT, and Save Sledge Forest, highlights “the urgency of preserving this irreplaceable ecological treasure,” according to a release.

“Once an old-growth forest is cleared, it cannot be replaced in our lifetimes or our children’s,” ACFT Executive Director Isabelle Shepherd stated in the release. “Sledge Forest is not just trees – it’s infrastructure. It absorbs millions of gallons of stormwater annually, reduces flooding, stabilizes soil, cools our county, and stores centuries of carbon. To degenerate and destroy it in such a way would be environmental malpractice.”

Sledge Forest rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County. It is part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Last year, a Charlotte-based development company submitted proposed plans to build thousands of single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm on about 1,000 acres of the 4,000-acre site that includes the forest. Much of the remaining 3,000 or so acres includes protected wetlands.

The forest is designated a North Carolina Natural Heritage Program Nationally Significant Natural Area, sheltering 13 imperiled plant species and seven at-risk animal species, according to the release.

The Old-Growth Forest Network is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving ancient forests in the nation, where, on average, fewer than 5% of original forests remain standing in the West and 1% remain in the East.

Organizations based here fighting to save the forest hope to get it designated as an area of conservation so it becomes a place for research, education and low-impact recreation.

“Let’s not make the mistake of seeing this land only as acreage to be subdivided,” Save Sledge Forest Cofounder Kayne Darrell said in the release. “It’s time for our leaders to recognize that some places are simply too valuable to destroy for development.”

CURRIE – There have been nights Clint North has lost sleep thinking about his land.

Ten years from now, he knows exactly what he wants the hundreds of acres of land he’s bought up in this unincorporated area of Pender County to look like: exactly the same, if not better.

And, most importantly, natural.

But North has a choice to make and it’s a decision weighing more heavily on him with each passing year.

“What’s going to happen with the land? That’s my biggest fear. It has come to where it is a concern of mine to make sure that it’s preserved. And I’d say, in the last five years, it’s become more important because I’m getting older,” he said.

Earlier this year, North and his wife, Amy, were presented with a certificate that essentially marks a first step toward permanently conserving the mostly forested land he’s purchased in plots and large chunks in this rural area southwest of Burgaw, the county seat.

North has registered 1,988 acres with North Carolina’s Natural Heritage Program, committing to protect and preserve the land’s biological diversity and natural qualities, and maintain it in as natural of a condition as possible.

He is one of only three property owners in the state to register 1,000 acres or more with the program.

But what makes North’s commitment even more unique is that he has spent more than half of his life acquiring land within this quiet countryside perhaps best known as the home of Moores Creek National Battlefield with the sole intent of keeping it natural.

“That is not common that is for sure,” said Scott Pohlman, Natural Heritage Program’s nature preserve property manager. “We’re certainly encouraged by it. We’re really excited to run across folks like Mr. North who are motivated to do this kind of work. I can’t tell you how excited we are to work with him.”

A labor of love

North is a true Wilmingtonian, a rarity these days, born and raised in the state’s largest coastal city.

Before Interstate 40 sliced a four-lane fast track to the Port City, life there was quite different than it is today.

North spent his childhood playing in forests long since chopped away and replaced by neighborhoods and businesses. Those woods introduced him to native carnivorous plants: Venus flytraps, pitcher plants and sundews.

He loved being out in the woods. That drove him to pursue a degree in biology.

Prompted by his father to get to work after graduating from college, North took a job with a large commercial construction company in town. It was far from the field he dreamt of working in, but it paid the bills.

Truth be told, it has funded his pursuit for land, one that stretches back to the late 1980s, when he and his wife, a fellow native Wilmingtonian, shared a desire to move out into the country.

With just a couple of years of marriage under their belts and a one-month-old son, the budding family moved out of Wilmington and into a home nestled in 125-acre tract North bought in Pender County.

The construction business kept him busy, traveling throughout the state and into Virginia and South Carolina.

At home, the sprawling woodlands he called home were his refuge, a place he walked and studied, hunted, fished and paddled with his wife and three sons. This is the land where he taught his sons how to respect and appreciate forests in their natural state.

He spent time bushhogging and learning other forestry techniques in those woods, all the while keeping an eye and ear out for more land prospects in the area.

In 1993, he bought a 525-acre tract across Moores Creek from his homestead.

“That was a big step,” North said. “I didn’t know how far it would go. I mean, it’s still not over.”

Opportunities to buy more land kept coming his way — a hundred acres here, 140 acres there. Much of the land sold to him has been by heirs of expansive land owners back in the day. Sellers seem to appreciate the fact that North wants to keep the land natural.

He’s a card-carrying, certified prescribed burner.

His handy work stands out in neat, patchwork-like blocks of forest carefully thinned out by fire and other land management measures on portions of his land.

What started out as a hobby “kind of turned into a passion,” once North retired from construction.

He’s walked every acre of his land, finding surprises along the way that tease his curiosity about its history.

He’s planted acres of long leaf pine, added native, pollinator-friendly plants to the landscape, and located and documented carnivorous plants. He can point out Carolina bays, those shallow wetland depressions that are often fed by rain or groundwater, on his land.

More than 240 acres of the land has been identified as primary natural areas, or those intact, old growth and natural habitat, by the heritage program. The remaining acreage has been designated as habitat restoration.

A ‘champion’

Chuck Roe, the founding director of North Carolina’s Natural Heritage Program, called North’s efforts to buy and preserve land, “very rare, very exceptional.”

“He is a true champion for conservation and a role model and should be recognized and honored for his conservation good deeds,” Roe said. “And, hopefully, other land owners will learn from his example and be willing to be good stewards of their land as well. The realities are that state and federal agencies are not going to be buying much more land.”

North is keenly aware that the “nice, cleared farmland” in the area, especially along U.S. Highway 421, a scenic byway that stretches through North Carolina from Fort Fisher to the Blue Ridge Mountains, is perfect for development.

He expects the whole area will change.

Conservation easements are the easiest way for him to preserve his land in perpetuity.

He’s talked with members of different land conservation organizations. He goes to meetings hosted by different organizations to learn as much as he can about the different conservation programs that are out there.

“At least that by being in the (heritage) program it kind of gives me, I’m going to say, a leg up if I were to do a conservation easement or get into some other conservation program because some of the work has already been done,” North said. “Yesterday, I got two letters in the mail that want to buy my land. I just throw them in the trash can.”

There was a time when the distinctive “kiki-do” call of eastern black rails were a common sound rising up from North Carolina marshes.

Masters of secrecy, these little birds are rarely, if ever, seen.

They prefer to skirt through the marsh using tunnels dug by rabbits and other small mammals rather than take to the sky. Their nests are typically well concealed close to the ground in the highest part of brackish, saltwater and inland freshwater marshes.

But the habitat that eastern black rails so skillfully use to maintain their privacy is under growing threat from rising ocean waters, more powerful storms, and development and, if their numbers continue to decline, projections are they’ll disappear altogether within 35 years.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission aims to help these birds, putting forth a management plan to improve the black rails’ habitat by permanently protecting coastal marshes and assisting private landowners with potential habitat creation.

That’s going to take hundreds of acres of additional inland, shallow marsh and high-elevation coastal marsh.

“We think there’s probably less than 40 breeding pairs in North Carolina right now,” said Kacy Cook, a coastal waterbird biologist with the Wildlife Resources Commission.

The commission is accepting public comment on the Black Rail Management Plan through July 11.

The eastern black rail was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2020. The commission lists it as a species of greatest conservation need.

Long gone are the days when eastern black rails were documented in freshwater marshes in the North Carolina mountains and Piedmont. No one has heard their “kiki-do” in the interior part of the state since 2005, Cook said.

Once abundant black rail habitat along the North Carolina has been crowded out by houses, roads and farmed land.

The last remaining pockets of coastal areas where the birds are heard in some places in the Outer Banks (exact locations are kept under wraps to prevent human disturbance) and Cedar Island, an unincorporated area of Carteret County. Even there, surveys reveal a dramatic population decline.

Surveys are conducted throughout the black rails’ breeding cycle by using something called a targeted call-response where biologists play a recording of the “kiki-do” sound and wait for a response from black rails in the survey area.

“You used to be able to hear 70 black rail calling from the causeway,” at Cedar Island, Cook said.

Now, fewer than 10 respond at any given time, she said.

And while that’s not good for the eastern black rail, it’s also indicative of a wider coastal problem.

“Black rails are our signal that our coastal marshes and freshwater wetlands are in trouble, and that makes a difference for a lot of species, and our own wellbeing,” Cook said.

Eastern black rails rely on very shallow water levels in marshes. They have legs that are typically just over one inch long. Their fledglings, roughly the size of cotton balls, are out of the nest within 24 hours of hatching, but they’re not able to fly until about 40 days later.

This is why coastal storm flooding, exacerbated by sea level rise, is a particular threat, because flood waters can wash away the nests, eggs and chicks. One big storm could wipe out the remaining population in North Carolina.

“Those are happening at a rate that is too high for their population to grow,” Cook said.

Lack of fire, which is crucial to maintaining that type of habitat, and agricultural practices that include cutting field borders where black rails like to settle among wet, tall, grassy habitat, are further degrading the birds’ habitat.

“I’m only finding black rails where we have high herbaceous plant diversity. They only use habitats that are very dense herbaceous cover, grasses and flowers with few shrubs and no trees,” Cook said.

The commission’s management plan for black rails includes the creation and restoration of 600 acres of freshwater marsh and 600 acres of additional high-elevation coastal march by 2056.

“What we do for black rails will benefit all of the marsh birds that we have now, including the egrets and the herons and the wood storks. So, working on restoring black rail habitat is going to benefit all of our coastal birds in some way and our seafood. Seventy-five percent of our seafood comes from coastal marshes,” Cook said.

Nominations are being accepted through Friday for one of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s most prestigious awards.

The annual Thomas L. Quay Award recognizes a person who makes outstanding contributions to the state’s wildlife diversity and considered a leader in wildlife resource conservation for nongame species, which are animals that do not have an open hunting, fishing or trapping season.

Dr. Reid Wilson Laney of Raleigh received the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s 2024 Thomas Quay Award in Raleigh in February for his work with Atlantic sturgeon and American eel and for mentoring future biologists. 

If you know someone you would like to nominate for the 2025 award, you may submit a nomination form and essay no longer than two pages detailing the person’s contributions to wildlife conservation. Essays must be composed on 8½- by 11-inch paper, with 1-inch margins, single spaced, and 12-point Times New Roman font. Anything over two pages will be disqualified.

The commission encourages that a nominee’s resume or CV be included.

Nominations may be submitted electronically by filling out an online form and uploading supporting documents, via email to Shauna Glover at shauna.glover@ncwildlife.gov, or by mail to N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Division of Inland Fisheries, c/o Shauna Glover, 1721 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1700.

This year’s nominees will be considered along with nominations submitted in 2023 and 2024. Nominations submitted before 2023 will be considered upon request to Glover.

The honoree will be announced at a wildlife resources commissioner meeting by February next year.

NAGS HEAD — Jockey’s Ridge used to be known as the tallest natural sand dune on the East Coast, but now it’s described as its largest natural active sand dune system.

While it may not be as high as it was in 1973, the unique phenomenon of nature is still there — famously thanks to Carolista Baum, a young mother who that year physically blocked a developer’s bulldozer.

A celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jockey’s Ridge State Park held June 5-8 drew thousands of people, from folks who had rolled down the dune as children to tourists who climb it every summer to watch the sun set, to share in appreciation of the beloved Outer Banks landmark.

Festivities included a duneside performance last Friday by the popular indie band, the Connells — with a surprise appearance by North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein — followed by the Outer Banks’ first drone light show.

In his introduction to a documentary about “magical, awesome” Jockey’s Ridge screened at the park’s visitor center late that Saturday afternoon, park ranger Austin Paul said the 22-minute “collection of heartfelt stories” from the community and state officials about the site will continue to grow as more content is gathered.

“Jockey’s Ridge is kind of like the center point of the Outer Banks, Ann-Cabell Baum, Carolista Baum’s oldest daughter, says in the film. “Jockey’s Ridge is so many different things to so many different people … It’s part of our souls, it’s part of our hearts, it’s part of our families.”

Baum and her siblings used to play every day on Jockey’s Ridge, she recalled in a later interview with Coastal Review.

One day the children saw a bulldozer arrive to start digging on the backside of the dune, and Baum, then age 6 1/2, along with her sister Inglis, 5, and her brother Gibbs, 3 1/2, dashed back to their nearby home to tell their mother. Carolista immediately ran over to the spot and stood in front of the bulldozer, not moving until the operator gave up and left, Baum said. 

Her petite 33-year-old mother, a dark-haired Edenton farm girl who grew up with six brothers, then promptly removed the distributor cap, and went about rallying the community in what became the “Save our Sand Dune” campaign to get the state to preserve Jockey’s Ridge.

It wasn’t the first time that developers had raised the ire of the locals — by then the Villa Dunes subdivision was already built on the northern edges of the dunes, and plans for the new development had already been submitted to the town. But this time, the whole community got behind her mother, Baum remembered.

“She was sincere and loving and kind,” her daughter said about Carolista, remembering how people always would come by her jewelry shop to visit with her and chat.

A year after the bulldozer was banished, the dune was declared a National Natural Landmark, and the following year the state park was created.

As former Nags Head Mayor and Commissioner Renee Cahoon says in the documentary, the park is an asset to the town in multiple ways.

“No one else has a Jockey’s Ridge,” she says. “It’s not just cultural icon; it’s also a business icon.”

The park is routinely in the top five of the most-visited state parks in North Carolina.

Last year, 1.2 million people visited. But during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, visitation went through the roof, at 1.9 million and 1.8 million, respectively. Both years had the Nags Head park as the No. 1 most-visited state park. It is currently back to prepandemic visitation.

“It’s more than a fabulous sand pile,” Peggy Birkemeier, a member of the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge Board of Directors, says in the film.

As Birkemeier notes, Jockey’s Ridge has a bounty of natural resources that offer numerous “exciting experiences” for visitors.

The backside of the park abuts the Roanoke Sound, with its long shoreline meandering northward along brackish marshes and toward the ancient maritime forest of Nags Head Woods. It includes a sound beach access that is popular with families. There are also unpaved trails through shrub forest areas beyond the shoreline that lead to the lower expanse of the dunes.

And the night sky above the dunes presents some of the most dramatic scenes on the Outer Banks. In fact, any time of day or night, cloudy or starry, at sunrise or sunset, the sky from Jockey’s Ridge is a wonderment.

“It is certainly a place where many memories are made,” Birkemeier says about the park. 

Legacy projects for Jockey’s Ridge that are in the works include the creation of a trail that loops around the park with informational markers about 10 different significant areas — such as hang gliding and the sometimes-buried sand castle — and a time capsule with various artifacts that is tentatively planned to be kept on display at the visitor center museum.

When the park first opened on May 31, 1975, the big dune was 140 feet tall, Jockey’s Ridge State Park Superintendent Joy Cook explained to Coastal Review in an interview after the event. But shifting maritime winds continually rearranged its estimated 30 million tons of sand, mostly quartz blown in ages ago from the mountains, into different shapes, while surrounding development influenced sand travel. Now the dunes are a system of three smaller hills that are 60 to 80 feet tall. 

“It’s moving 1- to 6-feet to the south each year,” she said. “The prominent wind is out of the north. The dunes are north-south orientation, and the southeast corner is moving faster than the rest of it.”

About six years ago, she said, the park had to relocate the sides of the corner that were moving into the road, and it will probably have to be moved again in a few years.

But even at its decreased height, being on top of Jockey’s Ridge is close to a surreal experience, and it’s not only because of the panoramic view of sea, sound and landscape. The vast expanse of undulating sand at times feels nearly mystical. Depending on the time of day, as well as the weather conditions, the shadows cast by the light and the wind-carved designs in the sand can transform the dunes into art.

But as every local knows, Jockey’s Ridge is the last place a person would want to be in extremes of any weather: a blazing hot summer day, a very windy or rainy day, or any degree of thunderstorm. And sometimes being on top in the middle of all that sand can be disorienting — it’s not unusual for visitors to lose their bearings.

On the flipside, kids delight in rolling and leaping down the dune, and young adults love to slide down them on boogie boards — especially if there’s a rare snowfall. Not to mention that the hang-gliding and kite flying, if the wind cooperates, is extraordinary.

Carolista Baum, an artist and a jeweler, died at 50 from a brain tumor. She remains as one of the most admired personalities in Outer Banks history, not only for her vibrancy and strength of character, but for her courage to stand her ground and protest what she believed was wrong.

As many recognized during the anniversary celebration, without Carolista taking action at that moment, and creating the momentum and inspiration in the community for the preservation fight, it’s likely that Jockey’s Ridge would not have been here to celebrate its 50-year anniversary.

“In 1973, she stood in front of a bulldozer and probably wouldn’t have been arrested,” Baum said. “It was a different time then. But I think she still would have stood in front of a bulldozer if that happened today.”

Armed now with a petition of 10,000 signatures, a group fighting a proposed development in a forest that holds the last large expanse of old-growth trees in New Hanover County plans to host a rally June 21.

The Save Sledge Forest rally will include live music and food trucks. The rally is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. at Innes Park, 102 N. 3rd St., Wilmington.

An after-party will be held at Waterline Brewing Co., 721 Surry St.

Sledge Forest rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County. It is part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Some of the forest’s inhabitants include cypress and loblolly pine trees hundreds of years old and considered a “rare old-growth occurrence,” according to a biological survey published in May 2003 by the Natural Heritage Program of North Carolina, which identified the forest as a significant natural area.

Last year, a Charlotte-based development company submitted proposed plans to build thousands of single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm on about 1,000 acres of the 4,000-acre site. Much of the remaining 3,000 or so acres includes protected wetlands.

In case of inclement weather June 21, a rain date has been scheduled the following day from 1:30-3 p.m.

The North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores made a splash Friday when it unveiled its newly revamped, comic-style gallery that uses vibrant panels, colorful sculptures and hands-on experiences to illustrate the facility’s coral conservation and aquaculture efforts.

The North Carolina Aquarium Society, which is the nonprofit group that supports the state’s aquariums, welcomed 180 members for a sneak peek of the vibrant “Future Waters” gallery before the facility opened to the public that morning.

The gallery features interactive displays, a 1,500-gallon saltwater coral reef habitat called “Conservation Cove,” and two working labs that highlight the aquarium’s sustainable aquaculture efforts and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project.

The Pine Knoll Shores aquarium is one of 20 holding facilities in 14 states taking part in the Florida Reef Tract Rescue Project. The network focuses on the rescue, housing and future propagation of Florida corals affected by stony coral tissue loss disease. The goal is to eventually reintroduce the corals to the reef.

The aquarium’s Coral Aquarist Andrew Feliton told Coastal Review that the aquarium is currently cultivating 10 species of coral, all of which have been in captivity since the rescue project began in 2019. The corals came from SeaWorld Orlando and the Florida Coral Rescue.

“We work closely with the Florida Wildlife Commission because these are technically their animals,” Feliton said.

Husbandry Curator Trent Boyette was standing with Feliton near the entrance of the exhibit as a steady stream of visitors made their way through the exhibit.

To date, Boyette said, “we have successfully aquacultured about 23 different species since we first started in 2016.” Aquacultured means that fish, shellfish and other marine plants and animals were bred and raised in water, similar to farming on land.

The aquarium participates in species survival plans, Boyette continued, such as the lined seahorses on display in the exhibit’s working lab.

As the hum of visitors milling about the gallery filled the space, the aquarium’s Communications Manager Shannon Kemp told Coastal Review that staff have spent the last few years working on the gallery, creating about 90% in house, with an emphasis on making the exhibit interactive.

“This is one of the most tactile exhibits we have in the aquarium,” Kemp said, adding the education curator was interested in using a comic book theme “because it’s a different way of presenting information.”

Boyette noted that building the gallery was a major undertaking, to create almost all of the gallery in-house, from constructing the walls to acquiring the coral and fish.

“We spent probably the better part of two years just constructing all this,” Boyette said.

N.C. Aquarium Society President Liz Baird said the nonprofit support organization managed the $240,808 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and donations to build the gallery.

“Funding from public and private sources fits a real need to help communicate with the public, and aquariums and informal cultural organizations are a way to reach people that’s quite different than going to school,” Baird said. “An investment into an exhibit like this reaches a whole new audience in a whole new way, and has been proven effective. So we’re really grateful for that support to help bring this to life.”

Baird served as director of the Pine Knoll Shores aquarium from 2019 to 2023 before transitioning to the nonprofit, and was part of the planning process when the exhibit was first conceived.

 “We really wanted a way to highlight the work that goes on behind the scenes, particularly in conservation, and to help people understand how they play a role in conservation,” she said as she greeted visitors and staff while enjoying the sunny morning on the front patio.

Baird said that they went with the comic book theme to draw visitors to the exhibit.

“When you think about the way that you want to engage with guests, be them young kids through grown adults, people learn best when they are self-directed, and find things that sort of catch their eye or tweak their imagination,” she said.

Though corals are really important for conservation, corals growing don’t catch the eye like the otters or sharks.

“By having this really fun theme,” Baird explained, people are drawn to the exhibit and want to learn why the corals are growing.

The aquaculture work has been taking place for several years, “and we’ve been highly successful at raising these fish, but that happens upstairs, behind the scenes. And again, it’s one of those things that’s not necessarily engaging unless you know the story behind it,” she said.

“These are organisms are really important to our oceans health, and the aquariums are helping take the lead in protecting them,” Baird said.

The aquarium is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information or to book tickets in advance, visit www.ncaquariums.com/pine-knoll-shores or call 252-247-4003.

Eastern and coastal North Carolina are home to some truly enormous trees. Towering bald cypresses with buttressed trunks, ancient live oaks with branches spreading out almost endlessly. The kinds of trees that leave people stunned. And though the person beholding the tree might not know it, the magnificent thing in front of them could be, or one day become, a champion.

Designated giants

The “Champion Tree” designation is a simple concept with a big purpose. The idea is to find the largest individual specimen of any given tree species, which is then named the champion of that species. The purpose goes far beyond measurements and rankings, however.

As first envisioned by the American Forestry Association in 1940, the Champion Tree Program, previously called the National Register of Big Trees, was intended to identify and conserve the nation’s largest remaining trees, which were at risk during an era of economic expansion and aggressive timber harvesting. It was also hoped that the program would increase the public’s appreciation for trees and encourage community science in forestry.

Today, anyone can nominate a tree for the National Register of Champion Trees, the annual publication of the Champion Tree Program. Nominated trees are reviewed and measured by an expert under the supervision of the University of Tennessee’s School of Natural Resources, which assumed official responsibility for the Champion Tree Program in 2024, and the champions are thereby sorted out for each species.

As of last year, when the most recent national register was published, North Carolina boasted 10 national champion trees, two of which are in the coastal plains: a pond pine in Bladen County, and a silky camellia in Gates County.

In order to find champions within their borders, state forestry services eventually established their own champion tree lists, such as North Carolina’s, which took shape under the auspices of the North Carolina Forest Service in the 1970s.

This means that North Carolina has a state champion tree for each species native to the state, and any state champion tree that is not bested in size by one of the same species in another state can be named the national champion.

Looking for the big ones

For 25-year-old Luke Ferreira, a big-tree hunter originally from New Bern, the sense of appreciation and the scientific mindset that spurred the original Champion Tree Program are always close at hand when he goes looking for giants.

“In some of the pretty remote places we go, I wonder, has anybody ever even seen this tree before?” Ferreira said in a telephone interview. “That’s what makes it worth it to me. Sometimes you come across something that takes your breath away.”

Ferreira, who now lives in Clayton, frequently ventures back to eastern North Carolina to look for and measure large trees.

“I’d say we definitely have more champions or potential champions east of I-95 than west of it,” he said.

When Ferreira finds a large tree, he calculates its size according to the method prescribed by the national Champion Tree Program. Each inch of a tree trunk’s circumference, as measured 4.5 feet above the ground, counts as one point, as does each foot of the tree’s height. The average spread in feet of the tree’s crown is divided by four, and this score is added to the point score for trunk circumference and height, yielding the overall score by which tree sizes can be compared.

Using these methods, Ferreira determined that a water hickory he and a friend discovered in a Craven County swamp was championship material. They nominated it to the state champion list, which prompted the N.C. Forest Service, following its protocols, to send out a county ranger to verify the tree’s dimensions. The ruling? With a 210-inch circumference, a height of 124 feet, and a 71-foot crown spread, it was the new state champion water hickory.

It should be noted, however, that those measurements yield 352 points according to the official Champion Tree Program method. The current national champion water hickory is listed at only 330 points, so Ferreira says he will be nominating the tree to the national list soon.

It might sound straightforward, but in reality, measuring tree sizes is a tricky business. The National Register of Champion Trees publishes a Measuring Guidelines Handbook that is 86 pages and includes two appendices and countless diagrams, so it may deter some beginners.

Luckily for Ferreira, trees aren’t just his hobby, they’re also his profession. Ferreira is a safety coordinator with Bartlett Tree Experts, so he has plenty of experience identifying, measuring and even climbing trees.

“I use a reel tape to measure the crown spread and the circumference, and then we use clinometers for height,” Ferreira said, referring to a device that calculates the height of distant objects with the help of a little trigonometry. “But if the tree isn’t too remote, I will sometimes tape drop it, where I climb up and drop the tape all the way down.”

Dying down, growing back

North Carolina’s big-tree database was taken offline in recent months before being made accessible again in early May. Andrew Pleninger, urban and community forestry program head at the N.C. Forest Service, oversees the state’s champion tree list. Pleninger said that the access issues stemmed from coinciding technical difficulties and the regular, laborious review such a program requires.

On the technical side, Pleninger said the web application hosting the database with the champion tree list was malfunctioning, prompting him to take it offline. Meanwhile, he and his staff have been working to reinspect all the existing state champions, to make sure everything on the list is accurate and up to date — a task delayed by staff shortages.

“It’s a good, popular program, and I’d like to continue to support it,” Pleninger said by telephone. “Tuning it up is one of our tasks right now.”

Maintaining champion tree registers with any kind of regularity is surely a large undertaking. Hundreds of trees, some of them in isolated mountain hollers or remote and unnavigable swamps, have to be checked to make sure none have fallen to storm, disease or axe.  

As Ferreira put it, “Once something becomes big enough to be a champion, it’s already close to the end of its life anyway.”

Even the loss of a limb can cost a tree its champion status. In a cemetery in Clinton, there stands a flowering dogwood that as recently as 2021 was the undisputed national champion.

“I was amazed at how big it was,” Pleninger said of the graveyard sentinel, which was once 33 feet tall and boasted a 40-foot crown spread. “I saw pictures of it before I went, and I thought, this is not a dogwood.”

However, the old tree has since lost one of its two main limbs, reducing its size significantly. It is no longer the national champion, and is likely not even the largest flowering dogwood in North Carolina anymore. However, a recent visit to the cemetery off of N.C. Highway 24 in Sampson County proved that the tree is still alive and still impressive. Time and decay may have robbed it of its title as champion, but it’s not yet too old to bloom in spring.

Caring for champions

The graceful leviathan at the heart of Wilmington’s Airlie Gardens isn’t just North Carolina’s state champion live oak, it’s probably one of the state’s best-known trees. It has served as a backdrop for hundreds of weddings and many thousands of photos, and it is frequently the object of concerned check-ins from the public.  

“The number one question we get after every storm is, ‘how’s the Airlie Oak?’” said Janine Powell, Airlie’s director of donor relations. “After Hurricane Florence, the first thing we did was put a picture of her up, and you could see Spanish moss and branches all over the lawn, but she’s still there.”

In an interview conducted in the shade of the sprawling oak, which is thought to have sprouted sometime around the 1540s, Powell spoke affectionately of the tree, as if it were a grande dame. That sense of care is reflected in the way Airlie Gardens looks after their champion.

When a large branch sagged to the ground in 2019, arborists from Bartlett Tree Experts were hired to thoroughly evaluate the Airlie Oak’s health and recommend measures to protect it for future generations. A customized brace to stabilize the sagging limb, support cables for the other limbs, a grounded copper wire to protect the tree from lightning strikes, removal of Spanish moss to let in more light, aeration and fertilization of the soil. The list of treatments the tree has received reads like a testament to the love of its caretakers.

“It’s amazing how much it revitalized her,” Powell said. “She just looks better. If I look at photographs from 2014 to now, oh my gosh.”

When asked what it means for Airlie Gardens to contain a state champion tree, Powell didn’t hesitate. “For the Gardens, it means the world to us,” she said. “Just knowing that it’s been around for so long.”

To raise funds for the care of their champion and the rest of their grounds, Airlie Gardens has partnered with Penderlea Farms to sell saplings grown from the acorns of the Airlie Oak.

These “historic live oaks,” according to Powell, are intended to help educate the public on the natural shape that live oaks require to be resilient (and beautiful) in their natural coastal environment.

Through the recognition of a specific remarkable tree, they are encouraging people to think about all trees a bit more deeply. Appreciation, protection, education — they’re all there, the original hallmarks of the Champion Tree Program.

MANTEO — Amidst the tedium of a generally uneventful two-day meeting of the state Coastal Resources Commission last week, embers of prior tensions flared anew when Commissioner Jordan Hennessy contended that the panel had not properly authorized its lawsuit seeking to restore a protective environmental rule for Jockey’s Ridge.

The commission voted 9-3 against a motion Hennessy had advanced to withdraw from ongoing legal battle against the Rules Review Commission. Only Coastal Resources Commissioners Robbie Yates and Steve King voted with Hennessy, who took issue with how the lawsuit had been authorized.

“The crux of the issue here is that there was never a formal motion made, never a formal second made, or a formal vote to file a lawsuit against the Rules Review Commission,” Hennessy told the panel May 1 during the second day of the meeting. “And for something of that significance, I think it should have had a vote of this full commission to file suit against another state agency.”

After claiming he had been “stonewalled” by the commission and its legal counsel Mary Lucasse in seeking information, Hennessy, who was appointed to the board in 2023 by then-Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, made a motion to direct counsel to “go ahead and withdraw that lawsuit.”

In her terse response, Lucasse detailed her answers to Hennessy’s “multiple requests,” including providing records of her authorization to bring the case.

“And then, as you know, information has been given about the lawsuit at every single legal update that we’ve had since then,” she continued. “I’ve kept you advised, and this commission has continued to be aware of and approve the steps that council has taken with that litigation from the beginning.”

The Coastal Resources Commission filed the lawsuit in late 2023 after 30 rules it had approved through a required periodic rules review process were removed from the Administrative Code, a move made shortly after the Rules Review Commission that fall kicked them back to coastal commission. The lawsuit asked the court to reinstate all 30 rules.

The 10-member Rules Review Commission, which is appointed by leaders of the GOP-controlled North Carolina General Assembly, argued those 30 rules were vague or inconsistent with state statutes. 

After filing the lawsuit, the Coastal Resources Commission voted to temporarily restore 16 of the rules state Division of Coastal Management officials said were critical to day-to-day operations.

One of those longstanding rules designated Jockey’s Ridge as an area of environmental concern, or AEC.

In April 2024, State Geologist Kenneth Taylor confirmed that Jockey’s Ridge is a unique geologic formation that qualified it as an AEC.

A public hearing on a proposed amendment to the coastal commission’s rule governing the Jockey’s Ridge AEC was held at the end of its April 30 meeting, with four people speaking in support of the proposed amended rule. The proposed rule is nearly identical to the original 1984 rule, which protects the landmark from incompatible development and sand loss. Public comment is open through June 2.

Nags Head Mayor Ben Cahoon, one of the commenters, delivered a sharp rebuttal of the Rules Review Commission’s rationale for abruptly revoking the AEC protection in 2023, asserting the Coastal Resources Commission’s “righteous” role in protecting Jockey’s Ridge while condemning the “absurdity of the process” in which the coastal commission had been forced to spend valuable time and resources.

“But now, ideological forces that value unrestrained and excessive commerce supported by industries that are biased against environmental regulation want to erode your authority,” Cahoon told coastal commissioners.

In February, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled in the coastal commission’s favor, and the rules commission appealed. It’s unclear how quickly the dispute can be resolved.

Related: Judge restores state’s 30 erased coastal development rules

“The CRC’s actions relating to the rules designating Jockey’s Ridge as an AEC and establishing use standards are related to the rules that are part of the RRC’s appeal of the Superior Court’s March 3 amended order (of the lawsuit,)” the coastal commission said last week in an email response to Coastal Review.

“The appeal has not yet been docketed in the Court of Appeals,” the email stated. “After Appellant RRC files the record for the appeals, the parties will submit briefs to the COA (Court of Appeals.) Only after the appeal is fully briefed will the Court of Appeals decide whether to schedule oral argument. The time required for the Court Appeals to issue an Opinion varies greatly from a few months after an appeal is fully briefed to more than a year.”

Coastal Resources Commission Chair Renee Cahoon, also in addressing Hennessy’s contention, said that the lawsuit was a direct result of the legislature’s budget provision that allowed the the codifier of rules to withdraw the rules. The rules pertinent to the Jockey’s Ridge AEC designation, “just disappeared from existence — 30 or more at a time,” she said.

“It made a major impact on the people that we serve in the state of North Carolina and the 20 coastal counties,” Cahoon said. “This was a decision that was not taken lightly. It was not taken unadvisedly, and it was taken in response to, basically, the disappearance of rules.”

Hennessy is a former top aide to Republican Sen. Bill Cook who represented Dare County in the legislature. He later became a businessman with county affordable housing development contracts and dredging project contracts about which a federal grand jury sought county records and subpoenaed six county commissioners late last year.

Hennessy also questioned that it took nearly a year for the lawsuit to be filed after it was authorized as well as the expenses incurred dealing with the protracted legal action.

“It’s by law that we have to go through the rules review process,” he said. “If you don’t like it, ask the legislature to change the law, but it’s to the point of that the legislature has had to appropriate two and a half or a quarter of a million dollars to the Rules Review Commission to defend its lawsuit against us.”

Commissioner Lauren Salter responded that the state Division of Coastal Management staff tried to “resolve (the Rules Review Commission’s) nitpicking issues” repeatedly, and it wasn’t the Coastal Resources Commission that picked the fight.

“We sought relief for the people of North Carolina, so that they would know what rules were in play and not lose rules overnight,” she said. “That’s why the lawsuit was filed after 307 days. We tried everything.”

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust has purchased the expanse of land at the south end of Topsail Island known as ‘The Point.’

“This landmark conservation victory follows an ambitious, yearlong fundraising effort and culminated with the purchase of the property,” on Tuesday, the Coastal Land Trust announced.

“This is a once-in-a-generation victory for conservation on the coast,” Harrison Marks, the trust’s executive director, said in the release. “We are deeply grateful to the partners, donors, and volunteers who made this possible.”

After launching a fundraising campaign in March 2024, the Coastal Land Trust raised nearly $8 million, including more than $1.6 million in contributions from nearly 800 donors, and through several major public funding sources.

One acre of the site, which includes a parking area managed by Topsail Beach, was sold to the town as part of the transaction.

The nearly 150-acre tract was on and off the market for decades, but attempts from prospective buyers, including Topsail Beach, which wanted to keep the land free from development, never panned out.

Efforts to keep the land development free gained traction after the CEO of a Raleigh-based software company and his wife initiated talks with the town to rezone a portion of the property to allow the couple to build a family compound, complete with about a half-dozen homes, a private marina, pool and beach and sound accesses.

Their proposal was met with fierce opposition from area property owners, regular vacationers to the town, and environmentalists who’ve enjoyed walking the shores of the land that has accreted as New Topsail Inlet migrates south.

The tract stretches from the ocean to Banks Channel and includes expansive dunes, estuarine wetlands, and maritime shrub forest that provide critical habitat for dozens of bird species and loggerhead sea turtles.

“This beautiful and beloved section of Topsail is now protected forever,” Topsail Beach Mayor Frank Braxton said in a release. “We’re thrilled to partner with the Coastal Land Trust to ensure its natural beauty is preserved for future generations.”

The land will be placed in conservation in perpetuity and will be transferredto the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management.

Division Director Tancred Miller announced the purchase during the Coastal Resources Commission’s Wednesday meeting in Dare County.

Miller said Coastal Land Trust will transfer the land at no cost in the next year or so, after which time the property will be managed by the division for “public access and environmental protection.”

“So we’re very grateful for that partnership with Coastal Land Trust. We think it’s a wonderful thing for the state of North Carolina and everyone who visits that area,” Miller said.

Funding for the project has been approved by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through Walmart’s Acres for America program, the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North American Wetlands Conservation Act and National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant programs.

Coastal Land Trust has secured a bridge loan in order to meet the closing deadline since the organization will not receive grant funds for several more months, according to the release.

“This project is a model for collaborative coastal conservation and an excellent example of the lasting benefits that Acres for America grants can provide to wildlife and communities,” Chris West, Acres for America Program director, said in the release. “This effort will conserve critical habitat for wildlife and offer lasting benefits for current and future generations of North Carolinians to enjoy.”

