Budding birders and seasoned ornithologists alike are invited to join Coastal Studies Institute educators for a guided winter birding experience at Lake Mattamuskeet.

Participants are to meet at the institute at 7 a.m. Monday. Transportation to and from Lake Mattamuskeet will be provided. The group is expected to return to the institute around noon. Registration for the program is required and can be done online. Cost to attend is $25 per person.

“This field-based program will introduce participants to the remarkable diversity of ducks, swans, geese, and other wetland birds that gather here each winter,” organizers said about Lake Mattamuskeet, calling the geographical feature “one of North Carolina’s premier waterfowl habitats and a critical stopover along the Atlantic Flyway.”

Participants are welcome and encouraged to bring personal cameras, binoculars, spotting scopes, and guidebooks. Appropriate attire for extended time outdoors is also encouraged.

“Expect plenty of time in the field with scopes and binoculars, great photo opportunities, and an engaging, place-based learning experience in one of the state’s most iconic wildlife refuges,” organizers added.

The Coastal Studies Institute on East Carolina University’s Outer Banks Campus in Wanchese is a multi-institutional research and educational partnership of the state’s university system and also includes N.C. State University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington, and Elizabeth City State University.

Contact John McCord at mccordr@ecu.edu or 252-475-5450 with questions.

Featured Image

A recent visit to Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge offered little in the way of migratory waterfowl viewing for which it’s known but did yield this glimpse of a whitetail doe through the trees. The refuge, which was established in 1934, spans some 50,000 acres, including the 40,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet, the largest natural lake in North Carolina. Photo: Kip Tabb

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RALEIGH — A federal court decision issued Wednesday blocks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from using a potentially harmful algaecide at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, a compound that environmental groups argued would endanger the waterfowl the refuge is supposed to protect.

Refuge officials had issued a notification in 2023 that it planned to do a trial application of chemical pellets within the next two years to test their effects on persistent blooms of blue-green algae on the 40,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet, the state’s largest natural freshwater lake.

But environmental groups were concerned that the product, according to its label, could be toxic to birds. 

In response, the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit, asking for a preliminary injunction to stop the refuge’s plan. The agency agreed during a subsequent court hearing to suspend its plan until April 2025, and a final hearing was held in May.

Wednesday’s order by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle for the Eastern District of North Carolina Eastern Division can be appealed within 60 days,  Ramona McGee, senior attorney and leader of the Wildlife Program at the Law Center, told Coastal Review Wednesday.

“The Service is currently evaluating the court’s order,” a U.S. Department of Interior spokesperson said in an email sent Wednesday afternoon, responding to a request from Coastal Review for comment on the decision.

The email also addressed a question about the number of staff at the refuge.

“Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuges Complex, which includes refuges from Cedar Island to Currituck. As such, Lake Mattamuskeet’s management is through a complex approach — with staff throughout the complex assisting and leading activities.”

As McGee explained, the Southern Environmental Law Center argued successfully that the Fish and Wildlife Service had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to evaluate and disclose the potential impacts of the algaecide.

“This experiment was merely a distraction,” McGee said in an interview. “It was never designed to address those root causes of the lake’s water quality problems. Instead, this was a project that was explicitly experimental and alarmingly, was using a product that can kill and harm birds.”

The refuge had proposed to use Lake Guard Oxy, a sodium percarbonate-based algaecide used by Pittsburgh-based contractor BlueGreen Water Technologies, on about 600 acres of several isolated areas around the perimeter of Lake Mattamuskeet.

In recent years, the lake has been plagued during warm months with algal blooms that have become populated with cyanobacteria, which can be harmful to people and animals.

The proposed treatment, according to the agency, was intended to reduce the toxic algae enough to allow the beneficial phytoplankton to be reestablished. In the process, the refuge said, it could help restore water clarity in the lake.

In 2001, the North Carolina General Assembly provided $5 million toward the pilot study.

Refuge officials also said that, once dissolved, the pellets were safe for birds. Steps would be taken, the officials added, to prevent their exposure to undissolved pellets.

But rather than a singular problem, the algae is a symptom of an unhealthy ecosystem in the lake that has excessive nutrient levels and near complete loss of submerged aquatic vegetation, the environmental groups said.

Situated in the center of rural mainland Hyde County, the lake, which is 6 miles wide, 18 miles long and an average of 2 feet deep, has suffered severe water quality degradation over recent decades. The refuge totals about 50,000 acres and still attracts thousands of wintering tundra swan and other migratory waterbirds, as well as numerous species of resident duck.

In 2016, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources listed the lake as having impaired waters, based on high alkalinity and levels of chlorophyll-a, both indicators for cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms that produce cyanotoxins.

An effort led by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, created a collective and holistic approach to restoring the lake, with the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan being released in 2018. In the years since, the strategies in plan, which include drainage improvements and restoration of the submerged grasses, have been implemented as time, funding and staffing have allowed.  

“We hope that the Fish and Wildlife Service refocuses on the long-term solutions that will address the root causes of Lake Mattamuskeet’s water quality problems” McGee said.

Considering anecdotal reports about staff cuts at wildlife refuges — none have been confirmed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — McGee said it makes the court decision even more timely in its benefit to the birds. As part of its proposal to do the pilot treatment, the refuge had promised that staff would shoo, or haze, the birds away from any undissolved pellets that could harm them. 

“I think it would have been very concerning for the Fish and Wildlife Service to proceed with a risky experiment like this when it did not have adequate staff to monitor and manage the project,” she said.

Part of a series about the effects federal budget and staff cuts and the cancellations of programs and services are having in coastal North Carolina.

MANTEO — In the six months since the chaotic and seemingly random cutting in the federal government began, a terrible uneasiness has descended on the northeast corner of North Carolina, where all of the state’s nine national wildlife refuges employ neighbors and family members who live in the rural communities in which they’re located.

At least 10 Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuge Complex staff and five employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional Ecological Services office in Raleigh, so far, are believed to have voluntarily left their jobs, whether nudged by coercion or incentives.

With staff forbidden to speak with media, and ongoing legal challenges and limited public information creating uncertainty, no one appears to know what will happen to their refuges.

“I just found out we should be getting some staffing numbers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the next couple of weeks,” Howard Phillips, the Southeastern representative for the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a nonprofit advocacy and support group for the refuges, told Coastal Review, citing informed but unofficial sources. “The dust seems to be settling a little and (the agency) is starting to get a handle on where they stand.”

But Phillips, who retired at the end of 2020 as manager of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Tyrrell County, says he fears that serious consequences are already baked into the refuges’ cake, no matter what the government decides to do. The lack of trust engendered by often abrupt, unexplained cuts of staff, research and budgets as well as the “crippling” brain drain of expertise, experience and local knowledge has only made the situation more problematic.

“Could the administration suddenly decide they want to hire everybody back and start doing conservation again?” he continued. “That would take at least six months, probably 12 months. They’d have to be trained.”

The stark reality, he added, is that without knowing the Trump administration’s timeline or goal in the current upheaval, it’s impossible to understand the long-term impacts and impractical to expect much to change, much less improve.

“I mean, they’ve just given no indication that they’re going to do anything that’s going to reverse the trend right now, which is down, down, down, down,” Phillips said.

An unnamed spokesperson from the agency’s public affairs office ignored Coastal Review’s request to authorize or facilitate a refuge staff interview, but responded to several questions about impacts on North Carolina’s wildlife refuges in a May 23 email.

“As part of the broader efforts led by the Department of the Interior under President Trump’s leadership, we are implementing necessary reforms to ensure fiscal responsibility, operational efficiency, and government accountability,” the spokesperson wrote. “While we do not comment on personnel matters, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service remains committed to fulfilling our mission of conserving fish, wildlife, and natural resources for the American people.” 

Refuges in the coastal complex encompass nearly a half-million acres of farmlands, swamp forests and pocosin peatlands, intersected by rivers, streams, canals, lakes and sounds within the nation’s second-largest estuarine system.

The nine refuges — Alligator River, Pea Island, Mackay Island, Currituck, Mattamuskeet, Pocosin Lakes, Cedar Island, Swan Quarter, Roanoke River — are stretched along vast swaths of geography in the coastal plain that provide habitat for unique species and globally important ecosystems.

For instance, the critically endangered wild red wolves, the only surviving in the world, roam within a five-county recovery area based out of Alligator River, descendants of Spanish mustangs range free in Currituck, and thousands of migratory birds and waterfowl passing along the Atlantic Flyway overwinter every year at Mattamuskeet and Pocosin Lakes.

Mattamuskeet, the state’s largest natural lake, is undergoing an innovative and intensive watershed restoration project many years in the planning. And Pocosin Lakes, named for the Native American term for “swamp on hill” because of its boggy peat soil, has been studied by Duke University researchers for its ability to remediate carbon pollution. The refuge has also nearly completed an extensive rewetting project to restore the ability of the pocosin peat to absorb carbon dioxide and resist wildfires.

Two major wildfires in and around the refuge in recent decades have burned deep in the ground for many weeks, spewing tons of carbon back into the environment, with one smoldering for six months before it was finally extinguished.

Therein lies the dilemma — and the risk — to the refuges: What happens when there’s no one available to take proper care of the refuges, and to even continue the conservation mission?

Pocosin Lakes, for instance, with the recent retirement of former manager Wendy Stanton, no longer has a refuge manager.

“You know, with Wendy gone now, I don’t know that there’s anybody left at Pocosin Lakes that really understands that hydrology restoration and how it works,” Phillips said.

But it’s more than the upper-level staff, said Bonnie Strawser, president of the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society, a local nonprofit group that supports all of the eastern North Carolina refuges. It’s also the loss of staff that maintain buildings and trails, she said, as well as the biologists who monitor water and test soil.

Strawser, who retired in 2020 after 40 years with Fish and Wildlife as visitor services manager, said that the project leader for Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuge Rebekah Martin has designated acting managers in each refuge, but that’s in addition to their regular jobs with the refuges.

Martin is based at the agency’s Roanoke Island headquarters but is not authorized to speak to reporters. According to a 2023 article on the coastal refuges website, Martin oversees about 400,000 acres of habitat with more than a dozen endangered or threatened species. At the time, it said, the complex had 35 employees and more than 400 volunteers.

“We are currently down to 10 staff, and this is regular O and M — operations and maintenance — funded by general funding, refuge funding,” Strawser said in a recent interview. “Now that does not include firefighters or law enforcement, because they are funded through different programs.”

Strawser said that there were no probationary employees in eastern North Carolina, so no one had been outright fired. Some staff who agreed to resign under one of the agency’s two rounds of the deferred resignation program, she said, were quickly shut down and put on administrative leave for varied periods of time while collecting their salaries.

Cuts in both the U.S. Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service will also hamper the agencies cooperative response to wildfires and disasters, including with the national interagency incident management teams. Strawser is a member of one of three teams in the southern area.

“I don’t know what in the world we’re going to do when fire season comes,” she said. “They stood down our team. It’s not going to be available, they said, at least until after July.”

As Strawser noted, a lot goes on behind the scenes to keep the refuges humming, including procedural processes to keep records and run programs, as well as have sponsors to maintain the “casual hire” personnel to respond to emergencies.

“But the Fish and Wildlife Service, because they lost so many people in the administrative positions, they don’t have anybody to handle the payments and the travel, so they can’t sponsor” for a team member, she said.

For the time being, the public many not notice much difference when they go to a refuge, Strawser said.

“The visitor centers are run by volunteers,” she said. “The public programs are conducted mostly by volunteers.” But there’s only three maintenance people for their nine national wildlife refuges.

“There’s been no talk of closing anything, but it’s just common sense there will problems if there’s nobody to grade the roads, if there’s nobody to do the mowing on the road shoulders, she said. “And if there’s no ‘daylighting’ of the roads, they’ll get overgrown, the sun won’t reach down, and the mud doesn’t dry out and the road is destabilized and before you know it, they’re not drivable.”

Mike Bryant, who was succeeded by Martin, had served as refuge manager for 20 years, from 1996 to 2016, and he witnessed decreasing support for the refuges from the federal government, he told Coastal Review in an interview. After retirement, he had also served as consultant for the National Wildlife Refuge Association, and was former president of the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society. Although he said he keeps in touch, he is no longer directly involved with either group.

Since about 2010, Bryant said there has been a steady decline in staffing.

“You have refuges where there were multiple people, and with some of them, there’s just one person left, and so that’s part of the story,” he said. “So it had nothing to do with the past 60 or 90 days, whatever it is now.”

But it’s not just mandated reductions in staff that threaten the refuges, he said. The management challenge is also an aging workforce that may not be replaced.

“You got over half a million acres of National Wildlife Refuge in multiple counties, and spanning across North Carolina to the Virginia border, with all kinds of infrastructure and management mandates and no staff to get those mandates done,” Bryant said. “They’re just wondering, how are we going to meet our responsibilities if we’re the only ones left? It’s a morale buster.”

After being fully staffed around 2003, he said it seemed as if the Department of Interior stopped prioritizing conservation and Congress slowly began losing interest in supporting the refuges.

“The Fish and Wildlife budget has so many facets to it, so many other responsibilities under various laws, endangered species and ecological services and all these other entities within the agency, fisheries and all those things, are all important,” Bryant said. “But Congress was never convinced to budget specifically for operations and maintenance of national wildlife refuges.”

Meanwhile, scores of new refuges came on line in the last 25 years. And rather than hiring more personnel, more work was heaped on less staff.

“I was hired in 1996 to manage Alligator River and Pea Island,” Bryant said. “Two years later, when the manager left Mackey Island and Currituck refuges, the regional office called me and said, ‘Hey, we want you to manage those two.’ All of a sudden, I had four refuges.”

Two years later, he was told to hire and supervise a new manager at Pocosin Lakes. Then staff was reduced, forcing him to share staff between the refuges. Next, Roanoke River was added to his responsibilities — along with the 90-minute drive each way. During all those years, he was bumped up just one pay grade.

Bryant said he gets why people get frustrated with the inefficient, cumbersome aspects of the federal government. But he remembers back when the Clinton administration had reduced both staffing and regulations, and not only succeeded, but ended up with a balanced budget.

“We went through all of those things without ever feeling like the sky is falling,” he said. Rather than taking rational steps to achieve efficiency, the interest now seems more in “just destroying the government, constantly degrading it, and yes, crafting corruption.”

“There’s a few bad actors, no doubt, always, in every organization everywhere, no matter what the enterprise,” Bryant added. “There was a rational process to deal with bad employees, grounded in policy. And the policy was grounded in regulation, and the regulation was grounded in law.”

The first official unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System was Pelican Island in Florida, established for conservation in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Today there are 570 refuges and 30 wetland management districts on more than 150 million acres entrusted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and enjoyed by 69 million visitors.

Bryant is rooting for not just survival of the struggling refuge system, but its revival.

“I think we’ll recover,” he said. “I’m optimistic about that. But we’ll be deeply scarred.”

SWAN QUARTER — Turns out that those million big, invasive fish that were supposed to be swimming in Lake Mattamuskeet didn’t show up, as contractors conducting a mass removal project that began last year reevaluate the estimated population of common carp in the state’s largest natural freshwater lake.

“What we found is we’re not finding the carp numbers in the lake that we thought were there,” Kendall Smith, refuge manager at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, told the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan Core Stakeholder Team at a recent meeting.

“So far we have not detected any aggregations of fish. We are finding concentration, places where you find more fish than others, but nothing that would be considered an aggregation,” he said.

Smith explained that the refuge will continue to work with the contractor during the year to review other techniques, assess the issues with the carp’s habits and reproduction, and determine the next approach.

“We’re learning a lot about their movements, confirming whether or not they do activate in the wintertime or early spring,” Smith continued.

But reduction of carp, aggressive bottom feeders that are blamed for much of the lake’s turbidity, is just one of the multiple challenges being tackled. The team, made up of folks with local, state and federal expertise, including representatives from governments, nonprofits and landowners, is proving to be as resilient and adaptive as the lake itself.

“Like anything worthwhile, it’s the hard stuff you’ve got to pay attention to,” local farmer and former refuge biologist Kelly Davis told Coastal Review, “because the easy stuff works itself out, right?”

A member of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Davis, along with her late husband Blythe, for decades farmed 2,000 acres of farmland in Hyde County, of which about 150 acres drain into Lake Mattamuskeet.

In her observation, the lake’s biggest issue in restoring the submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, is the haziness of the water, to which the carp contribute by churning up the lake bottom.

“Whatever’s killing the grass,’ she said, “it’s sedimentation. It’s cloudy waters.”

 Often referred to as a jewel of Hyde County, Lake Mattamuskeet, the centerpiece of the refuge, is 6 miles wide, 18 miles long and averages 2 feet deep.

The 40,000-acre lake, expansive and often shimmering, is famously photogenic. Serene cypress swamps along its border could be described convincingly as habitat for elves and gnomes.

But its beauty belies its environmental vulnerability. It is situated on low land, surrounded by pocosin forests and rich farmlands, intersected by gated canals that drain water, sediment and nutrients into the lake.

In addition to nearby rivers, the vast Pamlico Sound, to the lake ecosystem’s benefit and detriment, contributes some of its marine life and waters, whether pushed in by wind-driven tides or flooding. 

Since the 1990s, the submerged aquatic vegetation in the lake had gradually then suddenly disappeared, depriving the hundreds of thousands of waterfowl along the Atlantic Flyway that had stopped over for food and shelter.

Once Hyde County’s community hub, the lake, the refuge and the long-closed Mattamuskeet Lodge, which the county plans to restore and reopen, is still supporting hunting, fishing and farming activities. And ducks, swans and geese still alight at Mattamuskeet, but now mostly at the seasonal duck impoundments created around the lake.

Since 2017, the stakeholder team has been focused on solutions to the lake’s water quality problems, including loss of SAV and persistent algal blooms, as well as flooding and drainage of the surrounding land.

Guidance for the work has been provided by a watershed restoration plan facilitated by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, in partnership with Hyde County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. The Coastal Federation is the publisher of Coastal Review, an independent online newspaper that covers coastal issues in North Carolina.

Despite uncertainty with staffing and funding concerns related to recent cuts in the federal government, work at the lake and surrounding land is ongoing and planned for upcoming months, according to a discussion during the Jan. 30 team meeting in the Hyde County Government Complex.

Five projects, funded by a $16.86 million Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant awarded to the North Carolina Coastal Federation, are designed to enhance water quality within the Lake Mattamuskeet watershed.

Project planned are improvements in the Fairfield Drainage District including installing a pump station to reduce drainage into the lake and enhance crops, restoring 1,000 acres of wetlands on converted agricultural land, constructing a 4,506-linear foot living shoreline to protect a Natural Resources Conservation Service dike in Swan Quarter and other critical infrastructure, facilitating agricultural best management practices to mitigate discharge of agricultural runoff into the lake, and outreach to aquaculture producers in an effort to boost participation in oyster restoration.

The Coastal Federation is currently working to finalize a partnership agreement with the Conservation Service, according to the federation’s coastal advocate Alyson Flynn, the meeting’s moderator. She also said that the federation has contracted with consultant Jonathan Hinkle to assist in the design and modeling of the large-scale restoration projects.

Part of the work, which has a four-year timeline, with a potential 1-year extension, involves diverting, pumping and draining water on the land in a way that would avoid adding sediment or nutrients to the lake, a hydrology challenge to engineer and a problem when there may be divergent goals. Drainage improvements also include cleaning out major drainage canals.

 “We all agree that the lake is in poor health, and we want to help fix it, but what that looks like seem to change,” Flynn said in an interview, referring to the proposed Fairfield project. “And so, yes, by diverting that fresh water up into the north, we’re hoping that the lake water will naturally filter out through that designed wetland before it gets to the Intracoastal Waterway in the north, with the assistance of pumps.”

Davis, who attended the stakeholders meeting informally as an area landowner, said that water is affected by changes in sea level and by wind tide, and there’s no choice but to work with the conditions, whatever their whims.  

“There will be times where some of that water movement is hampered until the wind shifts and blows the sound back out, but that’s part of water management in Hyde County, or really on the peninsula,” Davis said. “Whether the water body is the Pungo River, the Intracoastal Waterway, the Pamlico Sound, or Lake Mattamuskeet, the whole idea is to try to get the sediment trapped somewhere before it hits that water. And as the water slowly move through wetlands, the slower you can move the water, the more time it has for the sediment to fall out, and the more what you’re sending to the water bodies is mostly just water.”

What is important, she added, is that all the projects’ stakeholders are engaged and involved — and patient.

“They’re big projects, but they’re also projects that should have decades of value. The projects don’t have to be perfect,” she said, adding that every challenge that is addressed at the time makes a difference. “Because the needs are now, and they will be in the near term and the long term, and the wind still blows the sound out.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials have agreed to pause an algaecide experiment in Lake Mattamuskeet until next year.

Plans were in place to treat cyanobacteria, known as blue-green algae, using a product that the Environmental Protection Agency determined is toxic to birds in the 40,000-acre lake. The lake is within the 50,180-acre Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge.

The work was to take place in about 400 acres, or 1%, of the lake, starting this summer, continuing through the end of October, and resuming next April.

The Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed a federal lawsuit May 20 asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction to block the service from allowing the algaecide experiment. Following a hearing on the request in federal court in Raleigh, the Fish and Wildlife Service voluntarily agreed to pause its plans to move forward with the project in the eastern North Carolina lake.

“This is a great day for everyone who values Lake Mattamuskeet and all of the geese, swans, ducks and hundreds of other birds that gather at the wildlife sanctuary,” Ramona McGee, Southern Environmental Law Center senior attorney, said in a statement. “We’re all so relieved that these birds will not be exposed to toxic chemicals this year while the court reviews the legal problems with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s rushed and inadequate approval of this dangerous experiment.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed that it will not proceed with the experiment this year while all parties work through litigation, with the hope of reaching a decision by the planned April 2025 restart date. Late Tuesday, the court entered an order confirming the agreement and setting the schedule for briefing the case, the law center said.

