Third in a series

Another year brought another wave of arguments over shellfish leases in North Carolina coastal waters.

Before summer officially began, legislators added language to a bill that would temporarily ban new leases in the waters behind Topsail Island. This provision was tacked onto legislation originally written to extend New Hanover County’s shellfish lease moratorium another five years, through to 2031.

This was the second consecutive year that representatives from Topsail Island’s three towns attempted to pause new leases in Stump and Topsail sounds.

House Bill 1113, sponsored by Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover, also included a provision to extend a moratorium on new shellfish leases in Carteret County’s Bogue Sound until July 1, 2028. The bill was withdrawn from the legislative calendar and sent to the House rules committee on June 18. It hasn’t moved since.

New Hanover County’s request to continue blocking new leases from its waters was tucked into the state budget Gov. Josh Stein signed July 7. The law grants the county a two-year extension, not the five years originally sought.

That’s two more years that prospective shellfish farmers or those looking to expand their business will remain shut out of the waters in North Carolina’s two southernmost coastal counties. Brunswick County has had a shellfish lease moratorium in place since Harry S. Truman was in the White House.

Lease moratoria and poor water quality have resulted in areas closed to shellfish harvesting farther north, effectively bottlenecking growers into waterways that are still open, including those around Topsail Island in Onslow and Pender counties.

Clashes over shared public waters are not likely to ebb with the tide as North Carolina’s aquaculture or mariculture industry expands.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries received by its Aug. 1 deadline 49 shellfish lease applications for six counties: Carteret, Dare, Hyde, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender, according to information provided by the division.

New lease applications cover a combined 55 acres of bottom and water columns. That includes 15.75 acres in Bogue Sound, where what turned out to be a seven-year moratorium expired on July 1.

In total, six lease applications were submitted for Onslow and Pender counties – four for Onslow and two for Pender.

“We have heard from some private residents and also some fishing guides and some commercial interests about their concerns about, in particular, column leases,” said William Snyder, chair of the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission. “We know that those concerns are still out there. I think that you could say that there’s some disappointment that we were not able to get the moratorium first and then get a study to confirm or deny the concerns that we have.”

Balancing act

On a positive note, he said, two studies on shellfish leasing — one commissioned by the General Assembly and one lead by North Carolina Sea Grant in partnership with the Coastal Federation — are examining how to balance future shellfish lease site selections, help shape future policy to protect the industry, and ease user conflicts.

“We’ve got to hang our hats on how these studies play out and listen to see what that tells us in terms of conflicting uses of our public trust waters,” Snyder said.

The North Carolina Collaboratory is expected to present an interim report on its study at year’s end.

Last week, Sea Grant and the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, launched an online survey asking oysters growers in Pender and Onslow counties to share their experiences and perspectives on the use of public trust waters.

The organizations are hosting a meeting next month for shellfish growers.

Back in April, local elected officials, private property owners and recreational water users were invited a public meeting with Sea Grant and Coastal Federation representatives to discuss their concerns about leases in Stump and Topsail sounds.

People at that meeting overwhelmingly expressed worries about water column leases, or those where shellfish growers use floating gear to grow oysters at the water’s surface. Floating cages, they argued, impede boating and kayaking access, infringe on popular fishing spots, and impact waterfront viewsheds.

Recommendations shared with Sea Grant and Coastal Federation staff will help shape updates to the North Carolina Strategic Plan for Shellfish Mariculture, a plan commissioned by the General Assembly in 2017. This document is effectively the state’s roadmap for a sustainable shellfish industry.

The organizations also anticipate publishing next year a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database pinpointing areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind Topsail Island.

“It’s important to acknowledge that many residents have some concerns about navigation and access and those are important to take into consideration as part of the conversation, just as the benefits of shellfish aquaculture,” Coastal Federation Chief Program Officer Ana Živanović-Nenadović told Coastal Review last month. “But ideally, those conversations should happen without having to close water bodies to new leases.”

Days after Bogue Sound’s shellfish lease moratorium expired, Carteret County Commissioner Marianne Waldroup and Rep. Celeste Cairns, R-Carteret, held a meeting with state fisheries officials, aquaculture specialists, marine scientists, the N.C. Fisheries Association and other stakeholders to discuss ways to minimize potential user conflicts in the sound.

Carteret Community College Aquaculture Department Chair David Cerino attended that meeting.

Cerino, who also grows shellfish, explained that there aren’t that many sites ideal for shellfish aquaculture in Bogue Sound. Areas dense with submerged aquatic vegetation, or plants that grow under water, portions of the waterway permanently closed around the Morehead City port, and areas closed to unexploded military ordnance, cut down lease space, he said.

“I think once it was shared that there wouldn’t be leases everywhere because they can’t site them there, most of the town representatives were less opposed to it being open for leases,” Cerino said.

The group agreed to hold future talks about identifying low-conflict spots in Bogue Sound and potential buffer zones from the land.

A history of public opposition

About 34% of the state’s coastal waters are permanently closed to shellfish harvest because of pollution and lack of monitoring capacity, according to the 2021-25 Oyster Restoration and Protection Plan for North Carolina.

Today, 6% of coastal waters remain closed to new shellfish leases, according to the Division of Marine Fisheries.

New shellfish enterprises have been blocked from waters in Brunswick County since 1949. Farther north, new leases have not been permitted in Core Sound since the mid-1990s. In 1996, legislators approved a permanent ban on new leases in the sound.

Those moratoria were implemented because of public backlash that leases violate the public trust, according to an April 2020 division report.

“Historically, public opposition to shellfish leases resulting from user conflicts has been a major concern,” states the report. “Shellfish moratorium have been imposed in recent years in areas where user conflict issues have been especially acute.”

Cerino called moratoria a “knee-jerk reaction” and a “nuclear option of just eliminating something because you’re maybe worried about a specific circumstance.”

“What that does is it funnels people to the areas that are still open because a lot of people are wanting to get into this business,” he continued. “I would like to see a moratorium on moratoriums, but I’m biased. They basically take away the opportunity to establish sustainable businesses that have positive environmental impacts and employment opportunities and increase our seafood production and improve local economies and water quality. There are definitely areas where we shouldn’t have shellfish leases, but they are not entire sounds, entire waterbodies that should be closed off.”

The rise in user conflicts has driven up the numbers of legal challenges against the Division of Marine Fisheries, according to the report.

But no growth goes without challenge, Živanović-Nenadović said.

“I think our waterfronts are consistently changing with our human activity. When you build a marina, you change the waterfront,” she said. “When the Coastal Federation builds a living shoreline, we change the waterfront. It’s important to always remember that those are valid and compatible uses of our public trust water bodies and have been deemed to have benefit to society, and that’s why they’re allowed and why we have a public permitting system in place for those uses.”

The challenge, she said, has been and continues to be bringing people together “to get to a point of shared values and understanding and accepting that these water bodies are for everybody to use.”

In 2019, the General Assembly charged the fisheries division with identifying potential shellfish aquaculture enterprise areas, or SEAs, in waters closed to new leases. SEAs are designed to speed up shellfish lease permitting and help reduce user conflicts by grouping leases in large pre-permitted areas.

The state had not established one of these areas at the time this story was published.

North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Coastal Federation are inviting oyster growers in Pender and Onslow counties to share their experiences and perspectives on the use of public trust waters.

The information gathered through a survey and focus groups will help ensure that future recommendations for shellfish mariculture development are grounded in the practical experiences of North Carolina’s shellfish growers while supporting a balanced approach to coastal resource management.

North Carolina Sea Grant is leading this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-funded project in partnership with the Coastal Federation to improve future shellfish lease siting in North Carolina. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Through surveys, focus groups, and participatory mapping exercises with oyster growers and other coastal stakeholders, the project will examine potential use conflicts with commercial and recreational fishing, boating, waterfront property owners, and other coastal water users. The goal is to identify practical solutions to help inform future shellfish lease siting. Additionally, findings will support policy recommendations ensuring future siting decisions are informed by both stakeholder input and real-world experience on the water. 

In addition to the survey, North Carolina Sea Grant and the Federation will host two focus groups for oyster growers from Pender and Onslow counties in September. The discussions will provide an opportunity for growers to expand on their survey responses, participate in mapping exercises, share local knowledge, and discuss opportunities and challenges related to shellfish lease siting with project partners. 

Oyster growers in Pender and Onslow counties interested in participating are encouraged to complete the survey and indicate their interest in attending a focus group at the end of the questionnaire. Meeting details and location information will be sent to those who register. 

Elevated levels of a federally deemed likely cancer-causing substance were detected in a sample collected earlier this month from a municipal wastewater treatment plant that discharges into the Cape Fear River Basin.

The N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources announced Wednesday it had been notified that elevated 1,4-dioxane levels were discharged from Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant into Hasketts Creek, which empties into the Deep River.

A sample collected by the plant July 10 detected a concentration of 2,010 parts per billion, or ppb, of 1-4 dioxane, an industrial chemical used for a variety of purposes.

For downstream water supplies to remain safe, DEQ has determined the Asheboro plant should keep its monthly average 1,4-dioxane discharge at or below 22 ppb. DEQ uses U.S. Environmental Protection Agency toxicity calculations for lifetime exposure to determine safe levels of 1,4-dioxane discharges.

State water resources officials have taken additional sampling since July 10 and are awaiting to confirm the results of those samples, according to a release.

The Division of Water Resources has notified several downstream drinking water utilities about the elevated levels. Those utilities include Bladen Bluffs Water System, Brunswick County, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, the city of Dunn, Fayetteville Public Works Commission, Harnett Regional Water, International Paper Co., Pender County, Pilgrim’s Pride Water System and the city of Sandford.

“DEQ continues to monitor the levels of 1,4-dioxane discharged by wastewater treatment plants in the Cape Fear River Basin,” according to a release. “Significant reductions have occurred at one wastewater treatment plant through a collaborative effort with municipal operators. DEQ continues to work with the remaining municipal operators.”

Asheboro and division officials are in an ongoing court battle over the division’s inclusion of 1,4-dioxane discharge limits in city’s August 2023 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit.

In early February, a Wake County Superior Court judge ruled that the limits set by the state were properly included in the plant’s discharge permit. Asheboro appealed and the limits are stayed until the case is heard by the Court of Appeals.

Second in a series

SNEADS FERRY – The easy chatter of shellfish farmers gearing up for another day of work broke through an otherwise quiet morning landside of the lower New River’s sun-gleamed waters.

The air that early June day still hung cool over the small marina a handful of shellfish growers share as their waterfront hub in this storied fishing village in Onslow County.

Though they run independent shellfishing businesses, this tightknit group supports one another, sharing a passion for what they do for a living and the hardships that come with it.

“This just happened naturally,” oysterman Cody Faison of Ghost Fleet Oyster Co. said before firing up the motor of his well-weathered skiff. “Oyster farming, they’re stronger as communities. What you find here is five farmers who help each other out.”

Like Faison, many of the folks working shellfish leases in Onslow and Pender’s coastal waterways are first-generation aquatic farmers, men and women in an industry challenged by seasonal shellfish mortality events, water quality impacts, and, as of late, fewer areas in which they can farm.

“Part of the reason that all these farms are here is because they can’t go north and they can’t go south,” Faison said.

Temporary and permanent shellfish lease moratoriums in coastal counties to the north and south of Topsail Island have pushed growers to the waters of Topsail Island. The steady increase in shellfish leases has amplified concerns among property owners, boaters, and recreational fishers who argue shellfish farms, particularly those with floating cages, restrict access to prime fishing locations, obstruct scenic waterfront views, and create navigational hazards.

This is the second year in which local officials are pushing for a temporary shellfish lease moratorium in the waters behind Topsail Island.

On Tuesday afternoon, the House Rules, Calendar, and Operations Committee passed proposed House Bill 1113 sponsored by Rep. Ted Davis, R-New Hanover. The bill aims to extend New Hanover County’s shellfish lease moratorium by another five years, appropriate a one-time, $10,000 fund for public education activities related to that county’s lease pause, extend a leasing moratorium in Bogue Sound to July 1, 2028, and impose a two-year moratorium on new leases in parts of Onslow and Pender counties until July 1, 2028.

“This will not prohibit people from going out and getting oysters,” Davis said in the committee meeting Tuesday. “What this prohibits is any more of these new things being put into the water. And, I will say that one of the concerns is the fact, you know, people have the right to use the water. It’s a public trust, and when these cages are put up, it can inhibit people’s enjoyment of that public trust. I know where I live, if a boat was to hit one of these cages, it could be bad. If somebody water skiing on a jet ski, or anything else, hits one of these cages, it’s going to be bad.”

Growers argue a moratorium in Stump and Topsail sounds would only put the squeeze on areas that do not have moratoriums, including waters around Newport, Morehead City and Beaufort.

Faison is not alone in worrying that language in the proposed bill, which currently targets the sounds directly behind Topsail Island, might be changed to include all waters in Pender and Onslow counties, a move that would shut down new leases in bays and creeks in the New River.

“What if this moratorium goes from two to 10 years?” Faison asked during a recent tour of shellfish leases in the lower New River, where he farms a 4-acre water column lease in Traps Bay.

Faison worked his way up to this lease, starting out in the business roughly six years ago by subleasing from a fellow farmer in Topsail Sound. He personally believes the state should promote subleasing. He encourages anyone considering entering the business to go that route.

He doesn’t judge which types of gear or leases other growers use. Farmers who use Seapa baskets, which are smaller and weigh less than typical, heavy-duty wire-mesh floating cages, suspend the baskets from lines that they attach to PVC pipes. That’s why some water column shellfish lease farms are so populated with the pipes, Faison explained.

Faison’s lease is dotted primarily with low-profile floating bags, a method he has found that works best for him.

“This is the future,” he said as he coasted his boat next to a line of bags in his lease. “I think this is going to be my success. I’m not saying this is right for every other farmer.”