Until the land is transferred to the state, it will be owned and managed by the trust, which will work with volunteers and partners to protect nesting bird habitat, remove debris, and lead educational beach walks. Partners and volunteers will include Audubon North Carolina and members of Conserve the Point, a grassroots organization.

Additional information on volunteer opportunities is available at www.CoastalLandTrust.org/TopsailBeach or by emailing Topsail@CoastalLandTrust.org.

RALEIGH — Historian David Cecelski didn’t mask the grief he felt while telling the “gruesome stories” littering eastern North Carolina’s past, or the mounting dread that those days will return and put the coast’s natural resources at risk of “plunder, pillaging and poisoning.”

“This may not be the kind of keynote address that you’re used to,” the mild-mannered Carteret County native told a crowd of about 150 people during the first morning of the 2025 Coastal Summit. “I’m an historian after all, a storyteller at heart, and you have to expect that I’m going to tell some stories. I’m also going to talk about our coastal history, and how we got here, and what we might learn from the past that might help guide us today.”

The April 8-9 summit, titled “Ripple Effect: Enhancing Oysters, Salt Marsh and Water Quality Together,” was organized by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review. The biennial event brought together elected officials, representatives from local, state and federal governments, conservation organizations, researchers and others invested in maintaining a healthy coast.

Board member for the nonprofit organization Allison Besch introduced Cecelski, who “divides his time between two places that he loves deeply”: Durham, and his ancestral home in Carteret County. A longtime contributor to Coastal Review, the historian has written several award-winning books and hundreds of articles about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast.

“David’s writing focuses passionately on telling stories from his little corner of the world that emanates American history more broadly,” Besch said as she described his work.

Cecelski began his address, “Our Coastal Heritage: Past, Present and Future” with an illustration of the mullet fishing camp on Shackleford Banks where his cousins worked five generations ago. He also displayed photos of himself as a young boy on the family farm that bumps up to the Harlowe Canal west of Beaufort.

“When I stay at the house, like I did the other night, I sleep in the bedroom where my mother was born, and her father and his father and his father,” Cecelski said. “And in our neighborhood, people call our house ‘the new house’ because what they call the family homeplace is about a half-mile down the road on my cousin Henry’s land.”

Cecelski said that when his mother was born in the late 1920s, a New Bedford, Massachusetts, company was still trapping bottlenose dolphins in giant haul seines and slaughtering hundreds and sometimes thousands of them every year on the beach at Hatteras Island.

“The islanders would shut their windows so they would not have to hear the cry of the dolphins on the beach at night. The last haul of the day, they often didn’t have a chance to process so they would leave them alive,” he continued. “When they were old men, and I would go and talk with them, local fishermen who were hired to catch and butcher the dolphins would say they still had nightmares about what they had had to do on those beaches.”

When his grandfather was a young man, New York millinery companies, or ladies’ hatmakers, “were still paying the hunters at Cape Lookout to surround nesting colonies of seabirds and marsh birds — royal turns, oystercatchers, piping clovers, sanderlings, herons, egrets, among others,” he said. The hunters would wait until the eggs started hatching, because that was when the birds were least likely to flee, and then they would start shooting, sometimes killing 10,000,15,000, 20,000, 25,000 birds in a single day.

A century ago, the swans and snow geese did not come for Lake Mattamuskeet, and less than a century ago, sea turtles were being shipped in tin cans to four-star restaurants in New York City. A pulp mill in 1937, “without breaking any laws, began dumping untreated sulfur dioxide into the Roanoke River at a site 4 miles upriver of Plymouth. By the start of the Second World War, that mill’s waste had destroyed America’s largest and oldest herring fisheries, dating back at that site two centuries,” Cecelski continued.

And a century ago, one of North America’s great wetlands that covered hundreds of thousands of acres north and west of the Pongo River disappeared. “It was clear-cut, drained and its waters channeled into the Pamlico River. If there is an acre of it left, I have not found it. It’s ancient white cedar forest. It’s cypress glades and the entire body of the oyster grounds of the upper Pamlico River. All gone,” Cecelski said.

“When it comes to that devastating era in the history of the North Carolina coast, I’m afraid I could go on and on and on,” but everything that is loved about the state’s coast today has come about because of recognizing that path couldn’t continue, he said.

“We learned the hard way that the strength of our coastal communities, strength of our coastal families, the strength of our coastal economy, and the strength of the kind of coastal heritage that I grew up in — our traditions of fishing, of boatbuilding, of living off the land and the water, of oyster roasts and shrimp boils, of pilgrimages to the shore to restore our souls — we learned that they are all as entwined as anything can be with the health of our coastal waters, our coastal wetlands, our fields and forests,” Cecelski continued. “And we learned that we have to work together if we want to keep the North Carolina coast the kind of place that our children and grandchildren will hold as tightly in their hearts as we hold it in our hearts.”

Even though progress has been made over the last century with environmental laws and conservation efforts, “we also know that in a lot of ways, we have just got started, and I know when we see what’s going on in the country now, that things look bleak for much of what draws us and people from around the world to our shores,” he said, and the work taking place to care for the coast may be at risk.

“I know — I’m not naming names — that there are people in high office now who act as if, well, as if they never walked down the Kure Beach fishing pier on a Friday night in the autumn when the spots and bluefish are running and seeing the joy in the children’s faces and how nobody is a stranger and everybody’s helping everybody, and how much it means to all our state’s citizens to be there by the sea,” he said. “And they act as if they’ve never walked the shores of Cape Lookout when the sea is phosphorescent, the dolphins are playing in the waves and the fish are biting, and they act as if they’ve never traipsed along the edges of Currituck Sound and felt the beauty of the marshes stir their soul.”

The shackling of the Environmental Protection Agency “alone foreshadows the breathtaking descent back into the worst days of our coastal past, when our estuaries, our beaches, our fisheries and the sources of our drinking water were a free-for-all, open to plunder, pillaging and poisoning,” he said.

“I wish I had more words of comfort for you, but we all know the road ahead is not going to be easy,” Cecelski said, reminding the audience that the work of organizations like the Coastal Federation and its partners “will never, ever be greater than it is at this moment in our history.”

He closed by telling a story about how, in the Coastal Federation’s infancy, its founder, Todd Miller, recruited Cecelski as the first volunteer.

“I think that I was invited here today, hopefully not just to tell gruesome stories, but I think I was invited here because of my historical work on the North Carolina coast,” he said.

It was the early 1980s and Miller convinced Cecelski to spend a year in Swan Quarter spreading the word about a proposed massive strip-mining project.

“They wanted to mine the peat. A large, multibillion-dollar, extremely well-connected group of investors was planning to strip mine hundreds of thousands of acres of coastal wetlands stretching across Dare, Hyde, Tyrrell, Beaufort and Washington counties,” he said.

Cecelski continued that when he first arrived, he rarely met anyone who knew about the proposed plan and on the few occasions he did, they realized the project would leave their home a wasteland and devastate the region’s oyster beds and fishing grounds.

“Past experience had led them to conclude that nobody cared what they had to say, that nobody would listen to them, and there was nothing they could do about it, because it had always been that way,” he said.

His job was “a very small part of the puzzle” to let people know what was happening, and help their voices be heard.

“At that moment, I would not have bet five bucks on the chance of our success. Everything — money, power, time — was against us, but little by little, people of every background, every race, every political party and every little village, began to speak up. Hope flickered,” he said. People began to come together and believed they could make a difference, and in the end, the people of the North Carolina coast prevailed.

Though Cecelski was young at the time, he said the experience taught him that even when it looks bleak and “if we don’t give up hope, if we hold on to one another, if we look past our differences to what we hold in common, good things will happen, and sometimes even a miracle or two, even in the darkest of times.”

Cecelski said he knows he’s a terribly old-fashioned person and out of step with much of modern times.

“I still believe in the golden rule that we should treat other people the way that we would want them to treat us. I still believe what I was taught in Sunday school, that we are called to be good stewards of God’s creation and good caretakers of our lands and waters and the creatures thereof,” he said. “I still believe, and I will always believe, what I learned growing up on the North Carolina coast, that a neighbor is a neighbor is a neighbor, and we are all in this together. And I believe with all my heart that there are some things worth fighting for, and I believe that the North Carolina coast is one of them.”

Guest Commentary

To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues. Morty Gaskill is a member of the North Carolina Coastal Federation Board of Directors. The nonprofit advocacy organization publishes Coastal Review, which remains editorially independent.

In 1976, a North Carolina Sea Grant newsletter sounded the alarm: large-scale land drainage was wiping out wetlands that protect our coastal fisheries. Fishermen saw their livelihoods at risk and 3,000 of them pleaded for action.

“We, the undersigned, being commercial and sport fishermen who use the creeks, rivers, and bays adjacent to Pamlico Sound and the waters of Pamlico Sound, petition the Marine Fisheries Commission and state officials as follows: … to investigate the effect of changing salinity in said waters upon the economy of Pamlico Drainage areas and to initiate proper controls to insure the continued health of commercial and sport fishing in this area.”

They saw it coming. But there was hope — state and federal leaders acted. For decades, farming, forestry, development, and fisheries co-existed under federal and state wetland safeguards — rules that carefully balanced economic growth and environmental protection. These safeguards didn’t create unbearable hardships; they provided stability for all.

Yet here we are again, nearly 50 years later, facing the same crisis — not just for our fisheries, but for our homes, businesses, and communities. Given the changing economic and environmental conditions of many coastal communities across North Carolina, it could not come at a worse time.

This time, the rollback of wetland protections isn’t coming from local drainage operations. It’s happening due to recent federal and state government actions. The Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA decision has dramatically narrowed the definition of federally protected wetlands. The North Carolina General Assembly followed suit, choosing to adopt the weaker federal standard instead of maintaining the stronger state level protections that had been in place for years. And now, under new leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is further diluting the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, stripping even more protections from wetlands and streams that feed our coastal estuaries.

The consequences? More wetlands drained. More freshwater rushing unchecked into saltwater nurseries. More flooding. More property damage.

Costly gamble

History has already shown us what happens when we fail to protect our wetlands. In 1976, Rose Bay fisherman Troy W. Mayo spoke out as catches dwindled.

“Twenty-five years ago, I owned a 26-foot shad boat. We used to go out in Rose Bay, two people, for five or six hours and we’d catch 35 to 40 tubs of oysters—that was two men pulling by hand,” said Mayo. “Today you go out in this same area with a power winder and all modern equipment, and I’d be surprised if you catch 10 tubs of oysters.”

Scientists confirmed what fishermen already knew. “Salinity is a major ingredient for survival in the estuaries”; reported the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries. Preston Pate, who studied juvenile shrimp in Rose Bay, found that freshwater intrusion “definitely disrupted the salinity of small creeks in the area. The result was a smaller shrimp harvest by fishermen.”

But wetland loss isn’t just bad for fisheries. Wetlands absorb floodwaters, buffer storm surges, and keep pollution out of our waterways. Every acre lost means more homes and businesses at risk.

In North Carolina, our coastal communities have already been battered by hurricanes, rising insurance costs, rising property taxes, lack of affordable housing, and an aging drainage infrastructure that can’t keep up with heavier rains. Weakening wetland protections only adds fuel to the fire. It shifts costs onto property owners, local governments, and taxpayers — many of whom will be left paying for flood damage that could have been prevented.

Commonsense approach to conservation

Those lessons from the 1970s helped shape policies that kept North Carolina’s wetlands intact for decades. But now, history is repeating itself. The rollback of WOTUS protections and the state’s decision to weaken its own rules mean more wetlands will be drained, increasing flooding, pollution, and economic losses.

This shouldn’t be a divisive political issue. Wetland protections aren’t just about environmental policy — they’re about practical economics, public safety, and community well-being. They help prevent costly flood damage, safeguard private property, and support the resilience of coastal economies that depend on fisheries, tourism, and clean water.

Jim Brown of the Division of Marine Fisheries put it best nearly 50 years ago:

“We love beans and beef, and we have a serious need to extend agricultural operations. At the same time, we dearly love shrimp and oysters. There exists a very serious need for imposing compatibility between the two. Can it be done? That’s the question. Or do we just keep plodding along with our fingers crossed?”

If we ignore history, we aren’t just crossing our fingers — we are guaranteeing a grim future for our coastal communities. The fishermen of Rose Bay warned us decades ago. Will we listen this time? Or will we, once again, pay the price for failing to protect the wetlands that sustain our way of life?

Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation. See our guidelines for submitting guest columns.

A deal between Southport to sell hundreds of acres of land to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission remains on the table after elected officials there recently agreed to extend the city’s contract deadline with the state agency.

Following what was, at times, a contentious discussion March 13 during the Southport Board of Aldermen meeting, members cast a 5-1 vote to push an option agreement with the state from March 21 to July 31 with a closing date of no later than Sept. 5.

The agency anticipates closing before that date, Ben Solomon, assistant chief and land acquisition manager of the commission’s Land and Water Access Division, said in a statement to Coastal Review on Monday.

More than a year has passed since aldermen agreed in a majority vote their intent to sell more than 400 city-owned acres to the commission for just over $637,000.

The Wildlife Resources Commission had been eyeing the property for the past few years with hopes of expanding the game land footprint in the area, a move that would place the land in conservation in perpetuity.

The property is adjacent to the state’s Green Swamp Game Land. The land also borders the country’s largest ammunition port, Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, or MOTSU.

The federal government prohibits development of the property because of its proximity to the 16,000-acre port.

Brunswick County land owners whose property is near the 441-acre tract fought a construction firm’s proposal about three years ago to buy or lease no fewer than 50 acres from the city. The firm wanted to mine clay-like material and use the earth to build up eroded berms buffering ammunition and explosive areas within the Army installation.

Under the proposed deal with the state, Southport will keep 10 acres to use to temporarily place hurricane debris. The county will retain another 5 acres, which could eventually be the site of a water tower or some other type of water reserve used to improve water pressure in the area for fire-fighting.

Brunswick County property owners whose land is near the tract asked last week for clarification on how the city and county planned to use the land to be retained by local governments.

The handful of residents, including Ron Madden, expressed relief that the city would move forward with plans to sell the land to the Wildlife Resources Commission.

“We’re concerned to see what happens there,” he said. “This is paradise. Our neighborhood is paradise. We’re just asking you to be the good neighbors that we are to you. We take great pride in our neighborhood as you do in Southport.”

His and others’ comments to the board angered Alderman and Southport native Marc Spencer, the lone alderman to vote against extending the deadline to the commission, who balked at the proposed sale price for the tract.

Spencer said members of the city planning board tried to come up with multiple uses for the site, including a cemetery, but the city got “shook around by our local neighbors who didn’t like what they thought we were going to do so we didn’t do anything at all.”

“Now we’re selling 441 acres for $600,000. Really? I will sell my house today and buy it. I’ll take it. I’ll take it forever. Anybody here would. That’s ridiculous. This was a bad deal from the beginning with a bunch of people from Bethel Church Road (Bethel Road) who didn’t like what we were going to do who haven’t ever paid tax in Southport in your life. You’re not a member of Southport. You talk about paradise? You ruined paradise for me,” he said.

The commission received funding in late 2021 to buy the land, an area wildlife officials say is ecologically important because it supports both federal and state listed species.

The agency received funding in 2021 to buy the land through the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, state Attorney General’s Office Environmental Enhancement Grant Program, and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Program.

“We’ve already agreed to sell it to them,” Southport Alderwoman Karen Mosteller said. “All we’re doing is agreeing to extend the agreement.”

The city bought a majority of tract 20 years ago with plans to use it as a spray-irrigation site for a new sewer plant. Those plans were eventually scrapped after the city decided to merge its water and sewer with the county.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and the town of Windsor have partnered to permanently conserve more than 300 acres in Bertie County for its environmental and historic significance.

The Wilmington-based conservation organization announced last week that the Hoggard’s Millpond purchase was finalized in December 2024 and then transferred to the town.

The 313.66 acres are northward of where Greens Cross and Hoggard’s Mill roads intersect, just a few miles north of where U.S. highways 13 and 17 meet in Windsor.

Critical for flood control purposes, the land features 2.2 miles of frontage along each side of Hoggard’s Mill Run, also known as Hoggard’s Mill, the largest tributary of the Cashie River, according to the land trust. In addition, there are mature cypress forest, bottomland hardwoods, upland ridges that offer habitat for bats, colonial waterbirds, and waterfowl, as well as crucial habitat for anadromous fish.

From the historical perspective, the first Bertie County seat was established on the site in the early 1720s, now known as the “Lost Town of Cashy.” The county seat relocated to Windsor in 1774. The site is also the location of what is believed to be the first millpond built in the state, which operated from the late 1700s until about 1934, according to the land trust.

“Importantly, the dam and water control structure on the property drained 22 square miles and controlled water flow extending 8 miles upstream, making the property of utmost importance for flood control purposes,” according to the land trust.

Windsor Mayor Lewis Hoggard said in a statement that the town was excited by the collaborative effort with Coastal Land Trust to acquire, preserve and potentially restore the Hoggard Mill property in Bertie County.

The town plans to create and manage a public nature and historic park on 28 designated acres. The remaining 286 acres are preserved under conservation restrictions held by the state to permanently protect the property’s natural, historic, and cultural features.

“This unique property also offers a small step forward in the ongoing flood management process of the Cashie River and its impact on the Town of Windsor and surrounding areas in Bertie County as well as future recreational use and enjoyment by our citizens,” Hoggard said.

The previous owners, the Thompson family, began discussions in 2016 with the Coastal Land Trust about conserving the property.

“Our father, Harry Lewis Thompson would be thrilled to know this mill pond property will be preserved for generations to come,” his children, JeNell Dilday, Pat Taylor, and Vic Thompson said in a statement. “It was always his desire to restore the property into a fully functioning mill pond to assist with restocking the river herring fishery as well as provide a place for people to come and enjoy its natural beauty – and at the same time assist the Town of Windsor with possible flooding containment. The Thompson family is proud to be able to fulfill his wishes.”

Grants from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetlands Conservation Act, a North Carolina Environmental Enhancement, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Inc., and the town funded the purchase.

“After years of dedicated effort and collaboration with the Town of Windsor and the Thompson family, we are proud to have secured the permanent protection of this treasured landscape,” Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said. “Together, we are ensuring that this special place will continue to inspire and benefit future generations, preserving both the natural and cultural heritage of Bertie County.”

For the first time in more than 10 years, North Carolina land donors may be eligible to receive a tax credit for gifting property to conservation.

But there’s a catch. A few, actually.

The law that went into effect Jan. 1 includes caveats that were not in the original one that legislators repealed in 2013.

This time around, there is a credit cap for qualifying properties, which means donors will not know how much of a credit they will receive at closing. Conservation easements, or those where the landowner can permanently protect the environmental value of his or her land while continuing to own it, no longer qualify. And the program ends after two years.

The law isn’t likely to raise the brows of landowners wanting to donate solely in the name of conservation. But proponents are concerned the law might not be enough to entice property owners who may be looking for more incentive to donate.

Land trusts across the state are working to get at least some of the language in the North Carolina Farm Act of 2024 changed to reflect that of prior guidelines when the legislative session convenes late this month.

“I would say, although it’s not what we would most prefer getting started, having the tax credit reinstated at all is certainly an accomplishment, and we’re pleased for that,” said Harrison Marks, Coastal Land Trust executive director. “I think until a couple of things are addressed it will be somewhat limited. I think it’s a reward for people who probably want to do the right thing for the right reasons anyway. But I would think somebody who is mostly motivated by the tax credit may wait and see what happens in the future.”

Under the old law, landowners would receive a tax credit of up to 25% of the fair market value of their donated property.

Now, a statewide cap of $5 million must be divided between donors with qualifying tracts of land.

Land owners will not be notified until after the close of the tax year, after the state Department of Revenue tallies the year’s donations, how much of a tax credit they will receive.

“If they don’t hit the cap, then every landowner will get the full 25% of the donated value and that’s fantastic, but I can’t tell a landowner that,” explained Rusty Painter, Conservation Trust for North Carolina’s land protection director. “I have to tell the landowner you might get as little as 5% or less, who knows, of the donated value. That’s going to make it hard for them to factor that in, or make that a significant factor in their decision.”

The message he’s likely to relay to prospective land donors is to remind them that a federal tax deduction for conservation easement donations stands. Whatever the landowner may get in a state conservation tax credit would be the “gravy on top.”

“You’re likely to get some kind of state tax credit, but I can’t tell you how much,” Painter said. “Nobody can tell you how much right now. Just wait and hope for good news and enjoy the windfall, however big or small it might be.”

North Carolina was the first in the nation to enact a conservation income tax credit.

Between the time the credit was rolled out in 1983 until its repeal 30 years later, donations and bargain sales of land and easements for conservation purposes led to the protection of more than 230,000 acres of forests, farms, waterways, wildlife habitat, wetlands and other natural areas.

Proponents of the credit point out that neighboring states, including South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia, implemented similar conservation tax credits after seeing the success of North Carolina’s program.

Land donations for conservation “really dropped off” after North Carolina lawmakers repealed the tax credit, Marks said.

Under the current law, eligible lands include those used for forestland or farmland preservation, fish and wildlife conservation, buffers around military installations and training areas, historic landscape conservation, for public trails or access to public trails, and for floodplain protection in counties where a gubernatorial disaster declaration as a result of a natural disaster that occurred five years before the donation.

The law expires Jan. 1, 2027.

“We’re definitely hoping for an update because we need all the help we can get,” Painter said. “The window is closing on the best of the best properties to conserve. Development is rampant now and it’s going to continue to increase and funding for our work is pretty limited. Our hope is that this is the first step toward revamping and improving the program based on what we’ve learned in this two-year period.”

There’s almost something deceptive about walking through the newest addition to Holly Shelter Game Land.

Trees rising from sandy ground largely blanketed by a thick cover of pine needles and wind-rippling wiregrass deafen any sense you’re just a short way from U.S. Highway 17.

Ben Jones summed up the experience during a recent hike through a small slice of the tract referred to as the Sleepy Creek property, a 1,616-acre parcel where baby longleaf pine trees sprout in savannas, carnivorous plants thrive and dense brush coats the surface of pocosin wetlands.

“It feels like we are miles from civilization,” he said.

That’s the idea behind rerouting a stretch of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail from the side of U.S. 17 in Pender County near Surf City and tucking it on land safely away from the four-lane blacktop.

Jones is the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail’s Coastal Crescent project manager and architect of the future section of trail, one that will link with nearly 20 miles of existing North Carolina trail snaking through the vast game land.

On a blustery cold day last week, Jones, Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail Associate Director Betsy Brown and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission officials offered a tour of the portion of game land where the new trail is anticipated.

This is a particularly unique project, one where the plan is to steer hikers away from the gravel roadways that cut through the game land and onto natural surface defined by upland sand ridges, longleaf habitat and pocosin wetlands.

“We want to keep it wild,” Jones said.

The exception will be a boardwalk structure planned through a little more than a mile of pocosin. The walkway will be constructed of some type of fireproof material, perhaps precast concrete that can withstand fire from prescribed burns state wildlife officials will administer to manage the land.

The modern method for maintain longleaf pine forests is through controlled burns, which reduce hardwood growth and manage grasses and forbs in the understory. Fires are essential to longleaf habitats for a number of reasons, one being that longleaf pine seeds germinate on bare ground.

This habitat is essential to a variety of plants and animals, including federally threatened red-cockaded woodpeckers.

The Nature Conservancy acquired the Sleepy Creek property about two years ago, permanently conserving land that would have most likely been developed. The Nature Conservancy transferred ownership to the state Wildlife Resources Commission.

Growth along the U.S. 17 corridor between Wilmington and Jacksonville has exploded in the last couple of decades as demand for property along the coast has skyrocketed.

The roughly 64,000-acre game land sits almost half way between the two cities – 25 minutes from Wilmington and 30 minutes from Jacksonville.

While Holly Shelter is a draw for hunters of game ranging from whitetail deer to rabbit to turkey, it’s also a formidable hiking spot.

The new, natural trail will extend a little more than 3.5 miles through the game land addition, which will also be made available for public hunting.

Negotiations are underway to purchase an additional 45-acre tract surrounded by the game land. If plans go accordingly, that property will be the site of a primitive camp ground.

Brown said kiosks and signage explaining trail and hunting etiquette to help educate those groups on how to coexist will be installed at the trail head.

Hikers are urged to plan ahead, make sure they have sufficient supplies, including water, and check for hunting seasons before heading into the game land. Wildlife officials ask hikers to wear something blaze orange, whether it be a hat, vest or other attire, if traversing Holly Shelter during a hunting season.

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail stretches more than 1,100 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks.

The Coastal Crescent Trail gives its guests the opportunity to experience a portion of the Cape Fear Arch, an area tapped as having the greatest biological diversity on the East Coast north of Florida.

The Arch spans between Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island system in Carteret County, and Cape Romain in South Carolina, and inland beyond Fayetteville to the Carolina Sandhills.

The Coastal Crescent Trail runs through Johnston, Sampson, Cumberland, Bladen, Pender and Onslow counties.

The segment (there are 18 total) of Mountains-to-Sea Trail included in Holly Shelter Game Land spans a little more than 90 miles. It includes 3.5 miles of trail, just over 9 miles of beach, about 5.5 miles of multi-use path, 19 miles of forest roads and a little more than 53 miles of paved road.

Jones said he did not have an exact timeframe on when the new rerouted trail will be open for hiking, though it is expected to be complete in fewer than five years.

They did it.

The final $1 million grant the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust needs to top off the cash pot necessary to buy the undeveloped southern tip of Topsail Island has come through.

Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said he anticipates closing on the nearly 150-acre tract known as “The Point” by April.

“We’ve raised the amount of private funds that we said we needed to fund that part of the project,” Marks said during an interview Tuesday morning. “We’re waiting to hear on a final grant and hope to hear in the next few days approval of the last million-dollar grant. If that comes through, then it would appear our funding is in place and we would close on The Point.”

A few hours later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sent out a press release that it is awarding a $1 million grant to the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management, in partnership with the Coastal Land Trust and others, to go toward the land purchase.

Fish and Wildlife’s Tuesday afternoon announcement effectively wraps a vigorous and relatively short fundraising campaign Coastal Land Trust launched last spring after entering into a contract with the land’s owners.

In the months since, the nonprofit has received more than $1.5 million in private donations to go toward buying the land, a feat Marks said “is amazing.”

“Close to 800 people contributed,” he added.

Marks has declined to reveal the price tag of the land. He said in an interview last year that the organization expected to spend about $8 million on various expenses, surveys and title searches, and the land itself.

Michele Rivest, vice president of the grassroots organization Conserve the Point, said the pending purchase of the land, which will result in its permanent conservation, is “a dream come true.”

“It’s monumental,” she said Wednesday. “It’s the culmination of decades of effort by the community. It just speaks to the lifelong commitment of so many people who revere this very special place on the planet and have wanted to see it conserved, really left undeveloped and wild for all future generations.”

The Point includes salt flats, maritime shrub and estuarine wetlands providing habitat for federally listed species including red knots, piping plovers, green sea turtles and loggerhead sea turtles.

Conserve the Point initially formed nearly two decades ago after the property’s long-time owners put it on the market in 2005. It was around that same time the Coastal Land Trust tried to buy roughly 45 acres of the property, but a deal fell flat.

The land has been routinely on and off the market since then. Attempts to buy the land, including those by Topsail Beach to keep it free from development, did not pan out.

Efforts to keep the land development free gained traction after the CEO of a Raleigh-based software company and his wife initiated talks with the town to rezone a portion of the property from C4: Conservation – Inlet Area to conditional use. The change would have allowed the couple to build what would have eventually been a family compound, complete with about a half-dozen homes, a private marina, pool and beach and sound accesses.

Their proposal was met with fierce opposition from area property owners, regular vacationers to the town, and environmentalists who’ve enjoyed walking the shores of the land that has accreted as New Topsail Inlet migrates south.

Conserve the Point regrouped, eventually earning official nonprofit status and expanding its reach as far as 8,000 people from 15 states, Rivest said.

In November 2023, the couple withdrew their rezoning application request from the town and pulled the plug on their contract with the property owners, a move that opened negotiations between the owners and the Coastal Land Trust.

“I have to say we’re indebted to the Coastal Land Trust for getting us to the finish line here,” Rivest said. “Without their fundraising efforts and expertise I don’t think we would have made it.”

Rivest, who along with her husband splits their time living at their home in Carrboro and the house they bought in Topsail Beach roughly six years ago, said she believes Conserve the Point will maintain a role as stewards of the property.

“There’s so much more than I think there is to really share with young children and future generations about how special the planet is and this particular place is such a gift to all of North Carolina and beyond,” she said. “Thousands of people come here every year for The Point’s beauty and serenity and wildness and I think our organization and others will want to see it maintained like that. So, I think our role will evolve, but the community will continue to be very active in protecting this property.”

North Carolina is one of 11 states receiving a portion of the $25.7 million from the Fish and Wildlife Service through the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program.

This year’s annual funding supports nearly 30 projects that will protect, restore or enhance more than 10,000 acres of coastal wetlands and adjacent upland habitats and more than eight miles of shoreline and streams.

This story has been updated to include funeral arrangements.

Avid birder, wildlife enthusiast and conservationist John Oliver Fussell III, 75, of Morehead City, is being remembered for his decades of contributions to raising awareness of often-overlooked environmental issues affecting the North Carolina coast, particularly its plants and animals, of which he had a deep understanding.

Fussell, who studied zoology at North Carolina State University, died Friday, Dec. 27, 2024, at home. His fellow environmental advocates and scientists have shared their fond remembrances in the days since Fussell’s death.

Paul Branch Jr., who retired last year from his role as park ranger and historian at Fort Macon State Park, shared some details with Coastal Review on Fussell’s early work.

Fussell first held an internship at the park in summer 1974, studying the Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area and its resources and doing preliminary work to lay out a nature trail.

Then, in fall 1975, he was hired under the Comprehensive Employment Training Act, or CETA, Manpower Program both to provide a “State Parks ‘presence’ at the Natural Area during the construction of the Marine Resources Center,” now the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, and to develop the nature trail, Branch said.

“Based on his previous intern work, he established a half-mile trail through the maritime forest along the northeast corner of the tract to the salt marsh along the sound and back,” Branch explained.

The trail was named the Hoffman Nature Trail in honor of Alice Green Hoffman, the relative of the Roosevelt family who had owned and managed the large tracts of land on Bogue Banks from which the Theodore Roosevelt Natural Area had been donated.

Fussell worked there through summer 1976, and that fall under the CETA program, he worked at Fort Macon State Park as an interpreter to give nature and history programs at the park year-round.

“In addition to giving the usual history guided tours and slide shows at the fort, Fussell also began giving bird and nature walks to the public, which were well received. He also created a birding checklist for the park. In the fall and winter of 1977, he worked sorting through and cataloguing museum artifacts at the park,” Branch said, adding that Fussell left the park in 1978 for other pursuits but returned periodically over the years to take birding groups around the park.

Coastal Review contributor and former Hammocks Beach State Park superintendent Sam Bland said he first met Fussell in summer 1978, when both were working at Fort Macon State Park.

“John was the historian/naturalist and I was a park attendant,” Bland said. “I was envious of John as he was always out giving tours of the fort or taking people on nature hikes while I spent most of my time mowing the mosquito-infested grasses of the fort. But we did get to spend some time birding together and he introduced me to the painted buntings. He was a birding mentor to many and I think that is when he was happiest, sharing his knowledge with others.”

Bland said he considered Fussell to be a friend, but, he clarified, their relationship was more on a professional level.

“During my years at Hammocks Beach State Park, we would collaborate to conduct bird surveys on Bear Island and the surrounding marshes. He was my go-to person, as he was to many, for any birding identification or related questions. Often, he would give me a call to see if I had seen a species of bird that he had recently seen further up the coast,” Bland explained. “If it was a specific species of interest, such as a rare, unusual or out of season sighting, he would quiz me about details as he wasn’t going to consider it a confirmed sighting unless he was sure. One winter, a fairly large group of red phalaropes, which is an offshore bird, were spotted close to shore. John wanted to know if I had seen them off of Bear Island, which I had. But it took some convincing to reassure John that I had actually seen this specific species.”

Bland also noted that while well known as an ornithologist, Fussell was also a skilled botanist who would arrive at first light on the days of planned maintenance and cleanups at the Hoop Pole Creek nature trail in Atlantic Beach to put flagging tape on the rare plants to make sure they didn’t get trimmed and were protected.

“He was a great advocate for preservation, protection and restoration of our coastal resources. His ornithological and botanical surveys were instrumental in documenting our natural coastal heritage, especially during times of rampant development. His knowledge was an invaluable resource that will be greatly missed,” Bland said.

The day after Fussell’s death, Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Adviser Derb Carter shared on an online birding forum that with Fussell’s death, North Carolina had lost a “giant in the birding community,” of which he had been a fixture for 60 years.

“He knew the birds and every birding corner along his beloved NC coast like no one else,” Carter posted, referencing Fussell’s book published in in 1994 by the University of North Carolina Press, “Birder’s Guide to Coastal North Carolina” which “remains the definitive guide.”

Carter noted that Fussell “cared deeply” about protecting important habitats and as an accomplished naturalist contributed his knowledge and observations to the identification and preservation of lands by state and federal agencies and conservation organizations.

Among Fussell’s many contributions to promoting birding in the state, Carter explained that Fussell regularly volunteered to lead birding field trips for Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, Wings Over Water Wildlife Festival on the Outer Banks, and other birding events.

“The one thing you could almost be certain of on one of John’s trips is you were going to get your feet soaked within the first hour. If the shortest way was dry, John would take the long way through the marsh or tidal flats on the chance of flushing a rail, sparrow, or wren,” Carter said.

He led Morehead City’s Christmas Bird Count for more than 60 years and participated in the counts in Wilmington and Masonboro Island.

“Sun, wind, rain, or snow he would be dropped off on the north end (of Masonboro Island) by boat first thing in the morning and walk the eight and a half miles to the south end to be picked up late afternoon.  The gulls, terns, shorebirds, and pelicans will be looking for him on Saturday and will miss him. We will all miss him,” Carter said.

Peter Vankevich, co-publisher of the Ocracoke Observer on Ocracoke Island, is a bird enthusiast who founded and serves as compiler of the Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island Christmas bird counts. He’s also an active supporter of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust’s longtime efforts to protect Ocracoke’s 132-acre Springer’s Point Preserve.

“I first met John some years ago when he led a spring walk for the N.C. Coastal Land Trust through Springer’s Point on Ocracoke Island —  not for birds, but to point out the native plants of which seemed to have an equal amount of passion,” Vankevich said. “He was a gracious field trip leader.”

In recent years, Fussell frequently visited the massive wetland restoration project at North River Wetlands Preserve in Carteret County, documenting the changing bird communities as the wetlands are restored, Carter said. The preserve is a 6,000-acre restoration project of the Coastal Federation.

When recognized in 2017 by the North Carolina Coastal Federation with a Pelican Award “For Enduring Commitment to Preserving the Spectacular Natural Heritage of Our Coast,” he said that for many years he focused on environmental issues for which his involvement is disproportionately important.

For example, “Issues that I know a lot about but which are mostly ignored by the general environmental community,” he explained. “I have mostly focused on protecting rare plants and habitats in a major reserve of native biodiversity in our backyard, the Croatan National Forest.”

Fussell told Coastal Review at the time that he spent countless hours documenting the amount and numbers of rare plants in the Croatan National Forest, and sometimes their disappearance, and then getting that information on the radar screen by providing it to the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program and the U.S. Forest Service.

He added that he monitored projects, often at several stages, to make sure information did not get ignored or forgotten.

“I find it rewarding to find that if you persevere, sometimes you can make a difference,” Fussell said.

In the mid-1980s, Fussell worked with the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, on an effort to protect what is now Hoop Pole Creek Preserve area in Atlantic Beach from a massive development project.

“That effort turned out to be ultimately successful and it was a major milestone in the development of the Coastal Federation as an important factor in addressing environmental issues. I found out that sometimes you can make a difference,” Fussell said in 2017.

There was an outpouring of condolences and memories on the birding forum after Carter’s announcement.

Ross McGregor of Stirling, Scotland, previously of Beaufort, wrote that he joined Fussell on Sunday morning birding trips.

“What really struck me about John were two things. Firstly he wore his vast knowledge so lightly. He was a great communicator. He never bragged and was always wanting to learn,” McGregor wrote. “Secondly, he could ask questions like few I have met. He would quiz me about my research on red-cockaded woodpeckers asking questions that really made me think. I think the questions were coming from his desire to know more and understand better, rather than to demonstrate my lack of knowledge and understanding. I learned so much from these chats. For me, it was these things made spending time birding with JF such a joy. He was a thoroughly decent bloke and the world is a poorer place without him.”

Harry LeGrand, who worked for the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, said on the forum that he and Fussell were in some of the same classes at N.C. State University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“He was the premier naturalist for 50+ years for the central NC coast,” LeGrand explained. “Not just with his knowledge of birds but also of botany and various other biological sciences, such as ecology and natural communities. He provided the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, where I worked for 31 years, with numerous reports of rare plants, especially from his beloved Croatan National Forest.”