“This agreement ensures that Lake Mattamuskeet and the birds that pass through it on their migratory paths will be kept safe from dangerous experiments with toxic chemicals — for now,” Defenders of Wildlife Senior Attorney Jane Davenport said. “We are confident that when the court decides the merits of the case that it will instruct Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is fully protected from such poorly designed experiments, as the law requires.”

Related: Lake Mattamuskeet algaecide pilot study tied up in court

“We’re glad that common sense has prevailed and provided more time to scrutinize this flawed plan,” North Carolina Sierra Club Action Director Erin Carey said. “We hope that closer review will prove that there’s no defensible reason why an algaecide that’s toxic to birds should be tested at one of this region’s most important bird sanctuaries.”

A representative in response for a request for comment explained Friday that the Fish and Wildlife Service does not comment on active or pending litigation.

An ongoing lawsuit has put on hold both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to treat the toxic blue-green algae in Lake Mattamuskeet and state funding for the project.

On behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, the Southern Environmental Law Center challenged on May 20 the service’s decision “to allow the experimental use of an algaecide identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as toxic to birds in the 40,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet” which has shown declining water quality since the early 1990s.

The 50,180-acre Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1934, providing habitat for hundreds of species of birds and is part of the Atlantic Flyway. The lake once filled with seagrass had none by 2017, and the declining submerged aquatic vegetation has led to poor water quality and clarity and contributed to large blooms of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The North Carolina Collaboratory, under the direction of the General Assembly, in July 2022 awarded a $5 million contract to the vendor, BlueGreen Technologies, which has an office in Pennsylvania, to test out its Lake Guard Oxy product on 400 acres of the lake. Based on results of several toxicity tests, the maximum single dosage rate to be used was to be 50 pounds per acre of Lake Guard Oxy, according to the service.

Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney and Leader of the Wildlife Program Ramona McGee explained to Coastal Review that Mattamuskeet Refuge “is a revered bird sanctuary, so we’re very concerned about the impacts to birds from this toxic algaecide. This is a plan that resulted from the North Carolina General Assembly appropriating funds to the Collaboratory to conduct an experimental test of an algaecide. And for whatever reason, they selected Lake Mattamuskeet as their test site.”

The lawsuit is asking the court to block the plan until the Fish and Wildlife Service “conducts a full analysis that protects the mission and purpose of the wildlife refuge and takes a hard look at the toxic algaecide’s harms and the available alternatives,” the center said in its announcement.

The service, in a response to the lawsuit filed May 29, states that because of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s May 16 press release announcing that the “project would be ‘starting on June 1,’ Plaintiffs initiated this lawsuit and sought a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. However, as a result of the lawsuit, the Collaboratory has halted funding and put the Project on hold due to this pending lawsuit.”

McGee with the law center explained that not all details of how the company was selected for the study are known.

“What we do know is that BlueGreen Technologies registered lobbyists in the North Carolina General Assembly, and then subsequently the North Carolina General Assembly appropriated funds for this study. The vendor had to meet very specific criteria, and those criteria” match up with BlueGreen’s Lake Guard Oxy product and, “kind of unsurprisingly,” when the request for bids went out for this product, BlueGreen won with its Lake Guard Oxy product.

“After that, through whatever decision-making process, they selected Lake Mattamuskeet as the test site and again, Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is a bird sanctuary, and this algaecide is toxic to birds,” McGee said.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative told Coastal Review that the service does not comment on active or pending litigation.

Emergency relief

The Fish and Wildlife Service released in March its final environmental assessment for the cyanobacteria treatment pilot study, and not long after, on May 16, the NCDEQ issued the press release stating that the department, under state water quality laws, had granted a certificate of coverage for the project to move forward as early as June 1.

“Because of that, the plaintiffs, the conservation groups here, went to the court seeking emergency relief,” McGee said, referring to the complaint filed May 20, motion filed May 24 that sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, as well as the court-ordered, expedited hearing which took place May 31.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, the defendants in this case, indicated in their response brief in opposition to SELC’s motion dated May 29 that the Collaboratory had temporarily “halted funding and put the Project on hold due to this pending lawsuit,” but that funding could resume at any time.

The service added that, despite the Department of Environmental Quality’s announcement that the trial study could start on June 1, there were several steps that needed to be taken before the first treatment could be applied. Those steps could take around 10 weeks to complete.

SELC, in its May 30 reply to the defendant’s response brief, said its clients welcomed the new information and agreed to withdraw their request for a temporary restraining order, but not their request for a preliminary injunction.

“Because, as Defendants note, the UNC Collaboratory could resume funding the project at any time and set the project in motion, the Conservation Groups maintain their request for a preliminary injunction,” according to the reply.

McGee said that now, because of the new timeline, “we’re back to briefing.”

This means that the defendants will need to respond to the the law center’s May 30 reply by June 21, and then the groups would have to answer within 10 days, McGee explained.

This is still a request. “We’re still asking, at this point, the court to issue an order ensuring that defendants won’t move forward with the toxic algaecide experiment during the pendency of the lawsuit, but it’s at a slightly slower pace than it was before, given that defendants have basically assured us and the court that they’re not going to be applying the algaecide in the next couple of months,” McGee said.

The Collaboratory, in a prepared statement in response to Coastal Review’s query, said the vendor was selected in accordance with state law and that an academic team from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill was working with the vendor to gather and assess baseline water quality data from Lake Mattamuskeet.

“The baseline data collection is ongoing, and the Collaboratory has made it clear to the vendor that subsequent phases of the project, including cost reimbursements for treatment activities, will depend on having all necessary State and federal authorizations in place. The continued collection of these data are important to better understand the impacts and effects of harmful algal blooms (HABs) in aquatic environments throughout our State,” according to the statement.

‘Evil plot of a comic book villain’

Plaintiffs Sierra Club North Carolina Chapter Acting State Director Erin Carey and Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, remain concerned about the algaecide study.

“An experimental algaecide that’s toxic to birds, targeted for use in a federal bird sanctuary, so a private company can collect proprietary information for its own profits –this whole thing feels like the evil plot of a comic book villain,” Carey said. “Common sense, public outcry, and even long-established mission priorities have failed to stop this misaligned and destructive project; our lawsuit is the logical next step. The stewardship inherent to the management of our preserves is paramount to the protection of thousands of species. We are proud to stand with our partners to protect the birds and other wildlife of Lake Mattamuskeet.”

Davenport reiterated that Defenders of Wildlife continues “to be very concerned about using Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge as a testing ground for an algaecide known to be toxic to birds. We are grateful that we have more time to fully lay out the legal issues with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s short-circuited environmental analysis that treated the experiment as a done deal.”

‘Little risk of negative impact to birds’

The EPA said in March 2023 that Lake Guard Oxy “is toxic to birds. Do not apply this product or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds while pollinating insects are actively visiting the area.”

The environmental assessment the Fish and Wildlife Service released in March 2024, notes that the statement, “toxic to birds,” on the label of Lake Guard Oxy, “must be considered in the context of the use of the product,” but concluded that the expected benefits offset the risk.

“The Service believes that use of Lake Guard Oxy in the manner and location in which it is proposed will have little risk of negative impact to birds. The potential long-term benefits of the proposed action for birds and refuge habitats outweighs the potential for negative impacts.”

A BlueGreen Water Technologies spokesperson told Coastal Review Monday that the company “has safely remediated water bodies around the globe using its Lake Guard Oxy technology to improve ecosystems for waterfowl and wildlife.”

While the EPA’s product label “advises for potential toxicity of the active ingredient under a variety of conditions on land and water, BlueGreen’s protocol is specific to harmful algal blooms and our dosage rates for Lake Mattamuskeet are below toxic thresholds as confirmed through proactive testing on waterfowl,” they said.

The product “was developed as a ‘leave no trace’ protocol for use in threatened ecosystems battling toxic, harmful algae blooms, like Lake Mattamuskeet. The peroxide-based product is fully biodegradable and breaks down into water and oxygen molecules. Compared to other peroxide-based treatments, Lake Guard Oxy has been found to provide higher efficacy at much lower doses due to the floating time-release formulation,” they continued.

CHAPEL HILL — Wildlife advocates, citing the threat to migratory birds, have filed a challenge in federal court to block the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from allowing an experimental algaecide treatment of Lake Mattamuskeet.

The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, filed the lawsuit Monday in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The groups seek to block the plan in Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge until the Fish and Wildlife Service performs a more thorough analysis that “takes a hard look at the toxic algaecide’s harms and the available alternatives.”

The groups point to the product’s former Environmental Protection Agency labeling showing it as toxic to birds. They note that shallow Lake Mattamuskeet is important habitat for more than 250 bird species including swans, ducks and geese. 

Related: State issues certificate for Lake Mattamuskeet treatment

“A bird sanctuary is no place to experiment with a chemical that is toxic to birds,” said Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Ramona McGee, who is leader of the law center’s Wildlife Program. “We’re asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to put the mission and purpose of this wildlife refuge first, and not turn wild birds into lab rats when there are much better ways available to maintain the health of the lake.”

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday its Division of Water Resources had approved a certificate of coverage to allow BlueGreen Water Technologies to begin the pilot study to treat for cyanobacteria in select parts of the freshwater lake June 1.

Fish and Wildlife is collaborating on the proposed treatment with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences.

Officials say the pelleted product is safe after it’s dissolved in water. Advocates disagree.

Related: USFWS plans to chemically treat part of Lake Mattamuskeet

“It might seem reasonable to assume that the federal government would refrain from using a national bird sanctuary to test a private company’s experimental algaecide, particularly one that reads ‘toxic to birds’ on the label, and yet here we are,” said Erin Carey, acting director, N.C. Chapter of Sierra Club. “The North Carolina Sierra Club is proud to stand between the delicate and irreplaceable beauty of Lake Mattamuskeet and the casual disregard of corporate interest.” 

“The Fish and Wildlife Service should do everything in its power to conserve this important bird sanctuary,” said Jane Davenport, senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife. “Instead, FWS is giving the green light for a private company to turn a wild sanctuary into a laboratory for experimental, unproven treatments with known dangers to the very wildlife the refuge is intended to protect.”

The state has signed off on a controversial pilot study of a pesticide’s effectiveness in combatting the troublesome and pervasive blue-green algae in Lake Mattamuskeet to begin next month.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said Thursday its Division of Water Resources had approved a certificate of coverage to allow BlueGreen Water Technologies to conduct a pilot study of a treatment for cyanobacteria within a limited area of the state’s largest freshwater lake starting June 1.

The certificate falls under the general permitting process for pesticide applications, DEQ said.

The pilot treatment is a collaboration with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A 400-acre total of four isolated bays around the lake’s perimeter are to be treated. Officials said that amounts to 1% of the more-than-40,000-acre lake’s surface area.

Related: USFWS plans to chemically treat part of Lake Mattamuskeet

Environmental advocates have warned that the treatment imperils migrating waterfowl for which the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is known.

The lake comprises most of the refuge, which is managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, which issued a final environmental assessment for the cyanobacteria treatment in March, along with a finding of no significant impact.

Officials say the formed-pellet product is safe once dissolved in water.

Permit files are available online.

The certificate of coverage requires monitoring data to be provided to the Institute of Marine Sciences, and to be made available to the division.

Officials noted that the lake’s water quality and clarity had been in decline due to the flow of excessive nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and other factors. In 2016, the lake was listed on North Carolina’s 303(d) list for elevated acidity, or pH, and chlorophyll a.

For more information about harmful algal blooms in North Carolina, or to report an algal bloom or fish kill, find information about the DWR Algae Lab online.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shared this week its plans for a $27.25 million allocation announced in March 2023 for restoration work in the Albemarle-Pamlico region.

Funded through the Inflation Reduction Act, nature-based solutions projects are sustainable practices that use natural features or processes to reduce carbon emissions and improve climate adaptation and resilience. The proposed projects are for nine units of the national wildlife refuge system and on state-owned game lands in northeastern North Carolina.

“This investment prioritizes projects that promote coastal resilience and climate adaptation, addresses invasive species threats, and provides for additional data collection needed to support successful natural resource resilience,” officials said.

Service Director Martha Williams announced the plans Thursday at Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge in Knotts Island.

“These projects allow for significant progress towards restoring rivers, coasts and wetlands, and improving ecosystems that have been subjected to flooding and other extreme weather events,” Williams said in a statement. “With increasing shoreline erosion, saltwater intrusion and loss of habitable environments, the Inflation Reduction Act gives us the resources needed to implement nature-based solutions which will have lasting benefits to nature and communities for generations to come.”

Living shorelines are planned for Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County, Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge in Carteret County, Currituck National Wildlife Refuge and Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge, both in Currituck County, and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County.

Living shorelines reduce wave action, trap sediment and help protect marsh and wetland habitats. The nature-based solution can reduce the severity of storm surge during severe weather events and improve water quality in nearshore waters.

Projects at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Tyrrell and Dare counties will focus on upgrading water-management infrastructure to reduce the impacts of saltwater intrusion.

Funds earmarked for Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County are to focus on improving the lake’s water quality and water management capability by redirecting water runoff.

Projects at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde, Washington, Tyrrell counties will focus on restoring peatlands.

The work planned for Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge in Bertie County is to remove barriers that isolate the Roanoke River from its floodplain.

North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will receive $5 million to invest in Goose Creek Game Land and Gull Rock Game Land. The projects will focus on on shoreline protection, improvements to water quality, climate resiliency, and wetland impoundment upgrades.

“The Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine System is home to some of the most climate vulnerable counties in the nation and is particularly susceptible to sea level rise and changes in storm intensity and frequency,” Mike Oetker, regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, said. “We will continue working with partners to ensure we are good stewards of this significant investment, using nature-based solutions to increase resiliency in our communities and water-management infrastructure, as well as provide clean air and water for the community and local wildlife.”

For more information about the Service’s Inflation Reduction Act-related efforts, visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s website.

The future now looks brighter for a badly deteriorating structure that, despite its condition, remains an iconic symbol of mainland Hyde County’s heritage and a former gathering place for special events.

An event was held Feb. 13 and billed as the Mattamuskeet Lodge kickoff, a way to celebrate the $6.5 million in the 2024 North Carolina budget earmarked for the restoration of Lake Mattamuskeet Lodge.

The building was closed in 2000 when damage to its foundation was discovered during renovations. The foundation has subsequently been stabilized, and in 2020 the roof was repaired using many of the original clay terra cotta tiles.

After not being used for 24 years though, the interior is in need of restoration and there is landscaping and exterior work that also has to be addressed before the building can be used again.

The 2024 funding is an important first step and the path to get the money into the budget was difficult, Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, told an audience of around 200 gathered at the celebration.

“It’s been a long, hard road with a lot of ups and downs and some obstacles we never thought we would overcome,” Hanig said.

The total cost for renovating the lodge, according to a report issued by the Mattamuskeet Lodge Society, will be $14.4 million. The society is a nonprofit established to manage the lodge after work is completed.

The speaker’s podium was shared by the North Carolina Wildlife Commission Executive Director Cameron Ingram, Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, and Rep. Keith Kidwell, R-Craven. Hyde County Manager County Manager Kris Noble and County Commission Chair Earl Pugh delivered personal remarks.

“We’ll be focused on this great land that surrounds us and the history that has been such a great part of all of our lives,” Noble said. “The lodge will once again be a center for events. We will once again host weddings. We will have proms and class reunions and other private events once again. As we breathe life back into the lodge, the lodge will also bring life back into our communities.”

Noble had earlier outlined for Coastal Review what she hoped the lodge will represent once renovations are completed and it reopens.

“One of the ultimate goals is to promote economic development. Mainland Hyde needs something like this, that will drive that economy,” she said.

Pugh, the county chair, described the lodge’s role in Hyde County during his remarks.

“Some of my memories here include proms, weddings, anniversaries, Ducks Unlimited banquets,” he said.

The lodge for many wildlife management students, including those from East Carolina University, was part of their college experience.

“I was in this building in 1992 as an ECU student in natural resource management,” Ingram said. “I didn’t know that I was going to eventually become a wildlife officer. But I knew that I wanted to serve public concern conservation in the state. So I was studying that here.”

Failed endeavor

Mattamuskeet Lodge was not originally a hunting lodge. It housed, when completed in 1915, what was purportedly the largest steam-powered pumping station in the world, capable of pumping a million gallons of water per minute. Its purpose was to drain Lake Mattamuskeet and turn the lakebed into fertile farmland. What is now an observation tower was originally the smokestack for the coal fires that fueled the steam.

In 1909, the North Carolina General Assembly passed the Drainage Act, “an act to promote the public health, convenience and welfare by leveeing, ditching and draining the wet, swamp and overflowed lands of the state.”

The measure created drainage districts throughout North Carolina, the most extensive of them was Lake Mattamuskeet. The rights to the lakebed were sold to the Southern Land Reclamation Co. for $100,000, with the proceeds going the state Board of Education.

The plan for the lake was based on a Dutch model, Farmer and Mechanic reported in November of 1914.

“In Holland the Haarlem Lake was drained by the government. This lake was not so large as Mattamuskeet and yet today 16,000 people live in this old lakebed and it is one of the most fertile and prosperous districts in Holland,” reporter R.R. Cotton wrote.

By 1918 the lake was pumped dry and the land was being sold to farmers.

The land was as fertile as advertised, but the cost of keeping the lakebed dry was becoming ever more expensive. By 1924 North Carolina Farms, the company formed to manage the land, was in receivership and all pumping activity stopped.

In 1926, with new investment, a second attempt was made to turn Lake Mattamuskeet into farmland. That too failed.

“Factory Farm Doomed by Nature, Millions Wasted,” the Associated Press reported in April 1931.

“Dixie’s greatest ‘factory farm’ apparently has failed,” according to the report. “Six years and $6,000,000 spent in an effort to reclaim for agriculture the 48,000 acre bed of Lake Mattamuskeet seems to have come to naught.”

As early as the mid-1920s, there were reports that the federal government was interested in Lake Mattamuskeet as a wildlife reserve, but the drainage district was still owned by private investors.

By the 1930s with the lake once again filled, word came that another plan to drain the lake was in the works. W.O. Saunders, publisher of the Elizabeth City Independent didn’t hold back in his assessment.

“Another Damphool Plan to Drain and Colonize Lake Mattamuskeet Acres,” the Independent’s front-page headline screamed.

In the article Saunders explained why draining the lake was a foolish plan.

“It is not practical as Lake Mattamuskeet is below sea level which would necessitate these pumps going continuously to prevent the farm crops from being inundated and destroyed,” he wrote.

According to the 1933 report, the pumps had failed in August 1932 and crops were lost.

Saunders goes on to note that Lake Mattmuskeet is a “Natural feeding ground for migratory water(fowl) and game fish, and proposes it be turned over to the Federal Government.”

He reported that the federal government wished to purchase the lake and turn it over to the U.S. Biological Survey, which was combined in 1940 with the Bureau of Fisheries to form the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

By 1935, the Henderson Daily Dispatch was reporting that the old pumping station was being remodeled as a hotel and administration building.

The renovations took two years and, according to the website Living New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps was heavily involved in the work. CCC Co. 424 did much of the work, “with 17 to 23 year old ‘CCC boys’ working side by side with civilian contractors.”

Memories of migratory waterfowl

Sidney Britt, 88, was at the event. He owns a house on the lake now, but he lived in Raleigh when he first came to Lake Mattamuskeet as a boy.

“I was 10 years old. I was probably easy to impress,” he said. “You could stand in one spot and the horizon would just be dark with birds. It was just beautiful. And the sound. It was just beautiful.”

By the 1970s, though, hunting had dwindled as geese flight patterns had evidently changed. The Perquimans Weekly in a July 1973 article noted that, “Surprisingly, the total population of Canada geese in the Atlantic Flyway has increased at the same time that Mattamuskeet’s population has declined.”

In 1974 the Mattamuskeet Lodge was closed, but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offices were still in the building, which had become a gathering place for Hyde County events –high school proms, weddings and the like.

The Mattamuskeet U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office is now located on an adjacent property.

The lodge also included a dormitory for ECU students with 16 beds available.

“I was the lodge coordinator,” Annette Gibbs told Coastal Review at the celebration. “I had an office here, and I booked all parties and the people that came and stayed in the ECU wing. We had something going on almost every week.”

It all came to an end in 2000.

The building had been deteriorating for some time, and money finally became available for needed repairs. A close look at the foundations, however, revealed that the bricks holding the building up were disintegrating.

“We had the money (for renovations) and we were pulling out bricks and they found some that were down low would actually break off,” Gibbs said. “The problem was they used sand from the sound (to make the bricks). And there was salt in the sand and it had just disintegrated.”

The structural problems were repaired, but it used all the money that had been earmarked for the renovation. In 2020 the roof was replaced.

Structurally, the building is sound, but there is considerable interior work that has to be done. Many of the touches the Lodge created are still there — the balcony surrounding what could be a ballroom, rooms are still divided, but walking through the building, there can be no doubt the interior is an empty shell.

Plans for the structure

It may take years to completely renovate the building.

Legislators at the event explained that money allocated in a budget must be spent during that fiscal year. They were optimistic that once the project began, funding to complete the renovation would continue to be available.

Once renovations are completed, the Hyde County Extension Service will move their offices to the building.

“Hyde County’s cooperative extension will have their offices here in the lodge and they will provide the abundant programming and resources that they already provide,” Noble said during her remarks.

Related: Hyde County agency’s future home may be key to saving it

The Mattamuskeet Lodge Society will manage the facility when it opens and its planning documents call for extensive outreach to area schools for educational opportunities.

“The Lodge will offer educational programming through the MLS (Mattamuskeet Lodge Society), 4-H Youth Development Program, Family & Consumer Sciences, Agriculture Extension, NCWRC, and FWS,” the society notes in its Restoration Initiative document.

The lodge will also be available once again for special events and the Lodge Society will also manage a retail store on premises.