For North Carolina oyster farmers, floating gear is the only method for producing the much-sought, high-quality oyster that looks just as pretty on the plate as it tastes, he said. Oysters must be symmetrical, their outer shells clean and barnacle-free.

“We’re all growing oysters for the raw bar, and you can’t do that on the bottom,” Faison said. “There’s no other way to do it. We don’t have enough tide swing.”

Floating gear allows farmers to replicate low tide, giving oysters a twice-daily dry spell that helps them build stronger shells, deter barnacles, and extend their shelf life.

Those North Carolina-grown, presentation-perfect oysters served to customers at area raw bars cost a pretty penny to cultivate.

“Oyster farming is a very tough way to make money,” Faison said. “I think people think we’re out here just killing it.”

According to an economic analysis published in 2024, the average startup cost to launch an off-bottom oyster farm ranges from less than $60,000 for a single line of floating bags to more than $200,000 for 24 lines.

“The total annual cost, including depreciation and interest on invested capital, labor, fuel, seed and other expenses, is estimated to range from approximately $50,000 to operate a single line of floating bags to approximately $250,000 to operate twenty-four lines,” the study states.

As boats go, the 19-footer that Faison bought off a local fisherman is about as basic as they come. There’s no console. No seats — just a couple of stacks of colorful baskets placed to one side of the otherwise flat-bottomed, open vessel.

“Is the better way to look at this a lot more moratoriums or more strict on the DMF side?” Faison said, referring to the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries, which permits shellfish leases. “I don’t know the answer. I don’t know that any of us quite yet know how to bridge this gap. Instead of trying to fight for really positive change, we’re just fighting. We’re strong as this big, massive group of people working together for a common goal.”

Newly constructed lanes of the Hampstead bypass in Pender County are set to permanently open next week.

On the evening of May 28, both southbound lanes of U.S. 17 near Leeward Lane will be directed to the new roadway before connecting back to the highway near Vista Lane through Hampstead, according to a N.C. Department of Transportation release.

Northbound traffic will continue to be routed through the current traffic pattern. Local motorists who need access to Transfer Station Road from U.S. 17 should use alternate routes.

DOT continues to advise motorists to slow down and use caution while traveling near the work zone.

The first segment of the U.S.17 Hampstead bypass from N.C. 210 to Sloop Point Loop Road is expected to open in late 2027.

The long-awaited bypass will increase connection and improve traffic flow along the U.S. 17 corridor.

The estimated $490 million project is expected to be completed in 2030.

Part of an ongoing series on North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

More than 40 stops in eight southeastern North Carolina counties are being highlighted as part of the 250th commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The program, “The Roadmap to Freedom: Your NC First in Freedom Celebrations Guide,” is a passport booklet featuring historical, cultural and natural destinations, including the Wilmington Railroad Museum, Missiles and More Museum, N.C. Maritime Museum in Southport, Duplin County Veterans Museum and Flying Machine Brewing Co.

Moores Creek Battleground Association and the First in Freedom Festival have coordinated the program launched during the inaugural North Carolina First in Freedom Festival held the last week in February, which culminated with a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge at Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County.

“The passport, which is valid through Dec. 31, offers day-trip adventures to the region’s hidden gems,” said Jim Buell, president of the Moores Creek Battleground Association in a statement. “Each destination highlights a piece of America’s 250th anniversary.”

Moores Creek Battleground Association formed in 1857 and was chartered in 1899 to preserve the significance of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge. The battle in the early hours of Feb. 27, 1776, was the first decisive victory by patriots in the American Revolution.

“The passport program launched during the First in Freedom Festival kickoff in February,” Buell said. “I have a First in Freedom Passport, and it has been an enjoyable experience to be a tourist in our own backyard.”

Related: Rainy remembrance marks Revolution’s first decisive win

The passport functions like a traditional travel passport, Buell explained.

At each location, visitors receive a stamp and signature verifying their visit. After visiting most or all sites, participants may return their passport to the battlefield to become eligible for prizes at the end of the year, which include America 250 items based on the number of sites visited, from a commemorative pin to a T-shirt.

Jason Collins, chief of interpretation, education and volunteers at Moores Creek National Battlefield, said they’ve had their first participants to complete passport program.

“This couple traveled to more than 40 sites in southeastern North Carolina and explored more than 250 years of American history represented at these locations,” he said.

The Roadmap to Freedom Passport is available at participating destinations, Moores Creek National Battlefield, the Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce & Tourism, and members of the Wilmington Area Hospitality Association.

For more information, visit the webpage at ncfirstinfreedomfestival.com/passport. The effort is supported by America 250 NC, the state’s official commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary under the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Sites by County

Bladen

• Harmony Hall
• Lu Mil Vineyard
• Jones Lake State Park
• Singletary Lake
• Turnbull Creek
• Cape Fear Winery and Distillery
• Goldston’s Beach and Pier
• Bladenboro Historical Museum

Brunswick

• Bald Head Lighthouse
• Brunswicktown/Fort Anderson State Historic Site
• NC Maritime Museum at Southport
• Museum of Coastal Carolina
• Ingram Planetarium

Columbus

• NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Whiteville
• Lake Waccamaw State Park

Duplin

• Cowan Museum
• Liberty Hall
• Duplin County Veterans Museum

New Hanover

• Bellamy Mansion
• Battleship North Carolina
• Wilmington Railroad Museum
• Fort Fisher State Historic Site
• Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens
• Cameron Art Museum
• Latimer House
• Airlie Gardens
• Children’s Museum of Wilmington
• Flying Machine Brewery

Onslow

• Hammocks Beach State Park
• Onslow County Museum
• Onslow County Parks and Recreation
• Swansboro Historical Association
• Sturgeon City Environmental Education Center
• Jacksonville City Hall

Pender

• Missiles and More Museum
• Moores Creek National Battlefield
• Sara Beasley Turtle Center
• Pender County History Museum
• Poplar Grove Plantation

Sampson

• Sampson County History Museum
• Coharie Tribal Center

Paddle back in time and experience the historically rich area along Moores Creek, a slow-moving blackwater situated along an 88-acre national park that commemorates the Revolutionary War.

Cape Fear River Watch and Moores Creek National Battlefield invite participants to join in a roughly 2.5-mile, out-and-back paddle on May 16 in celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.

The trip will offer an experience of the creek as it was in 1776, beginning at the battlefield, passing under a historic bridge, and then into untouched cypress swamps.

Moores Creek flows into the Black River, a major tributary of the Cape Fear River.

The paddle will be followed by lunch (bring your own) in the park where, afterward, a park ranger will take participants on an exclusive history tour.

Moores Creek National Battlefield commemorates the Feb. 27, 1776 battle between Patriots and Loyalist militia. The national park in Pender County is where the Patriots won their first major victory.

Those interested in the paddle may register online.

Cape Fear River Watch has a limited number of boats (single kayaks) available and asks for a donation of $25 per boat, including personal flotation device and paddle. If you prefer to use one of the organization’s kayaks, indicate that when you register.

Anyone who prefers to paddle in a tandem kayak may make that request to Riverkeeper Kemp Burdette prior to registering for the paddle at kemp@cfrw.us.

Paddlers who bring their own kayaks are asked to contribute a $10 donation either online when registering or by cash or check the day of the paddle. Donations help cover the costs of Cape Fear River Watch programs, including its paddle series, water quality monitoring, and educational seminars.

Participants should meet at the Moores Creek National Battlefield Patriots Hall parking lot no later than 8:30 a.m.

Paddlers are encouraged to bring snack and lunch, sunscreen, bug spray, sunglasses, hat, and water shoes.

Those who register should check their email the night before and the morning of the paddle to make sure the event has not been canceled.

A temporary traffic signal is being installed next week near the island roundabout at N.C. 50 and N.C. 210 in Surf City to help alleviate congestion as the summer tourism season nears.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation and Surf City are piloting the signal beginning May 6 and it will remain in place for at least two weeks, with an option to extend if officials find it is helping ease the flow of traffic.

Motorists crossing the bridge onto the island will be stopped at the temporary traffic light before entering the roundabout, allowing more time for vehicles on the island to get through the roundabout, according to a DOT release.

“With the busy season approaching, we understand the increased demand on the roundabout and the congestion it’s causing,” Michelle Howes, DOT Division 3 deputy division engineer stated. “We, along with our Town of Surf City partners, are piloting this approach that was recently identified in a feasibility study. Please be patient as we work towards a long-term solution.”

The town will install temporary barriers to limit pedestrian crossing in the roundabout. Signed detour routes will be placed out for pedestrians.

“Efforts to increase traffic efficiency are greatly appreciated by the Town, and we look forward to working with NCDOT to pilot this project,” Surf City Town Manager Kyle Brewer said in a release. “The Town will evaluate the effectiveness of this application for potential future decision making as we continue to work with all partners to resolve traffic congestion.”

DOT officials will analyze the effectiveness of the temporary signal and explore whether it may be suitable as a long-term solution.

The agency encourages drivers to slow day, pay close attention to the signal and follow all signage.

Share your experiences and learn more about the issues surrounding shellfish aquaculture in Stump Sound and Topsail Sound next week during an informational presentation and listening session.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant are hosting the session from 1 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the town council’s chambers at the Surf City Municipal Complex, 214 W. Florence Way, Hampstead.

“Your feedback will help shape a balanced, informed path forward,” according to a promotional flier for the event.

The session will cover conflicts and perceived and actual problems regarding shellfish leases, such as those associated with viewshed and property values, navigation and safety, congestion and density.

“We know coastal waters mean different things to different people, and we want to hear from you,” according to the flier.

Coastal Federation Advocate Kerri Allen and Sea Grant Extension Director Frank Lopez are to facilitate the session, which is to be a scripted presentation and listening session, not a public hearing.

In April 2025, Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, introduced legislation to require a statewide study on shellfish leasing and current lease moratoriums. That measure, House Bill 841, was cleared by the House but stalled in the Senate, where it passed a first vote but was then referred on May 7, 2025, to the rules committee, where it remains.

Organizers of the listening session noted that space is limited and registration is required.

Those unable to attend but who wish to share their input may submit comments to https://forms.gle/sCJ1uLGCgbhig6Zr8.

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Millions will be awarded to broadband providers across rural North Carolina to connect homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions to high-speed internet access.

The governor’s office announced last week that $26 million will go to bring 5,161 rural homes, businesses and community anchor institutions in 66 counties access to high-speed internet infrastructure by the end of the year through the Stop-Gap Solutions program.

A part of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity, the program administers funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to coverage gaps in internet access. This is done by targeting broadband line extensions to reach individuals and small pockets of homes and businesses in hard-to-reach areas.

“These broadband projects will ensure more families can soon access telehealth, students can complete their homework, businesses can compete in larger markets, and communities can thrive,” Gov. Josh Stein said in the release. “I am committed to improving broadband access across the state and making sure no community is left behind.”

On the coast, FOCUS Broadband, also known as Atlantic Telephone Membership Cooperative, has been selected to receive $1.65 million to connect 145 locations in Duplin and Pender counties.

Connect Holding II, LLC, doing business as Brightspeed, will be awarded $1.68 million to connect 2,439 locations in Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Hertford, Hyde, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Tyrrell and Washington counties on the coast. Other counties to benefit from this award are Alamance, Bladen, Caldwell, Caswell, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Franklin, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Jones, Martin, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, Northampton, Orange, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Rockingham, Sampson, Stokes, Surry, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wayne and Wilson counties.

HarvestBeam Inc., a broadband provider for rural North Carolina, will receive $413,260 for 95 locations in Craven and Pitt counties.

Roanoke Connect Holdings, operating as Fybe internet provider, will be awarded $2.4 million to connect 826 locations in Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton counties. 

Wilkes & RiverStreet Networks has been selected to receive $959,828 to connect 306 locations in Camden, Currituck, Stokes and Wilkes counties.

Other providers to be awarded serve customers in Alexander, Bladen, Buncombe, Durham, Henderson, Hoke, Iredell, Forsyth, Jackson, Macon, Orange, Robeson, Rowan, Sampson, Scotland, Swain, Transylvania and Yadkin counites.

“High-speed internet access is the foundation for health care delivery, public safety operations, workforce development, and economic growth in our state,” Teena Piccione, NCDIT secretary and state chief information officer, said. “This program allows us to move with urgency and precision to connect more North Carolinians.”

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality State Energy Office has set a public hearing next month on a state program that provides free weatherization services for income-eligible households.

Comments will be accepted on the proposed adoption of the New North Carolina Project, a nonprofit founded to increase civic engagement among underserved communities and to act as the service provider to a regional territory that includes Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender and Wayne counties. 

The N.C. Weatherization Assistance Program, funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aims to reduce energy bills and increase home comfort and safety by providing free weatherization services for eligible households.

The state program in 2021 was appropriated $89 million for enhancing energy efficiency in income-eligible households throughout the state. In March 2023, DEQ held a hearing on the proposed plan, which was approved by the U.S. Department of Energy in August of that same year.

DEQ has conditionally approved the New North Carolina Project to be the region’s service. The organization will be awarded about $5 million to be the regional service providers until 2029 or funds are depleted.

The hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. April 8 at the DEQ Green Square Office Building, training room No. 1210, 217 West Jones St. in Raleigh.

To join the hearing by Webex link to https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=m21fb07102030a6f681df2f99a5537f0c and use meeting number/access code 2438 254 6635. You may also join by phone at  +1-415-655-0003 with meeting password ncwap (62927 when dialing from a phone).

The hearing officer may limit speaking times to accommodate all speakers.

The agency is also accepting public comments by mail to DEQ Weatherization Assistance Program, 1613 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1613, or by email to seo.publiccomments@deq.nc.gov, with “2026 NNCP Comment” in the subject line.  

All comments must be postmarked, emailed or hand-delivered no later than April 10.

Additional hearing documentation is available at www.deq.nc.gov/wap-hearings. 