LeGrand added that Fussell’s 1994 guide “was a birder’s ‘bible’ and is still useful today” because so many public sites have not substantially changed since.

“I will greatly miss JF, as he called himself, as will so many other folks who knew him, went on his many field trips, and got to learn so much from him,” he said.

Bob Lewis of Durham called Fussell “one of the giants” of North Carolina birding of the last 50 years.

Walker Golder, previously with the National Audubon Society, said on the forum that with the death of Fussell, “North Carolina has lost a great person in the bird world.”

Golder said he came to know Fussell in the mid-1980s as part of North Carolina’s early waterbird surveys.

“I consulted him often in the decades thereafter about various areas of the coast. Rest assured, he had been there. He was always glad to chat and would share the unwritten history of the regular birds and the rarities at the site. Birders visiting the coast from other states would often call my office seeking information about where they could see a particular bird. John’s book- A Birder’s Guide to Coastal North Carolina -was (and remains) the source for finding birds on the coast. I always recommended John’s book and occasionally received a call back from folks impressed with the thorough and detailed information. But that’s who I found John to be.”

His funeral will be at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, at Noe-Brooks Funeral Home and Crematory in Morehead City. Visitation will precede the service, beginning at 2 p.m.

Editor Mark Hibbs contributed to this report.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced Wednesday that an additional 593 acres along the Newport River have been purchased from Weyerhaeuser Co. and transferred to North Carolina Coastal Federation for long-term management and restoration.

The Coastal Land Trust purchased the acreage in November, a tract that features estuarine marsh, managed loblolly pine forest, and bottomland hardwoods along more than 4 miles of the river and its tributaries.

The property lies within the Newport River and Black Creek Natural Heritage Area, which the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program has deemed of “very high ecological significance.”

Earlier this year: Groups conserve old Weyerhaeuser tract on Newport River

The latest acquisition is adjacent to the Coastal Federation’s 215-acre McCotter Preserve, upstream from the Coastal Land Trust’s 530-acre Newport River Marsh Preserve and close to the Croatan National Forest. It’s the second phase of a conservation partnership among the Coastal Land Trust, the Coastal Federation and the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point to protect and restore land along the Newport River.

The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

The first phase, completed in 2023, protected 1,436 acres just downstream from this newest conservation project, officials said.

“This conservation success and our partnership with the Coastal Federation have been critical steps forward in connecting existing conservation lands and continuing our efforts to restore significant natural habitats,” Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said.

The revised 2021-25 N.C. Oyster Restoration and Protection Plan, a collaborative restoration blueprint, ranks the Newport River as one of the most economically valuable and environmentally endangered oyster-growing estuaries in the state. Stormwater runoff is recognized as the largest source of coastal water quality impairment. The Coastal Federation plans to restore the natural hydrology and vegetation on portions of each protected property.

“Our close partnership with the Coastal Land Trust has provided important new opportunities for coastal restoration and conservation in North Carolina,” Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis said. “By protecting and restoring these ecologically rich lands along the Newport River, we’re not just preserving habitat, we’re also improving the downstream water quality and fisheries of the Newport River for generations to come.”

The Coastal Land Trust cited retired N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission wildlife biologist David Allen, who said the estuarine marshes along the Newport River near the property likely hosts important habitat for many species of greatest conservation need as identified in the 2015 North Carolina Wildlife Action Plan, including diamondback terrapin, little blue heron, glossy ibis, snowy egret, tricolored heron, and American oystercatcher.

In addition, the combined 2,029 acres are militarily strategic, including transit route between U.S. Marine Corps New River Air Station and the Piney Island Bombing Target, or BT-11, and helicopter turf routes in Carteret County and a flight-holding pattern for Cherry Point.

“Conservation partnerships and projects like this one are important for both coastal resiliency and military training,” said Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Government and External Relations Carmen Lombardo of Marine Corps Installations East-Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. “We were pleased to provide Department of Defense funds toward both projects.”

Funding for the acquisition came from North Carolina Land and Water Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetlands Conservation Act Grant Program, Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Integration Program, and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Enviva Forest Conservation Fund.

Not much has changed in Sledge Forest in the more than 20 years since its distinctive features were captured on the pages of a document created to offer guidance for its future use.

That, said geologist Roger Shew, is the beauty of it.

The forest that rises from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River and sprawls thousands of acres across northern New Hanover County is still an important part of the river floodplain, one of the largest landscape corridors in the southeastern part of the state.

Towering up from the forest bed are cypress and loblolly pine trees, some of the oldest in southeastern North Carolina, that are hundreds of years old, a “rare old-growth occurrence,” according to a biological survey published in May 2003 by the Natural Heritage Program of North Carolina, which identified the forest as a significant natural area.

The forest’s attributes have in recent weeks been thrust front and center in a rumble that tipped off when a Charlotte-based developer submitted to the county’s planning department preliminary plans to build thousands of homes on about a quarter of the more than 4,000-acre, privately owned site.

Because the land being eyed for the proposed development of more than 4,000 single-family houses, a golf course, trails and a horse farm does not have to be rezoned, the project gets pushed straight through to the county’s technical review process, effectively omitting the opportunity for public comment.

That’s simply unacceptable to Castle Hayne resident and local activist Kayne Darrell.

“It’s a by-right property so they can go in and start clear-cutting any time they want,” Darrell told Coastal Review in a recent telephone interview. “We’re hoping they don’t yet. It’s unconscionable to me that we have no opportunity to get our questions answered or have any input on what’s happening because it’s going to impact so many of us in so many negative ways.”

Attempts to reach the developer, Copper Builders, LLC, were unsuccessful. An engineer listed on the development plan application did not return a call for comment.

The homes of Hilton Bluffs, the name of the proposed development, would be built on about 1,000 acres of uplands that adjoin about 3,000 acres of protected wetlands, those that have a continuous surface connection to the U.S. Supreme Court-defined “waters of the United States” – in this case, Prince George Creek, which connects to the Northeast Cape Fear River.

Sledge Forest is one of the largest tracts along a more than 35-mile stretch of the floodplain corridor running from Holly Shelter Creek, at the north, south to Smith Creek.

Shew, senior lecturer in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Ocean Sciences and Environmental Sciences department and a conservationist, said in an email response to Coastal Review that the forest is dominated by hydric soils that are “periodically inundated during high-tide flooding events and storm events.”

Such floods are forecast to only increase with sea level rise, the latest projections of which are a minimum of one foot by 2050.

“High-tide flooding is common along the river and has the potential to inundate much of the site,” Shew said. “And, in the future … most of the area will be inundated fully or partially with river waters. Putting golf courses, horse barns and cabins or single-family homes in this area are ill-advised.”

The roads that will connect those neighborhood amenities will have to be built over wetlands, which will, in turn, block water movement, Shew said.

“And of course, whatever (fertilizer, herbicides, etc.) is put on these areas will runoff into the surrounding wetlands and river,” he wrote.

“The best and most logical use of this land is for it to be left as a natural area that supports wildlife, rich plant communities, corridor connectivity, reduces floodwaters, and maintains all of the ecosystem services of these wetland communities for the benefit of our community in a way too fast-growing area in northern (New Hanover County),” he said. “We need to have a comprehensive plan that maintains large natural areas and this and parts of Island Creek are sights that would be best and be opportune investments for the county for its future.”

Most of the old-growth trees are largely within the project building footprint, Darrell said. A 2003 natural area inventory dated cypress to be more than 350 years old and estimated to be as much as 500 years old, and dated loblollies to be more than 300 years old.

Area residents are also concerned about what is projected to be a significant increase in traffic on rural roads in the area – more than 30,000 additional vehicles per day.

Inactive hazardous site abuts tract

Opponents of the proposed development say they’re also troubled by the fact that the development is being proposed on land that is adjacent to a state-designated inactive hazardous site.

According to information provided by the North Carolina Division of Waste Management, contamination at the site off Castle Hayne Road resulted from drums of calcium fluoride and lubricants being stored in unlined trenches during the 1960s and 1970s.

That contamination spreads across two parcels, one of which is owned by General Electric.

Contamination in groundwater in the northwest corner of GE’s roughly 100-acre tract includes uranium, vinyl chloride and fluoride.

Those contaminants spill over onto a neighboring 1,500-plus-acre parcel owned by Nuclear Fuel Holding Co. Inc., a GE affiliate, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents.

There are also contaminants in groundwater around the main plant on GE’s property. Those contaminants include tetrachlorethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), cis- 1,2-dichloroethene, 1,1-dichloroethane, vinyl chloride, benzene, and naphthalene contaminate, according to the state.

Contamination at the main plant area is contained on-site, but is also close to the northern central property line, said Katherine Lucas, public information officer for the Division of Waste Management, in an email responding to Coastal Review’s questions.

“A portion of the (northwest) Area Contamination has migrated to the adjacent property in the deep groundwater aquifer,” she said in the email.

The site was added to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Inactive Hazardous Sites Branch inventory in 1988.

The department’s Division of Water Resources conducted regulatory oversight of all remedial activities at the site until 2008, when site management was transferred to the branch as part of a reorganization between the waste management and water resources divisions.

The site was added to the branch’s Site Priority list in 2008.

“The area of the contamination has not been calculated,” Lucas said. “Ground water contamination is being remediated with a series of hydraulic control wells and pump and treatment of contaminated groundwater.”

More than 3,500 people have signed an online petition to save Sledge Forest.

Darrell, who helped organize Save Sledge Forest, said the ultimate goal is to get the land in conservation.

“That’s where it belongs,” she said. “We’re not giving up. It’s too special a place.”

The local advisory committees that help guide how the North Carolina Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve program manages its 10 sites are scheduled to meet in November.

The advisory committees made up of volunteers and representatives of community and government groups provide the Division of Coastal Management’s Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve staff with guidance and feedback regarding program activities and management of the reserve sites. The reserve program created in 1989 has preserved more than 44,000 acres of unique coastal environments at 10 sites along the coast.

Schedule

• Zeke’s Island Reserve 10 a.m. Nov. 8, Fort Fisher Recreation Area, Kure Beach.    
• Bald Head Woods Reserve 10 a.m. Nov. 12, Bald Head Island Conservancy.
• Permuda Island Reserve 10 a.m. Nov. 12 town of North Topsail Beach meeting room, 2008 Loggerhead Court.
• Buxton Woods Reserve 11 a.m. Nov. 12, Fessenden Center, Buxton.
• Rachel Carson Reserve 3 p.m. Nov. 12, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Beaufort Laboratory.
• Kitty Hawk Woods Reserve 1 p.m. Nov. 13, Kitty Hawk town hall, 101 Veterans Memorial Drive.
• Bird Island Reserve 10 a.m. Nov. 18, Sunset Beach town hall conference room.
• Currituck Banks Reserve 1 p.m. Nov. 18, Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, Corolla.
• Emily & Richardson Preyer Buckridge Reserve 10 a.m. Nov. 19, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Main Office, 205 S. Ludington Drive, Columbia.
• Masonboro Island Reserve 1 p.m. Nov. 20, University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Marine Science, 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane, Wilmington.

The Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve Program is under the state Division of Coastal Management, which works to protect, conserve and manage North Carolina’s coastal resources in the 20 coastal counties, and is part of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Lovers of “The Point,” the sprawling, undeveloped southern tip of Topsail Island, can get in on the action to help raise money needed to buy and conserve the land forever.

Two community events are scheduled next month to generate financial contributions that will help the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust meet an $8 million goal to purchase the land in Pender County.

An Oyster Roast for The Coast will be held Oct. 1 at Surf City Brewing Co., where local oysters, beer and wine will be served, and music provided, during a silent auction on items donated to raise money for land purchase. Tickets for that event are available at  https://coastallandtrust.org/event/oyster-roast/.

Later in the month, the Coastal Land Trust and community supporters will at the Autumn with Topsail Festival with new merchandise for sale and raffle prizes. The festival is scheduled for Oct. 18-20 in Topsail Beach. Tickets are available at https://www.eventeny.com/events/2024-autumn-with-topsail-festival-9893/#ticket-section

Local residents and businesses have so far raised more than $990,000 toward a $2 million goal, according to the Coastal Land Trust.

The money will be pooled with a recently approved $700,000 North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant and a $350,000 grant Topsail Beach has received to assist in improving public access to the property.

The privately owned land has been on and off the real estate market for years. Topsail Island residents, visitors and environmentalists banded together to conserve the land after a Raleigh-based entrepreneur sought a rezoning request of the land, upon which he wanted to build a family compound. He eventually withdrew the rezoning request.

So far, more than 40 businesses have posted flyers, set up donation boxes and created special merchandise to help promote the community support campaign.

Conserve The Point, a local nonprofit formed specifically to raise awareness and funds to protect the south end of the island, in July launched a community Go Fund Me page to accept donations from $10 to $500.

“Community excitement about the possibility to finally purchase and conserve The Point underscores the love people have for this special part of the Island,” Roy Costa, president of the board of directors for Conserve The Point, said in a statement. “Local residents and Town officials have tried for years to purchase and conserve The Point without success. Now thanks to the NC Coastal Land Trust and the willingness of the property owners to sell the property for conservation, the community is doing its part to realize a lifelong dream to conserve one of the last undeveloped tracts of this special barrier island for future generations.”

Erin Fleckenstein, oyster program director for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, was presented with Dare County Soil and Water Conservation District’s inaugural Salt Marsh Award.

County staff and her colleagues recognized Fleckenstein Tuesday morning during a short presentation at the nonprofit Coastal Federation’s office in Wanchese.

The newly established award recognizes those who make outstanding contributions to the conservation of natural resources in Dare County, with a particular focus on combating erosion, runoff and other water quality issues, the county said.

Soil and Water Conservation Districts are established by state law to help landowners conserve and protect natural resources. The district’s board of supervisors provides citizen guidance and is made up of elected officials and board-appointed members.

Fleckenstein has been a member of the district’s supervisor board since 2015 “providing valuable expert guidance on soil and water conservation, oyster restoration, and living shorelines in general,” officials said, adding that she’s attended meetings and trainings, “but her most important responsibility was to promote soil and water conservation in the community. She has taken this responsibility to heart in her positions with both the Dare Soil & Water Conservation District and the N.C. Coastal Federation.”

Fleckenstein earned her bachelor’s degree in marine and freshwater biology from the University of New Hampshire and her master’s in marine biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She joined the Coastal Federation in 2008 as a coastal scientist in the Wanchese office and served in that role for 14 years before becoming oyster program director in 2022. She also acted as regional manager for the office in the Outer Banks from 2012 to 2022.

Fleckenstein has lead and assisted in a range of projects, including living shorelines to reduce erosion, wetland restorations and other natural mitigation strategies. She has served as a mentor and subject matter expert to boards and committees.

“Erin has played a key role in preserving the Dare Soil & Water Conservation District and all of the work it does. It is our pleasure to present the 2024 Inaugural Salt Marsh Award from the Dare Soil & Water Conservation District to Erin Fleckenstein as an appreciation for the many things she has done, is doing, and will do in the future to improve and conserve the natural resources of Dare County,” county officials said.

The Coastal Federation published Coastal Review.

State agencies and nongovernment groups will be on hand to help landowners navigate resources available to them during a workshop in early October.

The program being offered at no charge is from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Columbus County Government Complex in Whiteville. Dinner will be provided.

Topics include prescribed burn associations, taxes, the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Stewardship Program, Partners for Fish and Wildlife, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, turkey ecology, chronic wasting disease update, and the Forest Development Program.

Space is limited. Register by Sept. 27 with Benjy Strope at 910-874-5562, or Benjy.Strope@ncwildlife.org.

Sponsors include Quail Forever, N.C. Cooperative Extension, N.C. A&T University, N.C. State University, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Wild Turkey Federation, N.C. Forest Service and Wildlife and Outdoor Recreation Foundation.

Live music, a vintage surfing contest, environmental education and an “Oysterpalooza” are highlights of Ocean Fest in Surf City scheduled for later this month.

Taking place at Soundside Park, the oyster event is to take place 4-10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, and the music festival 3-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21.

Tickets range from $25 to $70 per person, depending on the event, and can be bought online.

The $25 ticket for Oysterpalooza includes live music, and a kids zone with Sturgeon City Environmental Education Center based in Jacksonville. The $50 ticket comes with a dozen local oysters. Food trucks, drinks and exhibitors will be on site.

The surfing contest has participants riding vintage mid-length surfboards from the 1960s and 1970s. Before each heat, contestants are to be randomly assigned a board from a curated collection of more than a dozen retro surfboards. Open heat registration is on the website.

The music festival is to feature eight performances, educational exhibits and vendors. The lineup as of late August includes Blue Footed Boobies, Of Good Nature, Will Overman, The Midatlantic, Oceanic, Tyler Mckaig, Justin Cody Fox, The Fontanelles, and Beht Manning.

Children under 10 are free with ticketed adults. Children attending Oysterpalooza without a ticket do not receive oyster tokens.

Three Surf City surfers founded Ocean Fest in 2019 to share their “love for the ocean, celebrate the pure joy of surfing, and, most importantly, give something meaningful back to Mother Ocean,” according to the website. “With that in mind, Ocean Fest strives to educate the community about ecological threats to our precious marine environments and teach how we can better protect those environments.”

Land once eyed for major development proposals on the riverfront across from downtown Wilmington should be conserved, New Hanover County commissioners agreed earlier this week.

Following a public hearing Monday afternoon, the board approved a motion to continue the hearing and allow staff to draft a revised amendment to the county’s 2016 comprehensive land use plan to create a new conservation “placetype” specifically for the western bank at the confluence of the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers. “Placetype” is a planning term used to describe the mix of compatible uses within an area.

A conservation placetype is intended to protect significant natural areas by minimizing land disturbance.

The designation would articulate “our vision this area be conserved in its current state,” Commissioner Rob Zapple said as he made the motion, one that also includes adding a provision in the proposed revised amendment that the county will not agree to extend water and sewer utilities to the area.

Commissioners also agreed to direct county staff to search for state, federal and nonprofit funding and grants to help pay for the cleanup of brownfields and restore and preserve wetlands and estuaries on the western bank. That includes seeking out funding for the county to buy private properties along the river bank.

“What I’m in favor of is finding resources to purchase the property and compensate them justly,” Commissioner Jonathan Barfield Jr. said. “I’m hoping we can tap into some of the federal dollars that’s come down to our state and hopefully those property owners would be amenable to selling the property to the county and then, once we own it, then we could deem it as conservation land.”

Barfield was referring to the federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program, which is disbursing nearly $5 billion to states, local governments, tribes and territories to reduce carbon emissions and boost climate change resiliency efforts.

The Atlantic Conservation Coalition, which includes North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and The Nature Conservancy, has been tapped to receive $421 million from the program to work in conjunction with nonprofit organizations for conservation and restoration projects.

The commissioners’ unanimous vote was met with applause from people who are among what has become an overwhelmingly unified force in opposition to development on the western bank, a movement that began a few years ago when the county was presented with development proposals for a riverfront multistory hotel and a pair of luxury condominium towers.

Opponents have raised a host of concerns about development on the river bank, where flooding is exacerbated by the rising sea, raising concerns about safety, potential economic impacts and the effects of stormwater runoff on surrounding properties, including the National Historic Landmark USS North Carolina.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, maps indicate that by 2050, between 75% and 80% of land along the western bank will be anywhere from 6 inches to several feet underwater, Zapple said.

“Everywhere you look on there in developing the western bank it is problematic and, in my opinion, it’s not a good idea,” he said.

Almost all of those who submitted the nearly 3,000 public comments to the county earlier this summer agreed.

New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet made clear that the commissioners’ decision on Monday does not change the current zoning of the land, which is I-2 Industrial District, one that allows minor industrial uses and uses on a more extensive scale. It does not allow residential development.

“And so, if a development were to proceed that is consistent with the existing zoning … those are projects that if they can meet the technical standards of the ordinance, in fact can go vertical,” he said. “So, this has been a discussion around what the vision should be, not exactly what the zoning on the ground is and so there is, by right, zoning, largely I-2, on that side of the river.”

Wilmington resident Logan Secord, the first of several who spoke at the public hearing, said the county cannot allow the current zoning to be reflected in the comprehensive land use plan.

“We must find a way to protect this land within the authority given to us since conservation, notwithstanding any resources available to us, to see what we can do to protect us,” he said. “We cannot have on the record messages to developers to say yeah, you can put a five-story building there that’s going to be underwater, you can build residences there, you can pay for the initial expansion of utilities and resources and then we foot the bill. This amendment to the comprehensive plan moves us in that direction. It is a step and one that should be of many.”

Isabelle Shepherd, representing the Historic Wilmington Foundation and speaking on behalf of a number of organizations, including Cape Fear River Watch, Alliance for Cape Fear Trees, League of Women Voters of the Lower Cape Fear, Cape Fear Historical Society, North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, said those groups agree all western bank parcels should be in the conservation placetype.

This “best preserves the historical integrity, cultural significance and natural environment of the area compared to creating a low intensity riverfront placetype as proposed,” she said.

Shepherd rattled off a list of considerations commissioners should take into account: Parcels on the western bank are part of a dynamic compound floodplain subjected to high tides, river flooding, and storm surge; the county’s unified development ordinance mandates development should not be risked in hazardous floodplains; development in flood-prone areas can lead to tax increases for county residents; developing the area would threaten historic and culturally significant lands; and that the land on the western bank is home to diverse ecosystems.

“The conservation development scenario would protect these critical habitats from the detrimental effects of urban development, such as pollution, habitat fragmentation and increased flooding,” she said. “Maintaining these natural assets ensures the sustainability of the local environment and its ability to provide essential ecological services. Our coalition understands the desire for development and that there are property rights concerns. We believe the hazardous condition of the area argues against the mixed use and low intensity development that are outlined as possibilities.”

Recommendations for the second round of funding through the Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience grant program include two projects in North Carolina.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday the 32 projects it recommends to receive nearly $220 million under the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021 and the Democratic Party’s anti-inflation measure passed in 2022.

“This is a historic investment in strengthening the climate resilience of our nation’s coastal ecosystems and communities,” NOAA officials said. The projects to restore coastal habitat and strengthen community resilience “will reconnect rivers to their historic floodplains, outplant corals to rebuild reefs, restore salt marshes that protect coasts from erosion and sea level rise, and more.”

Jacksonville has been recommended to receive $8 million in the first year, and up to $16 million total over three years, to restore critical habitat and alleviate flooding within the New River watershed.

The effort, which builds on the success of the New River Estuary Oyster Highway and Wilson Bay restoration project, includes wetland restoration, culvert replacement, living shoreline creation and planting of 3 million oysters. The work is expected to improve water quality, recreational access and community resilience, officials said.

The Nature Conservancy has been recommended to receive $4 million in the first year, and up to $7.9 million total over three years. The conservation organization is to use the funding to lead extensive community engagement to improve fish passage and increase resilience on the Cape Fear River.

The project is expected to identify and garner consensus around a fish passage solution at two dams on the mainstem river. It will also build capacity for local governments by sharing best practices for nature-based solutions to address concerns related to water quality, flooding and other community hazards.

For the first round of grants announced in April 2023, NOAA awarded more than $265 million in funding for 38 projects, including $15 million to the North Carolina Coastal Federation.

The Coastal Federation has been using the funds to partner with the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries to restore nearly 120 acres of oyster habitat in Pamlico Sound to complete the 500-acre goal of the Jean Preston Memorial Oyster Sanctuary. The Coastal Federation has been working with the North Carolina State University Center for Marine Sciences and Technology and North Carolina Central University to provide opportunities for underrepresented graduate and undergraduate students studying marine sciences.

Nags Head Woods Preserve and Jockey’s Ridge State Park are among the six North Carolina sites celebrating 50 years of National Natural Landmarks designation.

Both on the Outer Banks, the two sites were designated on May 30, 1974, as were Mount Jefferson State Natural Area, Piedmont Beech Natural Area within Umstead State Park, and Mount Mitchell, Stone Mountain and Pilot Mountain state parks.

Established in 1962, “the National Natural Landmarks Program recognizes and encourages the conservation of sites that contain outstanding biological and geological resources,” according to the National Park Service, which administers the program.

The U.S. Department of the Interior designated the sites for “their condition, illustrative character, rarity, diversity, and value to science and education,” the park service website states. The first site designations were in 1964 and today there are 604 sites total in the United States.

N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary D. Reid Wilson and Division of Parks and Recreation Director Brian Strong visited Mount Mitchell State Park last week to commemorate the milestone.

“Our State Park system started at Mount Mitchell, the highest mountain in the eastern United States,” Wilson said in a statement. “The National Natural Landmarks program is critical to the preservation and recognition of these incredibly important places. We’re thrilled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the designation of these natural wonders and reiterate North Carolina’s commitment to preserve and protect our environment.”

Secretary Wilson is a member of the National Park System Advisory Board.

“We are grateful for the foresight of the National Park Service and the NC Division of Parks and Recreation who ensured the perpetual protection of these amazing places,” Director Strong said.

A recently closed land deal years in the making just added nearly 3,000 acres to the Gull Rock Game Lands in Hyde County.

On March 28, after almost two years of discussions and negotiations, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust purchased 2,926 acres — 4.57 square miles — of open marsh, pond pine woodlands and oak hammocks for $4.1 million from the Glenn R. Currin and Sue A. Currin Revocable Trusts.

After completing the sale, Coastal Land Trust officials immediately signed the property over to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

“We don’t want to hold those big properties that have a lot of management responsibility,” said North Carolina Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks. “We don’t have the equipment or the staff, but Wildlife does.”

The process was long and complicated, Marks noted, and it required considerable patience on the part of seller.

“I would say that anybody that goes with a conservation transaction has to have some interest in conservation … It is it is something that’s very difficult for many sellers,” he said.

Marks described a process that includes negotiation, surveys and research, but the most complex challenge was finding the money. He said multiple funding entities came into play, each with different requirements.

“So we’re getting a little bit here, a little bit there,” Marks said. “That’s what we do best, is piece together something for a very high-quality project.”

The Coastal Land Trust said earlier this month that the acquisition was made possible with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, N.C. Land and Water Fund, Fred and Alice Stanback, and the Eddie and Jo Allison Smith Family Foundation Inc.

The addition to Gull Rock Game Land is about 15 miles west of Swan Quarter. While the new parcel does not border the current boundaries of Gull Rock, it will still be considered part of the Gull Rock Game Land complex. The site is primarily marsh and is bordered by Spencer Bay, Germantown Bay and Rose Bay.

Although much of the property is only accessible by boat, an access road leads to a clubhouse at Willow Point that looks across Pamlico Sound to the mouth of the Pamlico River. The most prominent feature, however, is the 215-acre impoundment.

The impoundment, Marks said, was particularly important to the Wildlife Resources Commission.

“That was a big reason why the Wildlife Commission was interested in being the key holders,” he said, adding that an impoundment allows for management of aquatic plants that are favorable to waterfowl and shorebirds.

At this time of the year, the impoundment has little water, with only small pools and extensive mudflats, but shorebirds fill the mudflats and wade through the shallows. The drawdown of the water is part of the commission’s management practices, explained N.C. Wildlife Commission Coastal Plain EcoRegion Supervisor Nick Shaver.

“That is really valuable habitat to a whole suite of wading birds and shorebirds. We see that in all of the impoundments that we manage that way,” Shaver said. “Once the waterfowl migrate north, we begin to pull those water levels down.”

There is considerable work yet to be done on the property. A diesel-powered generator at one time ran the pump for the impoundment, but that pump is part of an aging infrastructure that will have to be replaced.

“It is quite aged and probably at the end of its useful lifespan,” Shaver said about the pump. “We have brought a tractor and a different pump out there to try to continue to get the last bit of water off of there.”

Wildlife Resources seeks to tap money available through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to upgrade the impoundment dike and pumps.

“The Inflation Reduction Act had some allowances for the Wildlife Commission to combat some climate change and sea level rise effects that we’re seeing at places like Spencer Bay and Willow Point. We are applying for that money this summer,” Shaver said.

For an impoundment in a marshland like Gull Rock, the rising waters of Pamlico Sound have had dramatic effects on managing habitat.

“When that place was built, you could just open up the gates and it would drain on its own with gravity. That is no longer the case. It has to be actively pumped out,” Shaver explained.

And, Shaver added, the impoundment is not only the new addition to Gull Rock where steadily rising waters have affected management.

“In Pamlico County (impoundments) are similar in that they’re way out in the sound, with no protection around them and virtually at sea level. We’re seeing the same effects there,” he said. “It’s happened in a very short amount of time. Those impoundments were built in the 1960s.”

The impoundment area will not be available to hunters this year. A better pumping system and a higher dike are only part of the needed infrastructure work. Duck blinds in the impoundment cannot be used in their current condition.

Also, Shaver noted, when a property is added to state game lands, the commission must adopt new rules.

“It takes us a year to put a rule in place to manage these properties. One of our goals is to create not only high-quality waterfowl habitat, but (also) a high-quality waterfowl hunt on the impoundment,” he said.

Although the addition to Gull Rock represents a substantial increase in game lands available for hunters and sportsmen, for Shaver the acquisition represents more. To him, it’s a legacy for the public.

“Land acquisition is certainly one of those hallmarks in your career that you can look back on and say, ‘We were able to preserve a piece of property for the public.’ Everybody benefits, from the species and habitat to the public that gets to use it forever,” he said.

The anglers have spoken.

And they apparently did not spare using colorful language to express their thoughts on proposed temporary mandatory harvest reporting rules state regulatory agencies must enforce later this year.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission received a combined more than 3,700 public comments on the proposed rules at the close of the comment period May 20, fisheries Director Kathy Rawls said Thursday morning during the fisheries commission’s quarterly business meeting in Beaufort.

“All I’ll say about them right now is that Catherine (Blum) has a long list of cuss words that she had to redact from the information so that’s kind of where we are,” Rawls said, referring to the division’s rulemaking coordinator.

The comments will be presented to the Marine Fisheries Commission on June 6 during a special-called meeting in which the commissioners are expected to adopt the temporary rules. The Wildlife Resources Commission, or WRC, is scheduled to meet that same day and is also expected to adopt the proposed rules.

In a move likely to draw even more ire from recreational anglers, the state is axing flounder season this year. The fisheries commission declined during its meeting Thursday to hold a special meeting to discuss alternatives to shuttering the already-short season altogether for 2024.

The division issued a release Thursday afternoon stating that the season will not open for recreational harvest this year because 2023 estimates indicate catch surpassed the quota allowed under the commission’s Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan.

Under the proposed rules on mandatory harvest reporting, which are the result of a provision tucked into a controversial law the General Assembly enacted last year, recreational coastal anglers will be required to report harvests of flounder, red drum, speckled trout, striped bass and weakfish.

Related: No 2024 recreational flounder season

The law also requires commercial fishers to list all catch, including finfish, shellfish and crustaceans, that they do not sell to a dealer on their trip-ticket forms. Dealers submit those forms each month to the state, and uses the information reported on the tickets as a means to help manage fisheries resources.

The law dictates that the rules will be enforced in phases over three years. The reporting requirement is set to go into effect Dec. 1, after which time a fisher caught not complying with the law will receive a verbal warning.

Full enforcement of the law is set to kick in Dec. 1, 2026, after which time offenders will face a $35 fine violation. Repeat offenders will face the threat of license and permit suspensions.

Rawls said that division officials hope the General Assembly will push back by one year when the rules go into effect.

A draft special provision that would grant the agencies an extra year is “out there,” she said. 

“That was, from our seat, something that we really wanted to better inform the public because I just don’t think folks are aware that this is coming and it is going to be a huge change for people that are fishing these species,” Rawls said. “The division is doing its best to work through this and the timeframe that we’ve been allowed. We’re still hoping for that extension, but we are working as if that will not happen.”

The law was not requested by either agency, but rather a fledgling nonprofit called North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation.

Foundation Executive Director Chad Thomas in an interview with Coastal Review earlier this month said the idea behind the law was to bring together two state agencies that have a history of conflict over their shared management of joint fishing waters, fill gaps left by federal reporting surveys, and make North Carolina a pioneer in coastal fish data management.

Upward of 1 million recreational anglers fish in state waters any given year, Rawls said.

“And we’re talking about a recreational harvest with these five fish (species) totaling around 2.5 million fish,” she said.

Rawls reiterated that the new reporting mandate will not replace the Marine Recreational Information Program, or MRIP.

That multi-governmental program uses recreational fishing surveys to estimate total recreational catch.

The new mandatory reporting rule “will just provide another data set that we will have,” Rawls said.

Division and wildlife officials are hashing out the finer details of a reporting system for recreational anglers. 

Legislators gave the agencies a one-time, $5 million allocation to set up a reporting system.

During a public hearing last month, officials said anglers will be given the option to report their harvest by scanning a QR code or by going directly to the division’s website. Printed report cards will be placed in bait and tackle shops and other areas for anglers who do not have smartphones or are in areas that do not have cell phone service.

Anglers will be required to provide their fishing license number or first and last name, ZIP code, the types and numbers of species harvested, length of each fish, the area in which those fish were harvested and the gear used to harvest them.

Fishers must report their harvests when they have finished fishing for the day. Those who use printed report cards to record their catch must submit the information electronically by midnight the following day.

Related

• Hearing set on new fishing catch reporting requirement published April 24
• Anglers: Reporting law puts burden on them, unenforceable published May 6
• Fisheries Division seeks to delay mandatory catch reporting published May 8

Hundreds of acres once owned by a timber company and stretching for miles along the Newport River will be conserved and restored through a partnership of environmental nonprofits.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust recently transferred ownership, with restrictions, of a little more than 1,400 acres along Mill Creek Road in Carteret County to the North Carolina Coastal Federation, officially kicking off a multi-year collaboration to enhance the water quality of a river listed as one of the most endangered shellfish growing areas in the state.

It’s a joint effort aimed at improving habitat on the land and in the water, one that highlights how what happens on land affects the water bodies running through it.

“I think it’s just a great opportunity for our two organizations,” Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks said. “We do a lot of work in the same space. Our strength is in acquiring land and the federation has worked on other types of restorative activities so we feel like coming together on this was a real win both organizations and the public.”

Coastal Land Trust purchased the 1,436-acre tract from Weyerhaeuser Co. a year ago. The tract stretches 4 miles along the river and Little Creek Swamp and is rich with estuarine marsh, managed loblolly pine forest, bottomland hardwoods and a rare coastal fringe evergreen forest, which is similar to maritime forest on barrier islands.

The land is also adjacent to the Croatan National Forest, a sprawling 160,000 acres marked by pine forests, saltwater estuaries and pocosins.

The Croatan was once home to 60,000 acres of native longleaf pine, a species that has dwindled from 90 million acres across the Southeastern coastal plain from Virginia to east Texas to now just over 5 million acres thanks to development, logging and fire, or, in the case of longleaf pines, the lack thereof.

Longleaf pine forests thrive on routine fires to keep healthy, but decades of efforts to curtail forest fires only harmed these woodlands.

Janice Allen, Coastal Land Trust senior land adviser, said the organization would like to see longleaf pine flatwoods restored within the tract if possible.

“The reason for that is just the proximity to that section of the Croatan National Forest that once had red-cockaded woodpeckers. That’s the forest of their preference,” she said. “We just thought, let’s work together a little bit on if there’s areas that can be planted back in longleaf.”

Red-cockaded woodpeckers have been on the endangered species list since 1970.

Todd Miller, senior adviser to Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis, said expanding longleaf pine habitat would be “great” because it was the natural forest cover in many areas there and “take the pressure off by creating more habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.”

But the primary focus of the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, is to restore natural hydrology back into a landscape that had been used for commercial timber growth for years.

“That required over the years ditching and, in places, lowering the water table,” Miller said.

Establishing more natural hydrology on the landscape will mean better water quality and fewer problems with surges of stormwater flowing into the river during heavy rainfall and extreme rain events, he explained.

Work will include negating the ditches and blocking off drainage, which will allow the land to regenerate with natural forest cover.

“This is an opportunity to essentially create around a 3,000-acre water quality buffer along the river and the hard work that the land trust did negotiating the acquisition is very much welcome,” Miller said.

The federation is in the process of mapping out the ditches on the land in what has been tapped as Phase 1 of a joint, multi-phase initiative along the river.

Allen said another tract spanning 593 acres along Mill Creek Road and upstream from the land purchased in the first phase is under contract. The organization hopes to close on that tract by late fall.

“And anything else we get under contract we’ll talk about at that point, but we’re working on trying to get other tracts of land hopefully protected along the Newport River,” she said. “I think it’s something that makes a whole lot of sense from the fact that it’s using the expertise of both of us, both organizations. We do a lot of land conservation and they do a lot of wetlands restoration so I think it’s perfect when we’ve got a partnership like this that can worth together on both ends.”

The land was purchased with money from a host of funding sources, including the N.C. Land and Water Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant program, the Coastal Federation and the Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Integration Program.

The Phase 1 tract lies within a military transit route between Marine Corps Air Station New River in Jacksonville and a training bombing range at Piney Island as well as near helicopter turf routes in Carteret County and in a flight holding pattern for nearby Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

State fisheries officials are asking lawmakers for another year to roll out a new harvest reporting requirement for coastal recreational anglers and commercial fishermen.