“It will all be focused on this great land that surrounds us and the history that has been such a great part of all of our lives,” Noble said.

Coastal Review is featuring the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. Cecelski shares on his website essays and lectures 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. 

These photographs were taken at a Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, camp on Bell Island in Hyde County in 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression.

Now preserved at the State Archives in Raleigh, they were taken by one of the young men who served at Bell Island. The young man’s full name was Anthony Troy Elliott — he went by Troy — and had grown up on a small farm in Perquimans County, 70 miles to the north.

Born in 1914, Elliott was one of the 200 men ages 17 to 25 who made up Co. 424 when it was at Bell Island.

Young Elliott’s photographs may not be the most artful, but I am especially fond of them because they are so full of life and yet also give us a glimpse at a part of the Great Depression on the North Carolina coast that we rarely see elsewhere.

View from the pier that Co. 424 built on Rose Bay looking back to the camp’s tents, 1935. The camp’s first enrollees came from Brunswick, Durham, Granville, Halifax, New Hanover, Onslow, and Wilson counties. Within the year, a healthy contingent of the camp’s young men also came from Hyde County, where Bell Island is located. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

Troy Elliott and his companions at Bell Island were creating what is now the Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge, a critically important wintering ground for migratory waterfowl.

The CCC’s Co. 424, the top photo, was based on Bell Island from 1933 to 1937. In the autumn of 1937, the camp was closed and the company was relocated to a new site at New Holland, 14 miles to the east on the shores of Lake Mattamuskeet.

At New Holland, CCC Co. 424 did much of the work necessary to create the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. That work included transforming an abandoned pumping station into one of the state’s most iconic landmarks, the Mattamuskeet Lodge.

The members of Co. 424 were among 3 million young, single, unemployed men of all colors and races, whose families got through the Great Depression with the help of the CCC.

A pair of friends posing by their quarters, Bell Island, 1935. By the end of 1933, approximately 1,500 CCC camps had been built in the U.S. and its territories. Between that time and the CCC’s termination in 1942, more than 100 CCC camps were located in North Carolina. They were all segregated by race, and that number included nine camps set aside for African Americans, as well as six for World War I veterans, four for white veterans, two for Black veterans. As was the case with nearly all of the state’s anti-poverty programs in the first half of the 20th century, CCC funds were spent disproportionately for the benefit of the state’s white citizens. In the case of the CCC, the agency’s administrators maintained strict quotas on the participation of Black and Native American men. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

Created by the Emergency Conservation Work Act of 1933, the CCC was one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs aimed at helping American citizens survive the poverty and unemployment that plagued the United States during the Great Depression.

In addition to earning wages, CCC laborers also addressed some of the nation’s most fundamental needs: building infrastructure, preserving wildlife habitat, and restoring soil, forests, and other parts of our natural heritage that in many cases had been devastated by generations of unhindered exploitation.

In the words of the Act, the purpose of the CCC was to relieve “the acute condition of widespread distress and unemployment” and “to provide for the restoration of the country’s depleted natural resources and the advancement of an orderly program of useful public works.”

The mission of the CCC laborers at Bell Island was to create what is now known as the Swanquarter National Wildlife Refuge, a 42,000-acre wetlands that provides shelter and feeding grounds for migratory waterfowl. Their work included building fire towers, fire lanes, ditching, a long pier into Rose Bay, a keeper’s house, fishermen’s camps, and a raised, mile-long road — we can see its path being cleared here — across the swamplands north of the camp that connected Bell Island to the mainland a few miles west of Swan Quarter. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

The CCCers built roads and bridges, fought forest fires, planted some 3 billion trees, carried out major erosion control projects, and built national parks, state parks and wildlife refuges.

In North Carolina, they built, or helped build, many of the state’s most cherished landmarks, parks and historic sites.

Those CCC projects included the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Macon State Park, the Pisgah National Forest, the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, and Waterside Theater, where “The Lost Colony” is performed, among many others.

The mosquitoes of Hyde County were and still are legendary, and one of the first newspaper reports that I found on the Bell Island camp focused on them. Appearing in the Elizabeth City Independent July 23, 1933, the article began, “Over on Bell Island 200 youthful members of the Civilian Conservation Corps are making war on mosquitoes.” Evidently much of the camp’s early work focused on mosquito control, which at that time usually meant a great deal of ditch digging in salt marshes and swamplands. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

A pair of young men fishing, hunting or just “proggin’” on one of the ditches that Co. 424 had dug at Bell Island 1935. The mosquitoes were no fun, but Co. 424’s single hardest moment was probably the great hurricane of September 1933. I know few details about the damage caused by the storm on that part of Rose Bay, but news reports indicated that the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Pamlico answered a distress call from the CCC camp and rushed there with food and supplies. Bell Island is only a few feet above sea level and the hurricane’s storm surge inevitably flooded the camp and cut off the road that the CCC work crews were building to the mainland. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

When Co 424’s camp was built at Bell Island, a quarter of all men in the United States were unemployed. Record numbers of farmers had lost their land. Across the nation, the wages of those who still had jobs had fallen on average by almost half since 1929.

In much of the rural South, the number of down and out was even higher. Nearly half of families in Dare County, for instance, just down the road from Bell Island, were on state or county relief, though it amounted to next to nothing at that time.

In the early years of the Great Depression, there was no national safety net: no Social Security, no unemployment insurance, and no federal programs to aid mothers, children, the elderly or the disabled who were in need of food, shelter or health care.

CCCers on the roadbed that they were building between Bell Island and the mainland, 1935. At the beginning, the CCC camp at Bell Island fell under the command of a Capt. Gervais of the U.S. Army’s 4th Field Artillery. That was not unusual. In 1933, regular Army officers led all CCC camps. However, by the summer of 1934, or thereabouts, they were replaced with officers from the Army Reserves. Civilians made up most of a CCC camp’s staff. At Bell Island, much of Co. 424’s original civilian staff — a clerk, a steward, medics, one of the work foremen, etc.– had been recruited in Wilson County, 100 miles to the west. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

Later in the 1930s, the Roosevelt Administration and the U.S. Congress created many of the federal programs that we now have to address those needs. Along with new legal protections for workers organizing labor unions, they made up the New Deal.

Disillusionment with capitalism and the power of banks and industry had rarely if ever been higher in American history. At the time, the nation’s business leaders widely credited the New Deal with staving off popular uprising, anarchy and even revolution.

A trio of cooks outside the mess hall on Bell Island, 1935. I do not think that I am exaggerating if I say that the opportunity to have three square meals a day was one of the most compelling reasons that young men in eastern North Carolina enrolled in the CCC. Hunger stalked the land during the Great Depression, and many of the region’s people did not have that same opportunity. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

Neil Howell, who grew up near Kinston, was 17 years old when he enrolled in Co. 424. At a reunion in 1993, he remembered his first days in Hyde County. “I was scared,” he told an AP reporter. “I had never been away from home before.” Howell soon got over his homesickness though. “We had a good bunch of people,” he remembered. Quote is from the the Greensboro News & Record, June 7, 1993. In this photo, we can see the camp’s enrollees lining up outside the mess hall at Bell Island. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

For many on the North Carolina coast, the CCC was the first tangible benefit that they received from the New Deal.

In the CCC, the young men worked for a dollar day and most considered themselves lucky. They were permitted to keep a few dollars a month for themselves, but the CCC sent the bulk of their wages to their families to help meet their most basic needs.

In addition to building the migratory waterfowl refuge, the CCC enrollees at Bell Island often continued their educations. For many, that was a rare second chance. Many dropped out of school by the age of 12 or 13, or even earlier, so that they could go to work and help support their families. In the spring of 1934, Forest Humphrey, a CCC enrollee from Jacksonville, reported that Co. 424’s civilian staff were offering classes in boat building, first aid, and in basic subjects such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. See the Belhaven Times and Hyde County Record, April 27,1934. Many years later, another CCC veteran recalled that he learned the electrician’s trade while in Co. 424. He apparently made his living as an electrician for the rest of his life. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

For many families, those wages proved the difference between abject poverty and getting by.

A $25 a month check from the CCC would not solve all problems, and a young man’s service in the CCC was limited to two years. But at least for a time, their CCC wages might stave off hunger, save a family farm, or make it possible to buy clothes so that younger brothers and sisters could go to school, among much else.

Reflecting the status of women in American society at that time, the CCC was not open to women. However, having a son in the CCC was often especially important to female heads of households who had been widowed, abandoned by husbands, or had a disabled husband, all of which were far more common situations at that time than is generally appreciated.

This photo may have been taken on Mother’s Day, 1935. A year earlier, when Mother’s Day fell on May 13, the camp’s commander at the time, Capt. Watts Cooke, had made a special request for the young men at Bell Island to write letters to their mothers “as an expression of love and appreciation.” He also authorized them to invite their mothers to visit the camp on that day, which about 30 of the boys’ mothers did. Belhaven Times and Hyde County Record, April 27, 1934. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

Interviewed in his 70s, one of Co. 424’s veterans, Ed Biggs, came from one of those families.

“Mama had a big garden and some livestock, but that’s all they had to depend on,” he told a reporter covering a Co. 424 reunion that was held at Lake Mattamuskeet in 1993.

One of the most popular pastimes at Bell Island was baseball. The camp’s correspondent, Forest Humphrey, reported that his mates had organized eight teams by the spring of 1934, as well as put together a camp team to play teams in the two nearest towns, Swan Quarter and Belhaven. The Belhaven Times and Hyde County Record in Belhaven occasionally reported on their games. A July 6, 1934 article, for instance, noted that “the Bell Island baseball team played the Pungo River team here last week.” The article went on to say, “the boys have shown great spirit and took defeat from the Pungo boys– score 6-1– with a grin. The Bell Island team hopes to even up the score later on.” Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

CCC Co. 424 held dances in the rec hall at Bell Island. In the April 13, 1934, edition of the Belhaven Times and Hyde County Record, I found a notice of a dance that was held in honor a group of the young men who were finishing their CCC service and headed home. Refreshments were served. Halett Deans’ orchestra, from Belhaven, played. And the revelry lasted until midnight. With a wink to high society gossip columns of the day, Forest Humphrey gushed that the dance “turned out to be the outstanding social event of the spring season.” The CCC camp hosted another dance only a month later, on the fourth of May. The CCCers advertised the dance in Belhaven’s newspaper, and they used the proceeds from the cover charge to buy equipment and uniforms for their baseball club. From Belhaven Times and the Hyde County Record, Belhaven, April 27, 1934

Troy Elliott, fifth from left, at an ice cream social with a crowd of local friends in Hyde County, 1935. The back of the photograph identifies the group, from left, as Edward Gibbs, Hilda Midgett, Audrey Cahoon, Sybil Midgett, Troy Elliott, Eva Gray Berry, Belton Midgett, and an unidentified young woman, with Cecil Gibbs kneeling with the ice cream maker. The young men may have been among the Hyde County enrollees who served with Troy Elliott at Bell Island. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

I am sure to no one’s surprise, Co. 424 was not at Bell Island long before romance was in the air. At Co. 424’s Christmas dance on Dec. 23, 1933, a pair of weddings between the camp’s servicemen and local women were announced. Sgt. Harold D. Hampton, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, had married Ila Mae Lee of Swan Quarter, and Cpl. Oscar Ramness, of Ada, Minnesota, had married Alice Lee Harris, also of Swan Quarter. A Rev. Lowe had performed both weddings at the Methodist church’s parsonage in Swan Quarter. Of other loves, including ones perhaps not as sanctioned, the historical record is silent. See Belhaven Times and Hyde County Record, Jan. 5, 1934. Photo courtesy, N.C. State Archives

The young men of Co. 424 were based at Bell Island for a little more than four years. Then, on Oct. 25, 1937, the CCC transferred the company to the new site in another part of Hyde County.

That new site was in New Holland, a village on the south side of Lake Mattamuskeet.

In New Holland, Co. 424’s members developed the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. They built waterfowl impoundments, roads, and fire breaks, as well as transformed an old pumping station into the Mattamuskeet Lodge, a three-story inn with a 120-foot viewing tower.

Through their efforts, the wildlife refuge became one of the nation’s great wintering grounds for tundra swans, snow geese, and other migratory waterfowl.

In the summer of 1993, Co. 424 held a reunion at the Mattamuskeet Lodge. One of my favorite quotes from newspaper coverage of the event was from a local woman who lived near the CCC camp when it was at New Holland. “We used to go to the dances with the CCC boys at the Barber Shanty dance hall up the road,” she recalled. “One of them was my first love, but I’m not going to tell you any names because he’s here.” Photo by Jim Bounds/AP. From the Greensboro News & Record, June 7, 1993.

Over the years, when I drive east on U.S. 264, I have turned many times onto that mile-long gravel road that leads to Bell Island and that I now know was built by Co. 424 during the Great Depression.

At those times, I always follow the road down to its end and park by the long pier that reaches out into Rose Bay.

My favorite time of year to be there is winter, even though the wind often sweeps down across the bay and chills my bones something fierce. But on those days, I am usually on my own there, or perhaps I only have to share the pier with a stubborn fisherman or two, and I am left with my own thoughts and the beauty of the place.

I can look out across the salt marshes and the bay, listen to the wild geese overhead, and, if I have timed it right, take in the glory of the sunrise or sunset.

And of course when I am there, I always think of Troy Elliott and the other young men of Co. 424 who made a home there for that brief moment back in the 1930s.

I think about the lives they left behind, and what it must have been like to be together there, and how different it must have been to everything they had known before.

I think about how it must have seemed like a stolen season, a refuge from the worst travails of the Depression years. I imagine some of them even found it a chance to glory in being young in a way that their old lives had not allowed them.

They had grown up in the Great Depression, that age of hardship, loss, and doing without. And much like our world today, their world seemed to be falling apart around them.

Many of them, including Troy Elliott, would soon find themselves in camps that did not look that much different than the one on Rose Bay, except they’d be in distant lands where bombs were dropping and cities burning and death was running riot through the streets.

When I look at Elliott’s photographs, I love seeing the happiness on their faces when they were at Bell Island.

As I stand on the pier, looking back toward the old site of the CCC camp, I never forget to think about them. I am sure they were a handful, as most of us are at that age, but when I am there I always imagine them safe and sound in their tents on a winter night.

I picture them there beneath the stars, a few lights still burning, a whisper here and there, a prayer or two, some laughter, and of course all around them the murmur of the wild geese and tundra swans.

SWAN QUARTER — With a lot of nets, some electric stunning, and help from a few “Judas” fish with transmitters, contractors this month are about to launch a roundup to remove a million pounds of invasive common carp from the impaired waters of Lake Mattamuskeet.

The $1 million project, funded by a Bipartisan Infrastructure Law grant, is a critical phase of the ongoing and multifaceted conservation effort to restore the state’s largest freshwater lake. But with an estimated 1 million carp in the lake, weighing an average 4 pounds each, the removal will leave about 75% of the carp to continue its destructive dominance of the ecosystem, at least until another project can be approved and funded.

“This is going to be a continual issue that we have to address through maintenance efforts once this large-scale removal takes place,” Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge Manager Kendall Smith recently told Coastal Review. “But our goal here is to crash the population of carp. They’re already stressed living in the environment that they do.”

The draft environmental assessment for the carp removal project released in March 2021 had called for removal of 99% of the carp. Although that is not possible yet, Smith said, the refuge fully intends to follow through with carp control.

Situated in the center of rural mainland Hyde County, Lake Mattamuskeet, totaling 63 square miles, is 18 miles long and 7 miles wide. At 40,276 acres, it spans the majority of the 50,180-acre refuge and is remarkably shallow — just 2 to 3 feet deep. Since the 1990s, the condition of the lake has declined precipitously, and the overabundance of carp, which create turbidity in the water, is one of the major contributors to the problem.

“So as bottom feeders, they’re constantly moving along the bottom, sort of filtering through that muck,” Smith said about the carp. “It keeps it suspended in the water column.”

Today, the lake, once a major overwintering destination for thousands of waterfowl, is devoid of submerged aquatic vegetation, lacks water clarity and is plagued with algal blooms from high nutrient levels. Once plentiful largemouth bass, crappie, catfish, sunfish and striped bass have been crowded out by carp or depleted by poor water conditions and lack of food. Many of the waterfowl now visit nearby bird impoundments to feed rather than stopping at the lake.

Minnesota-based contractor WSB came to the refuge in early December to develop a plan and to catch some of the fish to implant transmitters, Smith said.

“The idea there is carp congregate in the wintertime,” he explained. “And by inserting some transmitters and releasing those fish back into the lake, we can track them later to locate those congregations.” Thus, the fish with transmitters serve as a kind of “Judas” by betraying the location of the other carp.

Smith said that most of the carp will be caught in large-haul seine nets that capture fish from top to bottom in the water column. Other species trapped in the net will be released, and the carp will be loaded onto boats and trucks.

Carp removal had been identified in the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan as an important part of an interconnected process to restore water quality at the lake. The 2018 plan, a partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Hyde County, the North Carolina Coastal Federation and local stakeholders, also recommended science-based approaches to reduction of nutrients in the lake and submerged vegetation restoration.

A similar removal effort in the 1940s and 1950s successfully restored water clarity by removing significant numbers of carp with large-haul seines, baited traps and pound nets, according to a Nov. 13 U.S. Fish and Wildlife press release. More recent efforts employed in other water bodies have used what is known as the modified unified method, which herds fish into large seines. “Once netted, carp are extracted from the lake,” the release said. “WSB will utilize a combination of these removal methods.”

About three years ago, the refuge installed barriers on the tide gates in the four canals connecting the sound to the lake, Smith said. The barriers, vertical slats spaced 2 inches apart, keep adult carp from coming into the lake to breed, but allow other fish and crabs to get through.

Although Lake Mattamuskeet possesses a serene, even mystical beauty, it has not been a pristine environment for a century or more.

“Unlike most naturally formed shallow lakes, Lake Mattamuskeet has been anthropogenically manipulated multiple times throughout its history, resulting in a highly altered morphology and hydrology,” April Dawn Lamb wrote in her 2020 thesis for her graduate degree at North Carolina State University, Informing Common Carp Removal and Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Restoration in Lake Mattamuskeet. “Specifically, repeated attempts to drain the lake for agricultural use reduced its original surface area significantly, the dredging of four outfall canals connected the lake to the estuarine Pamlico Sound, and the construction of Highway 94 in 1940 split the lake into two distinct basins.

“Cumulatively, these events have increased nutrient availability to the main lake, contributed to historical shifts in the primary producer community, and facilitated the development of alternative stable states which persisted until the 1990’s,” she wrote.

Lamb’s research, which provided the carp population estimates for the refuge, found that despite their large numbers, the fish are not thriving. “Broadly, we find that carp in Lake Mattamuskeet are young, fast-growing, and short-lived,” she said.

Most fish were less than 4 pounds and survive about four years; healthy populations of common carp weigh up to 8 pounds and live as long as 20 years. The lake’s high temperatures and pH levels in the summer likely contribute to their relatively puny size and high mortality rate, she added. 

Along with a team of subcontractors, WSB, after obtaining the proper permits, is to track the fish, set up various nets, catch the fish, sort the fish, find different markets for the fish, pack and transport the fish, help dispose of unusable fish, among numerous other tasks, all within 18 months.

“We have to surgically implant high-frequency radio tags in the carp, then construct a series of receivers across Mattamuskeet, so we can track those radio-type fish in real time using satellites,” Tony Havranek, WSB’s project manager, said.

So far, the team has inserted 39 fish radio tags, with one kept out to determine the range of detection, deployed seine nets and removed about 900 carp. Havranek had also led operations for the fish logistics company, Erie, Michigan-based FisH20, a subcontractor tasked with transporting the fish to the markets.

Other subcontractors include Four Peaks Environmental Science & Data Solutions, based in Wenatchee, Washington, which will assist with radio telemetry and tracking and Wabasha, Minnesota-based Adams Boat Service, which has worked on several similar state and federal projects in the Midwest.

The tags are about the size of an AA battery in diameter and length, Havranek said. 

“We physically push that tag into the carp, and then we thread a wire antenna through the side of the fish and suture the fish up,” he said. The sutures dissolve, and the flexible wire antenna doesn’t inhibit the fish. The battery power source has a tiny circuit board on top. The contractors have handheld receivers to the stationary receivers.

 “And then based on the amplitude of the signal or the strength of it, the receiver can can tell approximately where that radio-tagged fish is at in the lake, and then the receiver itself uses a cell modem to send that information back to us,” he said.

Even though “cell service is brutal” at Mattamuskeet, Havranek said, the amount of data is small enough to transmit.

“So I can see it in St. Paul and my partners at Four Peaks in Washington State can see it together in real time,” he said.

A limited seasonal market is available for live carp in New York and Detroit, he said, adding that contractors will also investigate more potential markets along the East Coast. But the bony, somewhat undersized fish is not a popular menu item. They will also be looking for markets for fresh or dead carp, such as for animal feed, fish meal or fertilizer.

“But to be able to even sell carp on that market, especially when you start thinking about the freight costs involved, yeah, it’s really tough,” Havranek said. “We’ve got both live trucks and refrigerated trucks that we can utilize to move fish. But again, the more local places that I can bring those — I thought about crab bait or other types of bait that could be made out of the carp — it’d be really beneficial for a project like this because it can reduce the overall cost based on shipping.”

Fish carcasses could potentially also be used by farmers here, he said. Whatever can’t be marketed would be composted at suitable sites, potentially including uplands on the refuge. 

Even though the contract is just for removal of the fish, Havranek said he couldn’t “in good conscience” not help the refuge understand the current carp population by providing updated information, such as the current average weight and length. For instance, he said that from recent sampling it appears that the carp are larger and heavier than what old data had shown. 

There is an ecological tipping point — a management threshold — of about 89 pounds per acre of carp, Havranek said. And based on the old data, that would be about 140 pounds of carp per acre in Lake Mattamuskeet.

Smith, the refuge manager, agreed that the contractor’s work will be invaluable in making more effective management decisions, especially with their updated data and their years of experience.