Part of an ongoing series on coastal North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

The patriot victory over loyalist forces at the Battle of Moores Creek in the early morning of Feb. 27, 1776, set North Carolina up to be one of the first colonies to vote for independence from British Rule.

That bloody battle in a Pender County swamp is considered the first decisive win of the American Revolution and is commemorated every year with a wreath-laying ceremony by the National Park Service and regional partners at Moores Creek National Battlefield.

This year, the commemoration was expanded to two days, Feb. 27-28, and anchored the weeklong inaugural First in Freedom Festival held Feb. 21-28. Taking place at historical sites, museums and other locations in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Sampson counties, the festival was supported by the state’s official celebration of independence, America 250 NC, under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The weekend was both somber and celebratory, with a wreath-laying ceremony that began the two-day commemoration, living history demonstrations with both loyalist and patriot reenactors who camped on the grounds near the earthworks built by patriots for the battle, a ribbon-cutting for two new exhibits in the visitor center, and special guest, Diana Gabaldon, creator of “Outlander.”

“Outlander,” both a series of books and a television show, is about a World War II nurse who travels through time to 18^th century Scotland, where she meets a young Highlander. The historical fiction series follows the couple from 1740s Scotland to the colony of North Carolina after the American Revolution.

While rainy conditions on the first day, Feb. 27, prevented a handful of the outdoor programs from taking place, including the weapons demonstrations. The weather, while still gloomy the next morning, allowed the sun to peek out later that day.

“Despite some challenges brought forward by the weather, the event was a great success, bringing over 17,500 visitors to Moores Creek National Battlefield during the event. The success was the result of a wonderful collaboration and partnership among the National Park Service, state and local partners, as well as volunteers, reenactors and living historians,” Battlefield Chief of Interpretation, Education and Volunteers Jason Collins told Coastal Review after the event.

With the steady pitter-patter of raindrops drummed on umbrellas and tents, leaves and puddles in the background, Michael Elston, president general of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, said from the podium during the wreath-laying ceremony that North Carolina was one of the earliest colonies to end royal rule and establish its freedom from Great Britain.

The last royal governor of the North Carolina Colony, Josiah Martin, fled to the safety of a royal naval ship in July 1775 and began plotting his return to power as head of an army of loyal colonists. “Unfortunately for Gov. Martin, he overestimated the support he had in North Carolina,” Elston said. About 1,600 loyalists answered met him in what is now Fayetteville and they began marching to the coast to join British forces.

Meanwhile, patriot forces maneuvered the loyalists toward Moores Creek Bridge, where they had established a strong position.

“The patriots fought on their terms and won an extremely short battle with only one man killed and another wounded in the aftermath,” Elston said, disrupting loyalist recruiting efforts in the state. “The battle put an end to loyalist organization in North Carolina, more than five months before the Declaration of Independence.”

Historic Halifax State Historic Site Assistant Site Manager Frank McMahon, also coordinator of the 3rd North Carolina reenacting group, took the podium as well, and filled in what happened next on the state’s road to freedom.

After the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, the people of North Carolina elected a provincial congress to lead the colony. The fourth provincial Congress, made up of 83 delegates representing 29 counties and six of North Carolina’s most populated towns, met in Halifax to define a new direction for the American Revolution.

On April 12, 1776, the members unanimously adopted the Halifax Resolves, the date for which on the North Carolina flag acting as a direct reminder of the significance of the event, McMahon said.

The document known as the Halifax Resolves was first read to the members of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June of 1776, and “would empower North Carolina’s members of the Continental Congress to collaborate with other united colonies to declare independence from Great Britain,” McMahon said.

McMahon took the opportunity to mention the next America 250 NC signature event, the “Halifax Resolves Days: Prelude to Revolution.” There will be living history activities, historic weapons demonstrations, guest speakers, food and live music at the site southeast just east of Interstate 95 near the Virginia line.

Special to the weekend is the original copy of the Halifax Resolves that was presented to the Continental Congress in 1776, on load from the National Archives. The document will be on display in the newly renovated historic Halifax State Historic Site visitor center.

Part of the afternoon activities was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to introduce two new exhibits in the visitor center.

Collins said from inside the building that the existing displays were installed in 2006 but only tell part of the story.

“A couple of the major parts of our history that we don’t get to tell are the stories of the naval stores and the story of music in this battle,” he said, which are the focus of the two new exhibits.

‘Outlander effect’

A “Weekend with Diana Gabaldon” featured three ticketed events, starting with “An Evening with Author Diana Gabaldon” Feb. 27 in Penderlea Auditorium in Willard, followed by a guided tour of the battlefield early Feb. 28, and concluded that afternoon with a book signing at a private venue. All events were sold out months ago.

During the evening program, Hunter Ingram, the assistant museum director for the colonial Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens, a 1770 structure open to the public, had a conversation with Gabaldon about how her path as a historical fiction writer brought her to Moores Creek and the influence her detailed accounts have had on tourism.

A lifelong and avid reader, Gabaldon said she knew at the age of 8 that she was supposed to write novels, “I just didn’t have any idea how.”

Before trying her hand at writing, Gabaldon pursued a career as a scientist, earning three degrees in the subject, including a master’s degree in marine biology and a doctorate in quantitative behavioral ecology. After she and her husband married, they just celebrated 54^th anniversary, they had three children in the space of four years.

“It was busy, and at this point in my life, and I’m not sure why, probably sleep deprivation, I decided that this was the time to start writing a novel,” Gabaldon said. “Two jobs and three small children and a husband who decided to quit his job and start his own business.”

The inspiration for “Outlander” came from a “really old rerun of ‘Doctor Who’ on public television,” she said. “Doctor Who” is British science fiction television series that began in 1963. 

“I was attracted, in this particular instance, to one of the doctor’s companions, who was a young Scotsman who appeared in his kilt, and I was thinking, ‘well, that’s kind of fetching’,” she explained, leading her to begin researching 18^th century Scotland.

“So that’s when I started writing ‘Outlander’,” she said, explaining that she opted for historical fiction because “it seemed easier to look things up than to make things up.”

She begins “Outlander,” the first book that was published in 1991, with “people disappear all the time.” The line came to her one day but wasn’t the first line she wrote.

“I was thinking, ‘Well, sure, they do, but why do they?’ and then the next couple of lines just sort of evolved. This is one reason. This is another reason. And it got more mysterious, and I was sitting there thinking, ‘Well, why do they disappear?’ And that’s why there’s time travel in these books.”

As for how the characters end up in North Carolina, it’s because she’s following history. After the Battle of Culloden April 1746 in the Scottish Highlands, she said there was no reason for her characters to go back to Scotland and brought them to the Americas. Culloden was the final conflict in the Jacobite Rising and is featured prominently in the series.

“I was following history,” she said and the Highlander migration across the state, which is how colonial historic sites became part of the “Outlander” story.

Ingram praises her detailed description of Moores Creek in “A Breath of Snow and Ashes,” which is set in 1770s North Carolina.

It is not often that there are examples of someone looking at the region’s history from the outside and making it part of something so globally beloved, he said, adding it’s an interesting way to look at not just Moores Creek, but local history in Wilmington, in the Cape Fear region, and across North Carolina.

“A lot of the historic sites have seen an impact from people being interested in ‘Outlander’,” Ingram said.

Gabaldon told the audience that she’s seen similar in Scotland and has been given honorary doctorate degrees for services to country by the University of Glasgow and the University of the Highlands, and the Scottish Government gave her a Thistle Award, which spotlights the tourism industry.

It is being called the “Outlander effect.”

She recounted that when the show first began filming, she was on set for about six weeks in a village near Glasgow. During lunch, she and another writer went to a café to buy sandwiches, but the shopkeeper didn’t have change. He then realized she is the creator of “Outlander,” and explained that she had had no idea what she had done for the economy there.  

Ingram said the effect has been noticeable at historic sites in the region and mentioned the discussion they when she was a special guest on the podcast he hosts for the Burgwin-Wright House called, “Outlander in the Cape Fear.”

He said that during the podcast, they discussed her impact and, “You said you felt it was a lovely side effect of the work that you’ve done, not just here in North Carolina — but we’re kind of biased that, you know, we want to see more people pay attention to our history — and so the fact that we’re all here on the 250th anniversary of Moores Creek today, I think, is a testament to what you’ve done.”

During the tour of the battlefield the next day with Historic Weapons Supervisor and Special Park Uses Coordinator Jason Howell and Gabaldon, Howell said something similar.

“She does a really good job of pulling you into the earthworks in the morning fog,” he said, adding how he remembered being captured by her writing. “And one thing Diana does is, she gets people like you interested in these sites. It’s from her viewpoint and it’s from an alternate viewpoint, but she captures your attention.”

And, as a result, he’s seen Outlander fans come to the site, who admit to not liking history that much but are interested in the battlefield.

More information on America 250 NC events, including details on the Halifax Resolves Days, can be found at america250.nc.gov.

By all accounts, it was bitterly cold in the wee hours of Feb. 27, 1776, when loyalists, soaked to the bone from enduring days of rainfall, began a 6-mile march through swampy muck and dense brush in present-day Pender County to seize a patriot camp on the west bank of Moores Creek Bridge.

The move to confront the patriots at the Black River Road bridge that crosses Moores Creek was an unplanned step in a larger strategy for England to recapture North Carolina, a plan British Royal Governor Josiah Martin coordinated when he lost control of the colony and was exiled in the first half of 1775, according to the National Park Service.

After Martin convinced his superiors that his plan to raise an army of 10,000 and march to the coast to join with British forces would restore royal rule to the colony, he began recruiting at Cross Creek, now known as Fayetteville, in early 1776.

He ended up with 1,600 loyalists, mostly Scottish immigrants, marching east, but patriots thwarted their attempts to reach the coast.

By the end of February, the last direct route to Wilmington that the patriots hadn’t blocked was the sandy and narrow Black River Road.

Patriots knew that Moores Creek Bridge was the last defendable position and got the upper hand by arriving there first.

When the loyalists arrived Feb. 26, 1776, they offered the patriots a chance to forgo the battle and pledge allegiance to the crown, which the patriots declined. The loyalists had sent a scout to get a read on the patriots’ plans. The scout reported the troops were vulnerable, and loyalists decided to attack.

The loyalists left camp at 1 a.m. the next day to hike the 6 miles through backcountry to the patriot encampment, only to find it abandoned.

Unbeknownst to the loyalists, the patriots had moved camp the night before to the east side of Moores Creek Bridge, knowing that was the only way to cross the creek to continue along Black River Road to Wilmington.

The patriots were lying in wait, cannons and muskets ready, hidden behind earthworks they built on a ridge overlooking the creek.

Loyalist Lt. Col. Donald McLeod led about 50 loyalists to the bridge around 5 a.m., only to discover it partly dismantled. Planks had been removed and those that were left were slathered in soap and tallow.

Undeterred, McLeod was confident he had enough men to attack. The commander drew his weapon “and exclaimed, ‘King George and Broadswords.'”

The small group charged, not expecting around 1,000 patriots to be hidden behind the earthworks just 30 feet away until McLeod, and more than two dozen other loyalists, were fired upon and killed instantly.

“With McLeod, the Loyalist commander at the bridge, now dead, the attack stalled, and the remaining Loyalists gave up and retreated into the darkness,” the park service explains.

“This battle marked the last broadsword charge by Scottish Highlanders and the first significant victory for the Patriots in the American Revolution,” the park service website states.

“In the days that followed the battle, the resounding victory echoed though the colonies, and a new hope was born. On April 12, 1776 the Patriot leaders in North Carolina signed the Halifax Resolves, a document that gave the delegates of the colony sent to the Continental Congress the right to vote for Independence. North Carolina would become the first colony to take such action.”

Related: Battle of Moores Creek Bridge virtual program Feb. 19

Now preserved, the grounds are the centerpiece of the 88-acre Moores Creek National Battlefield, which is celebrating the 250 years that have elapsed since that significant battle.

“This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle at Moores Creek Bridge, the first decisive patriot victory in the American Revolution and the moment that has set North Carolina on the path to becoming the first colony to call for independence,” Superintendent Matthew Woods told a handful of journalists during a recent press conference.

Woods, along with other project partners, invited media to the site to explain details about the inaugural First in Freedom Festival taking place Feb. 21-28. The weeklong regional celebration is a coordinated effort of eight counties to commemorate the 250^th anniversary of the battle and the subsequent signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. 

The anniversary is a “milestone, not only for this park, but for American history,” Woods continued, and the festival is a way of using this moment to shine a broader spotlight on the people, the places and the stories that define the state’s role in American history. 

“Over the course of the week of the North Carolina First in Freedom Festival, historic sites, art institutions and community partners across eight counties will come together to interpret more than 250 years of history through both heritage and the arts, culminating here at Moores Creek National Battlefield with a three-day commemorative event,” Woods said. 

Special to the inaugural celebration is a weekend with author Diana Gabaldon, creator of the “Outlander” series. Unfortunately for those who didn’t jump on the tickets when they went on sale in November, the three events with the author are sold out.

“Outlander” is a historical fantasy series about a World War II nurse, Claire, who travels through time, from 1945 Inverness to 1743 Scotland, where she meets Jamie. Both the novels and the show based on series follow their love story across time and then the ocean, when the characters immigrate from Scotland to North Carolina, making stops in New Bern, Wilmington, and Moores Creek, and take part in the American Revolution.

Gabaldon, in a virtual chat during the press conference, explained that she featured Moores Creek because of the importance of the battle for the American Revolution and the Scottish settlement in the colony. “That seemed a very logical place to set part of their story. Also, this is essentially where we began, so to speak. So if we’re going to work through the Revolution with them, it seemed like the just the normal place for them to be.”