“This will allow us more time to get the word out to the fishing public about the new law and to help them understand the importance of compliance,” North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Public Information Officer Patricia Smith said in an email earlier this week.

The reporting requirement is set to go into effect Dec. 1, after which time a fisher caught not complying with the law will receive a verbal warning.

Related: Anglers say reporting law puts burden on them, unenforceable

As it stands, full enforcement of the law, which will carry a $35 fine for each violation and the threat of license and permit suspensions for repeat offenders, is set to kick in Dec. 1, 2026. Chad Thomas, executive director of the North Carolina Marine & Estuary Foundation, the relatively new nonprofit that initiated a plan to get the harvest reporting requirement into law, said that the group supports the division’s request.

He said the idea behind the law was to bring together the two state agencies that have a history of conflict over their shared management of joint fishing waters, fill in gaps left by federal reporting surveys, and thrust North Carolina into the spotlight as a pioneer in coastal fish data management.

Under the law, coastal recreational anglers will be required to report harvests of five species: flounder, red drum, spotted seatrout (speckled trout), striped bass and weakfish (gray trout). Thomas said those are the most high-profile recreational fish on the coast.

The division and state Wildlife Resources Commission are accepting public comments on a set of proposed temporary rules the agencies presented during a hearing last week, one in which anglers questioned why the law was created and argued it puts an unfair burden on recreational fishers.

Commercial fishers will for the first time have to include on trip-ticket forms catch they do not sell to a dealer. Dealers submit trip-tickets each month to the state, which uses the information reported on the tickets as a means to help manage fisheries resources.

Thomas, a retired fisheries scientist who worked at the state wildlife agency for 30 years and is a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, pointed out that the legislation the North Carolina General Assembly passed last year does not dictate what the division should do with the data that will be collected under the new reporting requirement.

“But the information that would be gained is extremely valuable,” he said.

The federal survey known as the Marine Recreational Information Program, or MRIP, fails to capture a solid statistical account of certain fisheries in some states, Thomas said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is looking at ways to improve its fishing effort survey. Last August, NOAA Fisheries released the results of a pilot study that suggested reporting in some fisheries and in some states was inflated by as much as 40%.

Data collected through a state reporting requirement will provide information that, over time, will allow fisheries officials to determine the percentage being reported for a species and allow them to follow trends in those species, Thomas said.

“So, if you’re seeing your red drum populations are going up, trending up by way of harvest, and then the federal data is showing something different than that, scientists have an opportunity to ground check both of those data sets,” he said. “If your data is trending up, that’s a good thing. If it starts to drop down, then that can recognize that perhaps another management action needs to happen. It’s a way to backcheck the data the division is already using without putting any undo expectations on the division to use.”

He likened the reporting system to that required of hunters, who must report seasonal kills of wild game including deer and bear to the state wildlife office.

“That’s the only way they can survey to see how many of those animals are harvested every year,” Thomas said. “Without that information, how else do they sample? That’s the idea here behind just the five recreational fish. Those five support a billion-dollar fishery on our coast.”

Smith with the division said in her email that the division does not have an economic impact estimate for the five species that have to be reported.

“Once we move to the permanent rulemaking process, a fiscal analysis will be required,” she said.

Neither the division nor Wildlife Resources requested the new reporting program, which comes with a one-time $5 million allocation from the General Assembly.

Some anglers who spoke during last week’s public hearing argued the new reporting law will simply not be enforceable.

The division’s Marine Patrol and the commission’s law enforcement division have a combined force of a little more than 100 enforcement personnel charged with overseeing an area that includes more than 300 miles of ocean shoreline, nearly two dozen inlets and thousands or estuarine coastlines.

House Bill 949, introduced in the House May 1, aims to inject $600,000 in recurring funds and a one-time $10,000 allocation to the Division of Marine Fisheries for five full-time Marine Patrol officer positions.

That’s not enough, Thomas said, but it’s a start.

“Will (officers) be able to capture everything? Absolutely not,” he said.

Still, he argued, most recreational license holders are going to “do what’s right” and adhere to the rules. And, he said, enforcement officers can ramp up patrols during seasons, which, like that of flounder season, have a relatively small window.

Thomas also addressed concerns that the new reporting requirement will not include fish anglers catch and release.

“Harvest is the only thing that you could enforce because how many I caught and how long I went out there is nothing that I can provide proof of if I’m stopped and checked,” he said. “I think down the line the division, if they find the data to be necessary, then they can add those fields.”

Thomas said additional funds will be needed to keep the reporting program going.

“That’s part of what our group wants to do down the road with the state,” he said. “We want to see this program be successful. North Carolina’s trip ticket information is some of the best in the country. Why not have something like that on the recreational side?”

Gov. Roy Cooper has proposed around $150 million to go toward conservation and resiliency, with $20 million of that for grants to improve draining and reduce flooding, in the recommended budget his office released released last week.

The $34.5 billion proposed budget, “Securing North Carolina’s Future” for fiscal 2025 announced April 24 recommends investing more than $148 million in land and water resources conservation and resilience to natural disasters, according to the 223-page summary of the suggested budget. The focus of the budget is education with with a proposed $1 billion investment in the state’s public school system.

“This budget is an opportunity to build on our state’s momentum and make up ground in areas like public education, quality child care and clean drinking water, where legislators have fallen short,” Cooper said in a statement. “As the number one state to do business in the country for two years in a row, we have the formula for success in our high-quality public schools, talented workforce and thriving economy. We must make targeted investments strengthening public education, boosting economic development, and protecting our natural resources to secure a bright future for North Carolina.”

The $148 million to conserve land and water resources and build resilience will “promote land conservation through tax credits, reinforce ongoing efforts to preserve the state’s natural and working lands, and aim to mitigate future damages from storms, flooding, and wildfires,” according to his office.

One line item specific to Carteret County is the $50 million for infrastructure improvements at Radio Island as a way “to support economic development at the site.”

To address emerging compounds, Cooper proposes $100 million for the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to help communities with new federal drinking water per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, standards and address gaps in available federal funding for PFAS remediation.

Highlights of the conservation and resiliency allocations include the following:

• $2 million recurring and $30 million nonrecurring to improve state parks, matching grants for local projects, and access to beaches and coastline.
• $2 million recurring and $30 million nonrecurring for projects that protect and restore the state’s land and water resources, preserve military buffers, restore degraded streams, and develop and improve stormwater treatment.
• $2.46 million in recurring to help the state preserve farmland through grants for conservation easements, farmland preservation plans, and agricultural development projects.
• $1 million nonrecurring to support agricultural water supply and efficiency increases for agricultural water use, with a focus on increasing assistance for on-farm water storage.
• $1 million recurring to expand sustainability and conservation efforts at the Department of Adult Correction, which manages more than 1,040 acres of natural lands and 54 correctional facilities.
• $20 million nonrecurring to support organizations working to reduce flooding through the restoration and maintenance of streams, waterways, and drainage infrastructure across the state.
• $5 million for the Coastal Resilient Roof Grant Program administered by the N.C. Insurance Underwriting Association to create storm-resistant houses by strengthening roofs against natural disasters.
• $5 million to strengthen an application for $68.5 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and the Division of Coastal Management have partnered on the funding opportunity through NOAA for living shorelines, the Resilient Coastal Communities Program, stormwater improvements, and land conservation to protect against extreme weather in the 20 coastal counties.
• $5 million nonrecurring to enable the N.C. Forest Service to conduct prescribed fires and contain wildfires.
• $4 million to enhance the Flood Resiliency Blueprint with more data about impacts from storm surge and coastal flooding.
• $3 million in nonrecurring funds for grants that support nature-based projects.
• $300,000 nonrecurring to replace the trailers required for transporting mobile units designed to quickly depopulate swine following disease outbreaks, natural disasters, or other catastrophic events.
• A new conservation tax credit to support land conservation efforts.

Republicans have indicated willingness to consider some of Cooper’s proposals and expressed a desire to vote on a budget and adjourn before July.

It didn’t go unnoticed by Hannah Bunn West that the children’s book she helped author on the history of Jockey’s Ridge was released while protections for the National Natural Landmark are at risk on the state level.

That threat is similar to what prompted the largest sand dune system on the East Coast to be saved and ostensibly permanently protected 50 years ago.

On Aug. 15, 1973, siblings Ann-Cabell, Inglis and Gibbs Baum of Kill Devil Hills saw bulldozers at Jockey’s Ridge and ran home to tell their mother, Carolista Baum. In protest, their mother stood in front of that bulldozer, forcing the operator intent on removing sand to abandon his post.

Carolista Baum rallied the community to save the dunes, and she co-founded the group People to Preserve Jockey’s Ridge. The group raised money, held petition drives and lobbied state and local officials. The effort paid off. In 1975, Jockey’s Ridge was designated as a North Carolina state park.

Ann-Cabell Baum spent her youth in Nags Head across from Jockey’s Ridge. She is now vice chairwoman of the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge State Park.

“We were 6, 5 and 3½ the summer of 1973 when we were playing and saw the bulldozer at the back side of the dune,” Ann-Cabell Baum said.

“Jockey’s Ridge means so much to our family, it’s where we as children played every summer day and ran up and rolled down, requiring a swim in the ocean to get some of the sand off before our nightly baths,” she said. “As a kid we thought all kids had a sand dune, and we shared ours with all the visitors to the beach. We always would talk to other kids that we’d meet at the ridge and share with them the best place to jump and catch the most air as well as not leaning too far forward when you ran down, otherwise you might faceplant.”

North Carolina Office of Archives and History Historical Research and Publications Supervisor Ansley Herring Wegner, who came into the role in October last year, thought this was an important part of North Carolina history and decided early on in her new position to pursue a book on the Baums and Jockey’s Ridge.

Wegner has been with the archives office since 1994. She was administrator of the Highway Historical Marker Program since 2014, before taking on the supervisor role last fall.

The conversation to make the story a children’s book was fueled by the attention social media posts would garner when Wegner would share the story of Carolista Baum on the anniversary of the day she stood in front of that bulldozer at Jockey’s Ridge, and began in earnest during the process to establish a historical marker for Carolista Baum, which was installed in July 2023 in Nags Head.

“I thought, I would love to do a children’s book about this because it’s a story for children. It’s a story about children getting things done in their community with their mom’s help,” she said.

Wegner said the archives office has always published historical books, and has recently launched a series for young readers. Her hope is that these children’s books expand their audience and teaches more people about North Carolina history.

Wegner said that, within a week of becoming supervisor, she met with Ann-Cabell, who resides in Raleigh as well, to talk about getting the book written.

“It was my first round with a children’s book, and I just felt like it would be a good one to do,” Wegner said. “It’s an important story. It’s environmental history. It’s children using their voices and getting things done.” 

Baum found the watercolors of Outer Banks artist Larry McCarter that were used for the book. Book designer Sheila Barrett Carroll suggested West write the story because of the book “Remarkable Women of the Outer Banks” that West had published in 2022.

West agreed.

West grew up on the Outer Banks, attended Manteo High School and graduated from University of North Carolina Wilmington. She taught second, third and fourth grades before becoming a freelance writer, publishing in 2022 her book, “Remarkable Women of the Outer Banks,” which features a chapter on the late Carolista Baum, who died in 1991.

West told Coastal Review earlier this week that she met with Ann-Cabell Baum to hear her perspective of that day her mother stood in front of the bulldozer for the chapter on Carolista Baum West included in her book. West and Baum then collaborated on the children’s book.

West explained that in addition to being asked to adapt that chapter for an upper elementary-age reader, she has developed lesson plans and classroom activities to accompany the book for teachers to use as part of the North Carolina curriculum.

“Save Our Sand Dunes” is accessible for everyone from lower elementary, through upper-middle high school, and adults would even enjoy it, West said, and there’s what she called a “really neat mix of visuals” including illustrations, watercolors, photographs, graphics, the bumper stickers they sold to purchase the sand dunes that were privately owned at the time, and at the end, a page for the reader’s own Jockey’s Ridge scrapbook.

West said she wanted to focus on the children’s initiative to save the dune, rather than the legislative work that is heavily featured in her book.

“I wanted the main takeaway of this story to be how it was the three Baum children that really got the ball rolling, and even if you’re young or small, that your voice matters, especially when it comes to protecting the environment or your community or the people around you,” West said, adding she really wanted to drive the point home that kids made such a big difference in this story.

In thinking about what would really connect with young readers, she developed the narrative of the day the children went up on the dune and saw the bulldozer and then witnessed their mother stand in front of the heavy equipment.

Now herself the mother of two, ages 4 and 7, West said many of the parents in her circle have been receptive of the book.

“It’s so timely, such coincidental timing to that we have a book coming out called ‘Save Our Sand Dunes’ and there’s issues happening right now with Jockey’s Ridge.”

She’s referring to the protections for Jockey’s Ridge under the Coastal Area Management Act that are in jeopardy because of a dispute between the Coastal Resources Commission that is legislatively empowered to write the rules, in this case protections for Jockey’s Ridge as a designated Area of Environmental Concern, and the Rules Review Commission, a panel empowered to review and either approve or reject rules.

In October, the rules commission axed 30 longstanding Coastal Resources Commission-enacted rules from the state administrative code, including the AEC for Jockey’s Ridge. Since then, there has been a back and forth between the two commissions over 16 temporary rules the CRC subsequently approved to reinstate what it said were the most critical rules that had been rejected.

The Rules Review Commission then rejected those rules earlier this month over language used, particularly the word “unique,” in describing the sand dune system. The CRC met Thursday to discuss the rejection and heard from several residents fighting again for the dune’s protection, including West and Baum.

The slogan for the campaign to save Jockey’s Ridge in the 1970s was “Jockey’s Ridge for all the People,” West said. “The message is that this is a space for everyone to enjoy, rather than have private developers profit off of it. It’s a space for all the people to enjoy.”

West continued that she thinks that’s the main worry right now with Jockey’s Ridge.

“People’s fear is that it’s going to pave the way for people to be able to develop not necessarily on (the park) because it is a state park but around the area of Jockey’s Ridge. We’ve just seen so incredibly much development on the Outer Banks recently, even in the in the last 10 years, I would say, and while people are becoming really disheartened by a lot of it,” she said.

West said she hopes to use the book to spread awareness of how the dunes were originally saved, so it can serve as a reminder to those who know the story of Jockey’s Ridge, or as a way to educate new residents.

Ann-Cabell Baum recalled writing a book about Jockey’s Ridge in the second grade, “but not quite as great as ‘Save Our Sand Dunes.’ I even made the cover and sewed the pages into the book as part of a class project.”

However, Ann-Cabell Baum continued, “my book wasn’t as beautifully illustrated nor were my pictures as gorgeous as those painted by Larry McCarter. Hannah did a wonderful job of job of taking the summer of 1973 and sharing all the events that unfolded through 1975. We all hope that as kids and adults alike read this book, they’ll become members of the Friends of Jockey’s Ridge and help us build the next generation of kids and adults to make sure Jockey’s Ridge is here for years to come.”

The book really highlights how special a place Jockey’s Ridge is to her family and to everyone in Dare County, and everyone that comes to visit,” Ann-Cabell Baum said.

Ann-Cabell Baum said that with all the concern now that sand may be removed from the dunes without AEC protections, “It’s super important now that everyone realizes protection of natural resources goes beyond just a designation, it’s truly a responsibility to our children and the generations to come that we preserve and protect this super special place.

“It’s all of ours to enjoy, and it’s also all of ours make sure we save it, time and time again, when it’s in jeopardy. And, when it’s in jeopardy like now, with the removal of the AEC, area of environmental concern, we have to raise a fuss, it’s our obligation to make sure we take care of Jockey’s Ridge State Park.”

Buy the book

“Save Our Sand Dunes” by By Hannah Bunn West with Ann-Cabell Baum and illustrated by Larry McCarter and Anne Marshall Runyon can be purchased through UNC Press, which is distributing the book for N.C. Office of Archives and History.

Reprinted from Outer Banks Voice

As the Coastal Resources Commission and North Carolina Rules Review Commission head to court over regulatory language for coastal development and use, Jockey’s Ridge State Park is in danger of losing its Area of Environmental Concern protections.

The Area of Environmental Concern, or AEC, protections, among other things, prohibit removing sand that has migrated off the dune and allows the state to periodically move that sand back within park boundaries. The AEC also has provisions prohibiting some types of development in close proximity to the park.

There is increasing frustration with the rulings of the Rules Review Commission about what would constitute acceptable language for AEC protection.

Coastal Resources Commission is scheduled to hear an update Thursday during its meeting in Manteo on the Rules Revision Commission’s April 8 objection and hold a discussion in closed session.

Related: CRC to consider variances, hear rulemaking update

The Rules Review Commission determines the language that is used by regulatory agencies. It has ruled that some 30 regulations that govern how the Coastal Area Management Act, or CAMA, operates are vague, imprecise or inconsistent with its mandate. Those rules have been removed, including the AEC protections for Jockey’s Ridge.

The Coastal Resources Commission attempted to create temporary rules for the Jockey’s Ridge AEC in March, but the Rules Review Commission rejected those rules earlier this month, using the word “unique” 16 times in the five paragraphs written rejecting the AEC rule.

Although there were other descriptions and language the Rules Review Commission rejected, the word unique was associated with almost every objection.

Rules Review Commission counsel Brian Liebman wrote in part that the Coastal Resources Commission “does not define what degree of exclusivity transforms an ordinary geologic formation into a ‘unique’ geologic formation and does not define the coastal area in which these formations must be found.”

The North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation describes Jockey’s Ridge as “an excellent example of a medano, a large, isolated hill of sand, asymmetrical in profile and lacking vegetation.”

Nags Head Mayor Ben Cahoon pointed out that there is nothing else like Jockey’s Ridge on the East Coast of the United States, and by that definition, it is unique.

“Jockey’s Ridge, as far as I know on the East Coast of the United States is unique…How many words do you want to use? There’s not another one like it. And it is in fact unique,” he said.

Speaking for herself, former Nags Head Commissioner and Coastal Resources Commission Chair Renee Cahoon, also voiced frustration.

“It’s just mind-boggling that all of a sudden, there’s verbiage use that’s not acceptable to a new Rules Review Commission that has been accepted for every 10 years by previous Rules Review Commissions and that were accepted by the initial Rules Review Commission when we made the rules,” she said.

The Coastal Resources and Rules Review commissions are currently in court over the wording that can be used in rulemaking. The Coastal Resources Commission is responsible for writing the language that is used in its regulations. The Rules Review Commission determines if the language is sufficiently clear and not open to interpretation.

“Because this matter is pending litigation, we are unable to comment,” Nazneen Ahmed, Press Secretary for Attorney General Josh Stein, wrote in an email to the Outer Banks Voice.

An attempt by the Coastal Resources Commission to put into effect temporary rules consistent with what had been in use for some time, was disallowed by the Rules Review Commission.

For Mayor Ben Cahoon, it leaves the town of Nags Head in a difficult position. The town, he said, will do all it can to support and protect Jockey’s Ridge, but there is a real limit to what a municipality can do.

“We’ll do what little bit it can do by ordinance…in the interim, until it’s all resolved,” he said. “But I see at some point, as frustrating as it is, we have to realize it’s out of our hands until either these two agencies come to agreement or the court or the legislature weighs in somehow.”

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

A team of natural resource professionals and private landowners have been working over the last few years to empower women in forest conservation and stewardship in North Carolina.

The organization, ForestHer NC, was established in January 2019 to offer programming statewide for “marginalized genders including women-identifying individuals, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and those who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women forest stewards,” according to the website.

Next for the organization are songbird identification workshops in each region.

The workshop on the coast is from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday, May 10, at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Currie, which is part of the North Carolina Birding Trail. Workshops are also planned for May 3 at Eno River State Park, and May 17 at Oak Hills Community Park in Morganton. Registration for all songbird programs is at foresthernc.org.

Dakota Wagner, past chair of ForestHer NC, told Coastal Review that the organization offers programming on forest stewardship in an inclusive and supportive environment.

The workshop in Pender County is an opportunity to “learn about songbirds of the coastal region and how to best manage your woods for them, while getting to know other landowners and professionals from the region. And hopefully, the weatherman will give us a beautiful day to be walking in the woods,” Wagner added.

Past workshops for ForestHer NC include one earlier this year at Lake Mattamuskeet on waterfowl, wood-pile burning in the Blue Ridge, and a “Learn and Burn” with the North Carolina Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association on a private farm in the area.

Wagner, whose full-time job is southeast program manager for the nonprofit Forest Stewards Guild, said the mission is “to support, educate, and empower a community of women landowners and natural resources professionals to engage in forest conservation and stewardship” in the state. “We do this primarily through hosting educational workshops and webinars and fostering community.”

The program is run by volunteers with an executive board and several committees such as the workshop planning committee and communications committee. “We always welcome new voices to our committees and executive board.”

Anyone can join, Wagner added, “all you need to do is sign up and show up, ready to learn.”

While this organization is geared toward women landowners in the state, the programming is offered to “all marginalized genders including women-identifying individuals, non-binary and gender non-conforming people, and those who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women forest stewards,” Wagner explained. “I particularly love it when families show up to workshops together – we’ve had several mother and daughter duos and it’s always inspiring to see.”

The workshop planning committee is responsible for a lot of the workshops and webinar planning, Wagner said. They take feedback from the end-of-year surveys and craft a plan for the following year based on responses.

“For example, in last year’s survey we heard that many of our ‘ForestHers’ are interested in wildlife management, which prompted the development of this year’s spring workshop series focused on songbird identification and forestry for birds,” Wagner said.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Extension Wildlife Biologist Falyn Owens and serves on the group’s workshop planning committee, said Moores Creek was chosen on the advice of Audubon NC, a co-host of the workshop, “as a good place to see a good variety of songbirds and their habitats in Coastal NC, while also being accessible for participants.” The site has facilities and a picnic area.

Owens said participants can get a look at the possible birds they’ll see during the walk at eBird.

ForestHer NC works with several conservation groups and agencies, including The Nature Conservancy, which is a partner for the May 10 workshop.

“Through those partnerships we receive funding to host workshops on specific topics. Last year, we hosted a controlled burn workshop with the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association that was a huge success,” Wagner said.

The conservancy in North Carolina’s Southern Coastal Plain Program Director Deb Maurer said the nonprofit works on a variety of conservation initiatives in the state “through means of protection, habitat restoration, restoring wetlands and peatlands, working on waters and rivers to improve water quality and reduce flooding.”

To reach these goals, the conservancy works with partners like ForestHer NC.

“I think what we realized is that nobody can achieve landscape goals in isolation, right? There’s just too much work to be done and too many strategies that need to be implemented, to really achieve big, broad conservation goals,” Maurer said.

These partnerships bring together dozens and dozens of people from the federal and state level, universities, nonprofits and conservation groups “to the table to talk about what are conservation priorities in that region in that area? And how do we bring our strengths to the table to accomplish those things?”

Maurer said the conservancy offered support through two recent grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the songbird identification workshop as a way to get more information out to a diverse landowner audience on better land management and ecological topics such as knowing the songbirds on your land.

Events like the Learn and Burn with the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association helps the conservancy “expand our reach on better land management in the longleaf ecosystem here in southeast North Carolina,” Maurer said.

Through better land management by private landowners, Maurer said the conservancy is closer to reaching its “vision of a connected, healthy, resilient, longleaf landscape,” Maurer said. “Because we can’t protect it all right? We need to be able to work with private landowners and partners that work with private landowners” because the conservancy can’t always work directly with private landowners.

“By supporting ForestHer, we’re supporting better management on private lands,” Maurer said, adding that’s one way to achieve these ecological and longleaf ecosystem goals.

And, the conservancy is “strongly committed to making sure that we are reaching out to underserved communities,” and those who are traditionally excluded in outreach for education on prescribed burning, for example, and that includes women, people of color and individuals with diverse gender identity,” Maurer added.

Groups like ForestHer are really working not only on outreach and education, “but really trying to reach audiences that hadn’t been reached in the past. They’re a wonderful partner to have to help us achieve our goals,” Maurer said. “Working with conservation partnerships, we can use everybody’s strengths to achieve what we want to achieve. It’s pretty a wonderful way of working.”

With its rich, tea-colored waters and ancient bald cypress-peppered swamps, there’s something alluring, almost sacred about the Black River.

Stretching more than 60 miles, this river that meanders through portions of rural counties in southeastern North Carolina has much to offer. Paddlers enjoy exploring its majestic swamps. Wildlife in the area draw hunters and fishers to its banks. Conservationists marvel at its majestic bald cypress, the oldest trees in North America east of Nevada.

The one thing the river does not have is its own advocacy group. But that’s about to change.

The inaugural meeting of the Friends of the Black River will be hosted Tuesday at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County.

Organizers of the newly-formed group hope to build an alliance of organizations and people, particularly those who reside on and near the river’s banks, interested in helping protect the river.

Julie Moore, a botanist and chair of the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program’s advisory board, said the idea is to think about many different ways to advocate for the river.

There is, of course, preservation through buying some of the land along the river.

More than 17,000 acres is protected within the borders of the Black River Preserve, which includes swamplands that are home to some of the oldest bald cypress trees affectionally called Three Sisters.

“The Nature Conservancy is doing a good job with buying the land at the swamp land and some uplands, but it’s what goes on in those adjacent uplands that can make a difference,” Moore said.

Whether it’s the young blueberry farms that are cropping up on the upstream landscape, or industry eyeing land to set up shop along the river banks, different things that could possibly affect the river require different ways to advocate for it, she said.

“We need people who are on the scene to watch those things, to go to county meetings and understand what’s happening. I think local people make the best advocates. People need to look after what’s in their backyard. You can’t expect a federal agency or state agency to do all the care that’s necessary for an area and that’s over 50 years of my observation. So, I think having local people on the scene, they can see if there’s dumping or illegal activities,” Moore said.

The idea behind Friends of the Black River was born a year ago under the backdrop of a bald cypress aptly named “Methuselah,” a tree estimated to be about 1,700 years old.

As Southern Conservation Partners, Inc. President Chuck Roe tells it, he and Moore were among a handful of people who had kayaked a portion of the river taking respite on a river sandbar under the tree.

The conversation that ensued that day was one of concern about the river’s long-term security.

“Our Black River has the most extensive surviving expanse of old growth swamp forest left in North America,” Roe said. “Some have described the Black River as a river that saved itself because it was so shallow and meandering that it was not conducive for channelizing and commercial industrial use, and so it had the good fortune to survive and its natural communities to survive.”

That’s where the idea of an advocacy group was born.

Southern Conservation Partners, an all-volunteer, nonprofit that helps local communities across the southern U.S. protect, restore, and enhance environmental resources, put up the funds to create https://www.blackriverfriends.org.

The URL for “Friends of the Black River” was already taken by another group advocating for a Black River in a different state.

The first meeting of the North Carolina edition of Friends of the Black River will be hosted at around 3 p.m. following the meeting of the Cape Fear Arch Conservation Collaboration, which starts at 10 a.m.

Speakers at the Cape Fear Arch meeting will include a representative of the Coharie Tribe, North Carolina Coastal Land Trust staff, The Nature Conservancy, and Dr. David Stahle, University of Arkansas distinguished professor of geology who discovered the Black River’s ancient trees.

Both meetings will be held in Patriots Hall, 40 Patriots Hall Drive, Currie.

Tell the public about a contract to buy land?

This isn’t business as usual for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

But this time around, the prospective buy is a 150-acre tract of barrier island that has been written about in media outlets across the state and, on occasion, in national publications on and off for years. And it’s going to take some very public fundraising efforts to make the purchase possible.

So, pursuing the pristine, undeveloped expanse of land at the southern tip of Topsail Island affectionally named “The Point” has the Wilmington-based nonprofit established in 1992 breaking precedent.

“Our normal approach is we work privately with the sellers and we go through all our work and then, when it’s all done, we announce a deal. So, this is very different for us,” said Harrison Marks, the trust’s executive director. “This is a tight budget year for the state and we depend on state funds typically for projects. We don’t have a formula (for public fundraising) because this isn’t something we normally do.”

He’s hoping the state will come through on giving at least some money toward the purchase.

The Coastal Land Trust has a little less than a year to seal the deal. It has to close on the land on or before March 31, 2025.

Marks declined to reveal the actual price tag of the land, but said the appraisal is “somewhat more” than the purchase price.

All told, the organization expects to spend about $8 million on various expenses, surveys and title searches, and the land itself.

A little more than a week has passed since the trust announced that it had a contract with the four families who own different chunks of the land.

As of Thursday, more than 100 online donations approaching $50,000 in total had been made, Marks said. Substantial pledges, some in the range of six figures, have also been made.

Roy Costa, founder of the more-recently formed nonprofit, Conserve the Point-Topsail, said his organization is working with the Coastal Land Trust to figure out how to best support the fundraising efforts.

Costa said the contributions Conserve the Point has received have to date covered the organization’s operational costs.

“We really see that the Coastal Land Trust is a good place to do, in particular, major donations,” he said.

Conserve the Point was born out of a grassroots effort to raise public and private funds to buy the land at the south end of Topsail Beach, an opportunity that arose when a young, wealthy couple backed out of plans last November to build a family compound on the land.

Todd Olson, co-founder and CEO of Raleigh-based software company Pendo, and his wife Laura spent months trying to persuade Topsail Beach officials to rezone fewer than 30 acres of the property from C4: Conservation — Inlet Area to conditional use. The change would have allowed about a half dozen homes, a private marina, pool and beach and sound accesses to be built.

The property has steadily accreted over the years as the southern end of the island at New Topsail Inlet has gained sand, making it a favorite spot for island property owners and tourists who enjoy walking its beaches.

The Olsons’ proposal was met with fierce opposition from other area property owners, regular vacationers to the town, and environmentalists.

Thousands signed an online petition urging town officials to reject the rezoning request. People passionate about keeping the land as-is flooded town meetings whenever the request was up for discussion.

Months before pulling the plug on their contract with the property owners, a deal that was contingent upon getting their rezoning request approved, the Olsons signed a letter of intent with the Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the land.

Attempts to buy the land, including those by the town to keep it free from development, have yet to pan out. Around 2005, the Coastal Land Trust tried to buy roughly 45 acres of the property, but a deal was not reached at the time.

This time around, supporters of conserving the land are hopeful the signed purchase and sales agreement between the Coastal Land Trust and the property owners will come through and end the threat of development.

“Everybody’s quite excited, including a lot of people in our community,” Costa said. “This is perfect timing, the perfect opportunity. I think there’s a groundswell of support for conservation efforts, particularly here in North Carolina, and so I think with all the conservation efforts that are going on that this is definitely something that can quite easily happen with the help of everybody.”

The Coastal Land Trust is looking to host a meeting in May in Topsail Beach to discuss its plans with town officials and answer questions from the public.

“We just are very grateful that (the property owners) gave us an opportunity to talk with them and I feel fairly confident that they could have done something with other people who had an intent to develop some of the property and, ultimately, think that would have occurred,” Marks said. “They were will to sell us the property at the price that they did because I think they care about seeing the property conserved as well.”

Once the Coastal Land Trust buys the land, it will be transferred to state ownership and managed by the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. That agency said it hopes to partner with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, which would help manage and monitor shorebird nesting areas.

Details about the upcoming public meeting are to be announced on the Coastal Land Trust’s website. Donations may be made online.

New Bern is commemorating Arbor Day at 11 a.m. Friday with a ceremonial tree planting at Martin Marietta Park, at 700 S. Glenburnie Road.

New Bern Parks and Recreation is hosting the event being held at no charge for the public that will include remarks from special guests and refreshments. Attendees are encouraged to commemorate the event by taking home free flowering cherry tree seed packets, while supplies last, to plant, nurture and grow at home.

The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. North Carolina Arbor day is the first Friday after March 15, according to the Arbor Day Foundation.

“If ever there was a time for trees, now is that time,” Parks and Recreation Director Kari Warren said. “Communities worldwide are facing issues with air quality, water resources, personal health and well-being, energy use, and extreme heat and flooding. New Bern is doing its part to address these challenges by focusing on our environment, encouraging the planting of trees, preserving soils, and supporting local wildlife.”

2023 marks the 28th New Bern has been awarded the Tree City USA designation. The city is one of 74 cities and towns in the state and one of over 3,600 in the nation to receive the recognition.

To receive this recognition, the city must have a tree board or city department responsible for caring for and managing the community’s trees, a public tree ordinance that establishes policies for managing street and park trees, a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita, and an annual Arbor Day Observance and Proclamation to celebrate trees and the many benefits they provide.

More than 400 acres in Southport will be permanently conserved if the state follows through with buying the land.

The Southport Board of Aldermen in a 4-2 vote last week gave the interim city manager the green light to offer the land to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission for a little more than $637,000.

Part of the sale agreement, city leaders emphasized, requires that the state place the land in conservation in perpetuity.

An Oct. 10, 2022, letter from a wildlife commission official to the board indicating the agency’s ongoing interest in the land stated the commission’s desire, “with the hope of protecting the property’s significant conservation value in perpetuity.”

Interim City Manager Bonnie Therrien explained during the board’s March 14 meeting that wildlife commission officials were waiting to receive final approval from its funders before signing off on the sale. Funding is provided through the N.C. Land and Water Fund, state Attorney General’s Office Environmental Enhancement Grant Program, and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act Program.

The wait is over whether the funders will give the OK for a 5-acre sliver of land that would adjoin the property but remain under local government ownership be the site of a future county-built water tower.

Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point officials are also looking at the proposed water tower site to determine whether such a structure would be appropriate on land that is within the Army ammunition port’s blast zone

At the time of the meeting, the city was waiting to hear back from federal government officials, Therrien said.

The city’s offer officially provides the state wildlife commission an opportunity to buy the land it initially expressed an interest in purchasing four years ago.

The commission received funding in late 2021 to buy the land, an area wildlife officials say is ecologically important because it supports both federal- and state-listed species, including federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and state-listed species of amphibians.

Because of its proximity to 16,000-acre ammunition port, the largest in the country, the federal government prohibits the land from being developed.

Two years ago, a commercial construction firm offered to buy or lease no fewer than 50 acres from the city to mine clay-like material and use the earth to build up eroded berms buffering ammunition and explosive areas within the Army installation.

The wildlife commission returned to the city to remind aldermen of its request to buy the land in hopes of expanding the game land footprint in the area. The property is adjacent to the state’s Green Swamp Game Land.

Before aldermen cast their votes, Southport resident Tom Veale praised the board’s intent to sell the land to the state.

“That’s a great thing and it’ll benefit everybody for generations to come having that as green space,” Veale said, noting that he represented a group of 300 members of a group who opposed mining on the land.

The city bought a majority of the little more than 440-acre tract in 2005 with plans to use it as a spray irrigation site for a new sewer plant. Southport officials eventually opted out of building a plant, instead deciding to merge the city’s water and sewer with Brunswick county.

The wildlife commission initially made an offer of $660,000 for the land, but the city trimmed the final asking cost because the sale includes about 426 acres. In addition to the 5 acres the county wants to set aside, Southport wants to keep 10 acres to use as a debris-disposal site and training area for the city’s fire department.

The city’s sale agreement will now go to the Southport Planning Board for review and recommendation. The planning board’s recommendation will go back to the board of aldermen for a final vote.

The Coastal Land Trust has selected Kenneth Lingerfelt as its new director of land protection.

Lingerfelt, who has been the Coastal Land Trust’s GIS specialist and land stewardship associate, joined the organization in January 2022.

“Kenneth is thoughtful and creative, organized, and efficient, and a pleasure to work with daily. I am thrilled we were fortunate enough to have Kenneth already a part of our staff,” Executive Director Harrison Marks said in the announcement.

Lingerfelt has worked closely with the organization’s longtime Director of Land Protection Janice Allen, helping prepare land protection plans and grant proposals, the group said. Allen now assumes the senior advisor for land protection role and will continue with the Coastal Land Trust at least through the end of this year.

“This extended transitory period provides time for Allen to share more of the knowledge and wisdom gained over her 26-year career at the Coastal Land Trust, providing assurance the organization’s on-going land protection work will continue unabated,” according to the announcement.

The organization described Lingerfelt’s youth experiences, when he would explore North Carolina’s “wild spaces,” as having informed his career dedicated to conservation.

“Lingerfelt’s knowledge of landscape scale issues of the NC coastal plain, his understanding of the opportunities and threats to land conservation in the region, and his known qualities of teamwork, integrity, leadership, and diligence made him the top choice to fill this critical position,” Coastal Land Trust officials said.

Prior to joining the Coastal Land Trust, Lingerfelt worked with organizations including Trout Unlimited, the National Park Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. During his time with the commission, he was recognized as Technician of the Year in 2018 for his work leading a field research team assessing the health of major cold-water drainages in western North Carolina.

Lingerfelt grew up in Asheville, attended the University of North Carolina Asheville, where he competed for the university’s D1 soccer program and received his Bachelor of Science in ecology and field biology in 2014.

Allen had recommended Lingerfelt for the new role.