“I think that with this trapping effort we’ll learn a lot more about the population levels and that’s something that this contractor typically does on other lakes and projects,” Smith said, adding that he expects that WSB will make multiple visits during the 18-month contract period. “It’ll be a very adaptive process as they see how successful they are with the initial efforts … and certainly learning what works best and what locations are most productive as they go.”

In recommendations made in her thesis, Lamb suggested that a “suite” of management tactics should be employed at various life stages of the carp, including the canal gate barriers that the refuge has already installed. Other measures to limit repopulation Lamb recommended would be to address potential nursery areas in impoundments and irrigation canals surrounding the lake, add predator fish like bluegill that eat the hundreds of thousands of eggs the carp produce every breeding season, which the refuge has already started doing, and potentially create and manage permanent barriers in canals to trap carp for easier removal.

“To decrease the biomass of adult fish in the lake,” she added, “we recommend conducting yearly carp removals.”

The biological rub is that carp — like another famously resilient species, the coyote — may compensate for reduced population numbers by stepping up their reproduction.

But Havranek said that if their removal project is successful and the refuge implements the other management tactics, the population cycle may be able to be stretched out over a number of years.

“All things being equal, I think it’d be really wise to at least be out on that water body just doing some simple surveys maybe once every three years, something like that,” he said. “That way you can be somewhat proactive in the management piece.”

Whether or not carp actually reproduce more after removal is not necessarily evident to Havranek. But it is clear, he said, that “they can take a beating” by managing to survive stressors in Mattamuskeet that many fish could not — low oxygen, high temperatures, high algae content.

“And they’re still going to be able to find food in some way, shape or form (although) some of them out there look pretty scrawny,” Havranek said. “So I’m sure that they’re somewhat being impacted, but they’ll always just keep coming back.”

Hear about the latest steps being taken to restore the health of Lake Mattamaskeet during a public meeting scheduled for the first week of November in Hyde County.

Lake Mattamuskeet has been experiencing a decline in water quality and elevated water levels in recent years. In 2017, Hyde County, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered together and contracted with the North Carolina Coastal Federation to develop a watershed restoration plan, which was approved in 2019 by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

The public meeting and open house is planned for 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, at the Hyde County Government Complex in Swan Quarter.

During the meeting, there will be an overview of the work that has been completed over the past year to implement the restoration plan and an opportunity to speak with each project partners.

Attendees will hear from four representatives.

Coastal Federation’s coastal advocate and environmental economist, Alyson Flynn, will provide an overview of the multi-faceted work completed to date with the 2022 state appropriation funding allocated to Hyde County to implement the watershed restoration plan.

University of North Carolina School of Government Environmental Finance Center Project Director Hope Thomson will give an overview of their research examining long-term funding strategies for financing the operations and maintenance of infrastructure associated with actively managing water levels at Lake Mattamuskeet.

Geosyntec Consultants senior engineers Alessa Braswell and Brian Weyer will share work completed along Outfall Canal. This includes a synopsis of the bathymetric and sediment data collected and analyzed along the entirety of the canal, a review of dredging scenarios and disposition options, and a benefit/cost comparison of dredging to other active water management alternatives.

GPI/Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. Vice President Jonathan Hinkle will give updates regarding the engineering and designs of three wetland restoration projects identified as key priorities.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge Manager Kendall Smith will discuss updates regarding ongoing management, monitoring, and carp removal efforts in the lake.

Update Oct. 3: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials announced Monday that they are extending the public comment period from Oct. 15 to Oct. 30 for the draft environmental assessment for cyanobacteria treatment in Lake Mattamuskeet. Comments may be emailed to mattamuskeet@fws.gov.

Original story:

SWAN QUARTER — Officials at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge are considering permitting a relatively new pesticide in a trial project to study its effect on blue-green algae that has plagued the state’s largest freshwater lake.

A draft environmental assessment of the proposed treatment on Lake Mattamuskeet was released earlier this month. Public comments are due by Oct. 15 and may be emailed to mattamuskeet@fws.gov or mailed to Mattamuskeet NWR, 85 Mattamuskeet Rd, Swan Quarter, NC 27885.

Based on the product’s warning label, there are concerns that it could be a risk to the migrating waterfowl and other birds that visit and breed at the refuge, which in large part was created to be a sanctuary for those birds. Added to that worry, the algae, also known as cyanobacteria, is a symptom of numerous unhealthy factors plaguing the lake’s ecosystem, including excess nutrients and loss of submerged aquatic vegetation, which officials call SAV, that requires more complex remedies than merely ridding it of an algal bloom.

“This is not seen by us as the solution for restoration of the lake, or restoration of SAV in and of itself,” Mattamuskeet Refuge Manager Kendall Smith told Coastal Review. “It’s a trial treatment. We’re learning a lot, but it’s an opportunity to evaluate a technique that may be helpful to the overall strategy of restoring SAV in the lake.”

Smith also said that while the algaecide may be dangerous to birds in its pellet form, it is safe once dissolved. And there would be no shoreline or land areas, he said, where the birds would be exposed to the pellets.

Still, the undissolved pellets can remain on the water’s surface before that happens, said Ramona McGee, staff attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill.

“It’s hard to see that this can be considered compatible use if this is toxic to birds,” she told Coastal Review.

Before the refuge would be able to implement the trial cyanobacteria treatment, it would have to secure permits from the North Carolina Department of Water Resources and agency approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s pesticide use proposal system. The earliest the work would begin is this winter, Smith said.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service proposal, a sodium percarbonate-based algaecide, Lake Guard Oxy, would be used over approximately 600 acres, isolated in several areas around the lake’s perimeter. The agency agreed to pursue the pilot study after the refuge was approached in 2022 by the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences and Pittsburgh-based contractor BlueGreen Water Technologies, which was seeking to evaluate the cyanobacteria treatment in a North Carolina water body. Project funding includes $5 million appropriated by the North Carolina General Assembly in 2021. 

“This treatment is intended to reduce the cyanobacteria populations to allow for the re- establishment of beneficial algae and phytoplankton communities and to increase water clarity in Lake Mattamuskeet,” an agency document said.

Online information about Lake Guard Oxy on the Environmental Protection Agency website dated March states under the “environmental hazards” heading: “This pesticide is toxic to birds. Do not apply this product or allow it to drift to blooming crops or weeds while pollinating insects are actively visiting the area.”

Information on BlueGreen’s website, however, states that the product’s formulations are Environmental Protection Agency- and National Science Foundation-certified, “and are made from ingredients that have been safety-approved causing no harm to human, animal, or plant life.”

McGee, with the law center, also said that under the National Environmental Policy Act, federal agencies are required to do an informed analysis before issuing an environmental assessment.

By definition, a pilot project is inherently experimental, she said. But the refuge had already issued a special use permit in January to BlueGreen, which has installed solar-powered probes to monitor parts of the lake, in addition to independent monitoring by UNC.

Monitoring environmental impacts would also continue during and after treatment.

“Those are the sort of questions the Fish and Wildlife Service should’ve considered,” she said. “This is being done backwards, in terms of analyzing the effects.”

McGee said the law center had been coordinating with environmental groups and planned to submit comments. 

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, also plans to submit comments about its concerns, said Alyson Flynn, the nonprofit’s coastal advocate in its Wanchese office.

“The use of experimental chemicals is not going to solve the water quality and flooding problems at Lake Mattamuskeet,” Flynn said.

Once the bustling centerpiece of Hyde County’s rural mainland communities, Lake Mattamuskeet experienced rapid degradation in its water quality and overall environmental health over recent decades. Despite that, the 40,000-acre lake, 6 miles wide, 18 miles long and an average of 2 feet deep, maintains its otherworldly beauty, surrounded by swamp forests, marshes and upland forests.

The refuge, which totals about 50,000 acres, includes a boardwalk near the lake that winds through wetlands filled with old cypress knees and craggy old trees where visitors might half-expect to see gnomes. Most famously, the refuge attracts thousands of wintering tundra swan and other migratory waterbirds, as well as numerous species of resident duck. It is also home to numerous mammals, including black bear, bobcat and endangered red wolves.

“Unfortunately, due to excessive nutrients, reduced flow to Pamlico Sound, and an overabundance of invasive common carp, the lake conditions began to decline in the early 1990s in both water quality and clarity,” according to the document. “During this period of decline, water quality monitoring documented increases in nutrients, harmful algae blooms, and turbidity in the lake.”

Carp have contributed to the lake’s problems by not only eating the submerged grasses, but also by creating more suspended sediments that block sunlight from reaching the vegetation.

Smith said that the refuge is working on finalizing a contract to have most of the carp removed in the near future.

With the depletion of the underwater vegetation, waterfowl lost a vital source of nutrients. Although the birds still come to the refuge in large numbers, they go to the duck impoundments on and around the refuge for food and use the lake for a rest stop.

Drainage into the lake from surrounding farmland and bird impoundments has been associated with the increased level of nutrients, which contributed to eutrophication that led to dominance of phytoplankton.

In 2016, the lake was listed by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources as impaired waters, based on high alkalinity and levels of chlorophyll-a, both indicators for cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms that produce cyanotoxins. The refuge has posted warning signs at the lake since 2019 to inform the public about the danger of the blooms, which can cause skin rashes and itchy or sore eyes, ears or noses.

Described as photosynthetic, single-celled aquatic organisms by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cyanobacteria are prone to quickly multiply in warm, quiet waters that have high amounts of nutrients.

The slimy green coating recognized as algal blooms in water bodies is not present at Lake Mattamuskeet, Smith said. Rather, it appears as a cloudiness in the water. 

Confronted with the wipeout of lake grasses and compromised ecosystem in 2017, refuge officials seeking a holistic approach to addressing issues on a watershed scale reached out to stakeholders to plan a collective effort to improve water quality. Led by the Coastal Federation, the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan, released in 2018, established best management practices and cooperative strategies to improve drainage and restore submerged grasses.

Smith said that the treatment could be one of the tools used to restore water quality, but it won’t solve all the lake’s problems.

“We do think that reestablishing SAV somewhere in the lake is a step in the right direction,” he said.

Bids are being accepted now on a large-scale project to remove thousands of pounds of invasive common carp from Lake Mattamuskeet and adjacent canals, part of a plan to restore declining water quality and elevated water levels.

Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, working together as the Mattamuskeet Technical Working Group, have been awarded $1 million by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Large Invasive Species grant program to remove the common carp as part of the Lake Mattamuskeet Aquatic Grass Restoration project.

When Lake Mattamuskeet, a 40,000-acre freshwater lake, was healthy, the lakebed was covered in seagrasses, which provided food for the wintering waterfowl and habitat for anadromous fish. The increase and abundance of common carp has led to a decline of subaquatic vegetation. Seagrasses in the lake began to decline during the late 1990s but by 2017, none were observed during the annual seagrass survey on the lake, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The removal of common carp from impaired aquatic systems has been an effective management action to increase water clarity, reduce nutrient concentrations, and to reestablish submerged aquatic vegetation, officials said.

The wildlife refuge is accepting bids for the project to remove large numbers and weight of the carp, a minimum of 450,000 pounds, and to remove carp at strategic locations to monitor the density of carp in the lake, officials said.

Deadline is 5 p.m. June 20. All documents must be in either Microsoft Word compatible or PDF and emailed to timothy_clapp@fws.gov with the subject line reading “solicitation number 140F0422R0026.”

Officials anticipate announcing the award on or around July 20. The contract is for July 20 through Dec. 31, 2025, or the date of award, whichever is sooner.

All questions regarding the request for proposals must be emailed to timothy_clapp@fws.gov by 5 p.m. June 12.

Additional information and application instructions can be found on the SAM.gov contract opportunity.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, and the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries will consult with the contractor to make sure the work is done in compliance with all rules and regulations.

The carp removal is supported by the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan released in 2018 as the result of a multi-stakeholder effort consisting of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NCWRC, Hyde County and local stakeholders. The plan is intended to address the poor water quality within the lake and the chronic and persistent flooding on the surrounding landscape.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, was contracted to facilitate plan development.

Funding for Lake Mattamuskeet Restoration is provided by a variety of sources, including the USFWS Coastal Program and the Sportfish Restoration Program. Actions related to carp removal and SAV restoration are guided by a Memorandum of Understanding with the state Wildlife Resources Commission and Hyde County, officials said.

Veined with thousands of miles of streams and rivers, dotted by several national wildlife refuges, pocosin wetlands and state parks, the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine region is one of the nation’s ecological crown jewels.

The estuary was designated in 1987 as “an estuary of national significance” and is listed as one of “America’s Great Waters.”

But this precious ecological resource is in a region that is vulnerable to a host of man-made and climate change-related challenges: habitat conversion and wildfires, shoreline erosion and saltwater intrusion.

A recent allocation of federal funding will boost ongoing efforts to restore and build up resiliency throughout the nearly 28,000-mile watershed using a myriad of nature-based solutions.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this month announced $27.25 million is being appropriated to the agency’s National Wildlife Refuge System for Albemarle-Pamlico Sound restoration initiatives.

The funding will make a meaningful impact and be used for projects that will tie into nature-based activities and initiatives on wildlife refuges and state game lands within the region, explained Rebekah Martin, Coastal N.C. Refuges Complex project leader.

“We’ve really been working on these long-term types of resilience projects long before we thought this money would come our way,” she said.

Federal, state, local officials, private land owners and environmental groups have pulled together to tackle everything from water quality issues in the region to how to combat historic levels of flooding in vulnerable communities.

The watershed includes nearly 10,000 miles of streams and rivers that flow into a 2 million-acre estuary, the second largest in the country. Its system includes a portion of or all of six major river basins, including the Neuse, Roanoke, Tar-Pamlico, Chowan, Pasquotank and White Oak. The region is home to nearly 4 million people.

“There’s really not a community in the A-P that’s not experiencing some kind of climate-related impact,” Martin said.

Communities in the region have experienced everything from sunny-day flooding to saltwater intrusion on farmers’ crop fields to seeing an emergence of ghost forests.

The response to combat these climate-related problems has been through nature-based restoration solutions — living shorelines, creating substrate for oyster reefs, replacing existing drainage canals with stream-like drainage systems, and restoring submerged aquatic vegetation.

Such restoration activities are being worked on through partnerships with other federal agencies, state agencies and private land owners, all with the common goal to increase resiliency of the land.

Take North Carolina’s largest natural freshwater lake, Lake Mattamuskeet.

The lake was listed in 2016 for impaired waters because of its elevated pH and levels of chlorophyll-a.

To address the lake’s declining water quality, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Hyde County formed a partnership that led to a large stakeholder effort to figure out what was happening in the lake.

“That is an effort where we are one of many partners interested in seeing the water quality in the lake improve,” Martin said.

State Wildlife Resources Commission Chief Deputy Director Kyle Briggs said the funding is a “huge win” for public lands on the Albemarle Peninsula.

“You talk about an incredibly diverse landscape that’s just magnificent for wildlife,” he said. “Those species all thrive in that pocosin and salt marsh and just that wonderful habitat.”

That habitat is largely going to be affected by sea level rise, he said, so it’s important to restore habitats on the refuges, game lands and private lands within the system.

“They money has to be spent either on wildlife refuges or on our game lands, but hopefully that leverages other funds on private lands,” Briggs said. “The way I see this working is really hand-in-hand with Fish and Wildlife Service and working together to get the biggest bang for our dollars.”

Martin said the next step is to identify projects that have already been or are close to being permitted as some of the first to be implemented on the ground. From there, officials will look at projects that may require some additional modeling or design work.

She said the agency will work closely with the Wildlife Resources Commission to understand shared priorities and is interested in ongoing engagement with communities to understand how increasing resiliency on refuges may help communities around those refuges.

“I would say we are going to be moving quickly to try to start preparing for the projects across the refuges,” Martin said.

Nine National Wildlife Refuges are within the Albemarle-Pamlico watershed. Those include: Currituck, Mackay Island, Pea Island, Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes, Roanoke River, Mattamuskeet, Swan Quarter and Cedar Island.

Carp removal. Sedimentation reduction. Regrowth of underwater vegetation.

Years of cooperative groundwork between individuals and agencies will soon translate into visible projects to restore Lake Mattamuskeet’s water quality.

And that, in turn, could benefit all area residents — human and wildlife.

Located on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula, Lake Mattamuskeet covers about 40,000 acres and is the largest natural lake in North Carolina. County residents point to the lake as the center of Hyde County, both geographically and culturally.

Related: Inner coast: Lake Mattamuskeet draws outdoor enthusiasts

Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1934, comprises the lake and 10,000 acres of surrounding land. It’s an important overwintering site for migratory waterfowl along the Atlantic Flyway and a year-round habitat for many other species. The county is known as a hunting, fishing and bird-watching destination and for its rich farmland.

Hyde County, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission contracted with the North Carolina Coastal Federation, publisher of Coastal Review, to develop the nearly 200-page Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan, which was finalized in 2018 and approved by the state in 2019.

The plan names three interconnected goals: To protect the current way of life; to actively manage the lake’s water level; and to restore the lake’s water quality and clarity.

The plan was developed with input from a stakeholder team that included area residents, local government officials, graduate students, university professors, refuge staff and the Mattamuskeet Technical Working Group, a joint effort between Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

“Everyone wants to see that lake cleaned up,” said Wendy Stanton, technical working group co-chair and acting refuge manager for Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Columbia.

Stanton called the lake “out of balance,” explaining that everyone is “trying to restore that balance” so it can again become “a healthy aquatic ecosystem.”

After about six years of the team meeting to address the problem from various angles, “it’s encouraging that their stamina and enthusiasm for the effort is still there. That speaks volumes to the care and concern and love that everybody has for this lake,” said Erin Fleckenstein, oyster program director for the Coastal Federation. She helped coordinate the development of the watershed restoration plan.

“Most local stakeholders have very fond memories of boating, fishing and crabbing on the lake. It’s part of their history, as well as their community’s history,” she continued.

Officials involved in the restoration efforts point to the growth of submerged aquatic vegetation, also called SAV or seagrass, as both a main goal and as an indicator of success.

Monitoring by the Fish and Wildlife Service initially noted seagrass declines in the late 1980s. By 2017, no plants could be found during the refuge’s annual SAV survey.

For aquatic plant life to return, two actions are required, according to Stanton: carp removal and the reduction of sediments being put into the lake.

The restoration plan calls for the removal of 5 million pounds of invasive common carp from the lake. Each adult fish weighs 4 to 5 pounds, Stanton said. Carp are bottom feeders, and their rooting for food also results in ripping up vegetation.

Human activities also must change. Fertilizer, fossil fuels, wastewater, stormwater and pet manure can cause “nutrient pollution” — excess nitrogen and phosphorus — in nearby waters, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

These sediments reduce water clarity, blocking sunlight from reaching the bottom, and aquatic vegetation cannot grow without sunlight, officials note on the agency’s website.

The overabundance of suspended nitrogen and phosphorus solids in Lake Mattamuskeet also contributes to blooms of phytoplankton and cyanobacteria, which “outcompete SAV,” according to the Fish and Wildlife Service website.

Cyanobacteria’s adverse effects extend beyond harming plant life.

As a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Harmful Algal Bloom Advisory” sign posted near a Lake Mattamuskeet culvert notes, “Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) can produce toxins that can cause serious illness in animals and humans.”

Lake Mattamuskeet is currently considered a phytoplankton-cyanobacteria-dominated system. Once the shift from an aquatic plant-dominated system to an algae-dominated one like this occurs, “it takes a lot of work to return the system,” said Kelly Davis, who owns land adjacent to the lake and worked as the longtime refuge biologist.

She’s implementing a water-control project on her property to change the direction of runoff from her farmland. Instead of allowing gravity to carry runoff, which invariably includes some sediment, to the lake, she’s diverting it to the woodland area of her property.

Davis acknowledged that her actions alone will not clean the lake, but putting water management on her farm is one of many positive steps that area residents are taking.

“You take little bites of a big problem,” Davis stated. “It’s exciting to be working toward improving it.”

Davis’ project was already being designed prior to the restoration plan’s development, but that plan may involve similar water-control projects on other properties.

Although not yet finalized, one involves replumbing a private landowner’s drainage to move through restored wetlands instead of discharging into coastal waters, Fleckenstein said. Smaller projects with individual landowners like these may eventually serve as models for others in the county or in the 55,000-acre watershed, she added.

Larger-scale projects are being developed simultaneously. The Coastal Federation has worked on behalf of the county to help orchestrate some engineering, surveying and permitting work on those, Fleckenstein said. Multiple grants are involved in work toward the plan goals.

Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge already has been working on better water quality control in its waterfowl impoundments, which are areas managed specifically for waterfowl, according to Stanton.

For any such effort, large-scale or small-scale, the key is to slow down the movement of water draining into the lake, so sediment has time to settle and not as much enters the lake, Davis explained.

Another necessary task is regularly clearing excess sediment from the four main canals that link the lake to the Pamlico Sound. The lake’s water level has been passively managed by the wind since the canals were built with one-way gates allowing drainage into the sound, Davis said.

As the restoration plan document states: “Rising sea levels and siltation of the main canals connecting the lake to the Pamlico Sound are thought to be contributing factors in the decline of drainage function, and those conditions are anticipated to exacerbate flooding in the future.”

And when the surrounding land floods, landowners sometimes use pumps to push the water off their properties. That accelerated velocity gives sediment less of a chance to fall out of the water before it ends up back in the lake, Davis noted.

But with the widespread support of the community, the restoration plan will disrupt that negative chain reaction.

Some changes are already underway.

Signs are going up at each of the five culverts that run beneath N.C. Highway 94 and connect the east and west sides of the lake warning of possible temporary closures for recreational fishing when carp removal efforts begin, Stanton said.

And that could be soon.

“We expect to receive that money any day now,” Stanton said on Feb. 24 of a $1 million large invasive species grant the Fish and Wildlife Service awarded the technical working group.