More about the festival

Moores Creek Chief of Interpretation Jason Collins explained that the battlefield will welcome on Feb. 26 multiple school groups to experience living history demonstrations. Feb. 27 will begin with a traditional wreath-laying ceremony, followed by living history demonstrations and special speakers, and Feb. 28 is a celebration with music, games, “Freedom” Art Show, food trucks and living history displays.

“To pull back the curtain,” Collins said, there’s typically around 75 reenactors for an anniversary event. “Take that number and multiply it by about two and a half for the number of reenactors we’re expecting for this year’s event. Roughly around 200 — kind of — almost neatly split between loyalists and patrons, which is really exciting.”

Collins said First in Freedom is bigger than Moores Creek. From Feb. 21-28 and throughout the year, there will be activities in Onslow, Pender, New Hanover, Brunswick, Duplin, Sampson, Bladen and Columbus, the eight counties making up the region.

For example, on Feb. 21 is the Historical Society of Topsail Island’s Visit Colonial Topsail at the historic assembly building, living history events at Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site, and a Black History Carnival in Wilmington. 

The following day, Feb. 22, Colonial Faire at Harmony Hall is to take place at 1615 River Road, White Oak, in Bladen County, as well as “North Carolina’s Black Patriots of the American Revolution” aboard the Battleship North Carolina and “Freedom’s Road: the refugee crisis of 1865 in the Lower Cape Fear,” at the Oak Island Library.

Collins continued that for this year’s celebration of the 250^th, First in Freedom Festival has released a companion passport, similar to the National Park Service’s passport program, for the festival.

“Folks are going to be able to visit different sites throughout the counties,” Collins said. At each site, they can have their passport stamped, and there will be different levels of prizes. Participants will need to turn their booklets in by Dec. 31 to receive a prize.

Flying Machine Brewery Sales Manager Allen Denning mentioned during the press conference that the taproom on Randall Parkway in Wilmington is featured on the passport, where the brewery will be serving its First in Freedom Battlefield Porter. The limited-edition beer was brewed using research-based colonial techniques for the 250th anniversary.

Denning explained that hops were hard to come by in the Americas at the time, so they got creative and used plants like spruce tips, he said, and the new beer is a nod to that ingenuity. 

Moores Creek National Battlefield Association President Jim Buell reiterated that Moores Creek was the first decisive patriot victory, and “North Carolina was the first colony to declare their independence.”

Buell said that Woods, the park superintendent, had the idea for the First in Freedom Festival that “has now sprouted and grown tremendously. And we’re here today to kick it off officially, and then we’re hoping that a lot of people come enjoy it.”

First in Freedom is taking place with the support of America 250 NC. The initiative coordinated under the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources helps the state’s communities commemorate 250 years of United States history.

The State Archives is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge with a virtual lunch and learn program, “Marching Toward Revolution.”

The talk on the first decisive victory was fought northwest of Wilmington in present-day Pender County, on Feb. 27, 1776, is scheduled for noon Thursday. Register in advance on Zoom.

The State Archives, a division of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, is hosting the program featuring archivists Alison Thurman, Josh Hager and Katie Crickmore.

Related: Pender County event honors patriots’ first win of Revolution

The three are to discuss North Carolina’s advance toward the Revolution, including details about the Committees of Safety, Josiah Martin’s flight and the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge itself, fought between loyalists, mostly Scottish immigrants, and the patroits.

“This battle marked the last broadsword charge by Scottish Highlanders and the first significant victory for the Patriots in the American Revolution,” according to Moores Creek National Battlefield’s website.

For more information, contact Adrienne Berney at adrienne.berney@dncr.nc.gov or 919-814-6863.

Plans for the sprawling, undeveloped, south-end tract on Topsail Island that the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust purchased last year call for its eventual transfer to the state to be managed and preserved in perpetuity.

But first, the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management must hear whether the public supports its proposal to use no more than $50,000 in grant funding to cover closing costs related to the trust’s donation of that land to the state.

A public hearing has been scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 25 during the Coastal Resources Commission meeting at Dunes Club, 710 E. Fort Macon Road in Atlantic Beach.

The division would tap funds from the state Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Grant on a non-competitive basis to cover closing costs, including deed preparation and recording fees and, if obtained, title insurance.

The Coastal Land Trust finalized its $7.5 million purchase of ‘The Point’ last April.

The proposal to use non-competitive funds would cover costs associated with the state’s acquisition of nearly 100 of about 150 acres the land trust bought last year in Topsail Beach. The Division of Coastal Management “will manage and preserve the property for public benefit and support current and future public access to coastal waters,” according to a release.

“The exact amount of closing costs associated with this property transfer is currently unknown and will be determined at the time of closing based on applicable legal, recording, and administrative requirements,” the release states.

The division has opened a public comment period that continues through April 1.

Written comments may be mailed to Tancred Miller, Director, Division of Coastal Management, 400 Commerce Ave., Morehead City, N.C. 28557, or emailed to DCMcomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject line Non-competitive Use – NC Public Land Trust.

Children’s activities, guest speakers, a “tea party” on the Intracoastal Waterway, demonstrations by weavers and spinners, an encampment of reenactors, and Virginia Reel dance lessons are all on the schedule for the Historical Society of Topsail Island’s celebration of America’s 250th Anniversary.

The event, “Colonial Topsail,” is set for 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, in the Historic Assembly Building, 720 Channel Blvd., Topsail Beach. There’s no cost to attend.

The opening ceremony will be hosted by a Thomas Jefferson reenactor and be joined by Topsail High School JROTC Coast Guard Color Guard, and the Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps.

There will be a Revolutionary War encampment in partnership with Moores Creek National Battlefield, and demonstrations by the Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution.

Children’s activities begin at 11:30 a.m. with “What is Freedom?” and tea party, and from 12:30 to 3 p.m. colonial-themed crafts such as weaving, beading and whirligigs. Outdoor games include hoop races, hopscotch and jump rope. Activities are geared toward ages 4 to12.

A “Colonial Lunch” of Brunswick stew, cornbread, a drink, and dessert will be available for $12 per person from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Reservations are required and can be made through the society’s website.

The Missiles and More Museum will open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day.

“We are pleased to kick-off the America 250th anniversary with Colonial Topsail,” said Kim McClusky, the A250 committee chair, in a release. “Our region has significant Revolutionary War history. Colonial Topsail will be a fun, family-friendly, awareness-raising, celebration of our history.”

This post has been updated to include neighboring counties.

New Hanover residents without residential trash and yard waste pick-up through the city of Wilmington can recycle their Christmas trees and other natural decorations at no charge starting Dec. 26.

The program that ends Jan. 31 is a joint effort of the county’s Recycling and Solid Waste Department, the City of Wilmington Sanitation Department and Home Depot stores located at 5511 Carolina Beach Road and 210 Eastwood Road.

All natural trees, wreaths and garlands with the lights, ornaments, stands and tinsel removed can be dropped of at either of the Home Depots or the New Hanover County Landfill, 5210 US Highway 421 North. Artificial trees or decorations will not be accepted.

Residents are asked to stack items intended for recycling neatly due to limited space at these drop-off sites. Those using this service will see fenced-in areas in The Home Depots parking lots, with signage directing them to drop-off points.

“Seeing homes decked out in beautiful décor is a wonderful thing during this festive time of year, but once the holiday season ends, it’s important to dispose of natural décor in a responsible and environmentally safe manner,” Recycling and Solid Waste Director Joe Suleyman said in a release. “We’re excited to continue this partnership with the City of Wilmington and our local The Home Depot stores, which allows living Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands to be recycled and converted into mulch and compost. This material will be used in our parks, gardens and grounds, helping reduce waste and keeping our environment clean.”

In addition to trees and wreaths, residents are reminded that other holiday materials such as gift wrap, paper or cardboard boxes, holiday cards, old gadgets and electronics can be recycled at the county’s recycling processing facility, drop-off sites throughout the community or via the Mobile Hazwagon.

At this time, string lights, tinsel, foam packaging, bubble wrap, and ribbons or bows cannot be recycled and should either be reused or placed in the trash. 

Learn more at Recycling.NHCgov.com or by calling 910-798-4400, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.

Those living within the Wilmington city limits can learn more about recycling services and accepted items online.

The Brunswick County Landfill in Bolivia will accept live Christmas trees free of charge to Brunswick County property owners and residents Jan. 2-31.

Brunswick County Convenience Centers will accept live Christmas trees in January at a charge of $5 per tree.

Normal tipping fees will be applied after Jan. 31.

Residents are reminded to remove all ornaments, lights, and decorations prior to disposal. The county landfill and convenience centers accept string lights and cords year-round at no charge to Brunswick property owners and residents as part of the electronics recycling program.

Oak Island’s annual “Grinding of the Greens” program will kick off Dec. 26, when residents can drop off live, free-of-decorations Christmas trees in the Middleton Park Complex parking lot at 4610 E Dolphin Dr.

The program runs through Jan. 16.

Town officials are reminding residents and visitors that placing live Christmas trees on the beach and beach dunes, and burning Christmas trees as part of beach bonfires, is prohibited.

Pender County is not offering Christmas tree disposal at its convenience sites.

Property owners there may contact Wilmington Compost Company at 7336 N.C. 210 in Rocky Point and Hampstead Mulch and Stone at 12981 U.S. 17 in Hampstead for disposal details.

Coastal Review will not publish Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in observance of the Christmas holiday.

Moores Creek National Battlefield in Pender County is commemorating Feb. 26-28 the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge and is looking for food vendors to join the celebration.

The Battle at Moores Creek was the first decisive patriot victory in the American Revolution and led to North Carolina to be the first colony to authorize its delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress to vote for independence, according to America 250th NC, the state-organized commemoration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“As part of this historic celebration, we are inviting local food trucks to be part of the festivities and serve between 5,000 and 7,500 visitors over the two days,” organizers said in the press release.

Organizers are looking for food trucks that meet the following criteria:

• Be within 25 miles of the battlefield in Pender County.
• Offer breakfast items such as coffee, donuts, pastries, and other morning fare.
• Offer menu items such as seafood, international flavors and creative alternatives.
• Follow federal, state, and local health codes, which the park will specify.
• Have a ServSafe Certification.
• Be able to commit to both days.
• Submit a menu with pricing upon submission.
• Have liability insurance.

“This is a unique opportunity to be part of a major milestone in American history while showcasing your culinary offerings to a diverse and enthusiastic crowd,” officials said.

Interested vendors should contact the battlefield office at 910-283-7213, no later than Jan. 10 to express interest and receive additional details.

Moores Creek National Battlefield will return to the 18th century for the day as part of its “Christmas Comes to Currie” celebration set for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.

Park staff, volunteers and historians will provide a variety of programs focused on celebrating Christmas in the 18th century. Demonstrations will include Christmas cooking, playing 18th century toys and games, candlemaking, colonial music and more.

Santa Claus will visit the historic site 1-3 p.m.

The battlefield is the site of the first decisive Patriot Victory of the American Revolution. Moores Creek Bridge was crossed by Loyalist forces, many of whom were recently emigrated Scots Highlanders, on the morning of Feb. 27, 1776. The Loyalists made several attempts to take a fortified Patriot position on the opposite side of the bridge and were defeated.

For a full listing of details for the free event, visit www.facebook.com/moorescreeknps or www.nps.gov/mocr.

Featured Image

A Venus flytrap shows off its perhaps little-appreciated blooms, which are often overlooked, as compared with the other, better-known, insect-trapping attributes of this carnivorous plant that’s native only to a roughly 90-mile stretch of the North Carolina coast between Wilmington and Morehead City. Photo: Mark Hibbs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Park Service on the coast

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Park Service and the shutdown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This report has been updated to correct the area code in Chemours’ well sampling request phone number.

About 14,000 additional residences in the lower Cape Fear region have been added to the list of private drinking water wells eligible for PFAS contamination sampling.

N.C. Department of Environmental Quality announced Thursday that it is requiring Chemours to expand sampling eligibility to more areas of Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover and Pender counties.

“This expansion comes after Chemours and DEQ staff completed an extensive review of existing residential well data as part of the ongoing assessment work and continued actions taken in accordance with the 2019 consent order between DEQ, Cape Fear River Watch and Chemours,” according to a DEQ release. “Current information provided by Chemours indicates that only a portion of these residences may receive their water from wells and need to be sampled.”

Residents within the newly expanded sampling area whose primary drinking water source is a private well may request well sampling by calling Chemours at 910-678-1100 or by completing the company’s online form.

Those who call are asked to live their name, phone number, email and mailing address if prompted to leave a message. The return call may come from Parsons Environment and Infrastructure, which is the authorized third-party contractor conducting the well sampling.

Newly eligible residents who previously requested sampling will be contacted soon by the third-party contractor to arrange sampling.

DEQ’s Division of Waste Management is scheduled to host a virtual public meeting at 6 p.m. Oct. 7 to provide more details about expanded sampling and answer questions.

The webinar number is 2435 548 5932 and the password is chemours (24366878 when dialing from a phone or video system).

Residents may also join the meeting by phone at +1-415-655-0003 (US toll) or +1-904-900-2303 US toll (Jacksonville), access code 243 554 85932.

Three coastal-based water treatment plants are among those recently honored by the state for surpassing federal and state drinking water standards in 2024.

The North Carolina Division of Water Resources’ Public Water Supply Section awarded the N.C. Area Wide Optimization Program Award to 63 water treatment plants, including Brunswick County Northwest Water Treatment Plant, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in Wilmington, and Pender County Utilities Surface Water Treatment Plant.

The awards, part of a state effort to enhance the performance of existing surface water treatment facilities, are given each year to water systems that demonstrate outstanding turbidity removal, which is a key test of drinking water quality, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality news release distributed Thursday.

“While all drinking water systems must meet strict state and federal drinking water standards, these systems met performance goals that are significantly higher,” according to the release. “In 2024, more than 2.8 million North Carolina residents were served by these award-winning plants.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority was also recognized with the “Gold Star” honor, which is awarded to systems that have received the Area Wide Optimization Program Award for 10 more consecutive years. In all, 20 facilities received that recognition for 2024.

The Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a public hearing next month on a proposed permit for a municipal wastewater treatment facility that discharges 1,4-dioxane into the drinking water supplies for about 1 million North Carolinians.

Oral or written comments about the federal agency’s specific objection to Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant’s proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, permit will be accepted at the hearing scheduled from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Oct. 22.

The hearing follows the EPA’s response to a ruling last year by former Chief Administrative Law Judge Donald van der Vaart that N.C. Department of Environmental Quality officials did not follow state law when they calculated discharge limits and established an enforceable water quality standard for 1,4-dioxane.

That chemical, one that cannot be removed through conventional water treatment methods, is deemed by the EPA as a likely human carcinogen.

The state has appealed the ruling.

The Asheboro Wastewater Treatment Plant has been discharging high levels of 1,4-dioxane upstream of the drinking water supply for several cities and counites, including Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender counties.

The hearing will be hosted both virtually and in-person at the JB and Claire Davis Corporate Training Center at Randolph Community College, 413 Industrial Park Ave., Asheboro. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Those who plan to attend in-person are encouraged to arrive early and preregister at least 72 hours before the hearing.

Virtual attendees may register online. Instructions are available on how to submit written comments during or after the hearing up until the close of the period for receiving comments. Those who attend virtually will not be able to present oral comments during the hearing.

The hearing will kick off with brief presentations by EPA officials and a neutral process facilitator. Oral comments will be limited to three minutes per person.

The agency does not guarantee that everyone who wishes to speak will get the opportunity to at the hearing, but will accept written comments from anyone who does not.

Written comments will be accepted through Oct. 31 and may be emailed to R4NPDESComments@epa.gov or mailed to US EPA, NPDES Permitting Section, Water Division, 61 Forsyth Street, SW, Atlanta, GA 30303-8960.

The North Carolina NPDES permit number is NC0026123.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation has awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to complete the final segment of the Hampstead Bypass.

A $182 million contract has been awarded to S.T. Wooten Corp. to build about a 7-mile stretch of roadway that will connect and improve the flow of traffic between Pender and New Hanover counties, according to an NCDOT release.

This final stretch of roadway will extend from N.C. Highway 140, which bypasses U.S. 17 business through Wilmington, to N.C. 210 to complete the nearly 13-mile bypass.

Construction will include grading, drainage, paving and structures and “can begin as early as late August,” according to the release. Work is expected to be completed in 2030.

“The Hampstead Bypass project remains a top priority for the Department and is crucial for the continued growth of the region,” transportation Division 3 Engineer Trevor Carroll stated in the release. “This is a huge milestone as we work toward the completion of the bypass.”

Ongoing construction of the bypass from N.C. 210 to north of Hampstead is anticipated to be completed in late 2027.

Southeast coastal counties and municipalities within them are teaming with the N.C. Emergency Management to update the Southeastern N.C. Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan.

The federally required plan helps prepare for future disasters by identifying natural hazard risks, potential impacts of those risks on communities, and mitigation goals and actions. Plans must be updated every five years.

Residents of Brunswick, New Hanover, Onslow and Pender counties are invited to take a short public survey to provide feedback as part of the update to the plan.

A virtual meeting about the updated plan is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 18. Anyone wishing to attend may register online.

Hazard mitigation plans are required under the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, which mandates state, tribal, county, and local governments create, approve and adopt mitigation plans in order to be eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster and nondisaster grant programs.

There are 30 regional multijurisdictional hazard mitigation plans in North Carolina. This is the state’s fifth update of those local mitigation plans. Updates are managed and funded by N.C. Emergency Management through grant funding.

The update process includes a thorough community-level review of natural hazard risks and potential impacts, capabilities, and a review and updating of mitigation goals and actions established in previous plan editions.

A handful of coastal communities have been awarded a chunk of state funding to be used for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvement projects.

Gov. Josh Stein announced Wednesday an award of more than $204 million in funding for 48 projects that include addressing PFAS and other chemical compounds in drinking water, identifying and replacing lead pipes, and improving resiliency following storms.

“When you turn on the faucet in your home, you shouldn’t have to worry about whether that water is safe for your family,” Stein said in a statement. “These investments will help ensure North Carolinians have access to clean drinking water and will help keep people safe when disaster strikes.”   

The funding is being dispersed to projects across 27 counties, including four along the North Carolina coast.

In Beaufort County, the town of Aurora is receiving more than $3.06 million to replace a force main and rehabilitate a lift station and lift station wells. Belhaven has been awarded more than $4.7 million for wastewater treatment plant improvements. And, Chocowinity will receive more than $4.8 million for water treatment plant and waste discharge improvements.

River Bend in Craven County is set to get $6.3 million in drinking water state revolving funds for phase II drinking water improvements.

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority in New Hanover County has been awarded $35 million to replace its southside wastewater treatment plant.

And, Carolina Water Service, Inc. will receive $5.5 million for six projects focusing on PFAS, lead service line identification and water lines across multiple counties, including Pender.

“This funding will address aging infrastructure and improve public health for communities large and small,” N.C. Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Reid Wilson said in a statement.

More than 130 applications requesting $1.57 billion in funding were reviewed by the agency’s Division of Water Infrastructure.

The projects that were selected were approved by the State Water Infrastructure Authority, an independent body responsible for awarding federal and state funding for water infrastructure projects, during its July 16 meeting.

Funds awarded this month came from the State Revolving Funds, which are funded by federal capitalization grants and revolving loan repayments and provide low-interest loans that may be partially forgiven for drinking water and wastewater projects, according to a release.

Funding rounds for Fall 2025 begin July 29 and applications are due by 5 p.m. Sept. 30. Funds for this round will come from programs to include evaluating options to address PFAS contamination, identifying and replacing lead service lines, and Viable Utility Reserve grants. 

The division is hosting in-person funding application training for the fall 2025 funding round in Clyde, Hickory, Boone, Fayetteville, Winterville, and Research Triangle Park/Durham. A virtual option will also be available as well as a recording of the training, which will be posted on the division’s training webpage.

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

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

And, most importantly, natural.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A labor of love

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A ‘champion’

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

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

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

He expects the whole area will change.

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

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

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

Several coastal counties are expected to experience unhealthy heat levels over the weekend.

Chowan, Perquimans and Washington counties are expected to have a maximum heat index of 96 degrees or higher on Saturday.

Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico and Pender counties should plan for the same on both Saturday and Sunday.

The National Weather Service explained that the heat index, also called the apparent temperature, is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature.

The North Carolina Health and Human Services Climate and Health Program sends out the heat-health alerts when the forecast is projected to reach or exceed the heat index threshold for the region.

Duke Heat Policy Innovation Hub established the region-specific thresholds by using historical heat index data and state records to determine when emergency room visits increased for heat-related illnesses.

“Heat of this magnitude can be dangerous to your health, particularly for people who are more exposed to extreme heat or more sensitive to extreme heat,” which includes those who are pregnant, living with disabilities or underlying health conditions, are without access to air conditioning, who work or exercise outdoors or are older adults, the department stated in a release.

To prevent heat-related illness, the health department recommends drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding caffeinated, sugary or alcoholic drinks, staying in air conditioning as much as possible, watch for symptoms and stay informed, the department continued.

Visit the health department’s website to sign up for the heat alerts, or for more information on heat-related illnesses and tools to prevent it.

The North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council recommends residents in coastal counties that are experiencing severe drought conditions cut out nonessential water use.

The council, which monitors drought conditions throughout the state, last week classified eight counties in eastern North Carolina, including five on the coast, as experiencing severe drought.

Those counties include Beaufort, Craven, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Columbus, Martin and Washington.

Water users in counties experiencing severe drought should implement Water Shortage Response Plans, participate in regional and local coordination of water resource management, reexamine water delivery systems to minimize water loss and maximize efficiency, and eliminate nonessential users of water, according to a N.C. Department of Environmental Quality release.

Fifty counties in the Piedmont and western part of the state have been classified as experiencing moderate drought conditions and another 32 counties are experiencing abnormally dry conditions.

“The effects of a very dry winter and early spring are starting to be seen,” council Chair Klaus Albertin said in a release. “Some areas are seeing a rainfall deficit of 6 to 10 inches since October. Impacts from ongoing drought conditions were limited in winter months, but will become more noticeable as we enter the growing season.”

The council is organized by DEQ’s Division of Water Resources and includes drought experts from government agencies in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. The council meets weekly. Drought maps are updated every Thursday.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not much has changed in the saga surrounding shellfish farming in coastal waters of Onslow and Pender counties.

That was made clear during a public hearing Tuesday night in the little town of Holly Ridge in Onslow County, where Topsail Island-area residents and aquaculture farmers took turns speaking about the prospect of more shellfish leases in the area.

Perhaps the one consensus among those who oppose additional leases and those who hope to raise shellfish in them is that they are where they are because new leases are not allowed in waters of neighboring coastal counties to their north and south.

Shellfish moratoriums in waters from Cedar Island south to Brunswick County have essentially funneled growers to waters around Topsail Island, prompting what has become an unceasing push to get the state to pump the brakes on new leases in Onslow and Pender counties.

Within the span of one week, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries held two public hearings – one in Pender, the other in Onslow – on lease applications for shellfish farms that would collectively take up more than 30 acres.

That’s more than double the total acreage of shellfish leases in nearby New Hanover County, Topsail Beach resident Tate Tucker said during the Tuesday night hearing, where he reiterated comments he had made at a public hearing in Pender County the previous week.

“Like I said last week, say this whole Eastern Seaboard of oysters is a boat. We’re the hole in the boat, right? And they’re filling it just as fast as they can with leases, as much as they can. I don’t think we can keep going like this if we don’t have an organized plan. If we don’t fill that hole, the boat’s going to sink,” Tucker said.

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, which is composed of elected officials from each of the island’s three towns — Topsail Beach, Surf City and North Topsail Beach — has since last year called for a temporary moratorium on new shellfish leases. County officials in Onslow and Pender have made the same request.

“As a commission, we have become increasingly concerned about conflicts between shellfish leases and other uses of our natural resource waters that include commercial and recreational fishing, boating, kayaking and other coastal land and water uses, not to mention the potential impacts on property values and esthetics,” TISPC Chair William Snyder said.

On April 10, Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, introduced legislation that would require a statewide study on shellfish leasing and the current lease moratoriums.

Under House Bill 841, the North Carolina General Assembly-created North Carolina Policy Collaboratory would evaluate everything from existing leases and the history and reason for current permanent and temporary moratoriums to economic impacts of shellfish aquaculture expansion on coastal economies and tourism, and the different potential environmental impacts of bottom leases and water column leases.

A final report of the study would be due to legislators by May 1, 2026.

Chris Matteo, acting president of the North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association and East Coast Shellfish Growers Association vice president, said Tuesday that the legislation “thankfully” does not call for a moratorium in Onslow and Pender counties.

He also said the measure is unlikely to pass.

“There’s been plenty of impact studies done over the course of time and, quite frankly, this area may be relatively new to intensive aquaculture, but the rest of the East Coast and West Coast of this country, it’s been in play for a very long time and the positive impacts are irrefutable,” Matteo said.

As he had in previous public hearings, Matteo suggested that residents and local leaders ask state elected officials to lift moratoriums on shellfish leases in other coastal counties.

He rebutted comments made by others who spoke at the hearing that shellfish farms negatively affect property values.

Nelson Bullock, who started Gator Bay Oyster Co. with his wife, mirrored sentiments of other shellfish lease applicants who argue shellfish farming is beneficial to the environment.

The Bullocks have applied for a 3.82-acre shellfish bottom and water column lease in Onslow County’s Ellis Cove.

“I’ve been involved in oyster farming for over 14 years now and have witnessed firsthand all the positive impacts of shellfish aquaculture on both the environment and our communities,” Bullock said. “Oysters naturally filter and clean the water. They create habitat and they also help stabilize the shoreline. Shellfish farming is one of the most sustainable forms of aquaculture offering significant ecological and economic benefits.”

Bullock said he was committed “to being a good neighbor in the water.”

John Eynon, owner of Big Cypress Mariculture, said he understands concerns raised by some local fishermen, who argue leases impede access to fishing spots around the island.

“I’m more than happy to talk with people and try to figure out how I can mitigate whatever those impacts might be, whether it’s by using certain gear types, positioning these gear in certain places, orienting in a certain way,” Eynon said.

He has applied for a 2.73-acre bottom and water column lease in Sneads Creek, a location he said he picked because it is “tucked away.”

“It’s not a navigational hazard,” he said. “It’s not impacting anyone’s views, which I know have been issues with other lease proposals.”

TISPC Vice Chair Larry Strother, who also chairs North Topsail Beach’s Beach, Inlet and Sound Advisory Committee, reiterated that the concern raised by the island towns is that more studies need to be done before additional leases are permitted.

“There are some leases that are going to affect the recreational activity, the fishing and everything else that takes place around the island, which is what we provide when we represent the recreation part of our beach,” he said. “We just want to make sure that our recreational activities and our fishing that’s been going on for all these years is going to be able to continue and cohabitate with the leases. We’re not opposed to shellfish leasing. We are opposed to not having it studied.”

Topsail Island leaders are unwavering in their pursuit of stopping new leases of shellfish farms in the waters around them.

Months have passed since the island’s three towns — North Topsail Beach, Surf City and Topsail Beach — and their respective counties banded together to ask state legislators for a moratorium on new shellfish leases in Onslow and Pender’s coastal waterways.

“Of course, we all support aquaculture,” North Topsail Beach Alderman Mike Benson said during a recent town board meeting.

But the rising number of leases, fueled because of moratoriums in surrounding coastal counties, has led to what local leaders say amount to mounting conflicts between recreational uses of public waters and shellfish leases that restrict access to those waters.