“Kenneth has impressed everyone on staff with his knowledge, drive, and passion for land conservation. I have full confidence in Kenneth’s ability to excel as the new Director of Land Protection and look forward to working with him during this transition,” she said.

Lingerfelt’s current manager, Jesica Blake also endorsed the selection saying, “Everything Kenneth has done over the past two years has been done extraordinarily well. He has the intelligence, drive, and interpersonal skills to take on this leadership role.”

Second in a series

In January 1972, Earl Slick purchased the Pine Island Hunt Club for $2.75 million.

It was in some ways a steal. The nearly 3,000-acre tract ran from the Atlantic Ocean to the Currituck Sound and included miles of oceanfront, pristine marsh, wooded uplands and interior ponds. A two-story white clapboard lodge straddled a sprawling grass field and freshwater pond built for migrating waterfowl. On blue sky days it was possible to see three miles across the shallow sound to the distant mainland towns of Coinjock and Moyock. Look to the east and the even darker blue ocean limned the sand dunes.

Slick was unsure what to do with the historic property now that he owned it – or if he even wanted to keep it. He wavered between developing it and preserving it. Between building a small arcadia of cottages and leaving the rest alone, a sanctuary.

In 1973, he asked William E. Hollan Jr., who had recently begun working for him, to see if the National Audubon Society, The Nature Conservancy or the federal government might be interested in buying the tract. “He thought at the time he could flip it to a conservation entity,” Hollan recalled. “I spent about a year trying to find some type of nonprofit or government entity to acquire Pine Island at cost. … At that time there was no money or no interest.”

Slick didn’t want the Currituck Banks to be swamped by development the way Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head had been in the postwar building boom that transformed the Lower Banks into a vacation resort. Currituck County commissioners shared his concern and asked for Slick’s help as they scrambled to formulate a plan to manage the expected growth. In a controversial move, Slick agreed to restrict traffic through his property unless developers agreed to cluster-style resorts with centralized utilities. But slowing the wave of development was never going to be easy. Developers and speculators had already acquired 6,000 lots on the Currituck Banks, and another 5,000 were listed for sale. It seemed inevitable that a road would eventually be built.

And it was.

Unable to sell the property, Slick tried to develop it. For help, he turned to his first cousins, Joe and Rex Frates, real estate developers from Oklahoma, and their associate Devane Clarke from Dallas, Texas. The out-of-state trio entered into a partnership with Slick to design and market a modest resort. “They sent out a man and he did a lot of work,” Hollan said. “The idea was to build 50 to 100 cottages around the Pine Island Club House. They would leave the rest of the property open. It would have a low-density appearance.”

But the timing couldn’t have been worse. In 1973, the nation slipped into a lengthy recession after OPEC implemented an oil embargo. Real estate projects dried up everywhere and the Frates brothers and Devane Clark found themselves squeezed for cash. The plan for Pine Island stalled as well. The cousins met with Slick and it was decided to end the partnership. “I think they looked at the plan and said this is just not marketable. We’re not going to get our investment back. We would like to gracefully back out,” Hollan recalled.

Slick turned his attention to the southern portion of his Pine Island holdings, known as the South Mile, near the border of Dare County. He had sold a small tract to the Venture Management Group, which included John C. Whitaker Jr., the son of Slick’s Winston-Salem friend, John Whitaker Sr., the CEO of Reynolds Tobacco. The young developers modeled their Sanderling resort – named for the small, puffy sandpipers that skitter along the beaches – after the restrained, Nags Head style cottages of old, advertising Sanderling as “Life the way it was” on the Outer Banks. There were no pools or tennis courts but lots of trails and quiet, natural spaces.

The group developed two sections of Sanderling but then stopped. Once more, Slick faced a dilemma: find someone to continue building or sell and recoup some of his original investment. Hollan said Slick leaned toward selling but that he convinced his boss to allow him to take over the project. They finished six additional sections and in 1986 added an inn with 29 condominium-style rooms. Over time, more condominiums were added, a spa and tennis facility, and two restaurants, one basically a coffee shop, the other for fine dining. A copy of Audubon’s “Birds of America” was placed in the lobby of the inn.

“Mr. Slick wanted it to resemble a hunting lodge,” Hollan said.

~

Earl Slick didn’t run Pine Island like other hunting clubs. There were no memberships, meaning you couldn’t buy your way in. You had to be invited. Slick kept a close group of friends from his Yale days and business dealings. Many were from the Winston-Salem area. But there were also friends from Nova Scotia and a “flying preacher” who likely landed his plane on an airstrip Slick built near the marsh. There was a men’s only trip, trips with wives, a dove-hunting trip in September, trips to fish, and of course opening day of duck hunting season in December – maybe a dozen trips a year, said Hollan.

The guests might hunt for an hour or two, have lunch at Pine Island or The Narrows, play cards (Slick loved to bet and to win), and enjoy a drink before supper. The bar was fully stocked and there was usually a bottle of Aquavit in the freezer. Slick stuck with vodka, gin or light rum, depending on the season and his mood. The upstairs bedrooms were small and spare but comfortable enough. Later, Slick built several cabin-style houses for his wife and family in the upland woods overlooking the fields and marsh. His daughter Phyllis and Paul Mickey Sr., the Steptoe & Johnson attorney, also built cabins nearby.

One of Slick’s favorite guests was Donal O’Brien, a prominent New York City attorney for the Rockefellers and a board member of the Audubon Society. He came every year with his wife Kate. O’Brien was a legendary fundraiser and likely met Slick that way. Slick donated to Audubon and was the recipient of various conservation awards. The duo got along famously. O’Brien was a natural storyteller, discreet, humble, and he could shoot. He quickly saw the value of the Pine Island marshes as a refuge for birds and in March 1977 wrote an impassioned memo to his board following a solitary morning hike.

“There must have been 2,000 birds, mostly Pintails and Canada Geese, but there were others as well – Blacks, Ducks, Mallards and Green-Winged Teal. I was stunned by this spectacle. I know I had never seen so many waterfowl in one place at one time … and in those magical moments of that March sunrise, I knew that this was a property that had to be saved for the ages.”

A year later, in August 1978, Earl Slick agreed to donate half of Pine Island to Audubon and help to endow a fund for the planned sanctuary. As part of the agreement, Slick continued to manage the property for a decade, while also earning a generous tax break, spread over several years. Initially. Audubon agreed to pay Currituck County property taxes on the tract but then reversed itself, fearing the nonprofit was setting a precedent that could affect its other land holdings.

~

A decade later, in 1989, Donal O’Brien approached Slick with a new idea. According to Hollan, O’Brien proposed to Slick that Audubon give back most of the oceanfront it had received as part of the original donation. In return, Slick would give Audubon the remaining marsh he owned. Audubon officials described the deal as a win-win. The marsh held more value for migrating birds; it was a safe place for the birds to rest and feed. Slick, on the other hand, would add prized oceanfront. This at a time ocean property was doubling and tripling in value.   

Slick saw the value of the swap. But Hollan said he was concerned how the trade would look. “He didn’t want to be thought of as a slick (no pun intended) real estate developer.” There had to be a net gain to Audubon, so Slick decided to also give the nonprofit the 1,000 acres of mainland marsh he owned as part of The Narrows Hunting Club. After the trade, Audubon controlled about 3,000-acres of marsh, while Slick owned most of the oceanfront from Sanderling to Pine Island.

Slick, now nearly 70, wanted to move quickly. The market for oceanfront real estate had begun to veer toward larger, more luxurious houses from the more restrained cottages that John Whitaker Jr. built as part of the original Sanderling. Instead of passing second homes across generations, investors saw the bigger homes as money machines — a way to generate both sizable tax breaks and profits by renting them to vacationers for up to $10,000 a week. An investor could pay off his or her mortgage in less than a decade and use the profits to buy another house, and then maybe another. Currituck, once a lonely outpost, was fast becoming a source of vast wealth for developers, investors, and county officials.

Slick owned the land. But Hollan turned to a popular local builder, Bob DeGabrielle, to develop and market Pine Island. In a bio, DeGabrielle writes that he developed and sold over $1 Billion worth of real estate on the Outer Banks. After he retired in the 2000’s, he became one of the early entrepreneurs in the emerging cannabis industry, founding the largest outdoor cannabis farm in North America. In 2001, he sold the farm for $67 million.

“Bob is a force of nature, very enthusiastic, the most efficient person I’ve ever met in my life,” Hollan said. “He started at 5 in the morning … and he carried two Dictaphones with him.” 

DeGabrielle built to the new luxury market – houses with six to 10 bedrooms, HGTV-style kitchens, entertainments centers, and pocket pools fronting the sand dunes. On weekends, it wasn’t uncommon to see a dozen cars parked in driveways. But where the oceanfront narrowed along the South Mile, the long rows of houses appeared crowded together. Not everyone was happy. Stories and letters to the editor appeared in local newspapers. The writers complained that Pine Island changed the aesthetics and economics of the Banks. They weren’t wrong. But it was too late to pine for the old days. The Outer Banks were now driven by wealth and that wasn’t about to change. 

Hollan told me that Slick, who passed away in 2007, at the age of 86, was pleased with the houses. “I think the Audubon thing worked out well,” he said. “I think it was what he wanted to see happen and I helped to bring it to fruition.

“Yeah, those are bigger lots than typical lots, but those are bigger houses,” he continued. “They are what they are. It’s not Sanderling. It is a nice community.”

In June 2022, I arranged to visit the Pine Island sanctuary, just a stone’s toss from the oceanfront mega houses. Robbie Fearn, the manager of the sanctuary the last decade, took me on a tour of the century-old lodge before we picked our way through the nearby woods to a pocket beach where brackish water has crept ever higher and created a ghost forest.

In the distance, a car speeding past the mansions left a contrail of noise but then was gone. At one point, Fearn, medium-built and thoughtful, raised his hands as if addressing the sky. “Isn’t it amazing,” he said, meaning the road, the cars, the mansions, and this startling refuge for thousands of migrating birds. “In the summer all of these cars fly by and I don’t think any of them even know we are here. It’s as if we don’t exist.”       

PBS North Carolina is holding a special screening of a film featuring residents who are adapting to the changing climate.

“State of Change: Seeds of Hope” will be shown at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 4. There is no charge to attend the event to be held in the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh and virtually, but registration is required.

Part of the Pulitzer Center’s nationwide Connected Coastlines reporting initiative, the film set to premier on PBS NC April 22 shows how “these innovators are facing the challenges of climate change with perseverance and ingenuity,” the release states.

Frank Graff, producer and host of PBS North Carolina’s “Sci NC,” is to moderate a discussion with the following panelists to provide an up close look at climate change issues after the screening:

• Michelle Lotker, executive producer, “State of Change: Seeds of Hope.”
• Kathie Dello, director, NC State Climate Office, co-director, NOAA’s Carolinas Climate Adaptation Partnership.
• Mary Alice Holley, director of community innovation, Conservation Trust of North Carolina.
• Steve Kalland, executive director, NC Energy Collaborative.
• Ajulo Othow, founder and CEO of EnerWealth Solutions, attorney and board member, Center for Progressive Reform.
• Jacob Rutz, lecturer of agroecology, Department of Environmental Studies, Elon University.

The showing is being supported by the North Carolina Science Festival and in partnership with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

In a new plan to address climate pollution, state officials have taken what they call a “different approach” by making natural and working lands conservation and restoration a priority to offset greenhouse gas emissions.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials announced late Tuesday the state Priority Climate Action Plan, which “identifies high priority, ready-to-implement” greenhouse gas reduction measures that will provide “significant climate, air quality, and other co-benefits” to the state and its communities.

As required under the first phase of a federal grant program, the plan was developed over the past six months and then submitted this week to the Environmental Protection Agency. The state intends to use the plan to inform the application due April 1 for the $4.6 billion in competitive grants, the second phase. The EPA is to award these grants ranging from $2 million to $500 million later in the year. If NCDEQ is awarded the grant, the action plan will be developed into a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan due July 5, 2025. 

While most of the measures in the 189-page plan focuses on greenhouse gas emissions sources — transportation, electric power generation, industry, buildings and waste management – NCDEQ “took a different approach to develop priority (natural and working lands) measures, performed separately but in parallel to the development and prioritization of measures to reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions in other sectors.”

The plan explains that there is “compelling potential” for natural and working lands to “substantially offset (greenhouse gas emissions) by permanently storing atmospheric carbon in the ground and plants,” the report states. “The natural and working lands “sector ‘netted out’ 34% of the state’s gross GHG emissions in 2020.”

Jacob Boyd, who helped develop the natural and working lands section of the plan, told Coastal Review Wednesday that incorporating natural and working lands into the plan has been considered since the start.

“From the very beginning, the department had made the decision that natural and working lands should be a component, not just the greenhouse gas emitting sectors,” he said.

Boyd, who is the new salt marsh program director for the North Carolina Coastal Federation, was involved in the plan through his previous role as habitat and enhancement section chief at NCDEQ’s Division of Marine Fisheries. Boyd was with the division for 17 years, serving in various roles until last month when he joined the nonprofit conservation organization that also publishes Coastal Review.

Boyd explained that with past plans and strategies, the focus was on resilience with carbon sequestration as a side benefit. “We’re still highlighting the resilience co-benefits,” Boyd said, but now it’s more carbon-focused. “This is really the first time we’ve had an opportunity to do that, which I think it’s great.”

An interagency effort, the Priority Climate Action Plan was built using nearly 50 existing state reports, including the greenhouse gas inventory, a clean energy plan, a clean transportation plan, a zero-emission vehicle plan, climate strategy reports, and a natural and working lands action plan. These were reviewed and consolidated into sectors.

Natural and working lands offer protection and restoration and voiding emissions, Boyd explained.  

“All land is comprised of carbon, which is a greenhouse gas, and some soils and land have higher amounts of that carbon, “Boyd explained, adding coastal habitats such as salt marshes, pocosins and peatlands are some of the highest carbon-rich habitats in the world.

If we lose those, most of that carbon gets emitted back into the atmosphere, but when we protect those coastal habitats, it keeps the carbon in those soils and emits less carbon, and the emissions can be avoided.

“We not only get those carbon benefits, but we also protect natural resources and critical habitat and provide flood resiliency,” he said.  

Boyd said he’s been involved in this type of planning since 2018 when NCDEQ began developing its Natural and Working Lands Action Plan, published in 2020, and related projects, including the recent N.C. Coastal Habitat Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

Because of this experience, Boyd said he was asked to be involved in the action plan development and implementation. It took about six months to develop.

The working group used as a roadmap the 2020 land action plan, which highlighted strategies like high-carbon coastal habitats that help avoid emissions and with carbon sequestration, as a roadmap for this section. As they progressed through developing, these important strategies rose to the top as being needing to be some of the important components of the plan.

The Coastal Federation will be one of a few organizations being brought in to implement projects to conserve and restore these high-carbon habitats.

“We are excited to partner with the State to safeguard and rejuvenate coastal ecosystems given their important role in storing and sequestering carbon. Salt marshes, peatlands, and adjacent working lands also provide an important buffer for coastal communities, offering resilience against extreme weather events and sea level rise,” Executive Director Braxton Davis said. “This Plan seeks to harness the strength of nature itself as a key line of defense in combating climate change and sea level rise.”

Boyd said though he’s transited from NCDEQ to the Coastal Federation, he will continue to work on the action plan for the natural and working land sector.

The plan also notes there are five executive orders in place for climate action and greenhouse gas reduction targets, many of which are focused on the transportation sector.

Transportation, the largest emissions sector, represents about 36% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report. That makes transportation measures a top priority. These include increasing zero-emission and electric vehicles, including in the state fleet as well as school and transit buses, installing and maintaining an electric vehicle charging network, and going after programs to increase efficiency and reduce emissions at port and freight terminals.

“The N.C. Department of Transportation is working with its partners in the public and private sectors to ensure North Carolina is prepared as we transition to a clean energy economy and invest in more sustainable and accessible transportation options,” Jamie Kritzer, assistant director of communications for NCDOT, told Coastal Review Wednesday.

In keeping with the Cooper administration’s executive order to increase the total number of registered zero-emission vehicles, Kritzer continued, NCDOT led the creation of the Clean Transportation Plan, which was developed in about a year by a diverse group of stakeholders and released last April.

“NCDOT is working to carry out the plan’s strategies to encourage the transition to zero-emission vehicles, ensure electric vehicle charging stations and other clean transportation infrastructure are in place, and help make clean mobility options accessible to everyone,” he said.

NCDOT and the NCDEQ also are working on the measure in the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program related to reducing vehicle miles traveled, Kritzer explained.

“Together, our agencies will identify bicycle and pedestrian projects in the rural parts of the state, especially in lower income and disadvantaged communities where current funding through NCDOT programs does not exist. These projects will help reduce vehicle miles traveled, which supports important goals set forth in the Clean Transportation Plan,” Kritzer said.

Southern Environmental Law Center Climate Initiative Leader Alys Campaigne said in a statement about Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina submitting Priority Climate Action Plans to the EPA that the South plays an outsized role in contributing to climate change and severe, accelerating impacts are impacting vulnerable residents with higher pollution exposure and less ability to adapt.

“We applaud Southern Governors and Mayors for developing bold local strategies to protect people from pollution and invest in innovative projects that spur a cleaner economy and more resilient communities. We now have sector-based data on the sources of climate pollution and a roadmap for taking meaningful action in each of our six states,” Campaigne said. “These plans will help draw other competitive public and private investments to our region to deliver on the clean energy transition and respond to community needs.”

DEQ is accepting comments and suggestions through June 3 for program, which will be considered as the state develops its Comprehensive Climate Action Plan for the implementation phase. Send comments through the online form, via email to cprg@deq.nc.gov or by calling 919-707-8757.

Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. He shares on his website the essays and lectures that he has written about the state’s coast as well as brings readers along on his search for the lost stories of our coastal past in the museums, libraries and archives he visits in the U.S. and across the globe. 

I recently asked my friend Tom Earnhardt if he would share some of his wonderful photographs from The Nature Conservancy’s Green Swamp Preserve with me.

I think I just wanted to dwell a bit on one of the beautiful wild places that I hope to visit when this cold weather is gone and spring is here and the wildflowers begin to bloom again.

The Green Swamp Preserve is made up of 17,000 acres of largely pocosin and pine savanna in Brunswick County and Columbus County, just to the west, in the southern most corner of the North Carolina coast.

A gentleman tried and true, Tom not only sent me the photographs, but kindly gave me his permission to share them.

As I’m sure you know, Tom was for many years the creator and host of “Exploring North Carolina,” WUNC-TV’s very popular weekly television show featuring the glories of our state’s natural heritage.

Over the last half century, Tom has been one of North Carolina’s most dedicated conservationists. Day in and day out, he has devoted himself to protecting our wild places and to deepening our appreciation for them. And as you can see here, he is also a very talented photographer.

I’ve gone here and yon with Tom, but I have never had the chance to go to the Green Swamp Preserve with him.

However, I have long known that he has a special passion for the place. Located in the swampy low country of southeastern North Carolina, the preserve is made up of pocosin swamps and longleaf pine savannas that are a precious remnant of an ecosystem that once stretched across hundreds of square miles.

Biologists and nature lovers are especially drawn to the Green Swamp Preserve for the abundance and rich diversity of its carnivorous plants and for its wild orchids and other wildflowers, all of which are incredibly beautiful and some of which are quite rare.

“If the The Nature Conservancy had never done anything else, it would have proven its worth just with the Green Swamp Preserve,” Tom once told me. “That’s how important I think it is to preserving North Carolina’s natural heritage.”

The only time that I’ve been to the preserve was more than 25 years ago now. At the time, I was doing historical research for my book “The Waterman’s Song” and I just wanted to get a better feeling for the land on which the people I was writing about lived.

What I remember most from that visit are the things that I could never have discovered in old books and manuscripts: the smell of the longleaf pine savannas, the music of the birds and insects, the quality of the light, the feeling of the earth beneath my feet.

I still remember walking across the sphagnum moss, it being so spongy that it made the ground itself feel alive.

Earth, but also sea, or so it felt.

For me the Green Swamp Preserve is an otherworldly place, more precious yet because it is still there when so much is not.

When I first saw Tom’s photographs, my memories — the smells, the sounds, the light, all of it — came back to me in a rush, as real as the day I was there all those years ago.

Tom once wrote me:

“The Green Swamp and our other remaining longleaf pine forests appear to be so simple and ‘even boring.’ From a distance our savannas appear to be composed of only one kind of tree (longleaf) and one kind of grass (wire grass). But take a closer look, and wow!”

He went on to explain:

“The biodiversity found in these places — rare carnivorous plants, exquisite flowers, and unusual insects and birds — form tight-knit communities in which all things are connected. The success of each living thing is dependent on the success of their neighbors. We have a lot to learn from the land of the longleaf pine.”

I hope you enjoy Tom’s photographs as much as I do.

Lucky for us, we can find all 14 seasons of Tom’s award-winning show “Exploring North Carolina” at WUNC-TV’s website. And to learn how you can support the Green Swamp Preserve and other critical land conservation efforts in our part of the world, be sure to check out the website for the Nature Conservancy’s North Carolina chapter. 

The state may be closer to buying more than 400 acres in Southport, a move that would lead to the permanent conservation of property teeming with habitat that supports federal- and state-listed species.

Earlier this month, the Southport Board of Aldermen agreed in a majority vote their intent to sell the tract to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission for $660,000.

Board members pushed a formal offer to sell at the request of Brunswick County because of ongoing talks between the two governments to merge water and sewer service.

During the Feb. 8 meeting, Mayor Richard Alt asked aldermen to hold off on voting, noting the county asked for additional time and that the city’s attorney recommended the pause.

“I’m not trying to stop,” selling the land, he said. “What I’m trying to stop is us selling it now when we’re in negotiations with the county and have been asked not to do it by the county and our own attorney, that we hired specially to help us through this transition period, told us don’t do it now.”

Brunswick County Communications Director Meagan Kascsak confirmed in an email that county officials suggested the city consider “waiting to decide on the future of this property for a short period to give the County time to consider whether there is a potential beneficial use for the land related to utility services.”

“However, this piece of property belongs to the City of Southport and their leadership has the right to decide whatever action they feel is best for the organization and the property,” she wrote in the email. “Any decision the City might make would not impact our continued collaboration with the City on the potential merger agreement.”

The city bought a majority of the tract in 2005 with plans to use it as a spray irrigation site for a new sewer plant. But the city eventually opted out of building a plant, ultimately deciding to merge its water and sewer with the county.

The Wildlife Resources Commission for the past few years has been eyeing the property, which borders ammunition port Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, or MOTSU, with hopes of expanding the game land footprint in the area. The property is adjacent to the state’s Green Swamp Game Land.

Ben Solomon, assistant chief and land acquisition manager of the commission’s Land and Water Access Division, said the agency is moving forward with plans to buy the tract.

“The Commission has raised sufficient grant funding to purchase the tract at the appraised value of $660,000,” he wrote in the email.

About two years after the state wildlife agency expressed an interest in buying the land, a commercial construction firm tossed in an offer to the city to buy or lease no fewer than 50 acres.

The Polote Corp. wants to mine clay-like material from the land, move it next door, and use it to build up eroded earthen berms that buffer ammunition and explosive areas within the Army installation.

The Savannah, Georgia-based company previously mined a portion of the property to do the same thing more than a decade ago.

Polote representatives explained to city leaders back in late 2022 that the land’s proximity to MOTSU made it particularly desirable because the next closest areas that contain material suitable for berm-building were a little more than 40 miles away.

But the potential mining of that property has raised concerns among some town residents about the impacts to habitat and wildlife, including federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and dozens of state-listed species of amphibians and reptiles, water quality issues related to runoff, and septic issues.

Southport Alderwoman Karen Mosteller said during the board’s Feb. 8 meeting that because of the land’s proximity to the 16,000-acre ammunition port, the largest in the country, the federal government prohibits development on the property.

“It’s with these restrictions it seems inconsistent that we would ruin the land that has this highest conservation value for its dirt when there are already over 35 open sand mine permits in Brunswick County. So, there’s plenty of places for them to get sand and dirt in Brunswick County,” she said.

Solomon said there is a safety easement on the tract.

“This safety easement contains language that restricts human habitation, erection of new structures, as well as the number of persons allowed to attend events hosted on the property without written permission form the appropriate Government personnel,” he said in an email. “At this time, the Commission has no concern with the safety easement, and we do not anticipate the easement hindering our management or planned uses.”

The board’s vote stipulates the city enter into an agreement with the Wildlife Resources Commission to sell 431 acres of the 441-acre property, leaving 10 acres under city ownership.

Gov. Roy Cooper has launched an ambitious initiative to conserve and restore wetlands that lost state protections last year when legislators passed a law that aligns with more narrowly defined federal wetland rules.

Cooper announced late Monday afternoon that he had signed Executive Order No. 305, which establishes a goal by 2040 to permanently conserve 1 million new acres of forests and wetlands, restore or reforest 1 million news acres of forests and wetlands, and plant 1 million trees in urban areas.

“North Carolina’s rich natural beauty is not only critical in our fight against flooding and climate change, but important to our economy,” Cooper stated in a release. “As our state continues to grow, we must be mindful to conserve and protect our natural resources and this historic Executive Order sets clear goals and puts a plan in place that will help us leave our state better than we found it for generations to come.”

Cooper last summer failed to stop the annual legislative exercise, the Farm Bill, which includes a provision that boxes in how the state can define and, ultimately, protect wetlands, from becoming law after North Carolina legislators overrode his veto of the bill.

Wording tucked into the North Carolina Farm Act of 2023 aligned how the state defines wetlands with that of the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled last May that waters of the United States, or WOTUS, applies only to wetlands that have “continuous surface connection.”

Looking back: Digging into the Farm Act

The Farm Bill strips longtime state-enacted safeguards and compensatory mitigation for more than 2 million acres of wetlands unique to North Carolina like Carolina bays and pocosins, which have no inlet or outlet.

According to the order, pocosins cover a substantial portion of North Carolina, “offer extensive benefits through carbon storage and sequestration; enhance water quality through storage and filtration; contribute to biodiversity and ecological resilience and mitigate flood and fire risk that cause substantial economic cost.”

Looking back: Wetlands left unprotected

Under the order, state agencies are directed to avoid or curtail new projects that would harm these types of wetlands, including mountain bogs.

“The governor’s action today recognizes how vital wetlands are to North Carolina’s people and wildlife, fisheries and flood protection,” Mary Maclean Asbill, director of the North Carolina offices of the Southern Environmental Law Center, stated in a release. “North Carolina’s legislature set the wrong example by failing to protect our wetlands, increasing the risk of flooding to our communities and endangering North Carolinians and fisheries.”

The order also requires state agencies to study the social, economic and environmental value of protecting these and other types of wetlands and seek federal funding to protect and restore wetlands to minimize flooding, improve water quality and capture carbon.

Leaders of environmental organizations and state agency heads praised the order.

“Now more than ever, North Carolina needs to conserve our working lands—including wetlands and forests that reduce flooding, clean our drinking water, and sustain fish and wildlife,” Grady O’Brien, policy associate with North Carolina Conservation Network, said in a release. “We’re grateful for the robust commitment this executive order makes toward protecting natural resources and providing good stewardship of our state’s valuable lands.”

Katherine Skinner, executive director of The Nature Conservancy North Carolina Chapter, said efforts to protect and restore natural areas is “vital” for the state’s future.

“They ensure clean air, clean water, and recreational opportunities in a rapidly growing region,” she said in a release. “And, they are also crucial to our continued economic growth, most of which is centered on our natural resources.”

The state is experiencing more intense hurricanes, flooding, extreme temperatures, droughts, sea level rise and saltwater intrusion – all effects of climate change that have caused more than $250 billion in damages over the last few years, according to the executive order.

North Carolina has responded by investing millions in climate mitigation efforts, including the creation of the statewide Flood Resiliency Blueprint.

The goals and directives set in the order are derived in large part from the 2020 North Carolina Natural and Working Lands Action Plan, which was created with input from a group of nearly 100 expert stakeholders under the direction of the state Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ. The plan lays out specific actions the state may take to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Looking back: Interactive maps show benefits of natural, working lands

Katie Warnell, a senior policy associate at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability, is part of the working group on natural and working lands.

“It is inspiring to see recommendations from the state’s Natural and Working Lands Action Plan being elevated as priorities in this executive order,” she stated in a release. “The order’s ambitious goals for land conservation and restoration will preserve and enhance the many benefits North Carolina’s natural and working lands provide to everyone who lives in or visits the state. The executive order also addresses many data gaps and limitations previously highlighted in the action plan, which hinder planning for the sustainable management of North Carolina’s lands and waters.”

The executive order also includes the following stipulations:

• A native plant policy for all future state-owned projects.
• Promotion and support from state agencies for new and ongoing conservation and restoration, and climate resiliency efforts within tribal communities.
• Research climate impacts on the state’s biodiversity.

“This Executive Order positions North Carolina to take a science-based approach to achieving mutually beneficial goals relating to environmental quality, economic development, resiliency, and ecosystem enhancement by identifying and protecting our forests and natural and working lands,” DEQ Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser stated in a release.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Nature Based Resiliency Coordinator Sara Ward said the goal set in the order is a “game-changing target.”

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is particularly excited about the emphasis on the state’s internationally significant peatlands, known as pocosins, in today’s action,” she said in a release.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Executive Director Cameron Ingram called the order ambitious and important.

“Given all the tremendous pressures facing North Carolina’s lands and waters, we are excited to be a part of this ambitious and important initiative,” he said in a release. “We look forward to continuing to work with our State agency and non-profit partners to support the conservation of land to benefit wildlife and their habitats while providing opportunities for North Carolinians to enjoy hunting, fishing, boating, and wildlife associated recreation.”

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust this week transferred its 172-acre Brice’s Creek Nature Preserve in New Bern to Craven County.

The forested property along more than 1.5 miles of Brice’s Creek and an unnamed tributary and off County Line and Old Airport roads is to become a new public nature park.

“I think this gift of land from Coastal Land Trust is quite a Christmas present to the citizens of Craven County,” said Director of Land Protection Janice Allen. “Coastal Land Trust did what it does best and that is to conserve special parcels of land. Now Craven County Parks and Recreation is going to do what it does best and create a wonderful new public park on this special land.”

The Coastal Land Trust made the purchase in three phases using more than $1.5 million from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, White River Marine Group, and North Carolina Community Foundation’s Richard Chapman Cleve Fund held by the Craven County Community Foundation.

Brice’s Creek Nature Preserve is made up of mature mixed pine-hardwood forest in the uplands and a diversity of wetlands, including bottomland hardwoods, cypress-gum swamp, and nonriverine wet hardwood forest.

“There is considerable local interest in opening up this park, and we are already on it,” said Craven County Parks and Recreation Director Billy Wilkes.

“We received a $500,000 grant from the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to carry out our park plan and develop necessary infrastructure like a parking area, restroom, and trails. Construction can now begin in early 2024. Our plan is to have the park open to the public by spring of 2025. Stay tuned for news on park planning,” he added.

The Coastal Land Trust said each of the three portions of the riverfront property, which was once slated for development as part of the Carolina Colours golf and residential subdivision, was purchased at less than fair-market value.

“We greatly appreciate the willingness and generosity of Ken Kirkman of Overlook Holdings, LLC to sell these parcels of land to the Coastal Land Trust below market value especially given the location of the property in a rapidly developing section of New Bern,” stated Janice Allen.

The Brice’s Creek property will be Craven County’s second nature park. Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park was established in 2008 when the Coastal Land Trust purchased 133 acres along Upper Broad Creek and then transferred it to the county.

In the early 1970s, the Outer Banks were still rough enough around the edges that it was possible to confuse the rolling sand dunes and pounding surf with the rugged coast of England. At least, that is what Lilias J. Morrison thought the first time she saw Nags Head.

It was sometime around 1970, she thinks. She was cruising along the interstate in a turquoise VW Bug with her good friend, Jennifer Frost. They were on holiday, heading back to New York City, where they were graduate students at Columbia University. It was 4 or 5 in the afternoon. The sun was sinking. Rounding a bend in the road, a sign for the then-modest resort appeared. “It sounded like a place back home in England,” Morrison recalled. “I said to Jennifer, ‘Let’s go see.’”

Morrison had grown up in Lancashire, on the edge of the Lake district of the United Kingdom, earned degrees in theology at Sheffield and Oxford, then spent three years teaching Latin at a girl’s high school in Nairobi, before moving to the United States to continue studies for her doctorate.

She never collected the advanced degree.

The Outer Banks got in the way.  

~

Most of the visitors who crowd onto the Outer Banks probably have never heard of Lilias Morrison, let alone know her remarkable backstory: A theology student who became one of the Outer Banks’s most influential designers — not to mention, the first woman builder of consequence along the Northern Banks. Like one of her mentors, the late Earl Slick, she is proud yet quiet, comfortable yet humble. But don’t ever confuse her with lacking ambition. Morrison helped to design and market Sanderling and Palmer’s Island, two of the more admired developments north of Duck. She later formed her own company, Real Escapes, focusing on environmentally friendly and energy efficient builds, remodels, and sales – or as she likes to say, “houses that blend into the land” instead of overwhelming it. Along the way, there were forays into local politics, a campaign to protect the quaint, village-like nature of Duck, even a drive to fend off big-box stores and keep the skies dark.

Morrison, who describes herself as “over 75” and still has a pleasing lilt in her voice, never wanted to be an ordinary developer. “I became a builder because local builders wouldn’t do anything except beach boxes,” she said “We didn’t want to turn the oceanfront into suburbia by the sea. We placed a great emphasis on preservation and conservation.”

Which isn’t surprising when you learn a bit about Morrison’s past. Growing up in the Lake District in Northwest England, she was surrounded by botanical gardens and historic buildings. “I grew up with these wonderful landscapes. There were living gardens. Land for parks and museums. In the old industrial steel towns, historic factory buildings with abstract strength I admired. All of this had a great influence, you see.”

Morrison had always wanted to travel in Africa and after university got her chance. With a family friend’s help, she landed a job teaching at The Kenya High School for Girls, one of the best schools in the British Commonwealth. “My job other than teaching some biblical stuff to train people to think, I taught Greek and Latin as well. It was high academics with a goal of getting the girls to take the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams.”

During breaks, Morrison and the other young teachers explored the continent, visiting wildlife parks and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. One of her favorite places was Kampala, the capital of Uganda. “Those days, Kampala was the Athens of Africa, (home to) writers and artists,” she said.

In the mid-1960s, Morrison moved to the United States to continue graduate studies in theology at Union Theological Seminary, affiliated with Columbia University. She landed there amid wrenching cultural shifts and student protests. “We were rebels,” she laughed. “I remember climbing a gate.”

She met Jennifer Frost at Columbia, an older student from Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, who liked to travel and surf. They planned adventures, moved to Germany to learn the language, drove to Atlanta, and then tumbled into Nags Head, where they fell in love with the locals and the coast. “We didn’t have much time. We spent the days walking the beach, swimming, walking the upper ridge of Jockey’s Ridge, which was bigger in those days. We both said we would come back to this wonderful place,” Morrison said. And they did.

They returned the following fall. Then again that spring. The owners of a Nags Head bakery invited them for drinks, recalling how they had moved to the Banks from the Midwest. The idea for a bakery evolved slowly but once it did, it stuck. They opened on Memorial Day and closed on Labor Day, and made just enough to get through their first winter and reopen the following spring. Lilias and Jennifer were enthralled and decided they should do a business, too. But what kind of business? And where?

They wound up in Manteo where they discovered the history of “The Lost Colony” and met a helpful real estate agent named Phil Quidley. They had no money, they explained, but wanted to start a small business. Somehow, Quidley negotiated a modest down payment and they became the owners of the Fort Raleigh Hotel. During season they could count on overnight guests coming to see “The Lost Colony.” They also became agents for Western Union. Lilias used her botanical skills to turn a garden into a local attraction, naming it for Sir Richard Granville, the daring naval commander from Cornwall.

Lilias and Jennifer ran the hotel for two seasons. Like many Bankers they scrambled in the off-season, working as waitresses at the Sea Ranch Motel and studying in their spare time for their real estate licenses. “We weren’t too proud to be waitresses. Our main financial goal was survival, you see,” said Morrison.

By now, it was the mid-1970s. Lilias and Jennifer began to sell houses and lots in Hatteras, Nags Head, and Collington. They eventually found their way north, to the Village of Duck, which wasn’t much more than a few dozen houses, a surf shop, post office, and a grocery store. Still, they saw the potential and wanted a piece of the action.

One day, Jennifer saw an advertisement for a project called Sanderling and, on a hunch, phoned. She soon found herself speaking with John C. Whitaker Jr., a talented young builder with a vision for a quaint, natural community built in the old Nags Head style – no tennis courts, no swimming pools, but lots of nature trails and unpretentious houses meant to be passed from generation to generation.

In 1977, Lilias and Jennifer began working for Whitaker as sales agents and landscape designers. Morrison gives credit to Whitaker for creating one of the more unique resort communities on the Northern Banks. But without Lilias and Jennifer, their boundless energy and creativity, Sanderling may never have thrived. “They turned out to be super salespeople,” said William E. Hollan Jr., who continued developing Sanderling after Whitaker and his partners stepped away in the early 1980s. “I give them 100% of the credit for carrying through on the mission.”