As soon as the money is available, the group will publicize the contract and accept bids. She estimates most carp will be removed within the next two years.

“Whoever the vendor is, they get to keep the carp,” she said. “They can dispose of them or use the various markets as they see fit.”

Carp are in demand as a food source in markets in New York and elsewhere, Stanton noted. Another option might be stocking catch-and-release fishing ponds on the western side of the state. When a prior, effective, large-scale carp removal program took place at the lake in the 1940s and 1950s, that is where most carp ended up, Stanton said.

Other steps have already been taken to address the carp problem. Barriers were installed at the tide gates in March 2021. Flat metal bars two inches apart prevent adult carp from entering the lake, while still allowing native fish species and blue crabs to pass back and forth from the sound, Stanton said.

This will also be the third year that the state Wildlife Resources Commission has stocked the lake with bluegills, a native fish species known for its voracious appetite for carp eggs and carp larvae, around the mid-May carp spawning season.

“A lot of people like fishing bluegills, too, so it not only helps us reduce the carp, but also provides recreational fishing opportunities,” Stanton noted.

For more information about the restoration projects, visit www.fws.gov/project/lake-mattamuskeet-aquatic-grass-restoration and www.nccoast.org/protect-the-coast/stormwater/lake-mattamuskeet-watershed-restoration/.

A public meeting on the work to restore Lake Mattamuskeet is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the Hyde County Government Complex in Swan Quarter.

The meeting is to focus on implementing the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan adopted in 2018 to guide restoration of the lake’s water quality and reduce flooding throughout the watershed. The public can attend the meeting in-person or join virtually.

Lake Mattamuskeet is the largest natural freshwater lake in the state and is within the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, which attracts a number of wintering waterfowl, breeding songbirds, mammals such as black bear and bobcat, and other wildlife, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 2017, because of declining water quality and elevated water levels threatening the lake, Hyde County, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the Fish and Wildlife Service formed a partnership and contracted the North Carolina Coastal Federation to develop the watershed restoration plan.

During the meeting Thursday, engineers with Geosyntec Consultants, a Wilmington-based firm, are expected to share goals and objectives of the watershed-scale model as well as results from their analysis of two engineering alternatives selected in 2021 by stakeholders and Hyde County Board of Commissioners. The consultants also are to provide updates on the work on Outfall Canal.

Fish and Wildlife Service staff are to give an update on monitoring efforts within the lake and review the details of the carp removal project.

Staff from the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina School of Government are to review research examining long-term funding strategies for financing the operations and maintenance of infrastructure associated with actively managing water levels at Lake Mattamuskeet.

Meeting materials are on the North Carolina Coastal Federation website as well as a place to sign up for updates on the plan progress. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Contact Alyson Flynn with the Coastal Federation with questions at alysonf@nccoast.org.

HYDE COUNTY — New barriers on tide gates installed at Lake Mattamuskeet are effectively blocking invasive carp from swimming into the state’s largest natural lake.

Biologists are now making preparations to remove the 4.5 million pounds of carp that are already in the lake — about 1 million of the hefty fish. Once they’re gone, much of the lake’s high turbidity and bad water clarity is expected to greatly improve.

“The problem is they’re bottom feeders,” Wendy Stanton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, said in a recent interview, adding that the fish are constantly stirring up the bed searching for food. “It suspends all the sediment in lakes. It just exacerbates the problem.”

In late August, the refuge and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission announced the award of a $1 million grant to remove the carp. The funds, provided from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s large invasive species grant program, will be available in fiscal year 2023. A smaller grant of $180,000 was awarded last year by the agency’s coastal funds program grant.

The project is one of the critical steps to improving the lake’s water quality that were identified in the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan. Approved in 2018, the effort is a partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Hyde County, the North Carolina Coastal Federation and area stakeholders. A technical working group of scientists and researchers have developed recommendations for monitoring and studies that advance a science-based approach to bringing back the health of the lake.

An update on implementation of the restoration plan, including the carp removal, was presented at a virtual public meeting Monday, Sept. 27.

Stanton, who is also the acting refuge manager at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, explained that common carp can only reproduce in freshwater. When the urge hits, they have been heading to the lake from the saltier Pamlico Sound. Although the lake is equipped with tide gates to keep out the sound’s brackish water, the fish had been able to slip through them.

“They swim up through the outfall canals and other tributaries to get to fresh water,” she said.

Tapping grant funds, the Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society hired a local welder to retrofit debris barriers used at the lake’s tide gates at four outfall canals. Carp exclusion fences will also be installed at the five culverts that pass under N.C 94 causeway that bisects the lake. Spaced every two inches, the flat metal strips prevent about 97% of adult carp from entering from the Pamlico Sound, but don’t block other fish or crab.

Back in the 1940s and 1950s, Stanton said, refuge managers determined that carp caused depletion of submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, in the lake. After the carp were removed with seine nets, the water quality quickly improved, and the underwater plants — an indicator of a healthy lake — soon grew back.

But common carp do not eat SAV, Stanton said.

Their crime, besides hogging the ecosystem, is their constant digging for food and stirring up sediment. In turn, the disturbed silt releases nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants and muddies the water, which decreases light reaching for the SAV to grow.

Eventually, the plants die, reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water that aquatic life requires to thrive. The lake currently has very little, if any, submerged grasses and as a consequence, attracts fewer waterfowl and is less hospitable for fish and shellfish. It also has been plagued in warm months with noxious algal blooms.

Scientists have calculated that the body of a common carp is about 1% phosphorus and 6.5% nitrogen as measured by live weight, according to the Draft Environmental Assessment for Maximum Removal of Invasive Common Carp from Lake Mattamuskeet and Associated Canals. With the carp gone, nutrient load reduction would be 44,750 pounds of phosphorus and 290,878 pounds of nitrogen.

Common carp, scientific name Cyprinus carpio, is listed on the Global Invasive Species Database as one of the 100 world’s worst invasive alien species. The dubious recognition points to it being considered a major threat to biodiversity, as well as health, agriculture or other human interests.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Program, the fish were introduced into the U.S. in the mid-1800s as part of a carp cultivation program. Koi fish that stock small backyard ponds are a domesticated variety of common carp. Sturdy, adaptable and strong swimmers, the fish proceeded to invade nearly every waterway in the lower 48.

Not only does the female produce about 300,000 eggs per breeding season, the fish can live as long as 20 years. Common carp average about 2 feet long and up to 8 pounds, although they can reach 30 to 40 pounds. In fact, the North Carolina state record for the fish is 48 pounds, caught in March 1986 in a Mecklenburg County pond.

“What’s really interesting about the carp at Lake Mattamuskeet is that their ecology is different,” Stanton said. “They usually live until 3 or 4 years old. Although they have short life spans, they’re very prolific breeders.”

Which explains why 78,000 4-inch fingerlings of state hatchery-raised bluegill were released last winter at known spawning spots on either side of the 40,000-acre lake, she said. The fish are not only a popular game fish, they also are great at eating carp eggs and larvae.

Since bluegill hunt by sight, the conditions are not ideal, Stanton said, yet the fish have plenty of food while serving an important role in carp population control.

“They will be able to survive,” she said of the bluegill, “but they’re going to be more effective predators on their prey when the water quality improves.”

Once the grant money is in hand, the refuge is planning to place pound nets in deep parts of the lake to capture the carp. Trackers will be put on some of them, making them aptly-named “Judas fish,” Stanton said.

“That fish is going to lead us to where the fish are spawning out in the lake,” she explained.

The long nets can extend thousands of feet, attached between the fishers’ boats.

“Literally, they herd them into the net and then gently pull the fish across the lake,” she said. But the plan can be adjusted as needed.

“We’re learning as we go,” she said. “This is a very adaptive approach.”

Students with East Carolina University’s CapStone project in December 2020 completed a hoist system to lift the carp from the netted enclosures.

Local fishers will be invited to apply for a low-cost, special-use permit to fish for as much free carp as they want. Potential markets include fee fishing ponds, commercial fish markets, chum and crab bait for recreational and commercial fishers, and fish meal for animal food. They could also be used as fertilizer, as long as the carp was combined with a binder to counter its tendency to liquify.

Although the carp has passed muster for human consumption — it has been tested for PCBs, mercury and cyanobacteria — and is considered a tasty fish, it has a lot of bones. It is not listed as a gamefish by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, but historically common carp has been a food source for people.

“We don’t want the carp to be wasted,” Stanton said.

Between removal of nearly all the carp, and stocking with bluegill, she said that the refuge anticipates that about 16,000 acres of the lake will be restored.

It’s a “heavy lift,” she added, because it has to be done in less than two years to outsmart the carp’s reproductive responses. Like coyotes, the more carps’ population is decreased, the more they produce in the next generation.

In the coming months, the refuge’s “carp team” will seek assistance from local fishers in designing pound and other nets to use in the removal project. There will also be analysis of carp markets locally and nationally, and a project to retrofit additional carp barriers to enhance debris removal.

Ultimately, taking away biomass in the lake that translates to more than 4 million pounds of ecological disturbance will free up stakeholders to dig in to addressing the watershed’s nutrient pollution, drainage challenges and water level issues.

“This is going to be a long-term situation,” Stanton cautioned. “It took years and years and years for this lake to be in this condition. If we can get this carp out, it’s going to be a milestone.”

A virtual public meeting is to set for 6 p.m. Sept. 27 on implementing the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan approved Aug. 7, 2019, by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation was contracted in 2017 by Hyde County, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lead the 18-month process to address the lake’s declining water quality and elevated water levels, according to the federation.

The goals of the restoration plan are to protect the way of life in Hyde County, actively manage the lake water level and restore water quality and clarity. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Office of State Budget and Management and National Science Foundation have provided funding being used to move ahead with several of the priority management actions identified within the watershed restoration plan.

The agenda, which includes the Zoom meeting registration, for the Sept. 27 public meeting includes an overview of the watershed plan approved, future carp-removal efforts, agricultural cost-share programs, and engineering designs that could be put in place to restore the lake’s water quality and reduce flooding throughout the watershed.

Those wishing to attend the meeting at the Hyde County Government Complex need to reserve a seat in advance by contacting Daniel Brinn at dbrinn@hydecountync.gov or 252-926-7253. Capacity is limited due to social distancing requirements and will be provided to those who register in advance.

Contact Federation Coastal Specialist Michael Flynn at 252-473-1607 or michaelf@nccoast.org for details on the watershed restoration plan.

HYDE COUNTY — A virtual meeting is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. April 15 on the latest efforts associated with the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission representatives will speak on ongoing monitoring efforts during the meeting. Geosyntec Consultants and Coastal Protection Engineering representatives and East Carolina University undergraduate engineering students will also be on hand to discuss conceptual engineering designs, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, hosts of the meeting, announced Monday.

Visit nccoast.org/LMWRPVirtualMeeting to view the agenda and register for the meeting.  To attend the meeting at Hyde County Government Complex, register in advance with Daniel Brinn at dbrinn@hydecountync.gov or 252-926-7253.

The county, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formed a partnership in 2017 and contracted the federation to help develop a watershed restoration plan for Lake Mattamuskeet, which had been experiencing declining water quality and elevated water levels.

The state Department of Environmental Quality on Aug. 7, 2019, approved the plan  to address both poor water quality within the lake and chronic and persistent flooding on the surrounding landscape. The approval followed an 18-month planning process that included stakeholder and public engagement. Three grants were awarded in 2020 to implement the plan.

HYDE COUNTY — As engineers start work on designs to manage water levels and flooding at Lake Mattamuskeet, restoration of its water quality depends as much on a new plan to remove 99% of the invasive common carp muddying the lake.

Unless they’re gone, water won’t clear, lake plants won’t come back and pollution will worsen.

Currently, there’s more than 1 million carp — a total of about 4.3 million pounds of body mass — swimming in the state’s largest natural lake.

By rooting around for food in the lake bottom, the carp not only stir up harmful levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, the turbidity that it creates in the water blocks sunlight to grow submerged vegetation that attracts migratory waterfowl.

“The challenge is, we need to remove the carp quickly, within one to two years if at all possible,” said Wendy Stanton, biologist at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, “because they reproduce very quickly.”

With implementation of the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan recently kicked into gear, the refuge is first tapping into funds provided by a $180,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Funds Program to block the fish from entering the lake, she said. Carp barriers on tide gates will be placed in the four outfall canals that connect the lake to the Pamlico Sound. The canals are the main entry points for new carp coming into the lake. The barriers will not block other fish or crab, she added.

A partnership was formed in 2017 between the Wildlife Service, Hyde County and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to address water quality issues at the lake and flooding of the surrounding landscape.  The partnership contracted with the North Carolina Coastal Federation to develop the watershed restoration plan, which was finalized in August 2019.

Stanton said that there are also plans to place some additional barriers at some of the refuge’s main canals that might be other sources for breeding areas for carp. Remaining grant funds will be used to hire commercial fishers to catch the carp in pound nets placed in the canals on the lake side of the tide gates.

“Only carp will be removed from the lake, and all non-target fish, or anything else that ends up in the nets, will be released back into the lake,” she said.

The refuge is currently working on required compliance documents to move forward on “a massive removal” of the fish, Stanton said. Once the environmental assessment and compatibility determinations are completed, they will be put the plan out for public review. The main part of the carp removal, which is funded by another grant, will be completed in 2023.

Surrounded by heavily drained farmland and waterfowl impoundments, the shallow, 40,000-acre freshwater lake has been increasingly beleaguered by high water levels and algal blooms. In recent years, its submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, had been disappearing and is now completely gone.

Increased nutrients and sediment flowing into the lake caused the state Department of Environmental Quality in 2016 to add Mattamuskeet to its list of impaired water bodies, where it remains. Stanton said the lake was plagued with algal blooms much of the summer from cyanobacteria, which result from warmer water and high levels of nutrients.

Once the carp are gone, Stanton said she expects that other best management practices, or BMPs, recommended by restoration partners will also be put in place to control nutrients and water flow in the watershed.

“And the bottom line is just the quality of the fishing for sportsmen and recreational fishermen and fisherwomen,” she said, “it’s going to be so much better when we restore that lake — the improved water quality and clarity.”

Kendall Smith, Mattamuskeet’s new refuge manager, said that an engineering firm has recently been hired to do a yearlong hydrologic study of the lake and the watershed. One critical challenge the team will address is the persistently high water level of the sound, created by increased rain and sea level rise, that blocks the tide gates from opening. As a result, the lake does not flush, or drain, decreasing water quality.

Regular monitoring of the water level is done, he said, as well as testing for nutrient levels. There also have been numerous studies of the SAV to determine how to restore it to both sides of the lake, which is bisected by a road and connected by culverts. Although the lake is still renowned for attracting thousands of migratory waterfowl, including white swans, most now visit surrounding waterfowl impoundments instead of the denuded lake. The carp, which have been in the lake for decades, did not create the problem, Smith said, and their absence will not be the magic cure.

“So, it’s sort of a complex cycle,” he said. “Now that we don’t have the SAV in there, the SAV is not able to take up some of the excess nutrients. And it’s not able to sort of hold the substrate to provide some structure there.

“We don’t feel like getting rid of the carp alone is going to solve the problem. They’re just sort of part of that problem … Even without the carp, there’s still the algal issues, and the water clarity is not sufficient for SAV growth. It’s kind of a perfect storm, really.”

A consent decree with landowners surrounding the lake was made in the 1930s that allowed them to drain into the lake for perpetuity. Since much of the land in Hyde County is at or below sea level, farmers drain or pump water off their land through canals. In addition to the four main canals at the lake there are countless others on surrounding land, including the refuge.

But the landowners can choose to redirect that drainage and still not give up their right to drain into the lake, Smith said.

“That right is established, it’s not going away,” he said. “But they can certainly voluntarily choose to have that drainage redirected through some type of engineered project which is one of the things that the engineering firm is looking at. So, that’s definitely one of the project ideas on the table.

“It’s definitely part of the discussion, and it’s definitely something we see as key. It’s maybe one of the harder requests, and one of the harder things to solve, because it requires change. It requires some approaching things differently.”

Hyde County has received grant funds for pumps and designs for a drainage district, and there are proposals that will be considered and brainstormed among members of the Mattamuskeet restoration stakeholders’ group to possibly share costs and/or maintenance for drainage infrastructure and improvements.

Part of the complexity, among many, of restoration of Mattamuskeet’s watershed, he said,  is that use of the land surrounding the lake has changed, and there are many more privately owned duck impoundments that grow corn to attract ducks – and leave it there.

The refuge has impoundments – created ponds for ducks – that are managed not for crops but for “moist soil vegetation,” he said,  and there are no nutrient inputs.

“So, we don’t put fertilizer out there,” Smith said. “However, ducks put fertilizer out there.”

Still, the nutrients on the corn left in private impoundments exacerbates the issue, he said. The increase in nitrogen and phosphorus in the early spring correlates with when the impoundments are emptied.

“It would be a very tough sell for those managers of those impoundments,” Smith said, “but if we could convert those to more natural foods, moist soil where the nutrients inputs were reduced, I think it would significantly decrease the amount of nutrients coming into the lake in the spring when there’s a pump-down.

Michael Cahoon, a Hyde county farmer since 1980 and a member of the stakeholders committee, farms about 2,000 acres, of which 900 drain into the lake.

“The amount of acres that drains into Mattamuskeet Lake has not changed over the last 40 years,” he said. “But the land use has changed. And what I mean by that is 40 years ago, this land was used for agricultural purposes only. Now it has changed, a lot of it to duck impoundments.”

The significant difference, Cahoon said, is when a crop is ready, farmers take the crop and its residual fertilizer off the land. Most of the farmland – as much as 90% – that abuts the lake, he said,  has been turned into duck impoundments, although it doesn’t always reach far.

It’s good money to lease out your duck impoundments, he said, and it’s become a big industry in Hyde County.

“When they drain their duck impoundments, that water, which is full of nutrients, drains to the lake,” he said.  “I don’t want farmers to get tarred with the same stick as duck impoundment owners are.”

Also, when most farmers on the south-southwest side of the lake pump their drainage through canals, which allows the nutrients and sediment to settle out. Land on the other side, as well as the impoundments abutting the lake, mostly drain directly into the lake.

To Cahoon, the best solution to start would be to maintain the canals so the lake could flush properly.

“I think to get the biggest bang for your buck would be to clean out these canals that have not been cleaned out for years and years,” he said. Of the four canals, only the one on the west end is in good shape.”

As far as expecting landowners to pay for infrastructure, not to mention maintaining and managing it in a drainage district, Cahoon was skeptical.

“There’s no way private landowners can pay the pumping of Mattamuskeet Lake and (the refuge) get the benefit out of it,” he said, especially if it was only seasonal. “Pumping is not free. Pumps wear out. They’ve got to be managed.”

But he said he would keep an open mind, because he is committed to helping the lake recover.

“I love it. I don’t want to see it in the shape it’s in,” Cahoon said. “But I want to see it done right.”

To fellow farmer Kelly Davis, a former refuge biologist and current refuge volunteer and member of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, viewpoints like Cahoon’s have value what has to be a collaborative task that that appreciates everyone’s individual wisdom and insight.

“I think the process has been really inclusive and careful,” she said about the numerous meetings of the stakeholders group. “You don’t really want to manage for the snapshot. If this is a going to work, it’ll take a lot of people working together.”

Inspired by her late husband Blythe, Davis said she believes on working with nature as much as practical to keep the soil and wildlife on the land and the water off the land. To that end, most of the ditches on her family’s 2,000 acres of farmland in the county – only about 150 acres drain into the lake – are vegetated, and the water is either redirected to wooded land, or drains slowly through the canals to allow nutrients to settle out.

“Right now, the lake is sort of a settlement pond itself,” she said. “It’s really about finding places to move water, slowing it down. And making sure the lake is flushing.”

Davis said she believes that landowners and farmers probably prefer having control of how their waters are moved, rather than having one big drainage system for the entire lake. With time and brainstorming, she said, they’ll figure out solutions, whether they’re mini drainage districts shared between neighbors when it’s really wet, or paying an adjacent property owner to let their drainage settle out on their land before moving it out a different canal.

“They want time to digest and suggest ideas,” Davis said. “These farmers know the land. They know their soils. They know their ridges – they understand their topography. They know the higher spots in the field, the lower spots.  They know where the water moves, already.”

A virtual meeting is set on efforts underway to implement a plan to restore the lake’s water quality and reduce flooding throughout the watershed.

The Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan was approved August 2019 by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. Now, those who developed the plan are working to implement it.

Hosted by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the meeting is set to begin at 7 p.m. Aug. 26. Attendees will hear from Kendall Smith, the new manager for the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge as well as from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Wildlife Resources Commission staff on monitoring efforts and scientific studies.

In 2020, state and federal grants were awarded to advance the plan’s implementation.

To register for the meeting being held via Zoom and view the agenda, visit nccoast.org/LMWRPVirtualMeeting. Those who would like to attend in person at the Hyde County Government Complex will need to make a reservation with Daniel Brinn at dbrinn@hydecountync.gov or 252-926-7253. Capacity is limited due to social distancing requirements and will be provided to those who register in advance.

The three major projects recently started to help reduce flooding and improve water quality, funded by the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the General Assembly and the National Science Foundation, will also be discussed as well as identifying possible service district boundaries that could enable the management of lake water levels, and design engineering plans for future infrastructure needed to manage water based upon the watershed modeling results.

Those that live, work or own property near the lake will be invited to join a research project by East Carolina University students at the meeting. Those who volunteer will be asked to participate in discussions with the research team and students as they design engineering projects to address flooding issues. Each volunteer will receive a $20 gift card to an area restaurant for their participation. Contact Linda D’Anna at dannal15@ecu.edu or 252-475-5457 if you are interested in participating in this research study.

Lake Mattamuskeet, the largest lake in North Carolina, in Hyde County experienced declining water quality and elevated water levels. In 2017, Hyde County, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formed a partnership and contracted the North Carolina Coastal Federation to develop a watershed restoration plan to address both poor water quality within the lake as well as chronic and persistent flooding on the surrounding landscape.