Prohibiting all new shellfish leases across Onslow and Pender counties could be detrimental to the state’s growing shellfish industry, one that reportedly boasts an economic impact of $30 million annually in North Carolina.

“This industry is a particularly bright spot for North Carolina in that farming clams and oysters is quite sustainable environmentally,” said Dr. Jane Harrison, a coastal economics specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant. “We’ve seen a huge uptick in production numbers from farming oysters, in particular, over the last decade and we don’t want to lose that momentum.”

North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Coastal Federation have teamed up in hopes of launching a plan that would result in the creation of a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database that pinpoints areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind the 26-mile-long island.

That database would be built by a GIS specialist from North Carolina State University using feedback the organizations aim to get from different focus groups made up of users of those waters, be it shellfish farmers, fishing guides, recreational fishers, or island waterfront property owners.

“We want to bring together many different voices to gather their perspectives and then put their information, their interest, into that GIS database,” Harrison said.

Sea Grant and the Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, have applied for a grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant Office to fund the plan.

If awarded the grant, the plan would kick off around September, when the GIS specialist would gather existing data, including information from the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Shellfish Lease Siting Tool, to work up a baseline of information that will be presented to focus groups. UNCW’s interactive tool assesses coastal conditions in the state to help shellfish growers locate new or expand current operations.

There would be three focus groups: one consisting of shellfish growers in Pender and Onslow counties, one that includes recreational water users and waterfront property owners in Onslow County, and one that includes those groups in Pender County.

Those groups would be initially separated out “because we want folks to feel like they can fully share whatever their concerns or needs are and we don’t want to create an environment of conflict,” Harrison said. “We just want spaces where people can give us every piece of information they have and then we will digest it, compile it, and then have some community conversations.”

Feedback from those conversations would be gathered and used to create a draft resource use agreement and guidelines for equal water access in partnership with the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

Once finalized, that resource use agreement and guidelines would be published to the public, where it could be used in other coastal regions in not only North Carolina, but other states.

The proposal has gained traction with local officials. The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, and the counties, has signaled its support for the plan, Harrison said. The commission is made up of elected officials and local government appointees from the island’s three towns.

In an April 2 letter to the Division of Marine Fisheries, North Topsail Beach highlighted the plan as “another justification for a pause” on new shellfish leases.

“A temporary pause would allow us to evaluate the current situation, develop comprehensive management strategies, and ensure that future growth in the shellfish industry is balanced with the needs of our community and the environment,” the letter states.

The North Topsail Beach Board of Aldermen unanimously agreed to send the letter to the division ahead of its April 22 public hearing on six new proposed shellfish leases in Onslow County.

The hearing is scheduled to be held in person at 6 p.m. at the Holly Ridge Community Center and virtually via Webex.

That hearing will follow one on two proposed shellfish leases in Pender County scheduled for 6 p.m. April 15 at Topsail Beach Town Hall, 820 S. Anderson Blvd., and virtually via Webex.

During the April 2 meeting of North Topsail’s town board, Alderman Benson said the consensus of the island’s shoreline protection commission is that the towns and counties continue their request for a moratorium.

A proposed draft bill for a moratorium was not introduced in either the state Senate by its March 25 deadline or the House as of publication of this report. The deadline for the House was extended to April 10. 

“There are 111 leases in Onslow County,” Beson said. “We have 647 acres of land in those 111 leases.”

North Topsail Beach and the northernmost portion of Surf City are in Onslow County.

There are opportunities to identify areas within the waterways of the island that are “truly not well served by shellfish aquaculture,” Harrison said.

“There may be special fishing spots that the charter captains want to make sure they have access to,” she said. “There may be viewsheds that are very important to local residents. We have a lot of successful entrepreneurs in shellfish aquaculture in these two counties and shellfish aquaculture produces seafood that many of us like to eat. At the end of the day, it may be that the industry in Pender and Onslow counties can’t grow at the rate it has been. There might be a need for it to be less expansive because of existing leases and farms. But what I want to steer us away from is just a blanket prohibition, as if no new farm could ever take place in a copacetic way.”

Topsail Beach Mayor Morton Blanchard, a longtime resident and public servant of the Pender County town, died Sunday afternoon, according to a town release.

“Mayor Blanchard leaves a huge voice in the Town of Topsail Beach,” the release states. “His leadership, wisdom, and compassion will be greatly missed by all who knew him.”

The husband, father, and grandfather was appointed mayor about five months ago after former Mayor Steve Smith died last September.

Blanchard moved to Topsail Beach in 2004, though he’d been going to the island his entire life up to that point. The Wallace native’s family bought property on the island in 1956, about seven years before Topsail Beach was established.

Blanchard bought property in the town in 1998. He attended Western Carolina University and Wake Tech, where he studied electronics and refrigeration. He operated Blanchard Refrigeration, a commercial refrigeration company, since 1976.

Prior to their move to Topsail Beach, Blanchard and his wife of more than 40 years, Patricia, also a Wallace native, lived in Rose Hill for 31 years, raising their two sons, Joe and Benjamin.

He served 12 of those years as a town commissioner and chaired the Rose Hill Chamber of Commerce for three years.

Blanchard served as a Topsail Beach commissioner for more than a decade.

“Mayor Blanchard had a passion for serving his community and has worked on many initiatives for the Town but worked especially hard on trying to bring public sewer service to residents and property owners,” the town release states.

A celebration of his life is planned for 7 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at the Historic Assembly Hall in Topsail Beach. Padgett Funeral Home of Wallace is handling the arrangements.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They did it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Close to 800 people contributed,” he added.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Topsail Island towns are banding together to dramatically reduce the presence of an invasive plant that chokes out native vegetation on oceanfront dunes.

Beach vitex, a thick, woody vine that sheds its leaves seasonally, is growing on more than 170 properties spanning the three towns on the 26-mile-long barrier island.

Those properties were identified in what has been described as a cursory, “windshield” survey conducted to give officials an idea of where and how much of the plant is on the island’s oceanfront dunes.

“We know there’s more out there,” said Topsail Beach Assistant Town Manager Christina Burke.

The survey provided enough information for that town, North Topsail Beach and Surf City to jointly apply for a North Carolina Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund grant.

In May, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources awarded those towns a collective $690,060.50, enough to cover half of the total projected cost of the first two years of what will be a four-year project.

According to the interlocal agreement, the towns “will continue to work together to secure additional funding to carry the project out to completion.”

Each town will be responsible for matching its portion of the grant.

North Topsail Beach last week joined Surf City in adopting an interlocal agreement that sets the terms for the aptly named Topsail Island Vitex Eradication Project.

Topsail Beach commissioners are expected to consider the agreement at their meeting Wednesday evening.

If the board greenlights the agreement, a resolution to accept the grant funding will be put to a vote most likely next month, Burke said.

The idea is to put out a request for proposal, or a formal document asking for contractor bids, by either December or January.

Topsail Beach agreed to be the fiscal agent to administer the grant funds, which are the culmination of a partnership initiated by the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission.

The commission functions as a collaboration to preserve the beaches and surrounding waterways of the barrier island and is made up of elected officials and local government appointees from each town and Onslow and Pender counties.

Commission members began a couple of years ago discussing the need for an island-wide project to tackle eradicating the invasive plant that has wound its way over and along oceanfront dunes in the Carolinas after being introduced to the Southeastern United States in the mid-1980s.

But what was originally planted for ornamental purposes and sand dune stabilization escaped cultivation, crowding out sea oats, American beachgrass, seaside panicum and other native plants, ultimately threatening endangered loggerhead sea turtle nesting habitat, federally threatened seabeach amaranth and other rare plants and animals.

The state initiated efforts in 2005 to document locations of beach vitex and control its spread by creating the NC Beach Vitex Task Force in February of that year.

“Knowing it’s an invasive species and threatening to the dune system and the ecological system that we have here, the turtles, we decided to do something about it,” Burke said.

Based on the survey, Topsail Beach has the most properties – 93 – where beach vitex is present. Surf City has 45. A total of 35 properties were noted to have the plant in North Topsail Beach.

“That is just so incomplete still,” Burke said.

Eradicating beach vitex can be a rather painstaking process, one that requires a scratch-and-dab method where the bark of a vine must be scratched off before an herbicide can be applied.

Glyphosate, a systemic herbicide that blocks an enzyme essential for plant growth, is a chemical commonly used in killing beach vitex.

Beach vitex usually requires a couple of treatment applications, after which the plant must be monitored to ensure it is dying back. Treatment must occur only in summer.

“You have to kill it first and then you have to cut it out,” Burke explained.

Precautions must be taken when removing dead beach vitex to ensure seeds do not fall from the vines onto the ground and recultivate.

Treating the 93 properties in Topsail Beach alone is expected to cost an estimated $584,000.

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission will provide up-to-date information on its website as the project moves forward and continue efforts to educate property owners about the pesky plant.

Property owners will receive a waiver to sign off on that will the contractor to access individual lots to begin treatment, Burke said.

“They see all this lush vegetation and they’re like, oh my gosh, look at my dune system, it’s great, it’s so healthy. I think with the education of vitex and how dangerous it is to the dune system, people are going to me more apt to allow us to come in,” she said. “We have people who call us that say, please put me on that list, I have vitex and I want to be part of this project so I think the attitude has changed with the education of vitex.”

Pender County has become the latest local government to adopt rules prohibiting boat owners from leaving abandoned and derelict vessels in public waterways.

County commissioners on Monday unanimously adopted an ordinance amendment that allows the Pender County Sheriff’s Office to enforce the removal of abandoned and junk boats in waters within that office’s jurisdiction.

A boat owner will be given a 30-day notice to remove a derelict or abandoned vessel. If the owner does not remove the boat within that timeframe, the county will notify the state Wildlife Resources Commission and the North Carolina Coastal Federation that the boat is ready for removal.

The ordinance amendment aligns with that of Surf City, where elected officials agreed earlier this year to enact similar rules.

Pender County Planning and Community Development Director Daniel Adams explained to commissioners Monday that the ordinance amendment would prevent a boat owner from moving his or her boat from water within one jurisdiction to another to avoid fronting the costs to have it removed.

Thus was the case earlier this year, when a boat owner was notified by Surf City law enforcement that his boat would have to be pulled from public waters within that town’s jurisdiction. 

The owner moved the boat outside of town limits and into a public waterway in the county, Adams said.

In 2020, the Wildlife Resources Commission was given legislative authority to investigate, inspect and remove abandoned and derelict vessels.

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, has since that same year received more than $3 million in state and federal funds to remove junked vessels and hundreds of tons of marine debris littering coastal marsh lands and cluttering spoil islands. 

Topsail Island towns and their counties have joined forces in asking state legislators for a moratorium on shellfish leases in their waterways.

The Pender County Board of Commissioners last week adopted a resolution calling for the state to pump the brakes on issuing new shellfish lease permits, particularly water column leases, in Pender and Onslow counties.

Pender commissioners were the last of five elected boards to approve the resolution, an idea of which was first circulated back in August by the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC.

The commission, which is made up of elected officials and local government appointees from the island’s three beach towns – North Topsail Beach, Surf City, and Topsail Beach — and Onslow and Pender counties, functions as a collaboration to preserve the barrier island’s beaches and surrounding waterways.

Moratoriums in waters north and south of Onslow and Pender counties are driving up demand for aquatic business activities in those counties, affecting recreational fishing, use of small watercraft by tourists, “and is impacting the beauty of a marsh area that did not have the plastic poles and other equipment marking shellfish areas,” according to a letter the commission’s former chair emailed to North Topsail’s town manager.

While the commission is in favor of shellfish farming, limits should be placed on the types and density of leases, the letter states.

North Topsail Beach Mayor Pro Tem and Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission Vice Chair Mike Benson said during an Oct. 2 town board meeting that there are about 30 existing leases in waters behind Topsail Island.

“Density is increasing,” he explained. “There’s conflict now between recreational boaters and tourism and commercial aquaculture. We’re not restricting the number that are already in place. Those will continue on as they have in the past. All we’re asking for is there’s a pause to figure out what the next step is. But, we shouldn’t be the ones that are suffering here in terms of tourism and boater access and recreational activities because of interference of these shellfish leases, particularly column leases.”

Locals spoke out against water column leases proposed for just under a dozen acres in Pender County in a public hearing hosted early this year by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

A majority of those who spoke argued that additional leases in the waters near Topsail Island would infringe upon popular fishing spots, impede boating and kayaking access, affect the viewsheds of waterfront properties near the farms, and may affect water quality from birds roosting on floating equipment.

Unlike bottom leases, where shellfish farming gear must be placed on or within 18 inches of the waterbed, equipment used in a water column lease cannot rest on the bottom or extend more than 18 inches above the bottom. Water column leases are required to be installed over bottom lease areas.

The division, which oversees shellfish lease permits, denied those water column lease applications.

The North Carolina General Assembly in 1989 enacted law that allows shellfish leases in the water column. Today, there are more than 150 water column leases along the North Carolina coast.

The legislature enacts nearly all regulations on shellfish leases and it implements shellfish lease moratoriums.

“Any stipulations on what can and can’t be addressed in a moratorium is up to the legislature,” Marine Fisheries Public Information Officer Patricia Smith said in an email earlier this month.

Brunswick County’s shellfish lease moratorium dates back originally to 1949. A moratorium in Core Sound was established in 1993. In 2019, moratoria were placed in New Hanover County and in Bogue Sound.

During the public hearing on the proposed leases in Pender County, a North Carolina Shellfish Growers Association representative advised residents to talk to their local and state elected officials about getting moratoriums lifted in waters south of Pender County so growers will have more areas in which to farm.

The Governor’s Medallion Award was presented last week to 17 individuals and three organizations, including three from the coast.

North Carolina’s highest award for volunteer service is presented annually by the N.C. Commission on Volunteerism & Community Service. The ceremony this year was May 6 at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.