Hollan and Earl Slick, the owner of the property, finished six additional sections of Sanderling and then built the Sanderling Inn. Jennifer left to start a radio station in Duck and take up other real estate ventures. Lilias continued to work closely with Hollan and Slick at Sanderling. Later, when Hollan acquired a small tract of land just north of the Dare County border, Morrison joined him in developing the exclusive gated community known as Palmer’s Island. There was only enough room for a dozen houses – but what houses! They were outsized, New England-style beach homes, with spectacular views of the ocean and the sound.

 “It was zoned for multifamily and could have been condominiums. It would have changed the whole character and Sanderling. And so, we decided to build large summer homes rather like Newport for extended families,” Morrison said. “In a way, Sanderling and Palmer’s Island was more old money and old beach atmosphere. Pine Island was more new money: fortunes from the computer industry and Wall Street. Owners who wanted the latest thing. The character of those houses changed.”

At Palmer’s Island, Morrison designed a house for an executive of General Motors. Another house sold to heirs of the DuPont fortune. “Their goal was to be very peaceful and incognito. They were very cautious of their privacy,” Morrison said.

Around 1993, Morrison moved out of Sanderling and set up a new business, the Real Escapes Group, in a historic building in the center of Duck. Her focus shifted from building to designing and remodeling, with a strong focus on preservation and conservation. Today, she runs her business out of a commercial outlet in Harbinger but lives near the sound in Southern Shores in a house she purchased from David Stick, the late historian, politician, and developer.

Related: Frank Stick: A Maverick Who Helped Shape the Outer Banks

She owns other property but doesn’t think she will develop it. “Let’s face it,” she said, “if you are in real estate … you are interested in acquiring property the way (other) people acquire a good overcoat or a pair of shoes.”

Morrison has now lived on the Outer Banks for a half-century. During that time, she has witnessed incalculable changes yet hasn’t lost the sense of surprise or awe she felt that late afternoon she landed in Nags Head years ago. “As far as I am concerned, the Outer Banks are world class,” she said. “There is still a pristine quality I hope will remain in spite of development.”

TOPSAIL BEACH – After more than a year of emotionally charged meetings, negotiations and renegotiations, a Raleigh couple has pulled the plug on their plans to build a family compound on the southern tip of Topsail Island.

Software entrepreneur Todd Olson and his wife Laura informed Topsail Beach officials Monday that they were withdrawing their application seeking to conditionally rezone about a third of the southernmost end of town.

Todd Olson confirmed in an email to Coastal Review Online Wednesday that he and his wife no longer intend to buy the undeveloped property.

During a short meeting Wednesday morning, the town planning board accepted the Olson’s withdrawal.

The couple in a statement to Coastal Review said they “hope the best” for the property, which has long been referred to as “The Point,” and explained their decision to withdraw their application.

“Despite our repeated requests for time to discuss the details of our rezoning request and come up with solutions together, the Commissioners refused to meet with us one-on-one and routinely passed us off to the Town’s staff and external planning consultant,” the statement reads. “Meanwhile, we understand the Commissioners directly conversed with members of the community who opposed our plans. This one-sided behavior has let to confusion and an unending set of proposed conditions.”

The Olsons also said town commissioners had sent mixed messages, asking the couple and their representatives to quickly respond to complicated requests, “while also regularly reminding us of the generational nature of those decisions.”

“For example, suggesting a two-week deadline to determine the 50-year impact of our plan on the surrounding wetlands was unrealistic,” the statement reads. “While the intent of conditional zoning is to provide guardrails for development, we often felt pulled between making these decisions quickly and alone or ceding full control to a group of elected officials. Neither of these options is good for the Town.”

The Olsons had been under contract for more than two years to buy the land, a deal that depended on whether the town would approve a conditional rezoning request for fewer than 30 acres from conservation to conditional use.

That request was denied earlier this year by the planning board.

Laura Olson and representatives for the family last met with Topsail Beach commissioners Nov. 7 in a special-called meeting to discuss a host of conditions in which the Olsons and town could agree before commissioners cast a final vote on the rezoning request.

Commissioners warned then that if the couple did not keep in writing an agreement to permanently conserve about 80% of the property, the board would not likely approve the rezoning request.

Earlier this year, the Olsons signed a letter of intent with the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the property. Citing “some potential tax implications,” Laura Olson informed commissioners at the Nov. 7 meeting that the couple wanted to remove any written agreement with the Coastal Land Trust from the list of proposed conditions.

Throughout the process, the Olsons said they wanted to preserve much of the property.

Their decision to withdraw the rezoning application means the undeveloped south end of Topsail Island could once again be up for grabs.

The property has steadily accreted over the years as the southern end of the island at New Topsail Inlet has gained sand, making it a favorite for town property owners and tourists who enjoy walking its beaches.

The property has been owned by members of the McLeod family for decades. The family has allowed the public to freely access the land during that time and leases a parking lot on the land to the town.

The property has been routinely on and off the market for the past two or so decades.

Attempts to buy the land, including those by the town to keep it free from development, have yet to pan out.

People who’ve spoken at numerous meetings about the Olson’s plans for the property – seven houses, a pool and pool house, decking, beach and sound accesses and a small, private marina – overwhelmingly opposed building of any kind on the property.

Thousands have signed an online petition opposing the Olson’s rezoning request and, earlier this year, a grassroots effort calling itself Conserve The Point – Topsail officially became a nonprofit organization.

Conserve The Point – Topsail “stands ready” to enter into a public-private partnership to buy the property and place it into permanent conservation, according to a release.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to conserve one of the last undeveloped tracts of land on a North Carolina coastal barrier island and protect the wildlife habitat for the endangered birds and species who all this island their home,” Conserve The Point – Topsail Board of Directors President Roy Costa said in a statement. “We will continue to keep you posted as the plans unfold to conserve The Point forever.”

Costa said in a telephone interview that the organization has not yet engaged with any particular group to pursue buying the property, pending the outcome of the Olson’s request.

The property is within a state-designated Inlet Hazard Area, one in which shorelines face a higher threat of erosion and flooding at inlets that can suddenly and dramatically shift. The land is also in a Coastal Barrier Resources System, or CBRS, zone.

Congress created the system in the early 1980s to discourage building on relatively undeveloped barrier islands by barring federal funding and financial assistance in hurricane-prone, biologically rich areas.

The property is also designated critical habitat to threatened and endangered piping plovers and loggerhead sea turtles.

Fire is good for forests. See for yourself.

The Nature Conservancy invites you to explore the Green Swamp Nature Preserve from the comforts of your own home and see firsthand how thousands of acres are regenerating after burning in a wildfire last June.

The conservancy recently launched an interactive map that takes the user deep into the forest to reveal new life emerging in the weeks and months since a wildfire burned nearly 16,000 acres.

The story of the fire in the Green Swamp has the eye-catching title “Pulp Road Wildfire. 15,642 acres burned – 15,642 acres revitalized.”

Using ArcGIS StoryMaps, an online tool created by American geographic information system technology software company Esri, Emma Gwyn, a GIS stewardship intern for The Nature Conservancy — North Carolina in Wilmington, created the story of how the fire benefited the preserve.

Visitors of the site can click on different areas of a map of the preserve to learn about the variety of unique plants and wildlife that call the area home, watch drone videos, view before-and-after images, and a 91-day time-lapse of a pocosin wetland regenerating after the fire.

“It’s still there,” said Nathan Burmester, the conservancy’s coastal plain stewardship manager. “It’s flourishing. It’s better than it was before.”

That may come as a surprise to those who assumed much of the 17,424-acre preserve, known for its Venus flytraps, pitcher plants, and decorative orchids, lay in a charred, dead heap following the June wildfire.

But fire is just what the preserve’s two main ecosystems – longleaf pine savannah and pocosin wetland – need to thrive.

As explained in the virtual tour, longleaf pine savanna need low-intensity fires every two to five years. Pocosin, which are freshwater shrub wetlands of the southeastern coastal plains, require high-intensity fires every eight to 20 years.

“Even though a high-intensity fire in the pocosin may look catastrophic, the system recovers incredibly quickly,” according to the conservancy.

“It’s always one of our messages that we’re trying to get out is the importance of controlled burning,” Burmester said. “Part of my goal for making this was to have more education for the public.”

Whether sparked by a cigarette discarded from a car window or a lightning strike, forests are going to burn “someday, one way or another,” he said.

“When that happens, we don’t get to pick the day. We don’t get to pick the weather. So, we’re always trying to get out the importance of controlled burning,” Burmester said.

The Green Swamp fire began as a prescribed burn by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission on June 14 around Pulp Road in Brunswick County.

Related: Green Swamp now turning green again after burn, wildfire

The commission had a permit to burn 400 acres, but the blaze spread after the fire jumped its line and quickly spread into areas that had not been burned in years.

“The smoke was so intense that it sparked thunderstorms nearby!” according to the conservancy.

Winds pushed ash more than 30 miles away to Wilmington and air quality warnings were issued throughout the region before June 29 when the fire was fully contained.

The fire left a black and green patchwork-like landscape across the preserve. Green areas are those that were either too wet or had been burned in a series of controlled fires prescribed within the past year.

These areas served as “critical refuges” for wildlife during the June wildfire.

Burmester said that the preserve was last burned in its entirety 68 years ago.

That equated to 68 years of fuel for some areas of the preserve. There are no roads in the swamp to break the land into smaller chunks. The shrubby, wet pocosin can’t be sliced with fire lines.

“They’re extremely challenging to burn because they’re large pockets of non-divided fuels,” Burmester said.

He said that experts from various agencies, including Wildlife Resources and forest service officials, have begun talks on how they can turn the June wildfire into an opportunity to administer controlled burns in the future.

In the meantime, he encourages people to engage in the Green Swamp fire story.

“The tool’s out there so anything you want to do and show in a map feature is there, which is really cool,” Burmester said. “Enjoy and be creative.”

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced Thursday that it had recently purchased more than 400 acres on the waterfront in Pamlico County through a partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and North Carolina Division of Coastal Management.

The Coastal Land Trust then transferred the land to the state to expand the Goose Creek Game Lands.  

The property lies along N.C. Highway 304 and Lynch’s Beach Road between Bayboro and Vandemere.

Coastal Land Trust officials said it hosts excellent habitat for wild turkey, white-tailed deer, black bear, and other wildlife with extensive forests of mixed pine-hardwoods and pocosin wetlands along with longleaf pine ridges.

The property also has more than 4 miles of frontage along the Bay River, Smith and Newton Creeks. Smith Creek is designated as a primary fish nursery area and Newton Creek and the Bay River are considered Shellfish Waters. The water bodies are all classified by the state as High Quality Waters and Nutrient Sensitive Waters.

Officials said the developable property has deepwater access on both the Bay River and Smith Creek, less than 8 miles from the Pamlico Sound. The land is now conserved.    

“This coastal waterfront property was prime for development. We are so appreciative that the seller, the Bate Land Company, L.P., was willing to work with us to conserve it for its wildlife, water quality, and scenic values,” said Janice Allen, Director of Land Protection for the Coastal Land Trust. “We also thank the National Wild Turkey Federation, Wildlife Resources Commission, and Division of Coastal Management for partnering with us to conserve this special place on our coast.”

The National Wild Turkey Federation raised $50,000 to help with the conservation of the Bay River property.

“Our organization believes that the most effective way to benefit wild turkeys on a scale that makes a difference is to contribute to habitat improvements and conservation,” said Luke Gibson of the Neuse Chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. He added, “Contributing to the Bay River Tract acquisition made sense to us since it will permanently conserve wild turkey habitat and make the land available to the public for hunting.”

“We were pleased to partner with the Coastal Land Trust and Wildlife Resources Commission on this coastal conservation effort. When a funding opportunity through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s National Coastal Zone Management Program became available for coastal habitat protection, we jumped on it. The 400-acre Bay River Tract rang all the bells and whistles of the program and we were able to secure $500,000 towards its acquisition,” said Division of Coastal Management Policy and Planning Section Chief Tancred Miller. “We especially thank the folks at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who administer this funding program for working so diligently with us to bring the project to closing.”    

Additional funding for the purchase of the Bay River tract was made possible thanks to the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stanback, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will manage the property to improve habitat for native wildlife to include prescribed burning, thinning of forest stands, and creation of wildlife food plots,” said Wildlife Resources Commission Assistant Chief and Land Acquisition Manager Ben Solomon. “The land will be added to the Goose Creek Game Lands, and in the future, will be open for public hunting.”

CARTERET COUNTY — As new neighbors, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and Camp Albemarle on N.C. Highway 24 in Newport are partnering to provide more recreation and environmental education opportunities.

Through an agreement, Camp Albemarle, which offers year-round, faith-based programming for children at its property along Bogue Sound, now has access to the Coastal Land Trust’s Gales Creek Preserve, a nearly 255-acre nature preserve along Gales Creek, a tidal creek that flows to Bogue Sound, for its camper and nature study programs.

In turn, the Coastal Land Trust will be able to use Camp Albemarle’s bathhouse, dining hall and pavilions on the camp property along Bogue Sound during occasional group nature hikes and environmental education tours the Coastal Land Trust leads on the preserve.

“Our campers will now be able to canoe or kayak from the main camp site on Bogue Sound up Gales Creek to the Gales Creek Preserve to camp and/or hike the forest trails,” Camp Albemarle Director Tom Hussmann said in a statement. “Future nature programs at our new site will utilize amenities of the neighboring Coastal Land Trust Preserve. Overall, this agreement will allow Camp Albemarle to provide more opportunities for kids to learn, explore, and appreciate nature.”

A decade ago, Coastal Land Trust purchased more than 254 acres from the East Carolina Council of the Boy Scouts of America by Camp Sam Hatcher off 9 Mile Road in Newport, then acquired an adjoining 112 acres in 2018 to create the preserve. In March of this year, Camp Albemarle purchased in March the 35-plus acre former Boy Scout Camp to expand its existing facility.

“We always love getting more kids out on the lands we conserve.  With this agreement, Camp Albemarle also will help us with general maintenance and upkeep of the soil roads, trails, and creek access on the Gales Creek Preserve which is significant to us,” Harrison Marks, executive director of the Coastal Land Trust, said in a statement.

The preserve properties feature stands of longleaf pine and mature mixed pine hardwood forest along more than a mile of frontage on Gales Creek, a tidal creek that flows to Bogue Sound, Land Trust officials said.

The preserve’s passive recreational amenities include a primitive camping area, rustic chapel, hiking trails, and a creek access constructed by Eckerd’s Youth Foundation that once leased the property from the Boy Scouts.

A deal to protect a Marine Corps landing field near Pollocksville from encroachment will also save a large riverfront tract in Jones County from development.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust announced Tuesday that it had recently purchased a 113-acre property adjacent to the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point’s Outlying Landing Field Oak Grove.

The organization described the property as consisting of farmland and bottomland hardwood wetlands along the Trent River.

The purchase is part of an effort to address growing development pressure around military installations, which could affect military readiness and the ability to train the troops. The Department of Defense contributed half of the purchase price in order to place permanent restrictions on residential and commercial development while allowing the continued use of the land for farming, forestry and conservation work.

“When the For Sale signs started going up on this property, we decided to take action. Due to the extensive road frontage associated with this property, we knew it was only a matter of time before numerous lots would be sold and homes would be constructed adjacent to Oak Grove,” stated Janice Allen, director of land protection for the Coastal Land Trust.

The 976-acre Outlying Landing Field Oak Grove is used by both Cherry Point and New River Air Station for training pilots to land aircraft on unimproved surfaces in a reduced visibility area. Currently, helicopter, tilt-rotor, and harrier flight training takes place at Oak Grove. Development of the purchased property may have resulted in restrictions on timing, frequency and the type of training that occurs at Oak Grove, officials said.

“The threat of development raised the priority of this project for REPI funding,“ said MCAS Cherry Point Community Plans and Liaison Officer Rhonda Murray. “This outlying field is a critical military training asset.”

Congress gave the military authority in 2003 to work with local and state governments and nongovernmental organizations to help buffer key military training areas from future encroachment and to provide cost-sharing for land conservation through the Readiness and Environmental Protection Initiative, or REPI, program.

In 2004, the Coastal Land Trust and officials at Cherry Point signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to conserve key tracts of land with military and conservation values around the main base in Havelock in Craven County as well as outlying fields in Carteret and Jones counties, including the Piney Island Bombing Target and outlying landing fields at Bogue and Oak Grove.

The organization said that to date, the partnership had preserved more than 12,000 acres.

The Coastal Land Trust said its ability to raise private and public grant funds for conservation helped leverage REPI funds for these projects to benefit both the military and the environment.

The purchase was the 17th project completed by Coastal Land Trust in partnership with Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point with the dual goal of conserving open space and/or natural habitats and minimizing encroachment adjacent to military installations.

The Coastal Land Trust said it will retain the Trent River property and manage it as a preserve.

For the near term, most of the open land will continue to be farmed. Future plans, as funding allows, may include planting longleaf pine, creating a pollinator meadow, and/or enhancing the small ponds on the property to improve habitat for native wildlife, officials said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Harold H. Bate Foundation also provided funding for the project. The Bate Foundation provided a grant that covered most of the Coastal Land Trust’s expenses related to the transaction, such as survey, title work, legal and closing costs.

“We are glad to have contributed funds to this excellent project that supports the Coastal Land Trust as well as the military’s objectives. We hope to provide more grants for projects in Jones County, said Don Brinkley of the Harold H. Bate Foundation.

Since beginning the Coins for Conservation program at Inlet Inn in Beaufort a little over a year ago, owners Jay Tervo and Barbara McKenzie have raised more than $12,000 to benefit the coastal environment.

McKenzie said she and her husband became owners of the inn in May 2019. A professional pianist, she said in an interview that her husband pitched the idea of buying the inn to her, and they went for it. She said it was something new and that she was ready to take a break from the pressures of performing.

In August 2022, they began Coins for Conservation, a voluntary giving program that “creates fundraising partnerships between community businesses and trusted nonprofit eco-partners serving our Eastern NC community.” The platform was officially launched in May with a kick-off event in Beaufort.

McKenzie explained that the idea was inspired by a similar program she learned about while visiting St. Simons, Georgia. They were staying in a historic downtown inn there and noticed a small charge on the bill for Pennies for Preservation.

After learning more about the voluntary giving program during her visit, “I was really inspired by what they were doing in that community,” she said. “I knew that we could do something like that here, and that it would be really important to do something like that here.”

McKenzie said they designed the program “to showcase major environmental partners in the area,” which for them, she said is the North Carolina Coastal Federation, Coastal Carolina Riverwatch, Friends of the Reserve, and Atlantic Beach Sea Turtle Project.

The way the program works is any kind of business based anywhere visits the coins4conservation.com website and chooses one, two, three or all four nonprofit eco-partners listed. The business representative is to then contact the leadership of the nonprofits they want to support and together develop a strategy to raise funds. The business then works with that nonprofit to execute their plan.

The program is not a nonprofit, she said. Rather, Coins for Conservation is “Saving Nature’s Treasures” by funneling donations directly to the environmental organizations “that actually do the work in securing the environmental protection that we need here.”

When they launched Coins for Conservation last summer, McKenzie said they began adding $4 to each reservation. Guests were made aware that the donation is completely voluntary and that guests could easily opt out by speaking to the front desk.

Not many have though: McKenzie said they have “97-plus-percent participation rate.”

Looking back, she said, most of the people who choose to opt out are those traveling for business. But, there are others who donate extra.

Guest reception “has been really great,” she said, adding that most Beaufort visitors want to be able to protect what’s there, and they see that it’s really precious. “If we don’t do something to educate and promote environmental good practices, then it won’t be here.”

She reiterated that the entire program is voluntary. “The donations are voluntary. The business participation is voluntary, and who we choose to give the donations to from our guests, it’s voluntary.”

The Inlet Inn’s eco-partners are the Friends of the Reserve and the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review.

Coastal Federation Business Engagement Director Catherine Snead said that the organization is extremely grateful to the Inlet Inn for this initiative and their proactive approach to local conservation.

“They recognized the need for safeguarding our coastal ecosystems, and implemented a plan to raise awareness and make a positive difference in our community by giving back. The funds generated by Coins for Conservation will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on our shared coastal environment,” Snead said. “The Coins for Conservation model represents a perfect synergy of commerce and compassion, and the Coastal Federation wholeheartedly thanks Barbara and Jay for their invaluable support. Together we will ensure the continued health and resiliency of our coastal habitats for generations to come.”

The Beaufort Hotel joined the program in May. Their voluntary fee goes to the Friends of the Reserve. “And that is just going to be a huge contribution,” McKenzie said.

Beaufort Hotel General Manager Peter Grills told Coastal Review that in the two months they have been participating, June and July, fewer than 5% of their guests have chosen not to donate the $3 per stay.

“Many guests comment and thank us for giving them the opportunity to help keep the area as it is,” he said.

“We are always looking for ways to give back to the community we operate in. We chose the Friends of Rachel Carson Reserve as our recipient for this year, as we have always done work with them,” Grills said. “We have a community service day with our company, Concord Hospitality, where we go into the community to do volunteer work.”

Since opening, the Beaufort Hotel has taken a team to the island and assisted by clearing walking trails. “We do this every November, and it’s fun for our associates to participate. The choice to give to the Friends that support the reserve was a natural fit for us.”

Volunteers with the Atlantic Beach Sea Turtle Project connected the group’s president, Michele Lamping, with Coins for Conservation. Lamping is an aquarist and sea turtle specialist at the North Carolina Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

Lamping founded the nonprofit in 2021 to support the volunteer organization that protects nesting sea turtles, nests and hatchings in Atlantic Beach during nesting season May 1 through Sept. 30. She established the nonprofit to be a way to receive donations for the project.

Lamping said any donations they receive through Coins for Conservation will go to operating costs that the volunteers have been funding out-of-pocket since starting the volunteer AB Sea Turtle Project began 15 years ago.

The funds will help buy materials to create shade cloths that are put around a nest to block light pollution from streets and houses, equipment like shovels and sand buckets, and maintenance for the utility vehicle they use to get between nests.

“Now, our big conservation impact that we’re trying to deal with is our biggest killer of turtles in Atlantic Beach, light pollution,” she said, and any funds they receive will go to educational materials to get that message out, especially on their website.

With the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust’s recent purchase of nearly 17 acres on the Chowan River south of Colerain in Bertie County, the property known as Point Comfort is forever protected.  

The 16.86-acre property features 85- to 90-foot bluffs overlooking the Chowan River and forms a part of the Wicomico Terrace, an old ocean shoreline dating as far back as the Pleistocene era that ended about 12,000 years ago, according to the Coastal Land Trust.

The east-facing bluff is made of clay, sand, quartz, ironstone, limestone, and marine fossils that have been deposited over time, creating visible layers of color and texture. Additionally, there is a coastal forest ecosystem of white oak, American beech and holly on the property.

Organization officials said that the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program recently ranked the site, Chowan River Point Comfort Bluffs, as a new natural heritage area of exceptional significance.

Dr. Stan Riggs, coastal geologist and professor emeritus at East Carolina University, and Mr. Tom Earnhardt, host and co-producer of UNC-TV’s “Exploring North Carolina,” made the conservation organization aware of the property at Point Comfort, Land Trust officials said.

“The Point Comfort property will be managed as a nature preserve and will be forever protected from development,” Lee Leidy, attorney and northeast region director for Coastal Land Trust, said in a statement. Leidy added that they are thankful to Riggs and Earnhardt for bringing this site to their attention, and sharing their extensive knowledge of the history and geology of the area.

The Coastal Land Trust also extended gratitude to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stanback, and other private donors.

More information, more work, more study and more discussion are needed.

Topsail Beach commissioners said Monday that a Raleigh software entrepreneur’s evolving plan to purchase and develop a personal multi-home family compound with a private marina on an undeveloped 119-acre site situated at the south end of town isn’t yet on solid enough footing to allow for a decision on a long-pending rezoning request.

The town board said it still wants more answers and professional analyses related to the proposal before it decides.

At one point during the special called meeting held to discuss proposed conditions and comments on the conditional rezoning application for the New Topsail Inlet property known as The Point, Commissioner John Gunter suggested the entire process needed to start anew because so much had changed, including late-hour changes that he said made it appear that the Olsons were just trying to win votes.

The applicants and prospective owners of the parcel, Todd Olson, founder of Pendo, and his wife Laura Olson, were at the meeting. The Olsons said they were merely reacting to feedback from the public and town planning board in making multiple changes to their plans since talks of the proposal began last year. They said the plans were presented as a “vision doc” and had been fluid to allow for dialogue, “to open up the aperture of what’s possible” regarding the site, which is part of the federal Coastal Barrier Resources System.

The Olsons said their proposed private development of the federally restricted site would be far less dense than any other development in town and all changes made in the latest iteration of their plans had been made in response to officials’ recommendations.

But some commissioners were frustrated that changes were made as recently as the night before the meeting.

“I’m struggling with why we’ve gotten to this point when my feeling is, you have had six months or more to respond to the initial public comments that you solicited yourself and then didn’t really address to people’s satisfaction,” Gunter said to the Olsons. “And now the proposal, in my mind, has changed in hopes of securing more agreement to it.”

Commissioner Frank Braxton said the Olsons could be best served by professional assessments that address the issues raised in prior discussions.

“You’re trying to sell a plan, and we don’t have it yet,” Braxton said.

The board consensus included calls for soil scientists for septic, hydrogeologists for potable water and engineers to study issues such as water pressure for fire suppression where public utilities cannot be extended. An environmental assessment was also recommended.

Jacksonville-based surveyor Charles Riggs submitted the rezoning request last year on behalf of the Olsons. Riggs offered on Monday to draw up a new site plan to allay the board’s unease, but Braxton suggested bringing in other expertise instead.

“You may be going outside of your wheelhouse on something like this because this is a one-of-a-kind shot. This is one of the most primo lots on the East Coast right now and something very unique. And I would think you’d really want to throw what you can at it and get a very talented architect and engineer — landscape architects, a planner, whatever — and have them really go over it and try to give you something good to sell,” Braxton said.

Braxton is president of an engineering and landscape architecture firm who has also worked with the Raleigh Planning Department.

Much of the meeting’s discussion centered on a draft of points for proposed conditions. The Olsons had previously agreed to the planning board’s conditions, included in the document, but commissioners wanted more detailed answers.

Earlier, during the public comment portion of the meeting, several property owners cited similar and familiar concerns about the proposed project. But it was the late-hour revisions that chafed some members of the board.

Commissioners said it was unfair to them and the public to be expected to consider the controversial rezoning application when the plan was still changing as recently as within 24 hours of the workshop meeting at town hall.

Todd Olson said the initial documents were submitted anticipating that further questions would be asked and intending to provide a sense for what the couple would be amenable to in advance.

“We’re not saying, ‘We need that,’ we’re not saying, ‘We want that.’ We’re not saying that even is what’s going to exist. We’re saying that if there’s discussion of a parking lot, there are questions that are, ‘What does it look like?’ and ‘What amenities will be there?’ And we’re simply open to having the conversation. We’re not saying this is what we think, but there’s a lot of conditions that we haven’t had an open dialogue around and we’re trying to create an open dialogue,” Olson said.

Olson said that the changes were also in response to public feedback.

“I don’t think there’s any submission that we’re going to submit that’s going to make people happy to be quite honest,” he said.

Gunter noted that the plans had been public for months, an official public hearing was set for Sept. 13, the board was expected to make its decision in October, and now among the last-minute changes was enlarging the proposed building envelope.

Riggs said that was to allow the family flexibility, “So that when they want to build a house in a couple of years, they can pick the spot and then design it, and then 10 years later, when they want to build their second house, they can pick that spot and then design. So, any plan that you see today is going to be approximate.”

“This needs to start all over again if you’re going to expand what you’re proposing,” Gunter said.

Conservation enhancements

Information was sent to Coastal Review on behalf of the Olsons over the weekend. In it, the couple says their plan would yield community benefits such as preservation of property the town had tried to purchase for more than 20 years, improved and more accessible beach access with showers and bathrooms maintained by an attendant, and enhanced conservation as the new owners would improve awareness of wildlife nesting site “disturbances” now most often caused by “unknowing beachgoers.”

The Olsons say they have been working with the Coastal Land Trust and, if conserved, the nonprofit’s “efforts would have uninterrupted reach between Topsail and Figure Eight Island.”

Their home placement decisions considered factors such as sea level rise, distance from critical habitats, inlet movement and distance from the ocean and Serenity Point.

“We chose these spots to be at the high points on the property,” according to a PowerPoint that was provided to Coastal Review. The slideshow was created by Laura Olson and details the steps the family plans to take regarding conversation and preservation.

The slideshow also notes the accretion of sand at The Point as the inlet has shifted farther out: “The walk around the point was a much shorter walk 50 years ago!” a text box superimposed over an aerial image showing historic shoreline positions over the decades.

Dr. Rob Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, has maintained that the site is appropriately zoned as-is. He said the Olson’s proposed conditions do nothing to diminish the risk.

“There are no ways to modify the project that would reduce the hazard exposure,” Young told Coastal Review Monday in an email.

Young, who has been mapping coastal hazards for three decades and has served on the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Advisory Panel, also leads a project working with the National Park Service to assess the vulnerability of every asset in every U.S. coastal park.

In previous comments submitted to the town, Young has contended that the site “would rank as extremely high in every single category we evaluate for coastal hazards” and leave town residents responsible for the potential consequences, including post-storm liabilities.

In his comments also published on his LinkedIn page, Young warned, “Don’t be misled by the fact that the spit is currently growing. It is still highly storm vulnerable. Land adjacent to inlets can change rapidly and it will experience extreme storm surge and significant wave impact during storm events. If you approve building here, you may as well eliminate all restrictions and pretend that we have learned nothing about coastal processes and coastal hazards over the last few decades in North Carolina. It is as simple as that.”

Topsail Beach commissioners are meeting Monday afternoon to talk details of a proposed gated family compound at the undeveloped southern tip of town.

Commissioners will propose and discuss conditions on Pendo CEO Todd Olsen’s conditional rezoning application, which seeks to remove fewer than 30 acres of the nearly 150-acre property from its current conservation zone.

The software entrepreneur is under contract to buy the land pending the outcome of the rezoning request.

The Olsons want to build seven houses, a pool and pool house, decking beach and sound accesses, and a six-slip private marina on the sprawling, natural area known as The Point.

Olson and his wife, Laura, have signed a letter of intent with the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the property, which would forever prevent development on more than 115 acres.

Their rezoning request was unanimously denied in May by the town’s planning board.

The commissioners’ special-called meeting will be held at 3 p.m. in the town hall board chambers, 820 S. Anderson Blvd.

Documents will be made available on the town’s website at https://topsailbeachnc.gov/Government/Agenda-Minutes.

TOPSAIL BEACH – With the one-year mark approaching since a Raleigh software entrepreneur submitted plans to build a family compound on the undeveloped south end of Topsail Island, frustrations have mounted over when to hold the next and possibly final public hearing on a request to rezone a portion of the property.

This week, commissioners set a hearing for late summer.

When the town planner suggested Topsail Beach commissioners host the public hearing in October, several property owners attending the board’s regular monthly meeting Wednesday night let out a collective sigh of exacerbation and verbally protested.

What ensued was a debate of timelines, procedure and, when the conversation turned to holding the public hearing on a Saturday rather than during a regular weeknight meeting of the commissioners, precedent.

“October? This is July,” Commissioner John Gunter said.

Gunter said he had a list of a dozen or more conditions he’d like to add to proposed development plans that have morphed since Pendo CEO Todd Olson turned them over the town last October as part of a request to conditionally rezone the property.

Olson and his wife Laura are under contract to buy the nearly 150-acre site pending their request to rezone roughly a quarter of the property from its current conservation zone.

The couple has also signed a letter of intent with the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the property, which would forever prevent development on more than 115 acres.

But a grassroots group called Conserve the Point is working with nongovernmental organizations to try and cull public and private funding to buy the land from the current owners to ensure none of the property gets developed.

The Topsail Beach Planning Board in May unanimously denied the Olsons’ rezoning request.

The Olsons want to build seven houses, a pool and pool house, decking beach and sound accesses, and a six-slip private marina on the sprawling, natural area known as The Point.

The south end of Topsail Island has steadily grown over the years with the island’s southerly migration at New Topsail Inlet.

The land, owned for decades by the McLeod family, is a popular draw for residents, tourists and frequent visitors of the town who enjoy sandy walks along the ocean and sound shores.

The Olsons’ request to rezone fewer than 30 acres has been met with fierce opposition from property owners, tourists and environmentalists.

The land is designated critical habitat to threatened and endangered piping plovers and loggerhead sea turtles. It is within a state-designated inlet hazard area and in a VE flood zone, which is an area with a 1% or greater chance of flooding with an additional risk of damage from storm waves.

The property is also within a federally designated Coastal Barrier Resources Act, or CBRA, unit.

Congress enacted CBRA in the early 1980s to discourage development in low-lying, storm- and flood-prone coastal areas by prohibiting certain federal assistance within those areas, including eligibility to the National Flood Insurance Program. Local governments face the threat of being cut off from some types of federal funding if that town, city or county extends infrastructure such as water and sewer service to development within a CBRA zone.

Town commissioners were informed Wednesday night that Laura Olson is in the process of meeting with various environmental agencies at the property and that she has a deadline of Aug. 18 to submit any additional information to the town based on the results of those meetings.

That led to commissioners questioning whether the Olsons are planning to make changes to the plans that have been submitted to the town.

When asked to address commissioners, a visibly frustrated Charles Riggs, the Jacksonville-based surveyor who represents the Olsons, said he was at the meeting with the understanding that the board was going to potentially place additional conditions on the proposed development plans.

“I was not prepared to make a presentation tonight,” he said. “Any change (to the plans) would be based off what the commissioners are requesting. It’s my understanding that the concept and plans that you have seen is what we’re going to be moving forward with. I was here tonight to gather information on what the commissioners wanted to do.”

He said the Olsons certainly do not want to withdraw and resubmit their application to rezone, a suggestion Gunter initially made and then recanted just before the meeting adjourned.

“I don’t want this to go back to the planning board,” Gunter said. “I want this to move and to move fast.”

Commissioner Frank Braxton concurred.

“I agree with John that we need to move this forward and to get this behind us,” he said.

Gunter continued to push for a public hearing before September, a timeline Mayor Steve Smith said simply isn’t feasible.

“We have a lot of other things we have to take care of in the town,” Smith said. “This is not the only one.”

Commissioners unanimously voted to schedule the public hearing at their Sept. 13 meeting.

Commissioners also agreed to hold a workshop to discuss any conditions they may decide to place on the proposed plans. Details of that workshop are to be determined.

North Carolina is home to nearly 4,000 species of plants. A small percentage of them, but some of the most unusual, can be found in the Green Swamp Preserve, a 17,424-acre nature preserve managed by The Nature Conservancy.

The Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County, about a 40-minute drive southeast of Wilmington, remains closed after a recent wildfire, the result of flames escaping the area of a prescribed burn that was in process in June. The fire spread across most of the preserve, covering nearly 16,000 acres and prompting state air quality alerts.

But once it reopens later this summer, visitors can see 14 species of carnivorous plants, 16 species of native orchids, and other endangered wildflowers on the sun-dappled ground beneath a tall longleaf pine canopy.

The recent blaze was prevented from reaching any nearby private property, and due to the distinctive nature of the fire-adapted longleaf pine ecosystem — and conservancy’s management practices, which included a successful controlled burn in January — it’s more a problem for people who wish to explore the area than the plants that live there.

“There are already grasses popping up in the preserve,” Michelle Ly, conservation coordinator for the conservancy’s southeast coastal plain office, explained last week to Coastal Review. She noted that they expect to see some plant species recovering in areas where they previously had been crowded out by taller vegetation. “This wildfire and burnout will benefit the preserve greatly.”

The Nature Conservancy also hosts a “Fire in the Pines” festival in Wilmington, where visitors can learn how controlled burns help plants and animals in these coastal environments and watch a live demonstration burn. This year’s festival is set for Oct.14.

With the recent containment of the blaze called the Pulp Road fire, conservancy officials and scientists on Thursday led a media tour of a part of the preserve that was unaffected by the most recent fire but that was subjected to the controlled burn in January.

The area of the media tour was lush with color and new growth emerging from the char below.

Protecting star species

The star plant species of the Green Swamp Preserve include a huge range of carnivorous plants: Venus flytraps, sundew, bladderworts, butterworts, and four species of pitcher plants.

The conservancy works to ensure the Green Swamp remains a healthy, balanced ecosystem for these specialized plants. It has taken care of the land since 1977, when the Federal Paper Board Co. gifted it nearly 14,000 acres. The company donated an additional 2,577 acres in the late 1980s. Over time, the conservancy has purchased the rest.

The conservancy’s conservation activities center on the longleaf pines that tower above the understory layer. These trees once covered about 90 million acres of the Southeast, from Virginia to Florida and as far west as Texas. Logging and urban development have shrunk their numbers. Today, slightly more than 5 million acres remain, up from just 3.2 million acres in the early 2000s.