Interested community members and stakeholders can also sign-up for future email updates and leave comments via the project website. Contact Michael Flynn with any questions at michaelf@nccoast.org or 252-473-1607.

President Trump on Tuesday signed into law a bipartisan bill that will tap energy revenues to address a $12 billion backlog of maintenance projects on federal lands, including more than $459 million in national parks in North Carolina.

Introduced in 2019 by the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the Great American Outdoors Act also makes funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund permanent. Earlier this year, the Trump administration had proposed significant cuts to the fund.

Republican 3^rd District Congressman Greg Murphy voted for the bill, which the House passed July 22.

Murphy’s office noted in a press release in July that Cape Hatteras National Seashore will receive $49,834,106, and Cape Lookout National Seashore will receive $27,718,515 as a result of the legislation.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund supports national forests, refuges and parks, including the Croatan National Forest, Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuge, Currituck National Wildlife Refuge, Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge, Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Swan Quarter National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Cape Lookout National Seashore, the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and the Wright Brothers National Memorial.

The bill establishes the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to support deferred maintenance projects on federal lands. For the next five years, an amount equal to half of energy development revenues from oil, gas, coal and alternative or renewable energy development on federal lands and waters is to be deposited into the fund, up to $1.9 billion for any year.

The fund must be used for priority deferred maintenance projects in specified systems that are administered by the National Park Service, the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Education.

Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt announced Tuesday that entrance fees paid by those visiting lands managed by the department would be waived Wednesday. Bernhardt also announced that Aug. 4 will be designated “Great American Outdoors Day,” a fee-free day each year to commemorate the signing of the act. Fees such as camping and cabin rentals and others will remain in effect.

Work is progressing on implementing a plan approved last August by the state Department of Environmental Quality to address water quality problems in Lake Mattamuskeet.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation announced Wednesday that Hyde County and East Carolina University had contracted with the nonprofit organization to begin community engagement and implementation of the plan, which details steps needed to improve water management and water quality.

Federation staff will facilitate stakeholder and public meetings over the next two years while the engineering plans are being developed. Community engagement plans will be announced later this summer.

Geosyntec Consultants in Raleigh and Coastal Protection Engineering in Wilmington are to proceed with priority actions in the plan, including developing a watershed-scale model to better understand where and how much water currently moves through the watershed, identifying a proposed service district boundary that would outline the limits of future water management efforts, and drafting engineered designs to manage water within the watershed.

“With the guidance of the community vested in the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan, Hyde County is excited to transition to the engineering phase of the efforts within the watershed. This planning is critical as we work towards implementing real solutions for water quality and quantity issues at Lake Mattamuskeet,” said Hyde County Water and Flood Control Coordinator Daniel Brinn.

Geosyntec and Coastal Protection Engineering staff are to assist students in ECU’s engineering department who are working on their senior capstone project. The engineers are to act as a sounding board and mentor for the seniors as they explore possible engineered solutions for the lake’s watershed. The idea is that the professionals can guide the students in developing engineering solutions that meet real-world political, regulatory and community needs.

“We are excited to be partnering with the team from Geosyntec and Coastal Protection Engineering. Their expertise in coastal modeling and design will improve the solutions developed by the students to restore this important ecosystem,” said Randall Etheridge, assistant professor in the engineering department at ECU.

Hyde County, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2017 contracted the federation to develop a plan to address poor water quality in the lake as well as chronic and persistent flooding of the surrounding landscape. Grants from the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund and National Science Foundation were secured to implement several of the plan’s priority actions.

To view the plan, upcoming public meeting agendas and materials from past public meetings, visit: nccoast.org/lakemattamuskeet. Interested community members and stakeholders can also sign up for future updates and leave comments.

Questions about the watershed plan can be directed to Michael Flynn, coastal advocate for the federation’s office in Wanchese, at 252-473-1607.

The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund has awarded Hyde County a $158,000 planning grant, making the county able to move forward with the recently approved Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan.

The Sept. 13 award will be used to contract with the nonprofit North Carolina Coastal Federation and an engineering firm to continue engaging the public with the project and complete engineering and design work to develop active water management within the Lake Mattamuskeet watershed, according to the county.

“Hyde County is extremely honored to have been chosen by the CWMTF for funding,”Daniel Brinn, water and flood control coordinator for Hyde County, said in a statement. “This award will not only forward our goals of a better, healthier Lake Mattamuskeet in the future, it validates the time and effort invested by all our committed partners up to this point.”

Work will focus on completing the engineering and design work needed to permit a future project expected to address redirecting water currently discharged to the lake through restored wetlands to balance both improvements to water quality within the lake and reductions in flooding throughout the watershed.

The project is also expected to result a complete watershed-scale hydrologic and hydraulic model that will help better understand the current amount of water within the watershed that needs to be managed and how it moves. This model will serve as a valuable tool for evaluating numerous other projects and policies identified in the restoration plan.

Hyde County, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission partnered with the federation and community members to develop the watershed restoration plan designed to clean up Lake Mattamuskeet.

Approved Aug. 7 by the state Department of Environmental Quality, the plan was designed to address water quality and flooding issues that affect the lake and surrounding lands.

The watershed restoration plan is available on the Coastal Federation’s website. The page is to be updated regularly as the plan progresses and provides a way for community members to offer comments and sign up for email updates and notifications about future public meetings. Questions about the watershed restoration plan can be directed to Michael Flynn at michaelf@nccoast.org or 252-473-1607.

HYDE COUNTY — A casual observer gazing out over the serene waters of the 40,000-plus acre Lake Mattamuskeet may not know that the lake is in trouble.

But the state’s largest natural lake, the centerpiece of the 50,180-acre Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula, needs help.

In recent years there has been declining water quality due to an excess of nutrients and suspended sediments, increasing water levels, recurrent algal blooms, and the majority of submerged aquatic vegetation, an important habitat for fish and food source for the migratory waterfowl, had disappeared by 2017.

Hyde County, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, in partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federation and the community, have been collaborating on a plan to save the lake.

The work paid off.

After nearly two years of planning, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Nonpoint Source Planning Branch approved last week the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan, which includes the history of the lake, how it functions, the lake’s health and identifies several ways to address water quality and flooding issues. The approval makes the plan eligible to apply for restoration implementation funds administered by the state, according to the federation, which publishes Coastal Review Online.

“This approval helps to propel efforts forward to address the water quality and flooding problems that plague Lake Mattamuskeet,” said Todd Miller, executive director for the federation, in a statement. “It took the entire community that cares about the lake to devise this plan and it will continue to require everyone’s participation to execute the plan so the lake can be restored as one of North Carolina’s environmental treasures.”

Established in 1934, the refuge, which consists of open water, marsh, forest and croplands, is along the Atlantic Flyway and attracts more than 200,000 ducks, geese and swans from November through February. About 58,000 visitors make their way to the refuge annually to hunt, fish and observe and photograph wildlife, according to refuge officials.

“The Wildlife Resources Commission considers approval of the restoration plan to be a milestone in our collaborative efforts to reverse the declines in water quality in the watershed,” Doug Howell, migratory game bird coordinator for North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said in a statement.

Michael Flynn, coastal advocate for the federation’s Wanchese office, told Coastal Review Online Thursday that the watershed restoration plan was developed voluntarily to address water quality issues before it was necessary to establish total maximum daily load, or TMDLs, a regulatory tool used to address water quality issues. Each state must develop TMDLs for waters identified on the list of impaired waters, depending on rank, according to the Clean Water Act.

“The Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan is somewhat unique in that it seeks to address flooding issues as well as implement active water management on primarily agricultural land rather than solely focusing on reducing nonpoint source pollution from stormwater runoff, which is a typical objective of watershed restoration plans that are developed for more urban or suburban areas,” said Flynn, who served as a facilitator with other federation staff during the stakeholder meetings and is the primary author of the watershed restoration plan.

The stakeholders held public meetings to collect feedback and input over the course of 18 months before the final draft was introduced Dec. 3, 2018, during a symposium in Engelhard. The plan was submitted Dec. 7 to the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources. After a July 19 addendum was added, the final approval was given Aug. 7, according to the federation.

“Approval of the plan is excellent news and a tribute to the partners and stakeholders who worked diligently for two years to get us to this point,” Pete Campbell, refuge manager for Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, said in a statement. “Now the time to cooperatively implement the plan’s strategies begins!”

Flynn explained in an interview that the NCDEQ Nonpoint Source program approval meets the main eligibility requirement for the 319 grant program.

“The EPA distributes funds to state governments who in turn distribute funds to eligible candidates to implement water quality restoration activities under section 319(h) of the Clean Water Act,” he continued. “So, in short the approval means that Hyde County or the federation can apply for these funds to implement priority management actions that are identified in the plan. This did not preclude us from applying to other funding sources, but the approval does provide additional validity since it has been reviewed by subject matter experts.”

Other funding sources include an application to the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, which they hope to receive a notification of award in November. There is $100,000  in the state budget for flood mitigation activities in Hyde County but that is on hold because of the budget stalemate, Flynn added. They are also looking to apply for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Emergency Coastal Resilience Fund and will work on an application to the 319 grant program for next spring.

This funding will be used to implement priority management actions including the development of a hydrologic and hydraulic model of the watershed, develop preliminary engineered designs for how to sheet flow drainage water over existing or restore wetlands, establish a service district and develop an active water management plan, he said.

Funding has been awarded by the National Science Foundation to Randall Etheridge, assistant professor in the engineering department at East Carolina University, and fellow researchers. This group will use the funding to implement a program where undergraduate engineering students will work with the community to develop preliminary engineered plans for projects to be identified in the spring of 2020 through the fall of 2021.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has also submitted a grant application that would fund a carp removal program in Fiscal Year 2022 if awarded. April Lamb, North Carolina State University master’s student has been evaluating the effect of carp removal on submerged aquatic vegetation restoration in several pilot enclosures on the lake, he said.

Flynn explained that the plan was essentially the result of climate change and sea level rise, although a variety of factors are at play.

Originally excavated to drain the lake in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the canals operated on different head pressures between the lake and Pamlico Sound, even when the pump station was not operational, he said. The canals are still in use today to provide drainage when water levels in the lake are higher than the sound. There are gates in place to keep salt water in the sound from entering the lake.

This passive system is no longer providing adequate drainage capacity because the water level in the sound has been rising, resulting in less days throughout the year that the lake can drain, Flynn continued. This will also cause the groundwater table to rise, reducing storage capacity during rainfall and result in flooding neighboring agricultural land and residential property even during minor storms. As a result, farmers need to use pumps to drain the water from the agricultural land in order to save the crops. That water eventually discharges to the lake, carrying nutrients and sediments.

“Sea level rise and more frequent high precipitation rainfall events will exacerbate this issue,” Flynn said.

Flynn added that support from the principal funding partners, community stakeholders and the academic research community has been tremendous. The refuge, located at the center of a watershed, is surrounded by Hyde County residents, farmers, hunters, fishermen and others and working with the diverse group of stakeholders was one of the greatest successes of the entire process.

“The perspective provided by the stakeholder team was a critical component of understanding the historical and current land use and identifying management actions that are both a priority and practical. Those stakeholders relayed the information that was shared during stakeholder and public meetings to other residents who were unable to attend and responses were shared during future meetings,” he said. “Efforts to improve water quality and mitigate flooding within the Lake Mattamuskeet watershed will need to come from cooperative and collaborative partnerships, and I am glad that they are already in place so that we can build upon them.”

Daniel Brinn, water and flood control coordinator for Hyde County and a key partner in developing the plan, said in a statement, “Hyde County has been fortunate to be the beneficiary of some incredible partnerships throughout the process of writing the plan. Now that it has been approved we look forward to utilizing those same partnerships to move towards implementation as we seek to restore the environmental, cultural and historical gem that is Lake Mattamuskeet.”

As the plan is implemented, there will be updates on watershed restoration on the Coastal Federation website.

For more information about the watershed restoration plan, Flynn can be reached at 252-473-1607 or michaelf@nccoast.org.

“Lake Mattamuskeet needs our help,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., begins in a commentary that ran Wednesday in the Ocracoke Observer.

The largest, naturally formed lake in the state covers around 40,000 acres in Hyde County and is a national wildlife refuge that is a stop on the Atlantic Flyway for migratory bird populations, he explains, adding that the lake size has been managed for some time by drainage canals to protect surrounding farmland and homes from floods.

“Unfortunately, this North Carolina treasure is now in jeopardy. Residents know that times are changing in Hyde County, just like many other low elevation areas along our coast. Our tides keep getting higher and fertile farmland and woods are wetter. Traditional ways of managing drainage along our coast don’t work as well as they once did,” he writes. Adding that the county’s $160 million  agricultural industry has taken a hit as a result.

He also addresses concerns about the loss of vegetation in and around the lake and how the elimination of food and shelter for waterfowl will affect tourism at Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge.

He writes that his office is coordinating and monitoring the efforts of a team comprised of Hyde County officials, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and organizations like the North Carolina Coastal Federation. The group released a recovery plan in December for the lake calling for proactive steps to manage the water levels, restore water quality and clarity and addresses drainage issues.

Recovery won’t happen overnight and will be costly and take time to do correctly.

“It will be an especially daunting task if we continue to experience higher sea levels and more devastating natural disasters,” he writes.

Read the full commentary on Ocracoke Observer.

ENGLEHARD – After 18 months of development, the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan has been submitted for final approval by the state.

Once the state Division of Water Quality 319 Grant Program approves this plan, which was created to improve the habitats and water quality of the lake, the centerpiece of the Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in Hyde County, stakeholders will be able to move forward with securing 319 grant funding that can then be used to implement the steps identified in the plan.

Originally 110,00 acres and 6 to 9 feet deep, the now 40,000-acre, 2 to 3 feet deep lake is the largest naturally formed in the state but, due to 200 years of hydrologic modification, is no longer considered a natural lake. In 2016, the lake was listed as an impaired waterbody on the state 303(d) list because of high levels of chlorophyll-a and alkalinity. Additionally, the lake in the last few years has lost all submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV, a food source for waterfowl and habitat for fish.

Flooding is another issue in the watershed due to a passive drainage system that has been compromised by rising sea level. There are four major outlet canals that were excavated before 1950 to move water from the lake to the Pamlico Sound, according to the restoration plan. “Each of the canals have a set of tide gates that operates on differences in head pressure to ensure Lake Mattamuskeet remains a freshwater system by preventing saltwater intrusion from the Pamlico Sound. Rising sea levels and siltation of the main canals connecting the lake to the Pamlico Sound are thought to be contributing factors in the decline of drainage function, and those conditions are anticipated to exacerbate flooding in the future.”

During the 18-month drafting process, Hyde County, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and other stakeholders identified three goals for the plan, which are to protect the way of life in Hyde County, actively manage the lake water level and restore water quality and clarity. The stakeholders identified six objectives and several actions to reach these three goals.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation, which prepared the plan, led a public symposium Dec. 3 to present the final draft.

The planning development process began in May 2017, and since then there have been five public meetings and 14 stakeholder meetings. A draft of the plan became available Oct. 16 and the final, 200-page document available on the federation’s website.

“We all came together to see if we could figure out a path forward to improve the lake and conditions around the lake … we have a vision for where we are going and we’ve identified some key steps to move forward.”

Bill Rich, Consultant, Hyde County Economic Development

Bill Rich, Hyde County Economic Development consultant, explained to the about 100 gathered for the plan’s unveiling in Martelle’s Feed House Restaurant that Lake Mattamaskeet is “important to us for many reasons,” including serving as the centerpiece of the county, playing a vital role in the county’s recreation, namely birding and hunting, tourism, “and is also the blood of Mattamuskeet Lodge. Without a healthy lake we do not have a healthy lodge.”

Rich said that a diverse group teamed up to write the plan. “We all came together to see if we could figure out a path forward to improve the lake and conditions around the lake … we have a vision for where we are going and we’ve identified some key steps to move forward.”

Erin Fleckenstein, coastal scientist and northeast regional office manager for the federation, explained that during the planning and development process, there were many concerns about the lake, watershed, agricultural and residential property flooding, the loss of SAV in the lake, “which is an important indicator of the health of the lake,” and water quality parameters tested in the lake.

“The levels of pH and chlorophyll-a in the lake are higher than the state standard for them. We also had concerns about elevated nutrient levels of nitrogen and phosphorus,” Fleckenstein said. “The elevated pH and chlorophyll-a is what caused the lake to be listed on what is called the 303(d) list for impaired waterways, that means the lake is not meeting its current use standards and steps need to be taken to make sure it can be returned back to its health.”

Michael Flynn, coastal advocate in the federation’s northeast office, said that there’s no active management at the lake, which has contributed to the flooding of private property, extended septic tank use interruptions and inadequate croplands drainage. There is turbid and hypereutrophic, or extremely nutrient-rich water, SAV has been documented as absent since 2017, plus there’s an abundance of common carp, an invasive species.

Flynn told the crowd that the stakeholders came to the conclusion that active water management within the watershed is a top priority.

“We want to see active water management that addresses the lake level. Helping to manage water throughout the watershed would result in less-frequent flooding of residential property and fewer septic system failures and adequate drainage of croplands will be available,” he said. “We’d like to see it move from turbid and hypereutrophic to clear and mesotrophic, have the right amount of nutrients to support the habitat that’s desired, see an increase of SAV along the lakebed and emerging vegetation along the lakeshore, reduction in common carp population … and ultimately, removal of the lake from the NC 303(d) list of impaired waters.”

One priority action listed in the plan is to create a formal body that provides managing authority for active water management within the watershed in close coordination with the refuge, Flynn said. Another priority action is to perform a hydrologic study of the watershed to get a better idea of how the water should be managed.

To transition from the study to designing plans for active water management would help identify what infrastructure improvements would be needed, he added.

Wendy Stanton, terrestrial ecologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said that one of the purposes of the refuge is to protect and conserve migratory birds, especially waterfowl, and other wildlife resources, through the protection of wetlands in the lake.

The splendor of the lake was the SAV, she said, “There were massive mats of SAV in the lake and that provided important habitat for waterfowl and fish and many other species.” Now, the current condition of the lake is turbid, unclear water with the SAV pretty much completely disappeared, dominated by cyanobacteria and other phytoplankton.

“In summary, we have excessive nutrients in the lake, we have lost our SAV, but on the bright side, we have this whole group here under the leadership of the federation and great partnerships to try to restore the SAV and improve water quality in the lake and help our adjacent communities,” Stanton said.

April Lamb, graduate student at North Carolina State University, explained that she was evaluating the feasibility of removing the invasive common carp introduced mid-19^th century, as well as the potential for a vegetation restoration project to get SAV back in the lake.

As part of her project, about 140 acres of the lake has been sectioned off that around 3,200 carp will be relocated from, and monitor water quality changes. Alongside the carp removal process and monitoring to see how carp are impacting the system, wild celery and white water lily will be planted and caged to prevent carp and turtles from grazing on the new plants.

Randall Etheridge in the agricultural and ecological engineering department at East Carolina University said that he is still working on data collected about the waterfowl impoundments’ potential impact on lake water quality, but “to summarize what we know so far, waterfowl impoundments, no matter what type, at least from what we’ve seen, are contributing nutrients and sediments to the lake.”

Etheridge also studied the canals in the lake and discovered that the insides of the canal pipes are filled with sediment, and that along with sea level rise, are causing the reduction of flow. Another factor is the tide driven by water levels in Pamlico Sound.

Pete Campbell, refuge manager, reminded the audience that Lake Mattamuskeet is the premier waterfowl refuge on the Atlantic Flyway, but is also important to Hyde County and the waterfowl community, which depends on birds being at the lake.

“The visitation has really gone through the roof at the refuge in the last five to 10 years,” he said, adding the waterfowl counts are very high. “Up until a point it could change, we don’t want that to change. Therefore, we are committed with working with our partners not to put this on the shelf but to move forward with it and to exhaust every opportunity to acquire necessary resources to make this thing happen.”

He added that everyone realizes the lake didn’t get in this condition overnight and will not return to its normal condition overnight.

With reports of the effect of sea level rise and climate change in the area from 2050 to 2100, Campbell said he knows the county has been looking at resiliency actions and what looking at what the communities can do to prepare for those conditions. “And we can do the same in the watershed but sooner than later, we can only do so much and we have to understand that. It’s the reality of the situation. Can we buy time? Yes. Can we buy time and clean the lake? Yes, can we protect property? Yes, for how long? if I knew that answer, I’d be a rich guy.”

Wilson Daughtry, an Englehard resident with the Mattamuskeet Drainage Association, told the crowd that a few years ago the association partnered with the federation on a watershed restoration plan for the 42,000 acres the association manages, which was a very similar to the process of  the Lake Mattamuskeet plan.

Daughtry told Coastal Review Online after the symposium that he is an adjoining land owner who has has worked with the federation in the past on a watershed restoration plan and was a sounding board for this project. Now, moving forward, the plan will need to be approved to become eligible for funding, “And then the real work starts.”

Campbell said in an interview that in the springtime, the refuge will have to post warning signs about the toxicity of the lake. When the temperature rises, cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, increases, which causes the toxicity level goes up.

“The refuge has been part of the 18-month process from the get-go, and one of the three primary stakeholders that contributed to the funding to hire the Coastal Federation to facilitate the planning process,” he said.

“It’s going to take a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of cooperation between the refuge and the service district that will be part of the rest of the watershed.”

Pete Campbell, Manager, Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge

The water quality of the lake is very bad, Campbell said, and he’s hoping that through this joint effort they can reverse the trend and “get it back to a manageable state where the vegetation can be established, the water quality will improve and those signs will go away, as an example.”

He added that it wasn’t an overnight degradation process, and it’s not going to be an overnight restoration process. “It’s going to take a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of cooperation between the refuge and the service district that will be part of the rest of the watershed,” Campbell said. “It’s going to take a lot of financial resources, we will need a lot of support, not only from the community here, but from folks at the state and even at the national level.”