“North Carolinians are known for their generosity and these award-winning volunteers are some of the most generous people you can imagine. They give their time, talents, and energy to strengthen their communities through volunteering,” Gov. Roy Cooper said in a statement. “I’m so grateful for their compassion and dedication, and I encourage all North Carolinians to find ways to volunteer.”

Two volunteers and one organization from the coast were awarded the 2024 Governor’s Medallion for Volunteer Service. They include:

• Deborah Swick of Dare County, who volunteers with numerous organizations including helping pick up roadside trash and protect sea turtle nests.
• Daniel Kopchick of New Hanover County, who volunteers at Lower Cape Fear Lifecare where he provides support to hospice and dementia patients and their families.
• Safe Haven of Pender Inc. of Pender County, whose volunteers and its thrift store support and provide resources to domestic violence victims in Pender County and surrounding area.

Recipients are nominated by members of their community and then selected by the N.C. Commission on Volunteerism & Community Service, known as VolunteerNC, and housed within the governor’s office.

“We were excited to honor these extraordinary volunteers from across North Carolina who work selflessly and tirelessly to make our state a better place,” said VolunteerNC Executive Director Briles Johnson. “Medallion award recipients serve their communities in so many ways, combating food insecurity, assisting the elderly, tutoring and mentoring youth, providing mental health services and more.”

Recipients across the state include the following:

• Guy Graybeal Jr. of Ashe County who volunteers with Ashe Outreach Ministries.
• Sonya Reid of Burke County who volunteers at the American Red Cross.
• Librado Mendoza Sosa of Chatham County who volunteers with Student Action with Farmworkers and mentors college students by facilitating a 10-week summer internship program.
• Mercil Hurt of Cherokee County who has lived a life of service by volunteering for over 50 years by serving seniors and youth in her community.
• Bountiful Blessings Food Pantry of Gaston County. Volunteers with this organization offer nutritious food and support services to individuals in the Greater Gaston County area.
• Laura and Sandy Gabel of Granville County who volunteer with Area Congregations in Ministry, a nonprofit food pantry.
• Susan Tolle of Iredell County who started the first Out of Darkness Suicide Walk in the county.
• Dr. William and Cindy Hall of Lee County who provide free medical services through their twice-weekly mobile health clinic.
• Vivian Poole of McDowell County who volunteers at the the county senior center.
• Bud Frank of Mecklenburg County who volunteers 1,000 hours a year with the American Red Cross.
• Pamela Tudryn of Orange County who volunteers at the SECU Family House at UNC Hospitals.
• David Post who volunteers with many organizations in Rowan County.
• Carmon West of Transylvania County who volunteers with the Lake Toxaway Fire Rescue Inc. 
• Dr. Drew Polly of Union County who volunteers at the county’s schools.
• NAMI NC Helpline Responder Team of Wake County.
• Donna Phillips of Wayne County who volunteers across multiple organizations.
• Claudia Juarez Reyes of Wilson County who volunteers at Seeds of Hope and Amexcan.

The 2025 Governor’s Volunteer Service Award nomination form will be available this fall. Nominations are submitted to the county award coordinator in the county of volunteer service. Visit volunteernc.org for more information.

Tell the public about a contract to buy land?

This isn’t business as usual for the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.

But this time around, the prospective buy is a 150-acre tract of barrier island that has been written about in media outlets across the state and, on occasion, in national publications on and off for years. And it’s going to take some very public fundraising efforts to make the purchase possible.

So, pursuing the pristine, undeveloped expanse of land at the southern tip of Topsail Island affectionally named “The Point” has the Wilmington-based nonprofit established in 1992 breaking precedent.

“Our normal approach is we work privately with the sellers and we go through all our work and then, when it’s all done, we announce a deal. So, this is very different for us,” said Harrison Marks, the trust’s executive director. “This is a tight budget year for the state and we depend on state funds typically for projects. We don’t have a formula (for public fundraising) because this isn’t something we normally do.”

He’s hoping the state will come through on giving at least some money toward the purchase.

The Coastal Land Trust has a little less than a year to seal the deal. It has to close on the land on or before March 31, 2025.

Marks declined to reveal the actual price tag of the land, but said the appraisal is “somewhat more” than the purchase price.

All told, the organization expects to spend about $8 million on various expenses, surveys and title searches, and the land itself.

A little more than a week has passed since the trust announced that it had a contract with the four families who own different chunks of the land.

As of Thursday, more than 100 online donations approaching $50,000 in total had been made, Marks said. Substantial pledges, some in the range of six figures, have also been made.

Roy Costa, founder of the more-recently formed nonprofit, Conserve the Point-Topsail, said his organization is working with the Coastal Land Trust to figure out how to best support the fundraising efforts.

Costa said the contributions Conserve the Point has received have to date covered the organization’s operational costs.

“We really see that the Coastal Land Trust is a good place to do, in particular, major donations,” he said.

Conserve the Point was born out of a grassroots effort to raise public and private funds to buy the land at the south end of Topsail Beach, an opportunity that arose when a young, wealthy couple backed out of plans last November to build a family compound on the land.

Todd Olson, co-founder and CEO of Raleigh-based software company Pendo, and his wife Laura spent months trying to persuade Topsail Beach officials to rezone fewer than 30 acres of the property from C4: Conservation — Inlet Area to conditional use. The change would have allowed about a half dozen homes, a private marina, pool and beach and sound accesses to be built.

The property has steadily accreted over the years as the southern end of the island at New Topsail Inlet has gained sand, making it a favorite spot for island property owners and tourists who enjoy walking its beaches.

The Olsons’ proposal was met with fierce opposition from other area property owners, regular vacationers to the town, and environmentalists.

Thousands signed an online petition urging town officials to reject the rezoning request. People passionate about keeping the land as-is flooded town meetings whenever the request was up for discussion.

Months before pulling the plug on their contract with the property owners, a deal that was contingent upon getting their rezoning request approved, the Olsons signed a letter of intent with the Coastal Land Trust to grant the organization a conservation easement for a minimum of 80% of the land.

Attempts to buy the land, including those by the town to keep it free from development, have yet to pan out. Around 2005, the Coastal Land Trust tried to buy roughly 45 acres of the property, but a deal was not reached at the time.

This time around, supporters of conserving the land are hopeful the signed purchase and sales agreement between the Coastal Land Trust and the property owners will come through and end the threat of development.

“Everybody’s quite excited, including a lot of people in our community,” Costa said. “This is perfect timing, the perfect opportunity. I think there’s a groundswell of support for conservation efforts, particularly here in North Carolina, and so I think with all the conservation efforts that are going on that this is definitely something that can quite easily happen with the help of everybody.”

The Coastal Land Trust is looking to host a meeting in May in Topsail Beach to discuss its plans with town officials and answer questions from the public.

“We just are very grateful that (the property owners) gave us an opportunity to talk with them and I feel fairly confident that they could have done something with other people who had an intent to develop some of the property and, ultimately, think that would have occurred,” Marks said. “They were will to sell us the property at the price that they did because I think they care about seeing the property conserved as well.”

Once the Coastal Land Trust buys the land, it will be transferred to state ownership and managed by the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. That agency said it hopes to partner with the state Wildlife Resources Commission, which would help manage and monitor shorebird nesting areas.

Details about the upcoming public meeting are to be announced on the Coastal Land Trust’s website. Donations may be made online.

Residents in southeastern Pender County could face months of water irrigation restrictions beginning next month.

Drought paired with the “unprecedented growth” in that portion of the county, including land east of Interstate 40 in Rocky Point and along and adjacent to N.C. 210, Hampstead and Scotts Hill has prompted Pender County Utilities to scale back the number of days its customers living in those areas can use irrigation systems provided by the utility, according to a release.

Beginning May 1, Pender County Utilities will enforce irrigation restrictions to customers in those unincorporated areas to Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Residents who do not comply may have their irrigation meter revoked until restrictions are lifted, according to the release.

Eastern Pender County has been in moderate drought conditions since March 30.

“PCU may make further adjustments to these restrictions as needed based on drought conditions, compliance effectiveness, etc. Our key concern is to ensure that water is available for domestic (non-irrigation) use and fire protection,” the release states.

Residents who have private wells are “strongly encouraged” to use them for irrigation rather than the utility’s service.

The utility is continuing to suspend installation and permitting of new irrigation services, though temporary irrigation meters and service may be made with the utility for new sod on a limited basis. For more information about obtaining this temporary service contact Katie Leubner at kleubner@pendercountync.gov.

Developers are reminded that they must be able to provide fire suppression systems to new commercial and residential developments from either the utility or independent water systems to meet state fire code and water extension requirements.

“These measures are planned to be revoked as soon as PCU is able to ensure we can supply the quantity and pressure of water necessary for additional water demand and fire flow conditions,” according to the release.

The utility expects to partially relax the restrictions once it begins operating a new water well in December.

“Complete revocation of these measures may not occur until the proposed elevated water tank in Scotts Hill is completed May 2024,” the release states.

For more information visit https://www.pendercountync.gov/utl/public-notices/.

To celebrate the 2023 Year of the Trail, Pender County is joining with a troupe of pirates, naturalists and historians to host a family friendly hike each month.

Pender County Tourism, Pender County Parks and Recreation and Pender County Health Department staff are working with various organizations and municipalities to coordinate hikes of a mile long or shorter throughout the county.

“Pender County is a trail county,” said Tammy Proctor, director of tourism, in a statement. “We are crisscrossed by major trails such at the Mountains to Sea Trail, the East Coast Greenway, the NC Birding Trail,  the NC Oyster Trail, and many more. This year, we’re celebrating the Year of the Trail.”

“The first hike is the Hot Chocolate Hike on Jan. 31 at the Abbey Nature Preserve,” said Pender County Parks and Recreation Supervisor Zach White.

The Pender County Health Department will lead a hike in Burgaw in February to celebrate the Year of the Trail and Heart Healthy Month.

March will feature the “Top-Secret Operation Bumblebee Hike” in Topsail Beach with the Historical Society of Topsail Island.

April will be a pirate treasure hike in Soundside Park in cooperation with a pirate troupe and Surf City.

May will be a family fun hike into Holly Shelter Game Land with naturalist Andy Wood.

In June, take a hike on the Blueberry Trail in Burgaw during Blueberry Week.

“We are booking the remainder of the hikes right now,” Proctor said. “It’s going to be a fun activity for families because for every hike a family makes, we will enter their name into a drawing for a grand prize gift basket. The more hikes that family members take, the more chances to win.”

The North Carolina State Legislature declared 2023 as the “Year of the Trail” and “encourages all North Carolinians to take advantage of their local and regional trail networks, do their part to further enhance North Carolina’s trail networks, and pay tribute to everyone who has labored to maintain and enlarge these public amenities.”

For more information or to register, call Pender County Tourism at 910-259-1278.

David Andrews, who most recently served as town manager for Boiling Springs Lakes, will begin his new role as Pender County manager Sept. 1.

The Pender County Board of Commissioners made the announcement following a closed session Monday during its regular meeting.

Before Andrews managed Boiling Spring Lakes, he was manager of Carrboro for more than 10 years “where he was instrumental in strengthening the town’s arts and entertainment district, promoted tourism and economic development, implemented a community outreach program, and supported remediation efforts for a neighborhood adversely affected by a former landfill,” according to the county.

“Mr. Andrews brings many strengths to Pender County, including land use, budget and finance, economic development, and strategic planning,” said Chairman David Piepmeyer in a statement.

Piepmeyer added that Andrews has experience working with grants for large capital projects, most recently the Boiling Springs dam restoration project. He is also acquainted with the bond process, which is helpful for the upcoming Pender County school bond referendum that will appear on the November ballot.

Andrews began his career in the South Tucson as a finance director in 1991. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona with a master’s in public administration. He also holds a bachelor’s in accounting from Stephen F. Austin State University. Andrews is a certified and credentialed manager and is recognized by the International City/County Management Association. 

PENDER COUNTY — Emergency crews were going house-to-house Thursday looking for flood victims as waters in the Black River Basin continued to rise.

Pender County Emergency Management Director Tom Collins said by telephone early Thursday afternoon that the river continued to swell, but it was not rising as fast as it was earlier in the week.

“What we’re doing now is we’re going to check every house that’s flooded,” Collins said.

Floodwaters have affected about 630 homes and businesses along the river basin in Currie, a rural community dotted with farmlands west of Moore’s Creek National Battlefield on N.C. 210.

A mandatory evacuation was issued for residents in the Black River Basin on Tuesday as waters rose rapidly – a reported 3-5 inches an hour – trapping several residents. A helicopter, boats and trucks were being used to rescue stranded residents from the flood.

“I know that we’ve pulled about 20 people out with the helicopter,” Collins said.

More residents were retrieved from floodwaters by rescuers on boats and in 5-ton vehicles. Rescuers and volunteers were also rounding up family pets and livestock stranded in the floodwaters.

“We’ve got anything from a pot-bellied pig to goats to horses,” Collins said.

By Thursday afternoon the river had risen to more than 18 feet.

“It’s probably going to go a little higher,” Collins said. “It’s going to be there through the weekend and probably into next week before it goes down.”

The Northeast Cape Fear River near Burgaw was expected to crest Thursday at 17.4 feet, more than seven feet above flood stage.

Water Quality, Public Health Risks

Rising floodwaters following Hurricane Matthew’s heavy rainfall could create environmental and health hazards as waters creep toward concentrated animal feeding operations and coal ash ponds.

Riverkeepers have been busy this week surveying flooded rivers feared to be carrying pollutants that could affect water quality.

“There are a number of hog waste lagoons that have been breached,” said Madi Polera, a biologist with Cape Fear River Watch. “There have also been coal ash spills that we’re concerned about.”

Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Travis Graves said he was worried about the public health effects of compromised hog waste lagoons.

“Our first concern is bacterial contamination,” Graves said.