The conservancy has been protecting and restoring longleaf pine ecosystems across the tree’s original range. In Ly’s experience, walking through the Green Swamp is like stepping back in time to a less anthropogenically influenced landscape. Longleaf pine stands are naturally open and were historically maintained by low-intensity natural fires often sparked by lightning strikes.

In the early 1900s, forest management policies changed, ushering in an era of fire suppression. This altered longleaf pine ecosystems and put people and infrastructure in danger of larger, uncontrolled wildfires fueled by newly dense understories.

Now, prescribed fire is once again an important part of longleaf pine management. The conservancy performs controlled burns on regular intervals of three to five years to mimic natural fire regimes.

“Preserving longleaf pine is not just about the tree, it’s about the ecosystem,” Ly explained.

The controlled burns knock back any hardwood trees that have taken root and open the understory, so Venus flytraps, orchids, and other native flora can get the sunlight they need to flourish. These burns are also great for birds and other wildlife that thrive in longleaf ecosystems.

‘An iconic plant’

The conservancy’s website notes the preserve is closed to the public through Aug. 31 as it upgrades the trail, including building a new boardwalk. Don’t let that stop you from planning a trip to visit this fall, though – seeing Venus flytraps in the wild can be a special experience.

“This is such an iconic plant, and there’s just no other place in the world you can see this plant in the wild except here in the Carolinas,” explained botanist and author Scott Zona, who took his first trip to the Green Swamp earlier this year. Zona manages North Carolina State University’s North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox and has an appointment at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Herbarium.

Wild Venus flytraps are only found within about a 75-mile radius of Wilmington.

Venus flytraps catch their prey using special leaves with sensitive hairs called trigger hairs. Once the hairs sense that an insect has landed on the trap, it snaps shut in less than a second. Any further movement of the prey causes the trap to stay clamped tightly shut as it digests the unlucky passerby. If some nonprey item, like a stick, falls onto the trap, it will slowly open back up for the item to be blown away or fall off.

Venus flytraps also have special reproductive adaptations. While their leaves and stems are low to the ground, their white flowers grow on tall stalks stretching about 8 to 12 inches into the air to keep the insects that pollinate them from becoming lunch.   

Zona’s initial visit to the Green Swamp and seeing Venus flytraps in the wild for the first time did not disappoint: “To me, it’s right up there with the first time I went to the Muir Woods in California and saw redwood trees.”

That may be high praise coming from a man who has traveled around the world studying plant ecology and evolution and has a species of palm named after him.

Zona’s colleagues from the United Kingdom, who visited with him, also enjoyed the experience.

“Both of them are very well-respected, well-known botanists who travel the world, and they were just as excited to see these plants as I was,” he said. 

Myriad other fascinating plants also inhabit the Green Swamp. Its purple pitcher plants lack the umbrella-like leaf “hoods” that other pitcher plants have. The preserve also is home to bladderworts, extremely unassuming plants with tiny sacs used to catch prey. Bladderworts are the fastest carnivorous plants in the world, able to trap and eat their prey in less than a millisecond. And the noncarnivorous plants are worth a close look, as well.

“If you’ve never seen native orchids out in the wild, they’re so beautiful and so unique, they’re much different than the ones you see in the grocery store,” Ly said.

While the area’s nutrient-poor and often waterlogged soil might not sound like a great place to be a plant, according to Zona, those are great conditions for Venus flytraps and other carnivorous plants. During the winter they go dormant; in the spring, they revive, unfurling new green leaves. Their diet of insects is an adaptation that helps them make up for the lack of nutrients in the soil.

A 2020 study of the Venus flytrap genome found that the genes associated with flytrap “traps” — the leaves that snap shut on prey — came from copies of genes found in their ancestors’ roots.

The Green Swamp is not only a botanist’s dream, but also a fantastic day trip destination for any nature enthusiast. Zona has just one regret from his trip to the Green Swamp: “We did not have the foresight to pack a lunch with us,” he said. “If we had packed lunch, we could have stayed there even longer.”

From conifers to hardwoods, there are millions of seedlings for sale through the North Carolina Forest Service.

The Forest Service’s nursery program, which produces enough native and genetically improved tree seedlings to plant roughly 30,000 acres of land each year, began its annual tree seedling sale Wednesday, officials said.

“The importance of healthy trees and forests cannot be overstated as they provide countless benefits to our state’s environment as well as to each of us,” Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement. “I strongly encourage landowners to take advantage of both the quantity and quality of tree species produced right here in our state by the North Carolina Forest Service.”

Types of trees, quantities and cost information can be found on the Forest Service website or in seedling catalogs at Forest Service offices statewide. Location information is at www.ncforestservice.gov/contacts.

Each species description includes information about ideal planting locations and whether a species is typically used to benefit wildlife, restore forest habitats or as marketable timber.

Tree seedlings can be ordered from the online seedling store at www.buynctrees.com or on the N.C. Forest Service website, by phone at 1-888-NCTREES (1-888-628-7337) or 919-731-7988.

Orders will be distributed January through March, depending on weather conditions.

Orders can be shipped to one of 13 distribution centers statewide for a small fee, through UPS for a charge, or picked up at either the state Forest Service Claridge Nursery in Goldsboro or, for those in the western part of the state, the Linville River Nursery near Crossnore.

Reprinted from Carteret County News-Times

OCEAN — The North Carolina Coastal Federation this month received a $1.6 million grant from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund Flood Risk Reduction Program to design and implement the restoration of 1,100 acres of ditched and drained timberland to wetlands within the Newport River watershed.

Located east of Newport and north of Morehead City, North Carolina Coastal Land Trust recently purchased the 1,400 acres that are adjacent to the Croatan National Forest.

The land will be transferred to the nonprofit Coastal Federation later this year. The tract includes 1,100 acres of timberland and 300 acres of high-quality wetland habitat. It had been owned by Weyerhaeuser, the timber and paper company.

The restoration will include blocking the flow from the drainage ditches to decrease the amount of water moving to the river during a storm. The project also will restore the floodplain area along the tributary running through the center of the property to allow for floodwater storage.

Once the work is complete, according to Coastal Federation founder and Executive Director Todd Miller, it’s estimated that the property should be able to retain approximately 165 million gallons of runoff during a large storm, significantly reducing the volume and flow of polluted runoff entering the Newport River following each heavy rain.

The North Carolina Land and Water Fund was appropriated $15 million in the North Carolina 2021-22 state budget for projects that protect and restore floodplains and wetlands for the purpose of storing water, reducing flooding improving water quality providing wildlife and aquatic habitat and providing recreational opportunities.

The federation has done similar, even larger projects, before. In December 2022, after more than 20 years of planning and work, the nonprofit announced it had completed restoration work that transformed North River Farms in Down East Carteret County into a wetlands preserve.

The 6,000-acre restoration project was among the largest of its kind in the nation.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust last year was awarded a $1.65 million state grant from the North Carolina Land and Water Trust Fund to help pay for the purchase and preservation of the property.

The land includes about 4 miles of frontage along the river and Little Creek, according to Janice Allen, the trust’s director of land protection. It has a rare coastal estuarine fringe forest, and it’s across the river from property the trust already owns.

There are loblolly pine trees and maritime oaks, and the marsh is in good shape, Allen said last year.

Allen said Monday the land trust has bought the property with the grant from the Land and Water Trust Fund and another from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, plus some loans, which need to be paid back before the property can be transferred to the federation.

“We’re working on it,” she said, and “hopefully” it will happen soon.

The N.C. Land and Water Fund, formerly known as the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, gets money from the state budget, and since its creation in 1996 by the state General Assembly, has conserved well over one-half million acres and protected or restored 3,000 miles of streams and rivers.

At the time the land trust announced its grant in October 2022, a news release said the trust would likely turn the property over to the N.C. Coastal Federation.

The N.C. Coastal Land Trust is headquartered in Wilmington. It conserves lands with scenic, recreational, historic and/or ecological value. The mission of the organization, which is supported by grants and donations, is to “enrich the coastal communities of our state through conservation of natural areas and working landscapes, education and the promotion of good land stewardship.”

Since its inception in 1992, it has protected more than 85,000 acres in the state’s 31 eastern counties, including Carteret.

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

While funding has increased over the last few years for land and water conservation, those levels, when adjusted for inflation, remain well below funding seen during the late 2000s, according to an update this week to the 2018 report “North Carolina’s Land and Water: Yesterday, Today, and Forever.”

North Carolina Forever, a nonprofit coalition of businesses and nonprofit organizations advocating for funds and policies to conserve and protect the state’s lands and waters, released Monday the update by RTI International, a Raleigh-based nonprofit research institute. The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, is among the about 20 partners of N.C. Forever.

The 2023 update, called “Land & Water Conservation Highlights,” builds on the 2018 report that highlights the “importance of land and water conservation for sustaining a healthy environment and vibrant economy in North Carolina.”

The new report updates the 2018 data to include the years through 2022. An interactive dashboard detailing the findings in the update can be found on the organization’s website.

The 2023 update notes that there are “multiple pressures” on the state’s land and water resources including rapid population growth, large losses of farmland, rising land prices, and a significant increase in demand for outdoor recreation spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic.

State budget appropriations increased in fiscal years 2022 and 2023 for the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, or PARTF, the Land and Water Fund, or NCLWF, and the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation, or ADFP, Trust Fund, averaging more than a total of $165 million per year over the last two years, according to the update.

Additionally, the North Carolina General Assembly provided over the last two years more than $300 million in resiliency-based funding for nature-based solutions, such as using wetlands to hold back floodwaters, which also provide wildlife habitat and improve water quality, the report explains.

“Although the last biennium saw significant funding for land and water conservation, the level of recurring funding for these trust funds remains well below prior years’ commitments,” according to the report.

In fiscal 2008, the state had $176 million in recurring or dedicated funding annually for the Clean Water Trust Fund and PARTF, the report continues. “In today’s dollars, that would amount to $252 million. While the state appropriated $173 million to the current trust funds (PARTF, NCLWF, and ADFP) in FY23, only 35% of this funding was recurring or from dedicated sources.”

The update suggests more appropriations to meet cost-share and other grant requirements, and reestablishing the state’s conservation tax credit, which the legislature eliminated in 2013. The tax credit allowed landowners to apply for state income tax credits equal to 25% of the fair market value of the donated property interest.

The update recognizes there are a growing number of conservation initiatives being established across the Southeast, including the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative, or SASMI, launched in 2021 to protect more than 1 million acres of coastal salt marsh, from North Carolina to northeast Florida.

Looking ahead, N.C. Forever’s legislative agenda includes pursuing an increase in funding for the state’s three conservation trust funds to more than $100 million annually. 

TOPSAIL BEACH – The Topsail Beach Planning Board on Wednesday denied a request to rezone a portion of the undeveloped southern end of the town to build a family compound.

The board’s unanimous recommendation now goes to Topsail Beach commissioners, who will decide whether to uphold the planning board’s vote or approve the application to conditionally rezone roughly a quarter of the property known as The Point from its current conservation zone.

Commissioners are expected during their June 14 meeting to schedule a public hearing, which is anticipated to be held during the board’s July 12 meeting.

Raleigh software entrepreneur Todd Olson’s rezoning request has been met with a flurry of opposition from property owners in the town, throughout the island and tourists who frequent the town for family vacations and day trips.

After the planning board cast its vote Wednesday, one man in the audience called out, “Hallelujah!” A majority of people filling the chairs set up in The Historic Assembly Building in the heart of the Pender County town’s business district applauded the decision.

Representatives of the Olson family declined to comment after the meeting.

The Olson family wants to build seven houses, a pool and pool house, decking, beach and sound accesses and a six-slip private marina on the sprawling nearly 150-acre site that has steadily grown over the years as the southern end of Topsail Island at New Topsail Inlet has accrued sand.

The Olsons are under contract to buy the land pending whether or not the footprint in which building would occur – fewer than 30 acres – gets rezoned.

They have also signed a letter of intent with the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the property. If that deal were to go through it would mean that more than 115 acres would forever stay undeveloped.

For months now, town residents, property owners and tourists have expressed opposition to the rezoning request in public meetings and hearings, and on social media.

A grassroots group called Conserve the Point is working with nongovernmental organizations to try and cull public and private funding to buy the land from the McLeod family, which has owned the property for decades.

Prospective buyer Laura Olson said Wednesday that she is an environmentalist, one who can be found at beach cleanups and who works on water quality issues.

“I do believe we’re on the same team. What makes me worried are the options that would come after us,” she said, alluding to developers who might eye the land if it remains on the market.

There are areas of the property that are already threatened, she said. Unleashed dogs disturb the nests of shorebirds and people sometimes traverse the dunes.

The land is designated critical habitat to threatened and endangered piping plovers and loggerhead sea turtles.

“We do plan to work with scientists and protecting things on the property,” Olson said.

She said a conservation easement for the majority of the land would be made official before building would begin.

“Honestly, we’re pretty focused with our family and our work lives today,” Olson said. “This is a project we don’t even really want to be working on right now. This is for the future.”

Even if commissioners buck the planning board’s recommendation, any proposed development of the land will face the scrutiny of federal and state regulatory agencies.

The property is in a federally designated Coastal Barrier Resources Act, or CBRA, unit.

Congress enacted CBRA, pronounced “cobra,” in the early 1980s to discourage development in low-lying, storm- and flood-prone coastal areas by prohibiting certain federal assistance within those areas, including access to the National Flood Insurance Program. Local governments face the threat of being cut off from some types of federal funding if that town, city or county extends infrastructure such as water and sewer service to development within a CBRA zone.

Topsail Beach has a policy in its current land use plan that mandates any development must connect to the town’s public water system. Because the land is within a CBRA zone, town water cannot be extended on the site.

That and other “differing policies and inconclusive descriptions for development density” resulted in town staff neither recommending or denying the conditional zoning request.

The land is also within a state-designated Inlet Hazard Area, one in which shorelines face a higher threat of erosion and flooding at inlets that can shift suddenly and dramatically.

In a last-minute update to the proposed development plans, Jacksonville-based surveyor Charles Riggs, who represents the Olsons, informed the planning board that the “building envelope,” or area in which development would occur, had been trimmed down from about 26 acres to 18 acres.

That decision was made after consulting further with the Coastal Land Trust and wildlife officials, he said.

“I believe we have a valid, legitimate plan here which includes over 123 acres of conserved land,” Riggs said.

He said the Olson family was still taking some of the conditions set forth by town planning staff under consideration, including deeding one acre adjacent to a town-maintained public parking lot to the town.

“We do not anticipate a helicopter pad. We don’t anticipate any short-term vacation rentals at this time,” Riggs said.

Before casting their votes, planning board members said they had to consider potential future impacts of the rezoning request and proposed development to the environment and to property owners.

“We don’t know the long-term impact as we think about water tanks and burying things and digging up the dunes … I just don’t feel comfortable with that lack of information,” said Carrie Hewitt, the board’s vice chair.

A new regional plan aims to protect vitally important salt marsh habitats.

The South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative was unveiled Wednesday.

Salt marshes are known for their value in reducing flooding and erosion while providing wildlife and fish habitats important for recreational and commercial fishing, hunting, birding, eco-tourism and other activities that support coastal businesses and economies.

The voluntary plan to maintain and enhance the productivity and benefits of a million acres of salt marsh from North Carolina to east-central Florida includes strategies, objectives and actions ranging from living shorelines to conserving natural land near marshes so the tidal wetlands can move inland as sea levels rise.

The plan includes suggestions for securing funding, improving land use planning processes, and educating and engaging communities in salt marsh conservation projects.

South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative was developed over two years by a coalition of more than 300 military and government officials, community leaders, conservationists, scientists, fishermen and others, including the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review. The nonprofit organization is leading the initiative for the North Carolina Salt Marsh Conservation Action Plan, expected to be released this fall.

The initiative will work with its partners throughout the region to implement the plan over the next five years. Initial meetings will be scheduled in each state in the coming months to discuss the plan and develop the next steps.

The coalition was brought together by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Southeast Regional Partnership for Planning and Sustainability, or SERPPAS, whose members include the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies along with state environmental and natural resource officials from across the Southeast.

The Defense Department hosts more than a dozen installations on or near the Southeast Coast and some, such as Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot in South Carolina, already are experiencing flooding and other effects of rising seas.

“The Department of Defense relies on healthy, functioning ecosystems to support our mission readiness. But these ecosystems and the services they provide are changing rapidly, and no entity, area or activity is going to be immune to effects of these changes,” said SERPPAS principal co-chair and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience Richard Kidd.

“Specifically, for military installations along the coasts, the DoD is concerned about saltwater intrusion, sea level rise, and storm surge. As the sea advances and salt marshes migrate it compresses existing infrastructure and encroaches on our installations,” he said. “So, we need to not only preserve salt marsh to serve as a buffer for our installations but also ensure that migration can occur without conflicting other land uses. We know it’s going to take cooperation and partnerships to address these issues, and this conservation plan is a significant step toward planning for the future.”

The South Atlantic coast is home to millions of coastal residents, including the Gullah/Geechee Nation, who are descendants of enslaved Africans and indigenous Americans who are linked with the salt marsh. Chieftess Queen Quet, who works to protect the sacred lands and waterways of her people, served on the initiative’s steering committee because she recognizes the value of salt marshes to the sustainability of her homeland, for food security and Gullah/Geechee spiritual practices.

The North Carolina Salt Marsh Conservation Action Plan is to provide a detailed geospatial analysis of the current and future projections of salt marsh gain or loss, a reference guide of potential priority strategies for marsh restoration and migration facilitation, and a local stakeholder-informed plan to begin implementation of specific actions.

“No wetlands means no seafood,” said Coastal Federation Executive Director Todd Miller. “Now we have a strategy to perpetuate the many benefits of our salt marshes even as the sea level rises and there are more intense storms caused by global warming. We must work quickly if our marshes are to adapt and survive these climate changes.”

TOPSAIL BEACH – The highly anticipated recommendation for a rezoning request that would allow development on the southern end of Topsail Island is likely a little more than two weeks away.

Island property owners and visitors to the Pender County beach town continued to voice their opposition Wednesday to rezoning “The Point,” nearly 150 undisturbed acres stretching from the ocean to New Topsail Inlet.

Raleigh software entrepreneur Todd Olson is under contract to buy the tract pending his request of the town to rezone the land from conservation to conditional use, which would allow him to pursue plans to build a family compound.

Olson was not at the Topsail Beach Planning Board’s meeting Wednesday that included a public hearing, during which 20 people spoke in objection to his request.

The land that has been owned by the McLeod family for decades is a sentimental spot for many familiar with the island.

Speakers at Wednesday’s hearing expressed their love of the property and reiterated concerns raised over the past several months about potential environmental impacts development may have on land both state and federal governments have deemed particularly vulnerable to coastal storms because of its location to an inlet.

The property is within a state-designated Inlet Hazard Area, one in which shorelines face a higher threat of erosion and flooding at inlets that can suddenly and dramatically shift. The land is also in a Coastal Barrier Resources System, or CBRS, zone.

Congress created the system in the early 1980s to discourage building on relatively undeveloped barrier islands by barring federal funding and financial assistance in hurricane-prone, biologically rich areas.

Charles Riggs, a Jacksonville-based land surveyor representing Olson, told planning board members Wednesday that infrastructure on the property, including water wells, septic systems and roads, will be privately maintained.

Jones-Onslow Electric Membership Corp. has indicated it will supply power to the site.

Olson’s development proposal has changed since he initially approached the town with his rezoning request last year, including a proposal to conserve a majority of the property.

A lawyer representing Olson said Wednesday that Olson is currently in negotiations with the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust to place about 80% of the land — likely 115 or so acres — in a conservation easement in perpetuity.

That would restrict that portion of the land from being developed but allow construction within what officials call a “building envelope” of roughly 30 acres.

Plans submitted to the town call for seven homes, including a boat house Riggs said is being considered a dwelling, a fenced-in pool, road and waterfront accesses, and a six-slip private marina.

Riggs said the proposed development is a generational plan, one where Olson would initially have one house built with the prospect of adding the other six in the future.

The property would not be fenced off, Riggs said, but it will be gated.

Riggs said the houses would be single-story structures with low-profile roofs. The roofline of the homes may be at an elevation of 37 to 38 feet, he said, at least a couple of feet lower than those at Serenity Point, a townhome community sitting next to the property.

The homes cannot exceed 5,000 square feet, per building restrictions set forth in development within Inlet Hazard Areas.

The town’s planning staff last week sent Riggs a list of conditions for Olson to consider, including limiting the number of structures to those currently identified on the plan and granting a privately-maintained 30-foot easement for emergency vehicles to access the property.

Other conditions call for Olson to dedicate an existing parking lot at the south end to the town and about one acre adjacent to the lot, and have sprinkler systems installed in each house.

The town is not extending water service to the property, a move that would jeopardize Topsail Beach from receiving future federal funding because the property is in the CBRS.

The town-maintained parking lot is owned by the McLeod family, members of whom attended the public hearing.

Tom Terrell, an attorney representing the family, said the family has kindly and graciously allowed the public to freely access the land for six decades.

“This family has a unique voice,” he said. “They have a special interest that nobody in this room has. They have been willing taxpayers of this property. It is their property.”

He asked the planning board to recognize that the McLeod family has property rights and argued that denying the rezoning request would be a first step in a taking of the property.

The planning board is scheduled to meet May 24 and is expected to make its recommendation on the rezoning request. The board must make its decision by May 30.

The recommendation will then go before Topsail Beach commissioners, who will also hold a public hearing on the request.

Environmental advocate and educator Roger Shew takes viewers on an exploration of the natural wonders in the Wilmington area in his documentary, “Shew’s Natural Treasures: The Coastal Plain of Southeastern North Carolina.”

Shew, senior lecturer of geology at University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences, highlights in his film the natural landscapes in the region and explores the threats and challenges these environments face. 

The film will be screened at no charge from 4-6 p.m. April 30, followed by a Q&A period at the university’s Lumina Theater, 615 Hamilton Drive, Wilmington.

“For four years, our production team documented the coastal plain with Roger. He led us on a unique adventure as we experienced nature from his perspective,” said Jesse Bradley, director and co-producer. “The film is a collaboration of professionals, students, educators, and advocates connecting science, craft, and art with love of nature to tell its compelling story.” 

Shew is joined in the documentary by North Carolina Coastal Federation retired Coastal Scientist Tracy Skrabal, outdoor educator Charles Robbins, UNCW Professor Emeritus Dr. Paul Hosier, Cape Fear Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette, Carolina Beach State Park Superintendent Chris Helms, Southeast Chapter of The Nature Conservancy Program Director Deb Mauer, Waccamaw Siouan STEM Studio Program Director Ashley Lomboy, and Navassa Mayor Eulis Willis.

The second Carnival to Combat Climate Change set for this weekend at N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores will “provide a space for all ages to discuss environmental issues,” organizers said.

This year’s event, themed “Ocean Health,” will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and is included with admission or membership. The event will take place inside the aquarium. Tickets can be purchased on the aquarium website.

Leaders in science and conservation from across the state will be ready to talk about climate change and how individuals can help lessen its effects on coastal communities, plus there will be hands-on activities and carnival games.

Kaylee Whitley, one of the Aquarium’s teen volunteers, created the event as part of a community service project requirement for the Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center Network virtual youth summit she attended in 2021. 

“I was really grateful for the crowd of people that came out to the event last year, and this year we’re going to have even more games, crafts and activities with the same focus,” Whitley said. This year she feels more confident having been through the process of creating an entire event from start to finish.

Whitley, who has been a volunteer at the aquarium for four years, will be heading to college next year but plans to continue the Carnival to Combat Climate Change with aquarium staff members.

“We’re going to continue to make it better each and every year keep by still keeping the same idea as the first event, but making it a bit better each year,” she said.

The North American Association for Environmental Education, in partnership with Coastal Ecosystem Learning Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and eeBLUE awarded the aquarium’s youth program $4,000 in funding through the aquarium’s nonprofit N.C. Aquarium Society to help implement the first event that was held in 2022.

“Kaylee is an amazing representation of a teen who wants to inspire others to care for and conserve the ocean,” said Aly Mack, aquarium volunteer coordinator. “We are so impressed by her willingness to educate others about a complicated subject.” 

Mack said the carnival this year is the product of months of work and planning, but because of last year’s carnival, the team was more prepared and knew how they wanted the carnival to run.

Whitley hopes that people who come to the carnival will better understand how to help our ocean. “It’s hard to see sometimes how our ocean is impacted because it’s so big, but hopefully this will be a space that will help people understand and learn how the climate effects our ocean.”

The Tryon Palace Foundation has been given property at the corner of S. Front and Craven streets, locally referred to as the “Talbots lot,” to be a community park in downtown New Bern.

The property was donated by Betty Wilson of Trent Wood. She requested that gift be recognized as given by Betty and William G. Wilson, her late husband. The foundation will name the area Wilson Park.

Tryon Palace Foundation will hold at 4 p.m. Tuesday a dedication ceremony for Wilson Park that will include a procession led by Tryon Palace’s 1st NC Regiment of the Continental Line and the posting of colors by the 35th United States Colored Troops.

Wilson donated the land to Tryon Palace Foundation on the condition that the property be developed and maintained as a park and green space for art, education and community programs.

Tryon Palace’s vision for the property includes developing a community park that can be used for Fife and Drum Corps performances, reenactments of the 1st NC Regiment of the Continental Line and the 35th United States Colored Troops, Jonkonnu performances and other educational programming, officials said. Other ideas involve art and displays to engage visitors more deeply in the stories of this region and state.

The historic site will announce more details as plans emerge.

The Tryon Palace Foundation supports the Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens by protecting, preserving and developing the legacy of its historical past.

Harrison Marks has been selected to serve as executive director for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

With offices in Wilmington, New Bern and Elizabeth City, Coastal Land Trust was founded in 1992 and has saved more than 85,000 acres with scenic, recreational, historic or ecological value.

Marks was a member of the Coastal Land Trust’s Finance Committee before joining the board of directors in 2021. He stepped into the role of interim executive director in September 2022, taking a leave of absence from the board. Walker Golder had previously held the executive director position.

“I have long been in awe of all the Coastal Land Trust has accomplished, protecting and stewarding the lands we love at the coast,” Marks said. “I am excited and grateful to have the opportunity and privilege to help conserve important lands and varied landscapes of the coastal plain.” 

A longtime resident of Winston-Salem and New Bern, Marks attended Dartmouth College, earning a degree in biogeography and served as co-chair of the newly formed environmental studies division of the Dartmouth Outing Club. He was a senior executive for Wachovia Bank. He served as executive director of Sound Rivers, overseeing the merger of the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation and Neuse River Foundation into a new organization. 

“Harrison did an outstanding job serving as Interim Executive Director,” said Hal Kitchin, president of the Board of Directors. “He possesses a unique combination of leadership, management, and personal skills that will serve him well as Executive Director. He is the right person to lead the organization as we celebrate 30 years of protecting the lands we all love.” 

More than 1,600 acres in the coastal plain will be added to the North Carolina Registry of Natural Heritage Areas.

Weyerhaeuser, the largest private landowner in the North Carolina, has made an agreement with the state officials to voluntarily set aside eight tracts for the conservation of rare species and high-quality natural communities, such as tidal swamps and bottomland hardwood forests, the state announced Tuesday.

The Registry of Natural Heritage Areas is maintained by the state’s Natural Heritage Program, part of the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

“Natural Heritage Registry agreements are voluntary, developed between landowners and the state to manage and protect properties with rare plants, animals or other outstanding natural elements,” Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said in a statement. “This agreement will help protect several rare and endangered plants and animals in the Coastal Plain, some of which, like Coastal Goldenrod, are extremely rare.”

The eight sites to be added to the registry are the following:

• Clarks Landing Goldenrod Site: 213 acres in Pender County.
• Cutgrass Bay: 100 acres in Sampson County.
• Eastern Gum Swamp: 194 acres in Beaufort County.
• Hood Creek Floodplain and Slopes: 90 acres in Brunswick County.
• Pantego Swamp: 311 acres in Hyde County.
• Salmon Creek Swamp: 120 acres in Bertie County.
• South River Swamp: 30 acres in Sampson County.
• Upper Pungo River: 551 acres in Hyde County.

These registered natural areas that will remain in Weyerhaeuser’s ownership provide important wildlife habitats and contribute to landscape resilience, state officials said, adding that while public benefits are protected by the agreement, the agreement does not allow for for public access.

“We are always happy to protect natural areas that have special value to our communities,” said Jocelyn Wilson, region manager for Weyerhaeuser. “This partnership with the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is a great opportunity to contribute to our state’s unique Natural Heritage Areas and preserve rare, native species.”

Weyerhaeuser Co., began operations in 1900 and is one of the largest manufacturers of wood products in North America. The company owns or controls around 11 million acres in the country and manage timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company has lumber mills in Greenville, Plymouth and New Bern, and the Washington operations office in Vanceboro.

ROCKY POINT – Perhaps no one can describe Sheba Shiver’s connection to her family’s land better than she can.

“I always feel like I’m closer to my father, his spirit and, of course, Mother Nature and God the Father.”

The land that has been in her family for more than 100 years is Shiver’s refuge, one flanked by fields and woodlands rising up from the banks of the Northeast Cape Fear River.

This is where she picked plums from trees and scooped up pecans as a child. The land her great-grandfather Herbert Moore purchased in 1919 with earnings he’d saved while serving his country as a soldier during World War I was handed down from one generation to the next.

Blacktop slicing through the property bears her family’s names.

There’s Moore Town Road off N.C. Highway 210 in Rocky Point, a Pender County community about 17 miles west of Wilmington. Thankful Road is named after her great-great-grandmother Thankful Moore. And, Rebecca Kennedy Road, which bears the name of Shiver’s great-great-aunt.

Offers to buy the land come in “all the time,” Shiver, 59, told Coastal Review last week.

Not a chance.

But what to do with 50 acres was a question weighing on Shiver’s mind when she moved from California in late 2019 — after her father’s death that September — to be close to her mother.

“I said, ‘Mom, we should be able to do something with this land besides cut grass,’” Shiver said.

She wanted to try her hand at farming, but she did not want to wait a year to qualify for in-state college tuition to take horticulture courses.

She planted a garden, experimenting with vegetables and herbs to determine what she could successfully grow. The thought of waking early every Saturday morning to sell her harvest at a farmer’s market did not appeal to her.

What about doing something for the land, she thought. Something to enhance it for animals like the white-tailed deer that roam its fields and woods. Something that will help it weather unforgiving floodwaters that swell from Northeast Cape Fear during rain-soaking hurricanes.

Her answer: Trees. Thousands of them.

‘Just me and the trees’

The sun warms us on a chilly March morning as Shiver periodically bends over young trees so small you’d easily step on them if not keeping a careful eye.

She pulls a white tag from a stack she holds in one hand and gingerly but securely loops one around the top of what appears to be no more than a sprig rising from the ground.

Shiver is dressed the part: Her knee-high rubber boots are dusted by yellowish-green pollen thanks to a particularly early season.

She’s sporting noticeably baggy clothes. The oversized, gray Dickies’ jacket she wears hangs past her hips. The blue jeans she’s wearing are almost tentlike on her thin frame. Black suspenders hugging her shoulders keep the jeans loosely around her waist.

These were her father’s clothes.

“I’m going to be out here a long time,” she says with an easy smile.

We’re standing in a 5-acre field nestled between woods and the large, manicured yard where hers and her mother’s houses rest high off the ground on stilts to keep them from floodwaters.

What’s left of the house where she grew up from about the age of 10 until she left for Howard University rests in a heap not far from where Shiver is tagging the tiny trees.

Floodwaters that rose from the river after Hurricane Floyd in 1999 overtook the brick ranch house. Shiver had all intentions to fix up the house, but flooding during Hurricane Florence in 2018 finished off the structure for good.

The rubble mound is a solemn reminder that the river, though unseen from the old homestead and surrounding land, is not far away.

Shiver figures she’s tagged about 600 trees so far — a slight dent considering that more than 10,000 were planted in this field last month (with her mother’s permission) by those who work for the contractor who ordered the trees and 10 volunteers with The Hobby Greenhouse Club in Wilmington.

In all 10,225 trees – chestnut oak, white oak, wax myrtle, elderberry, southern catalpa, silky dogwood, flowering dogwood and persimmon – were planted within an eight-hour span Feb. 22.

Shiver was frankly and pleasantly surprised at how quickly the trees were planted. She’d been waiting to get them on her land and in the ground since receiving word the grant she’d applied for in 2021 had been approved.

Shiver is the recipient of an environmental quality cost-share program that aids agricultural landowners in conserving natural resources on their property.

The Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, is offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and provides a 75-to-25% cost-share for grant recipients.

Shiver has not yet received the grant money. She didn’t want it up front. She wanted roots in the ground first. She said she’s unsure of the total cost she’s incurred, but the estimate hovers around $14,000.

The money will come. Now is the time to tag, a labor of love for a woman who left a profession as a clinical psychologist to return to the family land in which her heart is rooted.

“I felt like this was my time to be out here with the trees,” she said. “It’s just me and the trees.”

Maybe more trees will be planted on the land, she thinks. She’s interested in growing trees to help bees pollinate. She wants to do more with other areas of the land.

“There’s a lot of land here in North Carolina,” she said. “People can go elsewhere. It’s not that I’m trying to be greedy. It’s about keeping it in the family so that my nephew and other children that come along have a legacy rather than it being developed. I always think about what to do with this land.  I’m working on a land management plan. I’m thinking conservation. Maybe a conservation easement or historical landmark. I’m going to figure it out.”

The Coastal Land Trust announced Monday that the conservation organization has recently acquired two properties in Bertie County, a farm near Aulander and a large floodplain forest tract along the Chowan River near Colerain.

Brothers, Wayland L. Jenkins Jr. of Ahoskie and Joe Henry Jenkins of Nags Head, donated the 55.75-acre farm property to the Coastal Land Trust. The property, a portion of which has traditionally been known as the “Rice Farm,” was in the Jenkins Family for more than 100 years and has great sentimental value to the Jenkins brothers, land trust officials said. They elected to donate the property, a combination of cultivated land and woodlands, to the Coastal Land Trust to place the property in permanent conservation in honor of their mother’s wishes. The property lies within an area known as the Beaverdam Pocosin.

The Coastal Land Trust said it hopes to undertake a project to restore the native vegetation and natural hydrology of the former wetland site.

The Coastal Land Trust also completed the purchase of 421.38 acres along the Chowan River in Bertie County.

The acquisition involved the purchase of five adjoining riverfront parcels from six sets of landowners. The transaction was negotiated in 2019, contracts with each set of owners were entered into in 2020, and the purchase was completed at the end of 2022.

“One of North Carolina Coastal Land Trust’s board members, Dr. Stan Riggs, of Greenville, a well-known coastal geologist, introduced one of the landowners to us. That landowner, who was excited at the prospect of permanently conserving their land, then talked with their neighbors. It took a couple of years to pull this sale together,” said Coastal Land Trust Attorney and Northeast Region Director Lee Leidy. “All of these landowners and their attorney were committed to working to conserve their property, and that made all the difference.”

The combined tracts have more than 1.7 miles of frontage along the Chowan River and consist primarily of mature cypress gum swamp. Officials noted that the tracts are in the Colerain/Cow Island Swamp and Slopes Significant Natural Heritage Area and are classified as having high ecological significance.

After the Coastal Land Trust completed the purchase, it transferred the 421.38 acres, together with the 766.48-acre Keel’s Creek Tract, which the Coastal Land Trust purchased in December 2021, to the state to be managed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission as part of the Chowan Swamp Game Lands, an almost 1,200-acre addition.

The purchases were made possible thanks to funding provided by the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North American Wetlands Conservation Act and Coastal Programs grants, and the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust purchased 421.38 acres, made up primarily of mature cypress gum swamp, in Bertie County at the end of 2022. 

Called the “Chowan/Perry et al. Tracts,” the closing involved the purchase of five adjoining parcels at about $500,000 along the Chowan River from six sets of owners. Coastal Land Trust officials have been working on the project since 2019.

“The Coastal Land Trust is ever thankful for the vision and partnership of 6 adjoining landowners in Bertie County that were willing to come together to sell portions of their beautiful floodplain forest along the Chowan River for conservation,” Janice L. Allen, Coastal Land Trust director of land protection, told Coastal Review.

“This type of collaboration with multiple landowners to put pieces of land together for a single sale has never happened before in our 30 year history of land conservation! We are thrilled it all came together to forever conserve such a special place on our coast,” she added.

The tract, which has more than 1.7 miles of frontage along the Chowan River, adjoins a 451-acre parcel owned by the state that is managed by the N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission as part of the 32,570-acre Chowan Swamp Game Lands. The property lies within the Colerain/Cow Island Swamp and Slopes Significant Natural Heritage Area and is classified as having high ecological significance, according to the Land Trust.

A North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant, a U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant, a Coastal Wetlands grant, and an Enviva Forest Conservation Fund grant funded the purchase.