Flynn said after the meeting that the final plan is a result of participation from stakeholders, and the implementation of this plan will require the same.

“I think the quantity of residents, members of the scientific research community, and staff from regulatory agencies and nonprofit organizations in attendance at the recent public symposium held to unveil the final plan is an excellent indication of the vested interest and commitment to the implementation of the plan,” he said. “It was also very encouraging to see representatives from the offices of Sen. Burr and Sen. Tillis in attendance at the public meetings and symposium.”

SWAN QUARTER — After two years of development, the final Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration plan will be unveiled during a public symposium.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation will host the meeting set for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 3 at Martelle’s Feed House Restaurant in Engelhard. Registration is required for the free event that will include lunch. Attendees are encouraged to review the draft available online before the meeting.

The meeting agenda includes a summary of the lake’s condition and an overview of the priority actions that were selected by the stakeholder team, according to the press release. Additional presentations and panel discussions will focus on drainage water management, conservation programs and outline the next steps for the plan’s implementation.

The plan was developed through a partnership between Hyde County, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The federation facilitated stakeholder and public meetings and developed the plan for approval by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s 319 Program.

Contact Erin Fleckenstein, coastal scientist for the federation’s Wanchese office, at 252-473-1607 for more information. In the event of severe weather, the event will be rescheduled. Contact the Wanchese office or check the website for more information.

Learn More

• Register here.

HYDE COUNTY – An ambitious plan to restore the aesthetic and natural majesty of Lake Mattamuskeet would require exquisite coordination and cooperation between a community of scientists, public agencies, nonprofit groups, recreational users and residents.  But an intensive, 18-month focus on saving the state’s largest natural lake appears to have resulted in that very real possibility.

The draft Lake Mattamuskeet Restoration Plan is set to be presented Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Swan Quarter at the fifth and final public meeting to discuss research findings, ongoing and planned scientific studies and a detailed plan of action.

“It’s just a sense that this will involve total teamwork from all the stakeholders and all the people that depend on the lake,” said Bill Rich, chairman of the Mattamuskeet Watershed Committee who recently retired as Hyde County manager. “It’s just a tremendous, tremendous asset and it has to be saved.”

In 2017, a partnership of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Hyde County hired the North Carolina Coastal Federation to develop the restoration plan, along with an 11-member stakeholders group that represented different community interests, including farming, hospitality and duck impoundments. A total of 13 meetings were held.

“We’ve always known that this is just a beginning and almost everything in this restoration is to allow us to get funding,” Rich said, “and it’s also the beginning of a long, long effort to clean the lake up.”

The 50-page draft report reflects the complexity of the myriad issues facing restoration of the lake, but also offers clear objectives.

“We tried to look for complementary research we could draw from,” said Michael Flynn, coastal advocate at the federation’s Wanchese office.

But Mattamuskeet is a unique environment, with numerous public and private jurisdictions, interests and difficult-to-determine boundaries.

Further study of the watershed, its water budget and the hydrological map were some of the suggestions in the plan that could provide more understanding of management of the lake restoration.

A productive first step that could be taken in the near term, Flynn said, would be directing stormwater into a wetland area to allow nutrients to drain into the soil, and then redirect the filtered water to its historic drainage area.  Restoring the health of the lake, stakeholders seems to recognize, is the big get that everyone wants – but it will take persistence.

“It’s a working goal and I think they’re at least going to try,” he said.

Mattamuskeet’s challenges are the cumulative impact of modifications in the land and hydrology, the draft report says.

“Today, areas of the watershed experience chronic flooding and residents have raised concerns about their ability to continue to live and work in the watershed,” it says. “An inability to actively manage the lake water level has created problems for residents and farmers in the watershed, and will only be exacerbated as sea level continue to rise.”

The 40,000-acre lake, the centerpiece of mainland Hyde County, attracts hundreds of thousands of waterfowl – most famously white swans in the late fall and early winter – and is known for its kayaking, fishing, crabbing, duck hunting and, of course, birdwatching.  The area, which has a high population of black bear, also is popular with bear hunters.

But for more than a century, Lake Mattamuskeet, which is 6 miles wide, 18 miles long and averaging 2 feet in depth, has suffered more than its share of insults to its ecosystem – from both human and natural causes – resulting in its current unhealthy state. In 2016, the Environmental Protection Agency put the lake on its state list of impaired, or more commonly called “dead,” waterways.  All of the submerged aquatic vegetation that once covered the lake bed is gone. With no SAV, fewer ducks and swan visit.

But Mike Piehler, director of the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment in Chapel Hill and a member of the Mattamuskeet science advisory group, said the lake may be impaired, but it still has plenty of life.

“It is in a less preferable state, for sure, but it is by no means dead,” he said, “It remains a valuable ecological resource, but its function is impaired because it is dominated by algae in a way that is not natural.” Although the algae may have toxins, he said,  the toxicity has not reached a level where it is dangerous to people or animals.

Piehler, who has studied the lake for years, is hopeful that with local input and support, a scientifically driven process will be able to bring the lake back from the ecological abyss.

“There’s not a simple well-worn path to restoration,” he said. “I think it’s worth the effort to attempt to rehabilitate the lake.”

The lake’s water is plagued by toxic algae blooms, fed by high nutrient levels from fertilizers and bird droppings that drain into the lake.  Rising seas make salinity and lake levels harder to maintain. The water has lost much of its clarity due to suspended sediments. Oxygen levels are often low.  Heavy rains likely made worse by climate change more frequently flood nearby farmlands and overwhelm drainage ditches with stormwater. Invasive carp have contributed to depletion of the SAV and to other fish species, and invasive plants have clogged the water.

But despite the problems, little has been understood about the exact causes or what would remediate them.

“That’s the reason we launched this watershed restoration project,” Pete Campbell, refuge manager of the 50,000-acre Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, said in a recent interview.

Campbell said the draft plan, working off scientific and local insights, provides a mix of short-term and long-term objectives that can lead to a manageable approach to restoration of the lake – and importantly, local buy-in. Earlier criticism directed at managers and policy makers from some in the community, he said, has diminished over the course of the meetings of the stakeholders’ team, which included numerous area residents.

“I think people are understanding what condition of the lake is and they want to move forward to make positive changes,” Campbell said. “I think the consensus in the community is the lake is important to them and they want to see the lake improve. It’s an incremental process, and we’re all on the same page, I think.”

A technical working group of scientists and researchers was created in 2013 to start studies of the lake issues, including monitoring. Ongoing or recent research in and around the lake includes waterfowl impoundments’ effects on water quality; carp population impact and control; SAV restoration; and the lake’s input and output of water.

Campbell said that the research will help determine “a path forward with what’s the best bang for the buck.” When the plan is finalized in the near future, funding for projects will become more available from different sources, he said, including federal and state grants.

“The political climate is very good,” Campbell said, “in that our representatives support what we are doing together.”

By looking at complicated issues such as water quality in a holistic way, he said, strategies such as creating incentives to remove nutrients, or devising alternative ways to drain and redirect stormwater from farmland, can foster cooperative solutions.  Implementation would be greatly helped by establishment of a more formal structure to oversee the plan, he added.

“It took years to get into this condition, and we can take steps to restore the ecosystem,” Campbell said. “It’s not going to happen overnight.”

SWAN QUARTER — The fifth public meeting for the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan, originally set for July 10, has been rescheduled for 7-8:30 p.m. Sept. 18.

The meeting was rescheduled because of scheduling conflicts with other public meetings.

The July 10 agenda will be covered during the Sept. 18 public meeting at the Hyde County Government Complex.

During the September meeting, the planning team will present and discuss the priority actions to be included in the watershed restoration plan, according to the release. The meeting will also review technical presentations and research updates that are being used to prioritize future actions for the lake. There will be an opportunity for public review and input on the draft watershed restoration plan.

A final, day-long public open house will be held on Monday, Dec. 3 to reveal the full plan.

Questions about the watershed restoration plan can be directed to Erin Fleckenstein, Coastal Scientist for the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Wanchese office, at 252-473-1607.

Learn More

• Restoring the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed

SWAN QUARTER — Agencies and organizations are asking for public input on a plan in the works to improve conditions in the Lake Mattamuskeet watershed.

Water quality in the lake in Hyde County is declining and lake levels are changing. County officials, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are working together to support the development of a watershed-restoration plan and seeking public input on related issues.

When completed, the watershed management plan will explain how the lake should and does function, assess its status and health and identify various options to address water quality and flooding issues.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is helping the county and its partners develop the plan. The federation previously worked with Hyde County landowners to develop a watershed restoration plan for about 43,000 acres of farmland and wetlands situated north of Engelhard.

As announced during the most recent meeting Feb. 6, the next steps are to identify stormwater reduction or water management techniques that will benefit the lake watershed​ and to analyze the impact of these solutions.

The public is encouraged to assist with documenting the impact of extreme events within the watershed by submitting detailed descriptions and photos that illustrate persistent flood or drought conditions. People can email this information to Michael Flynn at michaelf@nccoast.org or call 252-473-1607 by Friday. Include dates; locations; descriptions, such as monetary loss from damage to property, inability to use septic systems or perform work on agricultural land; and any other relevant information. Suggestions on how to improve conditions within the lake watershed are also welcome.

The next public meetings are planned for May 8, July 10 and Sept. 18. The meetings run from 7-8:30 p.m. and are held at the Hyde County Government Complex, 1430 Main St., Swan Quarter.

Learn More

• Restoring the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed

SWAN QUARTER — Hyde County and other stakeholders working to develop a voluntary watershed restoration plan for Lake Mattamuskeet will hold their second meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, in the Hyde County Government Complex.

The first stakeholders meeting was in August. The third scheduled meeting is set for Feb. 6, 2018.

The goal of the watershed restoration plan is to provide a blueprint for how to best address water quality and flooding issues that harm the lake’s fish and wildlife and affect nearby landowners.

Community members can expect to hear a draft of the watershed restoration plan goals that were discussed and approved by the plan’s stakeholder group.

Stakeholders include members of Hyde County’s residential, farming and hospitality communities, as well as Hyde County employees and representatives from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is helping develop the plan. An overview of core stakeholders and their responsibilities is available online.

Other topics include an overview of water quality trends and submerged aquatic vegetation in the lake from Michelle Moorman of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will present on waterfowl trends.

Randall Etheridge, assistant professor in engineering at East Carolina University, will present on the current mapping and survey efforts being conducted at the lake. This mapping effort has helped Etheridge develop a preliminary outline of identified problems and solutions.

Once completed, the plan will explain how the lake should and does function, its current status and health, and will identify management options to address water quality and flooding. Upon approval, it can be used to secure grant funds for implementation.

Any questions can be directed to Erin Fleckenstein with the North Carolina Coastal Federation at 252-473-1607 or erinf@nccoast.org.

Learn More

• Updated information about the plan development
• Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan: Core Stakeholders/Project Team Roles and Responsibilities

The Ocracoke Observer contributed to this report.

SWAN QUARTER — Sometimes it helps to get the attention of the big dogs in Washington to receive more than budgetary scraps, which is how it happened that powerful U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., recently ended up chatting with Hyde County officials at a remote hunting outpost near Lake Mattamuskeet.

Burr was in the midst of a whirlwind tour of the northeastern corner of the state in mid-October when he agreed to a detour to hear Hyde’s concerns about federal support for flood mitigation, hurricane recovery and the restoration of Lake Mattamuskeet’s watershed and its historic lodge.

“It seemed very advantageous to let him know what was going on with this federal property right here,” said Kris Noble, assistant county manager, referring to the lake, which is the centerpiece of Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge.

Facilitated by the nonprofit North Carolina Coastal Federation, the county has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission on the planning process. The commission and the Wildlife Service collaborate on research and projects related to the lake to support that planning process.

A series of quarterly meetings with a stakeholders team began in August to identify management solutions to water level and water quality concerns. The second meeting is scheduled for Nov. 7 in Swan Quarter.

“What we’re thinking is that our plan is going to lead to a series of recommendations that will probably include infrastructure changes,” Noble said after the meeting with Burr, “and that’s where we’ll potentially be looking for federal dollars.”

The state’s largest natural lake has been a subject of concern and controversy in recent years, with a vocal group of duck hunters and other lake users accusing the refuge of mismanaging water levels to the detriment of waterfowl populations.

At the same time, the refuge has struggled to restore water quality and vegatation that have suffered from pollution. With stakeholders now working together on the watershed plan, the hope is that a cooperative effort can resolve the issues.

After settling around a table at the Mattamuskeet Outpost, a privately owned motel and dining facility for hunters near the refuge, Burr listened intently as Noble presented a brief synopsis about the lake’s condition.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of the unhealthy data about our lake,” she said.

“Vegetation data?” Burr asked.

“Yes,” Noble responded.

“Fish and Wildlife made a decision to reduce the depth. Am I right or wrong?” the senator then asked.

“No sir, there’s no infrastructure that would allow them to maintain a lower level of the lake currently,” responded Daniel Brinn, Tar-Pamlico technician with Hyde County Soil and Water Department.

Elaborating, Burr said that some lake users contacted him several years ago to complain about the water levels. But Brinn explained that levels occur naturally, depending on tides, rain or drought.

Although Burr has voted against clean energy and dismisses human-caused climate change, he has been a strong advocate for permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that promotes recreational use of conserved land and water resources. The fund, which operates without taxpayer funds, is due to expire in September 2018.

After showing Burr a video of the extraordinary flooding of farmland in Hyde County from last year’s Hurricane Matthew, Noble emphasized the importance of agriculture to the county’s economy.

With most of its land in the 100-year floodplain, the county has created six drainage districts to control flooding, including on farm lands. But at least two of the districts – the Fairfield and Mattamuskeet districts – were completely inundated by the Alligator River during Matthew.

“We’ve taken a huge focus on drainage,” Noble said. “As a community and as a county, we’ve been working on mitigation efforts for 100 years. We are very blessed that we have these drainage systems.”

A subject of the video, the Mattamuskeet Drainage Association, manages the system of canals and pumps that provide flood control, drainage and other services to 42 members on 66 square miles of land in the district but cannot afford to fix storm damages. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has so far reimbursed only a small percentage of costs.

“We incurred $800,000 in expenses in a 30-day period,” said Wilson Daughtry, executive director of the Mattamuskeet Drainage Association, in a later interview. “That is almost equal to our entire operating budget for the year. We are in desperate financial shape right now and we haven’t been able to do (any repairs.)”

Daughtry said that an unprecedented amount of river water was dumped on the district land, and for several reasons, he and others ended up having to do emergency pumping and other measures themselves. But because of FEMA’s procurement rules, he explained, the association was denied coverage for all but $16,000 of the $800,000 in costs incurred.

An application has been made for reimbursement from the state’s unmet needs fund, Daughtry said. Although the association qualifies for $2.6 million in other FEMA reimbursement funds, the application is still being processed.

Daughtry said that the Mattamuskeet Drainage Association provides, “the first line of defense” from Alligator River flooding for the Hyde County Airport, the Engelhard Sanitary District, the Fairfield district and 17 residences and 17 businesses.

“What we need to look at right away is FEMA mitigation money,” Burr said.

There were also a lot of losses to farm crops, Hyde County Board of Commissioners Chairman Earl Pugh told the senator.

“The last two years we’ve lost our soybeans and cotton because of hurricanes,” he said.

Pugh, a farmer since the 1970s, said that Tyrrell and Hyde County – one as low-lying as the other – produce 25 percent of North Carolina’s corn. But in all his years farming, only one year was too dry.

County Manager Bill Rich said that going back to Hurricane Irene, it’s been difficult to collect funds from FEMA. Even with losses the agency covers, he added, the compensation is inadequate. Citing an example, he said that compensation for two ruined ambulances was for a small percentage of their value.

“That kind of hit, we can’t take,” he said.

Burr said that mitigation funds for agriculture are hard to get, and he is working on finding a way for FEMA to provide mitigation funds to the association. In general, mitigation is high on the new FEMA director’s list, he said, “Because the more mitigation they do, the less they’re going to have to do in disaster recovery.”

“We’ll work on all this,” he said. “I can’t make any promises, and I hope there’s a way to get the ambulances replaced.”

He also said he would speak to the Army Corps of Engineers about funding needs for dredging Hatteras Inlet, another huge economic driver for the county. But Burr wasn’t as encouraging about finding much support for restoration of Mattamuskeet Lodge, and suggested looking to private sponsorships with outdoor retail shops.

“Yeah, you’re talking about a heavy lift,” Burr said of getting money for the lodge.

And then the senator said his goodbyes, and hit the road again. During his break from Washington while the Senate was out of session, Burr – who lives in Winston-Salem and has a home in Nags Head – visited Elizabeth City, Manteo, Hertford and Edenton, stopping by several Rotary Clubs, the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and talking with students at the Northeast Academy for Aerospace and Advanced Technologies and the River City YouthBuild.

“It’s been a busy week,” he posted later on Facebook, “but it’s always good to be home in North Carolina.”

SWAN QUARTER – On the surface, Lake Mattamuskeet, the centerpiece of Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, looks serene and resplendent. But beneath the calm appearance, there is a churn of concerning questions about the loss of submerged grasses, worsening water quality and changing lake levels.

After years of disparate efforts to improve conditions at the state’s largest natural lake, a panel of government and private stakeholders is now united in development of a plan to restore Mattamuskeet’s watershed.

“We’re very much in the informative stage right now,” North Carolina Coastal Federation coastal scientist Erin Fleckenstein told the 30 or so attendees at the group’s first meeting earlier this month in Hyde County.

A partnership between Hyde County, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan will be guided by a stakeholders group of no more than 11 members who represent different interests in the community, including farming, hospitality and duck impoundments.

Fleckenstein, who is helping to coordinate the restoration plan, explained that they will be digging deep to find solutions. Historic changes in the watershed’s boundaries going back to the 1800s are being explored. Concerns, experiences and opinions of residents surrounding the lake are being queried. Water impairment and lake levels are being measured and compared with available historic data. Stormwater runoff causes and potential reduction strategies are being calculated. Land use changes will be tracked.

“Another thing we’re doing is identifying where flooding concerns have been taking place,” she said.

The watershed management plan, to be completed by fall 2018, is to provide information, based on scientific studies and local knowledge, on the lake’s function and its current condition and health. Management options to address water quality and flooding issues will be identified.

Fleckenstein has administered another complicated watershed restoration project for the Coastal Federation at a Hyde County farm collective where polluted drainage in the 42,500-acre Mattamuskeet Drainage District has been redirected from estuarine waters and managed instead on the land to allow the nutrients to seep harmlessly into the soil.

Lake Mattamuskeet, 6 miles wide, 18 miles long and averaging just 2 feet in depth, has its own set of challenges. In recent decades, nutrients from animal waste and fertilizers have fed algae growth that may have diminished submerged aquatic vegetation, or SAV. Record levels of rainfall in recent years has also challenged functioning of gates that control water levels and prevent the briny Pamlico Sound waters from mixing with the fresh lake waters.

To add to the complexity of the current situation, the 40,000-acre lake serves as the cultural hub of mainland Hyde County’s hunting, fishing and farming lifestyle and livelihoods. Located on the Atlantic Flyway, Mattamuskeet attracts more than 200,000 ducks, swans and geese in the winter. The lake has also been known for its bass and crab fishing. But residents are worrying that the numbers of waterfowl and fish using the lake are diminishing.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently partnered with the state Wildlife Resources Commission to share management of the refuge.

“We realize that the majority of the problem with the disappearance of SAVs is a combination of nutrients as well as suspended solids,” said Pete Campbell, refuge manager of the 50,000-acre Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, in a later interview. “As of last year’s survey, we had lost all but 10 percent of the vegetation in the lake … We realized we had to look at it on a watershed scale.”

The county, the wildlife commission and the refuge had collectively agreed to share the $75,000 cost of the 18-month restoration plan process and selected the Coastal Federation to oversee it, Campbell said. The goal is to develop strategies that will reverse the lake’s degradation.

According to an article published in the November/December 2016 edition of Wildlife in North Carolina, “Where Has the Grass Gone?” the submerged grass in the lake – an important habitat and food to both fish and waterfowl – began declining on the west side in the 1990s. The west side was plagued by phytoplankton, while the east side had healthy grass beds.

But data collected since 2012, according to the article, has found that there is no longer any difference in water quality between the sides, and decline of lake grasses has increased rapidly since 2013.

Campbell said there is an ongoing study to determine where the sources of nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorous, are coming from. Phytoplankton feeds on the nutrients, eventually covering the lake surface and blocking light from the grasses.

“Right now, within the watershed, you have residential areas, agricultural areas, and public and private waterfowl impoundments,” he said.

For the last four years or so, two water quality monitoring stations in the refuge have been collecting data on temperature, salinity, depth, chlorophyll and phosphorus. The refuge is also looking at strategies to reduce the numbers of carp in the lake, “which is very difficult to do,” Campbell said. The fish are voracious consumers of the grass.

Campbell said that the lake levels are not as high as they were in the prior two years, when record rainfall filled the lake and saturated the surrounding land. In addition to the levels being tracked by the two monitors, the lake’s edge is measured every 16 days by satellite. Researchers are also asking people to volunteer to submit their measurements of the lake to help scientists understand how the lake responds to weather conditions and other factors.

Although there were not many people from the community in attendance at the first meeting, Campbell said that he has heard positive feedback about the restoration planning, and expects that more people will attend future meetings.

“I think we’re on the right track,” Campbell said. “We’re working together to solve a difficult problem.”

Besides the complexity of Mattamuskeet’s environmental issues, there are overlapping concerns of the stakeholders and the residents, many of whom have multiple interests that may conflict in finding solutions. For instance, farming and waterfowl both contribute nutrients to water that drains into the lake. Not only has the number of private waterfowl impoundments increased dramatically over the years, but some farmers also are involved in cultivating the corn that is grown on the impoundments.