He said coal ash ponds also posed a threat if their dams were breached. Coal ash contains a slurry of dangerous chemicals, including arsenic and selenium.

On Thursday, the Waterkeeper Alliance, the national nonprofit organization under which the riverkeepers operate, and Upper Neuse Riverkeeper Matthew Starr announced that Duke Energy’s shuttered H.F. Lee plant’s cooling pond’s dam was breached at Quaker Neck Lake in Wayne County.

While the cooling waters are not contaminated and do not pose a threat, the coal ash ponds do.

Starr said he was “very worried” about the saturated retainer walls of the coal ash ponds, water in inactive coal ash sites and a portion of an active coal ash pond that is underwater.

As of Thursday, officials were not concerned that the coal ash pond at the Duke Energy Sutton Steam Plant near Wilmington would be breached or flooded, “but we are still downstream of a lot of water, which will be coming our way,” said Mike Giles, a coastal advocate in the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Wrightsville Beach office.

Toxic Soup

Graves said everyday contaminants, such as those found in gas stations, landfills and factories, also pose environmental and public health threats. He urged people to be extremely cautious and to stay out of the water if they can.

“All of those types of waste that we try to contain on a day-to-day basis,” he said, “are free and flowing.”

Once this “toxic soup” soup of pollutants reaches the state’s sounds, Starr said, it could cause problems with fisheries, crabbing and ecosystems.

At this point, Polera said, officials are hopeful the rain dumped onto the area during Hurricane Matthew will create a flushing effect similar to Hurricane Floyd in 1999.

“What we’re kind of hoping here is that with as much water as we have that it is going to flush the landscape,” she said. “We’re hoping that we won’t see any big fish kills like we did in (Hurricane) Bertha.”

Gov. Pat McCrory, speaking during a tour of Kinston Thursday, noted that portions of Craven County along the Neuse River will be most greatly affected on Saturday and into next week. The problems in Craven County will likely affect Cove City, Dover, Fort Barnwell, Vanceboro and other communities in western parts of the county.

Drinking Water Advisories

Residents who are on a public water system that lost pressure during or after the storm should follow the directions of local emergency officials and their water utility and not resume normal water-use habits until the system has been checked and deemed safe for human consumption.

If water from a water system is cloudy, it should be strained through a clean cloth, and then boiled for at least one minute before consumption.

Residents who use well water need to take precautions. If the wellhead was covered by flood waters, it should be tested by public health officials, even if the pump still works. State public health officials urge homeowners to contact their local health department to have wells tested if they have any doubts about the water.

Additionally, if a septic system has flooded, extreme water conservation practices are urged. Follow these tips when dealing with flooded septic systems:

• Flush toilets only when necessary
• Take sponge baths and do not run water while brushing teeth, shaving or cooking
• Contact your county health department before doing maintenance or repairs
• Keep pets and children out of standing water over the septic system
• If you must be around the system, wash your hands often

The septic system may not work until the water table has dropped below the septic tank. Large systems will not start working again until the operator has inspected and restarted them.

Learn More

• Boil-water advisories were in place a number of counties, including some on the coast. Check the latest information on water systems.

Last of two parts

HAMPSTEAD — Vic French steps across a meadow of wire grass and gall berry at the Holly Shelter Game Lands Preserve to draw a distinction between the tidy, longleaf woodland and the adjacent jumble of a Carolina bay community.

Pond pines and loblolly bays jut above the dense, impenetrable understory of red and sweet bay, wax myrtle and unending twists of greenbrier.

Unlike the sandy longleaf pine woodland floor, soils here are deep and rich in organic matter – the by-product of undisturbed cycles of decomposing plant material – as much as six feet deep.  The densely intertwined vegetation provides perfect cover for all manner of wildlife, including black bear, wild turkey, nesting birds and reptiles, such as frogs and turtles.

Unfortunately, this preferred habitat proved fatal for wildlife caught in the lightning-sparked wildfire during the summer of 2011. The fire, which began in June, smoldered relentlessly in mostly inaccessible areas where drought had turned deep organic soils to tinder. By the time Hurricane Irene extinguished the embers in August, more than 30,000 acres were reduced to ash.

“Pond pines are not fire resistant. They fell over and burned, along with the dry understory. The fire was so intense, the soils burned away. The ground level dropped significantly and the seed banks and roots were destroyed,” says French, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “It all will be under water when the heavy rains come.”

Recovery From Fire

The fire last year burned deep into the peat soil. Photo: Pam Smith

Recovery in the vast devastated area seems doubtful any time soon.

The drought that caused a drop in the water table also dried up creeks and streams that might have helped lessen the path of destruction. Fire-fighting became a matter of containment efforts, French explains. To box the fire in, wide corridors were cleared of vegetation along existing roads and power grids, exposing bare soil and removing burnable material, in order to break the fire’s spread.

Another fire that started last weekend outside the preserve threatened to cross over into the game lands.

Oddly, protected plants such as the Venus fly trap and sun dew are showing up in random spots and pitcher plants are making a comeback along disturbed areas at the fringes of the fire zone.

The rare carnivorous plants commonly grow in Holly Shelter savannas – the transition zones between dry longleaf woodlands and wet pocosin habitat.

Don’t ask French to name his favorite part of Holly Shelter.  It’s a bit like asking a father to choose his favorite child.  “It changes with every season,” he says.

Case in point: As French pulls his pick-up truck alongside the Ashes Creek impoundment, the crunch of tires on the gravel road results in a flurry of activity nearby. Nearly 500 green-winged teal ducks frantically rise from the water, circle the marsh, and settle onto a more secluded spot to renew grazing the smorgasbord of grasses and insects in the shallow fresh water.

“They showed up a couple of weeks ago,” French notes with an edge of excitement in his voice.  “I’ll show you another recent arrival.”

He drives a couple hundred yards and points across an open field to the edge of a burned out Carolina bay community. A newly built eagle’s nest sits at the top of a singed, skeleton of a tree.

“It’s a mystery why the eagle chose that nearly dead tree,” French muses.

Nor can he account for the pair of wild turkeys that scurry along one of the plowed over fire break lines – not their usual preferred habitat.

A Good Place for Frogs

This pond is perfect breeding habitat for the rare Carolina gopher frog. Photo: Pam Smith

Still, he knows for certain why rare Carolina gopher frogs choose to do their spring courting in bog ponds – some natural and some provided by wildlife personnel.

“We help Mother Nature out a bit by providing a clear pond with no fish to eat eggs or tadpoles during breeding season,” French says.

The good news is that most of the Holly Shelter Game Land was unscathed by last year’s fire. It continues to be a popular destination to observe the array of native plants, butterflies and beneficial insects that inhabit its diverse ecosystems.

Holly Shelter also is a birder’s delight: Along with the celebrated red-cockaded woodpecker, it is the year-round home to the Bachman’s sparrow; and, the preferred breeding habitat for the Acadian flycatcher, as well as Prothonotary, Swainson’s, hooded and yellow- throated warblers.

Many backyard gardeners are considering native plants in their landscapes because they are suited for the local climate and soils; are aesthetically pleasing; control invasive species; and provide habitat for a host of birds. If you’re one of them consider attending he N.C. Coastal Federation’s Native Plant Festival, April 27-28, at the group’s main office in Ocean in Carteret County.

Typical native plants that thrive in coastal counties include sweet bay magnolia, loblolly bay, bay laurel, sweet bay, gall berry, titi, fetterbush, zenobia and a variety of ornamental grasses.

• Watch a video on pond life in the game lands

From left: sun dew, Venus fly trap and Confederate jasmine. Photos: Pam Smith

What You Should Know

Providing public hunting opportunities has been a major focus of the N.C. Wildlife Commission for decades.

Holly Shelter Game Lands’ origins can be traced to 1939 with the reallocation of 38,000 acres of untamed land from the N.C. Board of Education to the N.C. Conservation and Development Division – the forerunner of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

Since its creation as the Holly Shelter Wildlife Refuge, as it was known, the site has been expanded as a result of continued acquisitions and cooperative agreements with other state, federal, corporate and private landowners. The Federal Pittman-Roberson Act of 1937 enables ten percent tax on ammunition and firearms sales to go toward acquisition and preservation of wildlife restoration sites for hunting and fishing.

Much of the site is remote and inaccessible. A series of roads are open to the public for seasonal hunting in designated areas. Licensed hunters may arrange to stay at a primitive campsite for their quest of deer, squirrel, quail, wild turkey and black bear. And, handicapped sportsmen may use four-wheel recreational vehicles at two accessible game lands’ sites.

Two access points into Holly Shelter offer hikers and birders a chance to enjoy some of the game land’s diverse habitats.

Take N.C. 210 east from I-40 and cross the Northeast Cape Fear River. Drive less than a mile past the river and turn left on Shaw Highway (SR 1520). Go 7.3 miles to the Wildlife Commission boat access area by the river. Follow the trail along the dike between the river and the swamp forest.

From the intersection on N.C. 210 and U.S. 17 in Hampstead, drive north on U.S. 17 4.4 miles. Look for a N.C. Wildlife Commission sign on the left at the entrance to Lodge Road. The road is gated and closed from March 1 through Aug. 31, but you can walk into the game land here and walk through the flatwoods.

For additional information about Holly Shelter Game Lands, go here.

First of two parts

HAMPSTEAD — Vic French knows Holly Shelter Game Lands Preserve like the back of his hand.

The rest of us better have a detailed map, a GPS device and a good compass to take a walk on the wild side in this 65,000-acre biological cornucopia in Pender County.

French, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, has been associated with the preserve in various capacities for most of his 30-plus years with the commission.

He’ll tell you upfront that while the commission, governmental agencies and environmental groups play a role in protecting its natural wildness, Mother Nature is very much in charge of its distinct design.

Red-cockaded woodpecker dig nesting cavities in live pine tree. The sap helps protect the nest from predators. Photo: Pam Smith

Holly Shelter encompasses an expanse of longleaf pine woodlands, savannas, Carolina bays, pocosins and black water streams. Each unique habitat hosts equally unique plant and wildlife, including several threatened or endangered species found exclusively in the state’s southeastern coastal plain.

Much of the site is remote and inaccessible, but a series of roads are open to the public for hiking, birding, biking and seasonal hunting in designated areas.

The main road into Holly Shelter Game Lands, off U.S. 17 just north of Hampstead, serves as an introduction to the preserve’s varied ecosystem scenarios. An initial tangle of vegetation atop a sandy ridge gives way to a flat, open stretch of golden wire grass dancing in the wind beneath a stand of longleaf pine trees.

Many of the stately longleaf are marked with a pair of painted stripes, indicating active red-cockaded woodpecker cavities – “government housing,” as French jokingly calls them.

About 10 percent of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker population in southeastern North Carolina nest among the site’s longleaf pines. That’s no accident, French explains. Wildlife biologists follow a prescribed protocol to protect the iconic endangered species that relies on open stands of mature longleaf pines for nesting. At Holly Shelter, specialists conduct periodic controlled burns to maintain suitable habitat.

The controlled burns also promote the regeneration of beneficial plant species that attract other wildlife, including squirrel, quail, snakes and myriad reptiles. Along with native wiregrass, the longleaf pine understory may feature spikes of yucca, bluestem sedge, reed grass, Joe-pye weed and toothache grass. Confederate jasmine, roughleaf loosestrife, goldeneaster or roundheaded lespedeza may add dots and dashes of color.

Gall berry, an evergreen shrub, seems to thrive in a range of Holly Shelter ecosystems. Its tiny sweet-smelling flowers attract honey bees galore. Gall berry honey, French attests, is prized nectar.

Tuesday: A year after The Fire

Species Profile: Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

North Carolina Status: Endangered

U.S. Status: Endangered, listed in October 1970.

Description: About the size of the common cardinal, the red-cockaded woodpecker is approximately 7 inches long (18 to 20 centimeters), with a wingspan of about 15 inches (35 to 38 centimeters). Its back is barred with black and white horizontal stripes. The red-cockaded woodpecker’s most distinguishing feature is a black cap and nape that encircle large white cheek patches. Rarely visible, except perhaps during the breeding season and periods of territorial defense, the male has a small red streak on each side of its black cap called a cockade, hence its name.

The red-cockaded woodpecker feeds primarily on beetles, ants, roaches, caterpillars, wood-boring insects, and spiders, and occasionally fruits and berries.

Range: Historically, this woodpecker’s range extended from Florida to New Jersey and Maryland, as far west as Texas and Oklahoma and inland to Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. Today it is estimated that there are about 6,000 groups of red-cockaded woodpeckers, or 15,000 birds from Florida to Virginia and west to southeast Oklahoma and eastern Texas, representing about 1 percent of the woodpecker’s original range. They have been extirpated in New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee, Missouri and Kentucky.

Life History: Red-cockaded woodpeckers roost and nest in cavities of live pine trees. Cavities are built only in large, old pines. These woodpeckers live in family groups that may include the male and female, their chicks and young adult “helpers.” These “helpers,” typically related young from previous nesting seasons, help build cavities and care for the future chicks. Pecking a cavity in a live tree takes a long time, since the wood is very hard. The birds peck the bark around the entrance to get the sap (resin) flowing around the hole. The sticky sap keeps predators like snakes away from the nest cavity. The birds also eat insects found under the bark and along the branches of pine trees. Females lay two to four eggs during breeding season. A woodpecker group roosts and nests in a cluster of up to 30 cavity trees. Most clusters have some cavities under construction, some completed and in use and some abandoned.

Habitat: Open pine forests with large, widely-spaced older trees provide essential habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker.

Distribution: The red-cockaded woodpecker can be found in the piney woods of Eastern North Carolina.

Other: Red-cockaded woodpeckers are endangered because the open forests with big, old pine trees have been replaced by forests with younger, smaller pines. Also, periodic natural fires, which historically kept the pinewoods open, have been suppressed since settlement. Periodic fire is needed to control the brushy understory and keep the pinewoods open.