This property, together with the 766.48-acre Keel Creek Tract, which the Coastal Land Trust purchased in December 2021, has been transferred to the state to be managed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission as part of the Chowan Swamp Game Lands, an almost 1,200-acre addition to state game lands.

The following essay is published as a guest commentary.

Two trees rise out of the Albemarle Sound, battered straight by the wind. A black gum and a cypress reach together, sharing the sun, the black water, and the wisps of Spanish moss weighing down their thin branches. They lift up more than out, brittle and slender, not wide or imposing like the ancient magnolia in the church graveyard growing out of nameless bodies. 

These trees are native to the brackish waters of the sound. Generations of them have grown here, but sea level rise brings salty tides to drown their roots, knees and knots. Salt sneaks into their veins and travels up toward their fingers, slowing photosynthesis and transpiration. It suffocates them. In the lab, black gum and cypress are capable of withstanding moderate salt events, but don’t fully recover until the salt is washed off of each leaf.

The lifeblood of the Roanoke River is its sweet, black water. It forms from tannin, a brass-orange chemical that turns the water acidic and dark, antimicrobial and transparent. Tannic acid, also found in wine and tea, can stop bleeding and treat rashes in human bodies. In wetland water, it filters decaying vegetation and decomposing leaves, draining blood from the black gum and the cypress. It’s a chemical, spit up by the ground and only a bit poisonous to the body. It looks a lot like sweet tea.

When English settlers first stumbled up the Roanoke River in 1585, they found a town, which already had a people and a name.

Moratuc.

Land of the dangerous river. 

The Moratuc believed in “montoac,” the plurality of gods and spirits. They drank the dark water that flowed from the fingers of one of many gods. Little of their knowledge remains in documentation, but it is believed that they told the settlers of the spirits living everywhere, in the grasses and the swamp, the heron and the trout, the black gum and the cypress.

I sprawled out on the bow of our university-commissioned boat and surveyed the sky. The black gum and the cypress leaned into each other, their canopies winking out the sun only sometimes. Their broken branches and dying leaves drifting by in the too-salty water beneath us. These trees have stood guard over the mouth of the Roanoke for hundreds of years. They have seen Indigenous canoes, Revolutionary six-masted ships, Civil War submarines, and glossy blue kayaks break into the river from the Albemarle Sound. As glaciers melt and temperatures rise and things lift and sink to where they shouldn’t be, the black gum and the cypress have begun to wither. Some will finally surrender.

I joined a group of University of North Carolina students to visit towns on the river’s edge and at its mercy. Our muse was the Roanoke, which begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and meets the mouth of the Albemarle Sound 410 miles later in Plymouth. The river drains an agricultural coastal plain from the Appalachian Mountains in the west all the way to the Atlantic, bringing with it the blood of millions of dying black gum and cypress, a tide of sweet black tea.

Early Saturday morning, I slipped on my running shoes and passed a group of women in aprons and head coverings with their elbows linked. They smiled at me as I passed. These were the only faces I saw until I returned to the hotel lobby waffle machine. 

The Quality Inn sits at a highway intersection, eager to catch the traffic of passersby because few tend to stay. I ran toward the Piggly Wiggly out back where I thought I might find people. The sun lit up the sleepy storefronts in an orange haze, and the bolted windows reflected it back at me. I passed graffiti-covered brick and rotting roofs with missing shingles. I picked up my pace across the train tracks, warily eyeing the empty train cars and broken glass bottles strewn around the gravel. The main street looked like a sepia newspaper cover – founded in 1779 and since unchanged, flat storefronts with dark green awnings facing half-manicured green trees and broken glass windows. Out front of a decommissioned movie theater, a single red Honda melted to the pavement with a white rag closed into its back window. I surrender.

The namesake of the town of Williamston is debated, but attributed to one of two men – Col. William Williams, a wealthy and distinguished plantation owner prior to the Revolutionary War, or Dick Williams, a settler in the 18th century who arrived with 75 cents in his pocket and built a fortune with hard work and extreme thrift. 

Williamston was originally settled as a hub of Roanoke River transport, and fell into disuse when railroads and highways became more practical than water traffic, the fate of many east coast small towns that have since become overgrown by weeds and hidden beneath fallen trees. Many people have fled the decaying economy and rising flood risk, leaving behind battered family homes, soggy historic land, and a mess of half-forgotten stories. Now, Williamston advertises as one of the top 10 best places in North Carolina to retire.

Come to surrender. 

Our commute for the day led us to the water’s edge in Plymouth. We took out two boats and spent the morning in the ancient current, testing flow rates with lemons and water dispersion with Cheez-Its. Our laughter bounced off the sunny surface into the woods beyond, tangles of cypress and black gum branches criss-crossing over the roof of a tiny blue cabin whose porch seemed to exhale between its stilts, threatening to fall into the waves.

180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, North Carolina consisted of a rocky coastline west of modern day I-95. During periods of low sea level, the western and central portions eroded, and North Carolina built up the sediment into land that is known today as the coastal plain. Change has always been hiding beneath the water and the earth. This region was historically flooded by ancient seas, and is still no stranger to high water, though for some reason, we’re surprised each time. 

As we motored upriver, we passed the Domtar manufacturing site. Smoke stacks littered the property, the majority active and spewing something thick and gray into the sky. Domtar, pronounced by a local artist “dum – tar,” is the paper mill that looms over the sweet black current, west of the sound.

The factory has remained the largest employer of the town of Plymouth since 2007, when the company bought out previous owners. In this merger, Domtar announced its new plan to produce fluff pulp alone, a type of soft paper that would result in a one third reduction in the workforce, a loss of around 360 employees. According to Artist and her cousin, the mill no longer makes copy paper because they are lazy. 

Paper pulp production: 

1. Chop down tree
2. Mechanically or chemically separate cellulose fibers from wood
3. Mix with water and other chemical additives 
4. Produce fluff paper
5. Fill diapers

The Domtar paper mill sucks freshwater from the Roanoke and spins trees into diapers, creating sanitary products for the beginning and end of life, and pumping the leftover water into the sky chemically woven with things you do not want to inhale. The rest floats down the sweet black water towards the Atlantic.

The factory advertises longevity and benefits, but there are fewer people to receive them.

“Still, those few left got a job for life,” said Artist, “old ladies are always gonna need Depends.” 

“Babies, too,” laughed Cousin. 

The morning stretched until we arrived at Cypress Cathedral, a new wooden platform built to attract kayakers and their tents to spend a night in the cypress-gum swamp. We stuck a Russian peat corer into the mud beneath the dock and pulled up soil from thousands of years ago, packed down so tightly and so starved of oxygen that spidery, hair-thin plant roots from 0 AD may have inhaled the breath of the paper mill for the first time. 

I reached over and raked my fingers through the peat. Thick, black, organic mud. We could see rings of light red material between black and brown discs. A change in land use? A flood event? An English colonist with two feet tangled in the swamp and no camping platform to rescue her? 

I wonder if her spirit lives in one of the trees. I have no doubt some explorers perished, declared Bland Simpson (Kenan Distinguished Professor of English & Creative Writing at UNC-Chapel Hill).

My body is also made of this.

I tried to absorb the wisdom of the dirt with the methane bubbles that squeeze their way to the surface. 

How do we fix what we have done?

The water moves slowly here, winding between the tangled swampy knees of the cypress and the fallen leaves of the black gum. Back beneath the Cypress Cathedral, the river leaves more than it takes, depositing dirt that is compressed and compressed and compressed until there isn’t enough oxygen to break down the dead plants and the lives they trap. 

Peat forms when plant material does not fully decay. Because carbon dioxide is naturally released during decomposition, peatland plants capture it. It takes thousands of years for peatlands to develop reserves 1.5 to 2.3 meters deep, which would store around 415 gigatonnes of carbon. Globally, peat sequesters up to 42% of soil carbon, which exceeds the amount hiding in the world’s forests. I wondered if we warmed the atmosphere with the bubbles that escaped from our 3-foot slab. 

Later that afternoon, we docked and scattered around town before lunch. I wandered into the only four Main Street buildings open after 2 p.m. on a Saturday. Artist and Cousin showed me around their new shop and recounted the changes they’ve seen over the decades. 

“The town relies on the factory. The factory relies on the river. We do too, but there is some nasty shit in there.”

The Parisian woman in her ice cream shop across the street cited the Black Bear Festival in June and her bistro’s escargot dish as her motivations for moving from the global fashion capital to a town with 4,000 people. 

“The town is on the up and up,” She smiled like she knew something we didn’t, “We have the largest black bear population in the world!”

Bewildered, I asked many, many clarifying questions. 

“We have the BIGGEST population,” she said, “Like, the bears are quite large. They eat very much.”

I wandered into the street hoping to see the twin cubs they all swore were playing in the parking lot just that morning. The eco-tourism in the area seems promising – the biggest black bears, treehouses for rent and camping platforms with a view of “North Carolina’s Amazon.” Plymouth, and other towns like it, spent the first dawn of their success shuttling shipping containers up river and tearing apart tree fibers to fill diapers. Those that are left look forward, investing in their next sunrise by emphasizing the wonder of the remaining natural wonders – the black bears and the blacker water. 

At Grace Episcopal Church down the street, the Minister gave us a tour and told us stories of the town during the Civil War. Due to its position controlling the Albemarle Sound and the upper Roanoke River, Plymouth was the access point for goods shipped to Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy at the time. The Union Army fought hard for a blockade, forcing the town to surrender. During the war, Plymouth was burned twice, once by each side. During the Battle of Plymouth, the church was used as a hospital.

I could almost picture the chaotic triage inside the walls. 

Tell us what you know, I urged the fading wood panels. 

Legend has it, the holy building even gave up its pews to build coffins for the fallen.

After the battle destroyed all the other holy sites in the town, Grace Episcopal became the sole place of worship, and people of all beliefs flocked. I wonder if they could smell blood over the scent of the sweet black water. 

As I wandered between stained glass windows and tried to keep my muddy river shoes off the plush red carpet, I saw a marble slab with two handles wedged into the floor. I asked Minister, and he promptly lifted the stone to show us its contents. 

Stale air burst from the cavern, revealing dozens of green and red canisters, blue tin cans and silver metal boxes, even a red Prince Albert pipe tobacco jar. 

“Ashes,” he told us, passing a gold container around our circle of uneasy smiles and trembling fingers. 

“So they are just…in there?”  someone asked.

He chuckled at our fear and unscrewed the cap, tugging out one corner of a dusty plastic bag. 

“The identification is either in the bag tag or on the bottom. I don’t see…” he turned the container, spilling some human into the floor. “I don’t see a name on this one.”

My body is also made of this.

I tried to absorb the knowledge of an anonymous life as it mixed with the dusty church air. 

Minister told us that Plymouth is home to four Superfund sites, two of which are still active. Four areas so full of waste that the United States government deemed them hazardous enough to mandate legal postings on homeowners’ informational websites. We used factory chemicals on this land, and now they grow into the grass there, mixing with the Algonquian spirits in the sweet black water and seeping into the drinking reserves. 

We poison the land until we can’t live here anymore, and nothing else can either. 

Outside in the church yard, a few dozen headstones leaned, surrendering to the rich black soil. 

“There are more bodies here than anyone can know”, said Minister, passing under a large magnolia. I imagined its roots spreading deep, cracking into the old church pews buried beneath their younger sisters and feeding on the fallen. I wonder if the trees know which bodies poisoned the sweet black water. 

I took a detour up a trail away from a beautifully manicured green field that I thought was a golf course before I realized it was a public parking lot. Nothing is built there, maybe due to seasonal flooding or historical parking shortages in the town’s prime. I watched the ground closely to distinguish snakes from sticks and almost tripped over the edge of a platform, a pier built out to the river’s edge. 

As glaciers melt and temperatures rise and things lift or sink to where they shouldn’t be, the black gum and the cypress dropped their leaves into my hands. We unbury the bubbles in the peat just to fill the holes with chemicals and bodies and are surprised that the bubbles are angry at what they find at the surface. They warm the air, the ice melts, the water rises, flooding homes with waste and turning rivers from lifelines to monsters. 

Moratuc. Dangerous River. We are driving ourselves out.

The change is seeping in from the Atlantic, sea salt invading drinking wells and paper pulp factories, clogging machines and tree arteries. It mixes and spreads with the factory chemicals we’ve buried in the peat and the red-black tannins that the river gives to heal us. Rising water licks the doorsteps of tiny blue river houses on stilts and steals boats from docks with missing planks. 

Many of the people are gone. They have surrendered, fled from the Superfund sites and the old movie theaters; they’ve been swept out to sea, sequestered in the peat with the rest of our carbon, or stuffed into a Prince Albert can below the church floorboards. Those that remain, though, can hear the cogs slow in the paper mill and look elsewhere to find life. They have begun to listen to the spirits in the grasses. The knowledge is here, how to live with this land. It is buried in the peat along the banks of a sweet black dangerous river.

 The trees are dying, but they will grow back, perhaps upriver where the salt can’t reach. The people will eventually be gone from this land. It will be soon, if we continue to lay the land to waste. If we want to last a bit longer, alongside the black bears and the Great Blue Heron, we can seek out a dusty car melted to Main Street, pull a white rag from the back window, and begin to wash the salt off the leaves of the black gum and cypress until they are healed, one by one. 

References

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/tannin#:~:text=Tannic%20acid%20is%20moderately%20toxic,abdominal%20pain%2C%20and%20liver%20damage.
2.  https://www.nps.gov/articles/carolinaalgonquian.htm
3.  https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/roanoke-river-region
4.  http://www.townofwilliamston.com/visitors/about_williamston/index.php
5. https://www.witn.com/2021/09/17/study-williamston-ranks-among-top-10-best-places-state-retire/#:~:text=MARTIN%20COUNTY%2C%20N.C.%20(WITN),10%2C%20coming%20at%20number%207.
6. https://www.domtar.com/en/what-we-make/pulp/papergrade-pulp#:~:text=Domtar’s%20northern%20softwood%20grades%20include,white%20spruce%20and%20Douglas%20fir.
7.  https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/plymouth-nc-population
8. https://peatlands.org/peat/peat/#:~:text=Peat%20is%20the%20surface%20organic,high%20acidity%20and%20nutrient%20deficiency.
9. https://emergingcivilwar.com/2014/08/28/the-very-essence-of-nightmare-the-battle-of-plymouth-nc-and-the-destruction-of-the-css-albemarle/
10.  https://graceplymouth.ecdio.org/

Coastal Land Trust announced this week a donation of 55.75 acres in Bertie County for conservation.

The sizable family farm was donated to the Coastal Land Trust in late December by two brothers, Wayland L. Jenkins Jr. of Ahoskie and Joe Henry Jenkins of Nags Head.

This property, a portion of what has traditionally been known as the “Rice Farm,” had been in the Jenkins Family for more than 100 years and had great sentimental value to the family, according to the Land Trust. The brothers chose to permanently conserve the property because years ago, their mother asked them never to sell the farm, which has both cultivated land and woodlands. They ensured their mother’s wishes were followed as closely as possible, and donated the property to the Coastal Land Trust to be protected forever.

Board Member and Coastal Geologist Dr. Stan Riggs is delighted that this property has been conserved because it is part of the area known as the Beaverdam Pocosin.

“We are hopeful we may soon be able to complete restoration (hydrologic) work on this property,” officials said.

The Coastal Land Trust works to conserve natural areas and working landscapes, education, and the promotion of good land stewardship along the North Carolina Coast. Established in 1992, we serve the 31 counties in the coastal plain of North Carolina, and we save special places in the coastal plain like barrier islands, create nature parks and preserves, protect family farms, and restore longleaf pine forests.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust recently acquired 78 acres in Carteret County to expand its Sea Gate Woods Preserve to 201 acres.

Radio Island Investments, LLC. principals Dan Eudy, David Eudy and Steve Eudy donated the land to the preservation organization.

“This property will be managed as part of the Coastal Land Trust’s adjacent 123-acre Sea Gate Woods Preserve in Carteret County,” said Janice Allen, director of land protection in a statement.

The Sea Gate Woods Preserve is considered to be a regionally significant natural heritage site by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program.

The property hosts what the Land Trust calls “a rare wetland community type known as nonriverine wet hardwood forest, which has a range from Craven County to northeastern Virginia.” This forest type has the same plants and animals in bottomland hardwood swamp forests along coastal plain rivers even though nonriverine forests are isolated wetland habitats.

“Once fairly common in several coastal counties in northeastern North Carolina, this natural community is now relatively rare because of logging operations and the conversion of this type of land to agriculture or development,” according to the Land Trust. Adding that the property once featured a high quality, nonriverine wet hardwood forest, “but like similar properties, it was heavily timbered about 30 years ago. Now it is permanently protected.”

This property has been in the Eudy family since the 1920s. The land first was used for a pecan farm then later to graze cattle and horses.

“The Coastal Land Trust is ever thankful to the Eudy Family for this generous donation of 78-acres of land, the Captain Sam Morgan Preserve, named after the brother of the grandmother of Dan, Steve, and David Eudy,” Allen explained. “This land meant a lot to the Eudys, who shared stories of hunting and exploring the woods there. The Eudys can be assured that the property will be forever protected from development, and the forest will grow on.”

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust has purchased 32.16 acres in Pender County, within the larger Rocky Point Marl Forest Significant Natural Heritage Area.

The land, located near the intersection of Interstate 40 and N.C. 210, is considered an “exceptionally significant site” by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program because it contains the only extant global occurrence of the wet marl forest natural community. The purchase was made earlier this month.

“Our thanks go to Diane Toothman and her son Byron for working with us to conserve this little wetland gem. This wet marl forest property was near the top of our Top 40 list due to its biological uniqueness. We are thrilled to have secured funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant program to conserve it,” said Janice Allen, Director of Land Protection, in a statement.

Rocky Point Marl Forest in south-central Pender County is near the community of Rocky Point and is bordered on all sides by cropland, residences, and commercial operations, including a rock quarry along the south side. Limestone, or marl, is very near the surface at the site, and soils are wet to mesic, according to the state Natural Heritage Program.

Allen told Coastal Review that the Coastal Land Trust purchased the 32-acre property for $52,000, less than the $65,000 appraised value. 

The North Carolina Natural Heritage Program estimates the size of remaining marl forest at 648 acres in four separate locations in the Rocky Point community of Pender County. “Coastal Land Trust acquired one of the best remaining pieces of this biologically unique community,” she added.

Mike Schafale, an ecologist with the state Natural Heritage Program, said in a statement that the wet marl forest natural community at Rocky Point occurs nowhere else in the world.

“Of the highest priority, irreplaceable sites that were known when I started my career in the early 1980s, almost all have seen some substantial amount of protection over the years. Rocky Point is one of the last to see any protection success,” he said.

Byron Toothman, one of the landowners, said they were thankful that the Coastal Land Trust was willing to take on the conservation of this habitat.

“Rapid changes to the landscape, invasive species, logging, and mining have steadily chipped away at the already limited range of this unique community. It is difficult to overstate the importance of its preservation,” he said.

Pettigrew State Park in Washington and Tyrrell counties, about 75 miles northeast of Greenville, is to receive nearly $2 million for campground renovations through Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, or PARTF.

The North Carolina Parks and Recreation Authority, which oversees PARTF, recently approved $17.4 million to fund nine capital improvement projects and six land acquisitions for North Carolina state parks, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation.

The authority approved the funding during its meeting Nov. 4 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, the state announced Thursday.

“These land acquisition and park improvement projects will both expand our state parks system and repair and restore facilities and trails for the benefit of the people of North Carolina as well as visitors to our state,” N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary D. Reid Wilson said in a statement. “We are grateful to the General Assembly and Governor Cooper for providing significantly increased investments in the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund over the last two years.”

In addition to the $1.94 million for campground renovations at Pettigrew State Park, other capital improvement projects funded through the program include historic building renovations at Carvers Creek and Hanging Rock state parks, upgraded sewer systems at Chimney Rock State Park, and development of a trailhead and trail construction along the Northern Peaks State Trail at Elk Knob State Park.

Several of the approved projects will supplement Connect NC Bond projects at Carvers Creek, Grandfather Mountain, Pettigrew and Hanging Rock state parks. Connect N.C. Bond projects are state investments in public infrastructure such as state parks, community colleges and public safety.

Funding approved for park planning projects will fund management plans for state parks and the State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan. Funding was also approved for repairs and renovations to state park facilities systemwide.

A total of $2.1 million was approved for land acquisition at five state parks. These include 215 acres that will connect two tracts at Mount Mitchell State Park, and 58 acres to connect Elk Knob State Park to Peak Mountain.

Amounts awarded and details on the projects are available online.

EMERALD ISLE – Town commissioners plan to hear from the public again before deciding on the next step for McLean-Spell Park. The 30-acre, sound-side maritime forest is the largest undeveloped track in town.

Mayor Jason Holland said Tuesday during the meeting, which was held in-person and streamed live on Facebook, that while the board was to hear proposed park plans that night, it would not be taking action. He added that there would be another meeting regarding the park in December or later with a public hearing before the board votes.

McLean-Spell Park, which has existing walking trails, is named after the town’s two founding families and is bordered by homes, a town park, the police and fire stations, a community center, Archers Creek — a tributary of Bogue Sound — and surrounding wetlands, according to town documents. The town purchased the property in 2018 for $3.1 million before a developer could move forward with a proposed 230-plus condominium development. The land had been zoned for multifamily development but has since been restricted to pedestrian traffic only.

“Acquisition of McLean Spell Park is a major accomplishment for the entirety of Emerald Isle. It helps to preserve a large segment of maritime forest, allow for public usage of the land, and protect the dark sky compliance for local military training operations,” Town Manager Matt Zapp told Coastal Review on Wednesday. Some of the funding to purchase the property was through the Department of the Defense, under the condition a restrictive easement was placed over the entire property to avoid development or uses that would be incompatible with Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point and its outlying facilities.

Zapp recommended during the meeting Tuesday a two-phased approach for the park to both meet the needs of the residents and conserve the undeveloped land. The two phases were detailed in a master plan report, which Zapp presented to the board and public for the first time.

Phase one would include an arborist report, trail maintenance, exercise stations, a dog park for small and large dogs, a water fountain, and a picnic shelter. Phase two is to mostly take place outside of the McLean-Spell Park boundary, and would include updating the nearby Blue Heron Park restroom facility and adding an educational deck and pickleball courts, according to the town.

The $3.1 million property provided the town with the ability to maintain the undeveloped land, as opposed to seeing over 300 potential dwelling units built there, Zapp said. “So, one major victory has already been accomplished.”

The constant theme is keeping the park natural, preserving the maritime forest and focusing on green spaces, he added.

The project was paid for with $1.5 million from the Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program, $500,000 from North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, $545,000 from the Clean Water Management Trust, a $600,000 contribution and a 10-year installment loan from Truist Bank, the town manager explained.

The town contracted with the Wilmington-based Summit Design & Engineering this spring to develop a master plan for the park, which Zapp presented to commissioners Tuesday. The engineering firm worked with the town to ask the public what they wanted in a park, and collected socioeconomic information to ensure the community was accurately represented.  

Zapp said Tuesday that more than 1,200 people joined in the conversation about what they’d like to see at McLean-Spell Park through a survey, two virtual meetings and an in-person meeting over the summer. Zapp first presented the results of the survey during the town’s August meeting.

“I’ve been in this business for nearly 20 years, and this is quite possibly some of the highest density results I’ve ever seen of a town-driven study,” he said Tuesday.

Zapp said many responses had keywords, such as dog parks, picnic areas, pickleball courts and exercise areas.

“When asked for general comments about the future development of McLean-Spell Park, a significant number of respondents stated that they would like to ‘keep the area natural,’ ‘preserve as many trees as possible,’ ‘keep it green,’ etc.,” the master plan states. 

Zapp stressed that the town’s administrative staff, elected officials and constituents would also like to see the area be kept a natural preservation of the maritime forest. 

“The whole idea of ‘nice matters,’ but green matters. So, keeping it green for all of us,” he said.

“Nice Matters” is the town motto.

“We wanted to focus on a strong support of keeping mature trees, a strong support for active walking trails, the cleanliness of them, the safety of them, the meandering of those trails, and maintaining the shady forest at McLean Spell Park,” he said. 

The focus led to the “first and most prudent step” in the master plan: to have a certified arborist assess the trees in the park for safety before any work begins.

Zapp reiterated the plans do not call for removing trees. The arborist would be brought on to help the town with any issues such as hanging branches, or trees with diseases that could cause concern.

He said bringing in the arborist is a best management practice to ensure the park is safe for use and the cost should be minimal.

“The next step for our parks team would be to begin engaging in that conversation (with an arborist) if any type of a plan to move forward was approved,” he said.

The public input also included the recommendation of trail updates that would entail maintaining the existing trails along its same meandering path to make them safer and adding exercise stations that would blend into the environment, a picnic shelter, and a water fountain. 

Also part of phase one is the recommendation for a dog park. The proposed dog park would be about an acre. Zapp said the land would not be cleared, just fenced off, allowing for the pets to play within the existing mature trees. 

The engineering firm’s stormwater team reviewed any potential impacts from the dog park. Based on past experiences, Zapp said they found people clean up after their pets and the risk of contamination isn’t extremely high.

Zapp explained that the dog park project had been in the queue for a few years. 

“There was a goal of nearly $52,000 to be raised for the dog park and we have met that goal and a portion of that was raised from private citizens and then the match with the town.” At this point, he said the town has more than $50,000 allocated and dedicated to the placement of a dog park somewhere in Emerald Isle.

“I’d like to stress we can do everything in phase one. We can afford to reach phase one today,” he said.

Recommendations for phase two, which Zapp said is a little bit farther out of reach from a financial perspective, would include updating existing bathrooms serving Blue Heron Park across Archers Creek from McLean-Spell Park, and the community playground, and build a naturally designed outdoor classroom.

Zapp told Coastal Review Wednesday in a follow-up that recent conversations regarding limited development of the 30-acres is exciting and the proposed enhanced public trails and exercise stations help Emerald Isle meet its obligation to the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant process. Optional improvements include a dog park, pavilion, and even outdoor classroom space. 

“It is rewarding that 1,238 individuals shared their opinions and perspectives on the park system. The Town is working toward those wonderful goals,” he said.

The nonprofit Unique Places to Save is terminating the purchase agreement with a Mooresville real estate development company for 82 acres on Eagles Island, adjacent to the USS North Carolina battleship across from downtown Wilmington.

The Chapel Hill-based organization announced this summer plans to raise the $16 million needed to buy the parcel for conservation from Diamond Development.

Related: Nonprofit leads effort to buy Eagles Island parcel

The group put down $100,000 to secure the purchase contract and was given to the end of the year to come up with the funds. Unique Places to Save applied for a grant from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund earlier this year to help purchase the land but the organization said its grant request was not approved.

Because of a lack funding through the North Carolina Land and Water Fund, “and no other viable state or federal grants for land acquisition, the project has gone cold and there appears to be no major donors who are interested in preserving the land and therefore no viable path forward,” the Chapel Hill-based nonprofit said in a release Tuesday.

Unique Places to Save Executive Director Clark Harris said in a statement that in the weeks after the Land and Water Fund decision, the nonprofit tried to find a path forward but could not.

“We remain committed to conservation and restoration on Eagles Island,” he said.

Officials are asking residents to share their vision for Brunswick County’s future 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 25 during a Blueprint Brunswick 2040 community drop-in meeting at the Brunswick Center, 101 Stone Chimney Road, Supply.

Input from the public will help refine and prioritize the recommendations and action steps needed to finalize the draft Blueprint Brunswick 2040 comprehensive land use plan and parks and recreation master plan, the county said in a release. Consultants and staff will incorporate additional input collected during the drop-in meeting into the final draft of the plans.

At this meeting, the policies for managing change over the coming decades are to be presented at 6 p.m. and again at 7 p.m. Residents can come and go whenever is convenient for them and are not required to stay the entire time.

Draft maps are available for review and comment including the Vision Plan, which are the future land use and conservation maps, and the future Parks and Recreation map. The maps represent draft policy ideas that will ultimately guide future growth, decisions, and investments in infrastructure and services in the county through 2040.

Bald Head Island, Belville, Bolivia, Navassa, Northwest and Sandy Creek are incorporating their comprehensive land use plans into the Blueprint Brunswick. Visit the Blueprint Brunswick – Towns webpage for more information.

To view the resources, draft maps and plans, visit the Blueprint Brunswick 2040 main website and submit input brunswickcountync.gov/blueprintbrunswick.

Contact Brunswick County Planning Director Kirstie Dixon at 910-253-2027 or email kirstie.dixon@brunswickcountync.gov, or Aaron Perkins, Parks & Recreation director, at 910-253-2676 or aaron.perkins@brunswickcountync.gov.

Dr. David Shiffman’s favorite thing to talk about are sharks, and has been since he was very young. 

“I’ve loved sharks for a really, really long time, since I was younger than anyone in this room,” Shiffman said to a few dozen last month at North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort.

Shiffman, an interdisciplinary marine conservation biologist who specializes in the ecology and conservation of sharks, stopped in the Carteret County town as part of the tour for his book, “Why Sharks Matter: A Deep Dive with the World’s Most Misunderstood Predator.” His book is available at the museum’s gift shop.

The talk in Beaufort Sept. 20 was the 27^th stop of his 40-day “Reading Frenzy” international tour. A resident of the Washington, D.C., area, he also spoke at his alma mater Duke University in Durham and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh. 

As a student at Duke, he spent 2005 in Beaufort at the university’s marine lab, graduating in 2007. He earned his master’s in marine biology from the College of Charleston in 2011, and his doctorate in 2016 from the University of Miami in ecosystem science and policy.

Shiffman told Coastal Review in a follow-up interview that he wrote the book, “Why Sharks Matter,” because sharks are some of the most misunderstood animals on the planet, and they’re also ecologically important and threatened.

“Sharks are so ecologically important that we’re better off with healthy shark populations off our coasts than we are without them, but due to unsustainable overfishing practices, we’re in danger of losing many species forever,” he said, adding there’s growing recognition that we need to save sharks, but there’s lots of confusion, and even misinformation, about the best ways to do that. 

His book features detailed descriptions of dozens of different conservation policies and management regulations that can be used to help protect sharks, including a description of what policies work in what situations and how people can help with each, he said.

Being from Pittsburgh, Shiffman explained to the audience in Beaufort that he fell in love with the ocean through zoos and science museums. The first shark he ever saw was in the Pittsburgh Zoo when he was a child. 

“One of the things that I love about sharks is that they’re absolutely weird. They’re fascinating. They’re different than any other living thing in so many ways,” Shiffman said, and one way is their skeleton, which is made of cartilage. “They don’t have any bones.”

There are 536 known species of shark, he continued, having to repeat himself after a voice piped up from the crowd, in disbelief, “How many?” 

And, there’s a new species discovered somewhere in the world every two weeks and that’s been true for the last 12 years.

Shiffman, during both his talk and in his book, explains that much of the fear people have toward sharks comes from “inflammatory, inaccurate popular press coverage in general, the movie ‘Jaws’ and the dumpster fire of nonsense that is Shark Week,” he wrote.

Shiffman cites in his book a 2013 paper by Robert Hueter and Dr. Christopher Pepin-Neff that suggested new terms for shark-human interactions such as “shark sighting” or “shark bite,” which is the terminology Shiffman uses.

Whenever there’s a shark bite anywhere in the world, it’s headline news, he said during the presentation. Adding his favorite statistic about this, which came from the Pepin-Neff and Hueter paper, is that for something like 38% of all reported shark attacks in Australia, “the shark did not physically touch the human at all. It swam near them.”

Pepin-Neff released just this week a new study in the journal Biology on how The New York Times is changing its coverage on shark encounters. 

Pepin-Neff analyzed 10 years of articles that cover human-shark interactions and found that there had been a shift in the newspaper’s reporting style since about 2018.

A comparison of the number of articles that include shark “attack” and shark “bite” mentions between 2012 and 2021 shows that from 2012 to 2017 there was a clear dominance of the phrase “shark attack,” but parity began to emerge in 2018 with increased use of “shark bite.”

“Sometimes rare but terrible and tragic fatal shark bites occur,” Pepin-Neff said in a statement, “The data collected show that 32-39% of all reported shark ‘attacks’ have no injury. This may constitute a game-changer for how the public thinks about sharks and how the media reports on shark ‘attacks.’ The findings of The New York Times illustrate that a change is happening, and the public supports this change.”

This type of research is important because there are direct connections between public attitudes toward shark bites and support for shark conservation, according to the report. 

Shiffman said during his talk that a big reason most people are afraid of sharks is the movie “Jaws.” Before the movie was released 47 years ago, a lot of people didn’t really think about sharks – fishermen and surfers did – but people who went to the beach to swim didn’t really think about sharks, but this movie changed the world, and not in a good way for the ocean.

“There is actually something called the ‘Jaws effect,’ in the peer-reviewed published literature, which describes how a fictional portrayal of a real-world issue affects what real world people really think about that issue, ” he said. Adding, the author of “Jaws,” Peter Benchley, “was so horrified by what this book and movie did to public perception of sharks that he dedicated most of the rest of his life and a lot of the proceeds from ‘Jaws’ to shark conservation.”

As for Shark Week, Shiffman writes in his book that the Discovery Channel, though improvements are being made, had fostered “nonsense and fear over facts,” rather than use its platform to promote science, conservation and public understanding.

Shiffman told the audience in Beaufort that the risk of being injured by a shark is small. More people in a typical year are killed falling off cliffs while taking selfies with the scenery behind them than the number killed by a shark.  

“I don’t want to minimize real concern,” Shiffman continued, but there’s a very small risk you’ll come in contact with a shark and that relative risk should be kept in mind when considering policy solutions.

“They’re not a threat to you, but they’re actively important. We’re better off with shark populations off our coast than we are without them. But unfortunately, many species face very, very serious conservation challenges,” he said. 

“The number one threat by far is us, is humans, is unsustainable overfishing practices,” which includes targeted fishing, bycatch and for shark fin and shark meat trades.

He noted that while over the last 20 years, the trade in shark fins has been dramatically declining, things have gotten a lot worse in the last 10 years for sharks because of the shark meat trade, which is a major element that has not been given attention in the media.

“The problem is unsustainable overfishing, too many sharks are being killed,” Shiffman said. He explained that one set of solutions is to make the fishing more sustainable, such as size limits or quotas. There’s also a newer suite of policies in recent years that say there’s no such thing as sustainable fishing. You need to ban all fishing.

“It’s worth noting here that 90% Oof all the shark scientists in the world agree that the goal here should be making fisheries more sustainable, not banning all fishing,” he said.

Shiffman explained that one thing he’s learned in his career is that while this is bad news, “it is not hopeless, it’s not a lost cause.”

Scientists know what policy solutions work and that they need more help. 

“This is a big part of the reason why I wanted to write the book “Why Sharks Matter,” because there is not – before my book – an accessible to the public guide with the different policy solutions that are out there,” he said. 

After a lot of the talks he gives, people ask for reading recommendations to learn about policy solutions and shark conservation that they don’t need a law degree to understand. He said he’s had to tell those who want to read more that there’s no book out there, that was until May of this year when his book was published.

“This is the first shark book to comprehensively address this topic for a nonexpert audience,” Shiffman said in the follow-up interview. “I’ve found that when I attend conferences where experts discuss these issues, the conversations are very different from what I see among enthusiastic nonexperts on social media. So, my goal for the book was to make the technical and confusing world of shark conservation policy accessible to the interested public.”

Shiffman said he’s been blown away by the reception of his book while he’s been traveling the world talking about it.

“I’m so grateful for everyone who has come out to hear me speak, and for everyone who has bought a copy of my book,” he said. 

Folks can follow Shiffman on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @Whysharksmatter, where he said he’s always happy to answer any questions anyone has about sharks. 

Dare County residents who own land with salt marsh are being asked to answer a five-minute survey to help the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative develop programs and incentives for land conservation.

Dare County Soil and Water Conservation District, the South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative and the Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit, are working together on the effort are.

Landowners are being asked to compete the online survey by Friday, Oct. 14.

South Atlantic Salt Marsh Initiative is made up of federal, state and military leaders, conservation groups, scientists, and community and cultural interest groups with a common goal to protect the southeastern salt marshes.

A salt marsh is a coastal wetland that is flooded and drained by saltwater brought in by the tides, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These intertidal habitats provide food, refuge or nursery habitats for more than 75% of fisheries species, including shrimp, blue crab and many finfish.

Salt marshes help protect shorelines from erosion by buffering wave action and trapping sediments, reduce flooding by slowing and absorbing rainwater, and help protect water quality by filtering runoff and by metabolizing excess nutrients.

One example officials gave of a conservation initiative that could be proposed as a result of the feedback from the survey is a Salt Marsh Reserve Program. The program would pay landowners to protect salt marshes or other critical coastal and inland areas on their property for 10, 15 or 20 years. Protection during this time may include implementing land management practices or compatible income-generating practices such as hunting or fishing.

For more information about the initiative, the Conservation Fund or this questionnaire, please contact Margaret Conrad at mconrad@conservationfund.org.