Daniel Brinn is the Tar-Pamlico technician for the Hyde County Soil & Water Conservation District and he represents Hyde drainage on the stakeholders’ group. Brinn said it is premature to say what exactly is creating the nutrient overloads at the lake. But he said that between 1991 and 2016, farmers in Hyde County, abiding by a 1991 rule to cut nitrogen levels by 30 percent, have reduced the level of nitrogen going into the Tar-Pamlico river basin by 58 percent.

“Agriculture is doing its part in Hyde County to address the environmental concerns,” he said.

Brinn said it is a “dynamic” relationship between traditional agriculture and duck impoundments. Even on the stakeholders group, some members may represent one interest, but still have a stake in the other.

“It struck me as very complex,” he said. “There’s so many different stakeholders and so many different landowners. A functional solution is going to be difficult to come up with and put into place.”

But Brinn said the success with the Tar-Pamlico river basin, which also involved complex relationships, sets an encouraging precedent.

“There was plan a adopted that was put in place,” he said. “In that situation, the solutions were not necessarily regulatory – they were incentives.”

Joey Ben Williams, a stakeholder in the group who represents impoundments, said that it will be a while before enough data is collected to understand what is going on with Lake Mattamuskeet.

“It didn’t happen overnight, and I really don’t think we’re going to fix it overnight,” he said. “We want to make sure that whatever research money we have that we’re studying the right thing.”

Additional public meetings for the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan are set for 7 p.m. at the Hyde County Government Complex in Swan Quarter on Nov. 7; Feb. 6, 2018; May 8, 2018; July 10, 2018; and Sept. 18, 2018.

Learn More

• Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan
• Wildlife North Carolina: “Where Has the Grass Gone?”

SWAN QUARTER – Expanses of fertile, black farmland, forested swamps, and the state’s largest natural lake have been worthy neighbors to 103-year-old Mattamuskeet Lodge, a handsome centerpiece of cultural distinction for rural Hyde County. But restoration of the state-owned building has languished under budget shortfalls.

The solution may be partnering with private business, according to a report submitted to the state legislature on Jan. 15 by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

The proposal describes plans to complete renovation of the lodge and offer opportunities for private partners to operate the facility. Potential operators could include tour and guide companies that could make the most of the lodge’s location in premier hunting and fishing grounds.

“We’ve had input along the way from local partners, but that is not in any way a predetermination,” Gordon Myers, the commission’s executive director, said in a telephone interview last week.

Whatever the partnership may entail, he said, it is not intended to compete with area inns and restaurants.

“Certainly, from an economic development perspective, the goal is to lift everybody up,” Myers said. “And certainly, we don’t want to do anything to impact local businesses.”

According to the report, about $8 million is needed to finish the restoration, which was partially done in the mid-2000s.  But a business plan done in 2008 by tourism experts showed that that annual costs for the state to operate the lodge would exceed the income. In that light, a public-private partnership could integrate businesses into a “hub” model that fosters traditional uses of the building. Revenue could be generated not just by the services provided, but also by licensing and marketing the Mattamuskeet brand.  The lodge would have 14 “simple but refined” guest rooms, a dining room featuring local seafood and farm products, and common areas for people “to connect with the rich natural and cultural identity of the region.”

Myers said that after the report is reviewed by legislators, he expects that the commission will hold public meetings to get feedback on a proposal. Once more information is nailed down, the project will be put out for competitive bids.

No specific plan has been determined on capital financing at this point, Myers said.

“We have a fair amount of work to do,” he said. “We have additional ground-truthing to go through … before we put out a RFP (Request for Proposals).”

Originally the world’s largest pump station and later a renowned hunting lodge, the lodge has historic significance on a state and national level. But to Hyde County residents, the lodge goes beyond the agricultural and hunting richness of the area. It is where generations of the community have worked and gathered. It is where their daughters were married, where their children went to the prom and where big community celebrations were held. With its 12-story-tall striped tower standing midway in front of a formidable white, red-roofed building, the lodge is a potent symbol of Hyde’s unique history. A picture of the lodge reflected in the still canal waters is one of the most iconic Hyde County images.

State officials and dozens of legislators and their spouses met for a transportation meeting in January of last year in Hyde County and were given a tour of the incomplete lodge, said county manager Bill Rich. Another meeting of state officials was held again in Hyde this past January, which included a presentation on the proposed public-private partnership for the lodge.

“The lodge is a treasure,” Rich said. “And for it to sit there half dressed is almost criminal.”

Running the lodge is expected to be more of a “labor of love” than a profitable venture, Rich said.  It is the peripheral connection to Mattamuskeet that can be marketed and create revenue.

“Somebody’s going to have to create branding because the lodge can’t support itself,” he said. “We’re branding the concept of Mattamuskeet. That needs to be branded however it can be branded.”

Rich said that part of the concept being discussed is creating a loop for visitors who travel from Hatteras in Dare County to Ocracoke Island on the ferry. They can then leave the island via the Swan Quarter ferry and spend time in the wilds of mainland Hyde – whether taking photographs, hunting, fishing, or going on a wildlife tour – and stay at the lodge.

“All this is, it starts a snowball effect, he said. “All it does is stimulate everyone’s business.”

With just 5,600 year-round residents in Hyde County – including 900 on Ocracoke Island – the rural county is rich in land, water and natural resources but poor in everything else, especially job opportunities. Farming and fishing are still the main sources of employment on the mainland, with summer tourism on Ocracoke a huge industry.

Visitors to Swan Quarter, the county seat and the town closest to Mattamuskeet, are few and far between, except when the hunting is good in the winter months. During duck and bear season, Rich said, the population of mainland Hyde grows by about 2,000 people. More than 100,000 people visit the refuge every year.

Despite concern expressed by some business owners in the community that the lodge could create unfair competition, Rich said it would instead attract more visitors.

Mattamuskeet is famous for its waterfowl, and northeastern North Carolina is renowned for its plentiful and large black bears.

“It’s unbelievable what people will do to bear hunt,” he said. “They come to Hyde County from all over the world to shoot a bear.”

J.C. Williams, a county native who runs Chris’s Grocery in Swan Quarter, said most the community would be happy just to see the lodge back in business.

“I wish it was open right now,” Williams said. “Anybody can get it going – I don’t care.”

Williams, 66, said when he was growing up there were five stores and three service stations in the town. Today, with just a handful still operating in the area, Williams said that anything that attracts more people is a good thing.

“Now there’s nothing. Nada,” he said. “If you come through Swan Quarter, it’s pitiful. The kids don’t have a thing to do. It’s farm, fish or leave. Or you can work at the prison.”

Lewis Forrest is founder and executive director of Mattamuskeet Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, where the lodge is located.

But he also takes great interest in restoration of the lodge and preservation of its history.

Forrest, a former educator who lives in Pitt County, by chance acquired 40,000 pages of documents detailing drainage projects done early in the 20^th century at the lake.

In 1934, the U.S. government purchased Lake Mattamuskeet and the pumping station. The Civil Conservation Corps converted the building to a hunting lodge and refuge headquarters, and in 1937 opened Mattamuskeet Lodge to the public. The operation closed in 1974.

Troubled History

Never a successful business operation, the engineering behind the pump house was quite the feat.

“It housed the largest capacity pumping plant in the world, then or since,” Forrest said.

It was made to pump 1.2 million gallons a minute – that’s 20,000 gallons a second – but that turned out to be more theoretical than realistic. The facility couldn’t run steam engines at full power, Forrest said, because of the turbulence from the air bubbles created by running all four steam engines.

According to the lodge’s nomination for the National Register of Historic Places, the pump house was originally built in 1915 for the Southern Land Reclamation Co. to drain the lake so its peat-rich bottom could be farmed. When it was designated for listing in 1980, the three-story, 14,977-square-foot plant had been remodeled into a 38-room lodge after the U.S. government acquired the building in 1934. The distinctive chimney of the pumping plant was remade into a 120-foot observation tower with a stairway.

But the nomination makes it clear that the lodge’s current woes are a continuation of Mattamuskeet’s overall difficulties from the start.

“The Lake Mattamuskeet Pumping Plant,” the document said, “stands as a symbol of the troubled history of the Lake Mattamuskeet area – the digging of a network of canals, the building of pumping plants and a model community, the spending of millions of dollars, the bankruptcy of one company after another and the eventual abandonment of the scheme as impractical and too expensive.”

Indeed, 25 years after the lodge was awarded its historic designation, it was in such disrepair that the federal government, in a deal orchestrated about 2006 by Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and then-state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, agreed to turn over Mattamuskeet Lodge to the state so it could be restored.

As Forrest remembers it, the state funds for the complete restoration had been appropriated. But Basnight, suffering from a progressive illness, retired from the legislature before the lodge project was completed. The restoration funds were subsequently transferred into the state’s general fund and have yet to be re-appropriated.

Forrest said the state should follow through with its promise to restore the lodge, and then turn it over to a nonprofit group to operate it. A private entity, he fears, could change the atmosphere or limit access.

“I’m concerned that they’ll take control of what this will be in the future,” he said. “Probably, the local people will not be able to make use of it.”

A Potential Bidder

Jamin Simmons, a county native and an owner of several farm- and wildlife tour-related businesses, has been providing input on the public-private proposal at no charge to the county and state, he said. Although he may end up bidding on the project, he said, that is not his main objective.

“I just want to see the lodge opened,” he said. “I think it can be an economic hub for the area, not just Hyde County.”

There are currently about five other guide services that work in Hyde, Simmons said, and revitalizing Mattamuskeet Lodge would benefit them and the area’s motels and restaurants.

“They could thrive from this,” Simmons said.

In recent years, Simmons purchased and renovated an old motel-restaurant in Hyde County, renamed the Outpost, to use for his tour and guide business. Before then, the motel hadn’t rented a room in 13 years. Now it employs about 25 people in peak season and contributes to Hyde County’s tiny tax base.

Since 2013, Simmons said his tour business has more than doubled, and he is “pretty much” sold out for 2017. That success speaks to Hyde’s reputation for great hunting and fishing. Mattamuskeet is especially famous for its waterfowl, and even though the number of birds have decreased from the mid-20^th century heyday, duck hunting is still excellent.

Simmons suggested that if customers, by way of a questionnaire, could rate guides booked through Mattamuskeet Lodge based on the quality of their service, high-ranking guides would be able to earn valuable “preferred guide” status. Other than perhaps a finders’ fee, Simmons added that he does not envision the lodge charging to promote anyone, but instead, it would involve customers endorsing good service providers.

Although Simmons said he believes that a public-private partnership offers the best chance to make the lodge viable, he said it is important that it not become completely private.

“That’s crucial, too,” he said. “The people have a certain amount of feeling of ownership of that lodge and are very proud of it.”

Learn More

• Read the Economic Development Report
• Read the Wildlife Resource Commission’s Report

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission unanimously approved an agreement with the service, which currently manages the refuge, that gives the commission a say in such issues as water-quality studies, wildlife habitat restoration and lake levels.

The agreement is merely intended to “enhance management of and communication concerning” the 50,000-acre refuge, according to documents in the  commission’s agenda packet. The condition of the lake and the health of its fish and wildlife are “in question” and “of great interest to both agencies and the public.” Increased collaboration would lead to improved conditions, according to the document that also defines areas of authority in the five-year plan.

Funding for improvements and other expenses is to be covered in a separate agreement.

The deal has raised eyebrows among wildlife conservationists. The refuge was created in 1934 to protect migrating waterfowl. Tens of thousands of snow geese and tundra swans spend their winters around the shallow lake. Audubon North Carolina says the deal is bad for the birds and other wildlife in and around the state’s largest natural lake. The organization says it’s part of a plan to gain state control to promote the lake for fishing and boating rather than managing the refuge for waterfowl and migratory birds.

“While Audubon supports fishing and healthy fisheries, waterfowl managers have clearly pointed out that artificially high water levels would harm ducks, geese, and swans by preventing the growth of aquatic vegetation on the bottom of the shallow lake during the summer and early fall, which would eliminate essential food for the waterfowl during the winter,” according to Audubon N.C.

Learn More

• Lake Mattamuskeet agreement

Photo of the Week: May 11-17, 2015

Photograph by Debby Gleeson of Jacksonville.

Photographer Debby Glesson writes, “Islands in Lake Mattamuskeet on a winters day, water so calm it reflected and gave me time to do the same. God has made an awesome world and we need to take care of it.”

Lake Mattamuskeet recorded a record number of ducks, geese and swans last year despite declining water quality. Photo: FWS

SWAN QUARTER — Lake Mattamuskeet, the state’s largest natural lake, is troubled. Its good vegetation has been depleted while its bad plants are thriving. It has questionable water quality. It might or might not be too shallow, too salty and suffering impacts from climate change.

Everyone is worried, but no one can definitely say what’s going on in the lake because little long-term data exists.

Although the 18-mile long, 7-mile wide lake is the centerpiece of 50,000-acre Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, money over the years for studies of water flow, salinity and nutrient levels, fish stocks and historic rain and flood trends has been inconsistent or nonexistent.

The lake attracts thousands of wintering tundra swans, Canada geese, snow geese, pintails and mallards, as well as less common bald eagles and ospreys. Of the 800 or so species of wildlife that are found at the refuge, there are more than 200 bird species that nest there all or part of the year. The most recent survey in January recorded more than 200,000 ducks, geese and swans on the refuge, a record number, according to a refuge press release.

But the lake is also renowned for its great fishing, especially its notably huge blue crabs. Much to the chagrin of fishermen, its herring, eel and largemouth bass fisheries have diminished, and it is not known whether any one of them is recovering.  The lake also has been overrun by phragmites, an invasive and opportunistic reed plaguing many wetlands in North Carolina.

To address increasing concerns about the health of the lake’s ecosystem, a meeting was held by the refuge in November to present “scientific information about the water quality, fish and bird species and management of the lake and canals. In response, a meeting was held in late January by a group of stakeholders called Save Mattamuskeet Lake.

“Prior to 2002, it was world-class bass fishing, “said Mark Carawan, a founder of the group and an owner of a motel on N.C. 94, which intersects the lake. “The birdwatchers are even complaining – you can ride across Lake Road and you don’t see (any) waterfowl.”

N,C, 94 bisects the lake. The eastern, larger, half has better water quality and more underwater grasses than the other half. Map: FWS

Carawan said his tackle shop went from selling $10,000 a month of minnows from March through June 2002, to a total of $300 in those months last year.

The group contends that the refuge is mismanaging the flow of water in and out of the lake, resulting in high salinity, shallow water and poor conditions for submerged aquatic plants that are critical food for waterfowl. A big part of the problem, the group says, are the gates that allow too much brackish water in from Pamlico Sound and too much fresh water to escape.

“I want them to replace the gates where the water will stay in the lake for a certain period of time,” Carawan said, “to be kept at a level that will sustain the bass fishery.”

But Pete Campbell, the refuge manager, said that keeping the lake high would almost certainly have negative effects and could not even be considered without further study.

Numerous gates on canals between the sound and the lake open and close depending on the pressure exerted from water levels on each side. The structures are intended to keep salt water from coming into the lake and allow excess water in the lake to be directed to the sound rather than flood farmlands.

Lake levels fluctuate with wind tides, which create beneficial seasonal variations in depth, according to a statement from the nonprofit Friends of Pocosin Lakes. The outflow also removes excessive phosphorus from the lake, while letting in migratory fish and crabs.

“During the growing season,” the statement said, “the exposed portions of the lake green up with grasses and sedges that are critical food for waterfowl. Meanwhile, even in dry years, most of the lake is deep enough to support the growth of submerged aquatic vegetation, which is also eaten by waterfowl.”

With less flushing and deeper water, algal blooms are more likely, Campbell said, because if light can’t reach the bottom of the lake – blocked by sediment or algal growth – the plants can’t grow.

Pete Campbell

Based on a grandfather clause that has been upheld in court, agricultural lands surrounding Mattamuskeet are allowed to drain into the lake, the refuge manager said.  It is not entirely understood what, if any, effect the field runoff has had on water quality, fish populations or underwater plants. There is not enough data to show the quantity or quality of the runoff, Campbell said.

“You’ve got herbicides, you’ve got pesticides, you’ve got fertilizers,“ he said. “Plus sediment loading.”

There is a significant difference between the east and west sides of the lake, he said, probably because the west does not flush as well due to unsuitable drainage. About 70 percent of the east side is covered by underwater plants, Campbell explained. On that side, there are three canals oriented in the direction of the prevailing wind, promoting flushing. On the west, only one canal is well positioned to allow flushing.

The gates in the canals are designed to keep salt water from coming into the lake, Campbell said, but there is no capacity to pump water out. In the past, some of gates had leaked or been clogged with debris.

In summer, the lake’s water level, which averages two feet in depth – naturally drops, Campbell said. The only input is rain and runoff, and the high evaporation rate is very high.

“You have high water in the winter and the spring and lower water naturally in the summer,” Campbell said. “So we don’t manage the lake. The lake manages the lake.”

Since 2012, the refuge, with the assistance of the U.S. Geological Survey, has been monitoring salinity on both sides of the lake. Salinity in the lake proper ranges from 0.4 to 1.5 parts per 1,000, Campbell said, compared to Pamlico Sound at 16-20 parts per 1,000.

“This lake has always been not 100 percent fresh,” he said. “There has always has been a little bit of salinity in the lake. That’s why, historically, fresh and saltwater species have always been found in the lake.”

Wild celery is the dominant underwater grass in the lake and an important food for waterfowl. Photo: USGS

The dominant submerged plant is wild celery, which likes salinity to be zero or very low, Campbell noted.

In the 1980s, Campbell said, the hinged cypress gates were replaced by unhinged stop log gates. Those were less effective at moving water out when the lake level was high from rain or pushed up by wind. Consequently, the lake was unusually high, making boating a lot easier. They were eventually replaced by metal gates with larger openings.

“They are hearkening back to that time,” he said about the sportsmen who prefer high water.

Campbell said there were big negatives to the gate design used in the 1980s and that the fishing group now favors. During storms, he said, water can’t move out fast enough, increasing the risk of flooding.  And they cut off access to crabs and herring. The result, he said, was the herring run crashed and the blue crab population declined. 

In 2010, the refuge put in side gates to promote access for saltwater species that come into the lake, but especially to improve access for herring. Ever since then the lake has been able to flush itself, he said. Crab population rebounded, but additional data is needed to determine the status of the eel and herring fisheries.

Campbell said the refuge has put together a group of scientists to conduct more study of fisheries and water quality issues.

John Stanton, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supervisory wildlife biologist, said that before the 1950s, the lake had a large population of carp that was the target of a commercial gill net fishery for about eight years. After the carp were removed, he said, biologists noticed that the submerged vegetation on the east side had been re-established. Less than five years later, the musk grass doubled to about 14,000 acres.

Wild celery was introduced in the late 1950s, Stanton said. Today it is well established, along with muskgrass, redhead grass and pond grass. On the east side, 76 percent of the submerged plants are healthy. On the west side there is only 13 percent coverage.

The hunting season on the lake keeps restaurants full in Hyde County. Photo: N.C. Sportsman

“It’s markedly different,” Stanton said.  “I was out there in 1994. It’s changed a lot. It was obvious to me that something has been going on in the last 20 years but noticeably so in the last decade.”

Starting in 1989, he said, the refuge began taking plant surveys every two to three years, but there was a big gap between 2004 and 2013 because of cuts in staffing. Stanton said that it’s not clear what has caused the decrease in underwater plants on the west side but it could be related to runoff from farm fields and bird impoundments.

All along, the management of the refuge, he said, has been hobbled by budget shortfalls. For instance, much is not known about drainage patterns and volume, but installation of testing equipment in the drainage canals would be very costly.

“We didn’t have those kinds of funds,” Stanton said. “We tried to do the bare minimum, to do what we had to do. You kind of work with what you’ve got.”

Stanton said the refuge has got some “rough, crude” information on water quality but needs quantitative information.  The health of the submerged plants in the lake, he said, serves as a sort of canary-in-the-coal-mine as to the lake’s overall health.

“The bottom line is they’re adding nutrients,” he said. “We don’t really know what nutrients.”         

Farmer Blythe Davis, a native of Hyde County who has been farming for 37 years, said that the water-quality problems in the lake are largely caused by people who pump their drainage directly into the lake – which he does not do.

Davis said that the issue with the water level in the lake comes up every few years, but proponents seem to be pushing harder now.  But if the water level in the lake is raised, he said it could change the marsh and cause jurisdictional issues with the Army Corps of Engineers. As it is now, the lake is barely above sea level.

Bill Rich

In the past, Davis said, the high water probably led to algal blooms and depletion of herring and eel.

“They might not get a real good trade-off, he said. “I think that they should leave the gates just like they are.”

Michelle Moorman, a hydraulic technician with U.S. Geological Survey, said that the lake has elevated levels of chlorophyll and nitrogen from nutrients.  “The question is why,” she said. “A lot of nutrients are in the sediment. So you still might have these issues. You can’t just cut off the source and expect the problem to go away overnight.”

Nutrient levels change throughout the year, she said, and are influenced by numerous factors, including the season, the water temperature and the layer of water it is measured from. Sources can include animal waste, fertilizers, septic system leaks and organic matter such as leaves and insects.

Hyde County Manager Bill Rich said that the county passed a resolution in September in support of the refuge’s effort to study restoration of the lake. But he said he believes that the recreational users are an important part of the cure.

Rich, a Hyde native who has enjoyed crabbing and boating on Mattamuskeet, said that the lake is the county’s most popular mainland tourist attraction and is an important revenue producer for the county, one of the poorest in the state.  The lake is “perfectly situated,” he said, within miles of Fairfield, Engelhard and Swan Quarter, the county seat.

During the recent duck hunting season, Rich said, as many as 2,000 hunters came to the Mattamuskeet area, filling every motel room and every restaurant seat available.

“We’ve got to create a situation where the duck hunters are happy, where there’s fish for the fishermen, birds for the birdwatchers,” he said. “And that can be done.”