VOLUME 15 // ISSUE 1 WINTER 2015
COASTLINES NORTH CAROLINA COASTAL LAND TRUST
LAND OF RIVERS NORTHEAST OFFICE Lee L. Leidy Northeast Region Director Attorney at Law 205 N. Water Street, Suite 1 Elizabeth City, NC 27909 (252) 335-9495 lee@coastallandtrust.org
Oh the Places Our Rivers and Streams Flow
CENTRAL OFFICE Janice L. Allen Deputy Director 3301-G Trent Road New Bern, NC 28562 (252) 634-1927 (252) 633-4179 Fax janice@coastallandtrust.org MAIN OFFICE 131 Racine Drive, Suite 202 Wilmington, NC 28403 (910) 790-4524 (910) 790-0392 Fax Camilla M. Herlevich Executive Director ext. 206 camilla@coastallandtrust.org John Napiecek Business Manager ext. 204 john@coastallandtrust.org Mary Ellen Slugg
Caption?
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he Coastal Plain of North Carolina is threaded by a magnificent system of rivers and streams. There are slow-moving “blackwater” rivers like the Waccamaw and the Lumber that begin in the low terraces of the coastal plain, and flow lazily towards the sea. We also have faster-moving “brownwater” rivers, like the Neuse, the Tar, and the Cape Fear, that
rise in the piedmont, gathering speed (and sediment) as they race towards the ocean. Biologists understand the importance to animals large and small played by rivers and the wetlands and swamps that line the banks of rivers. Rivers are places where birds, and other wildlife forage for food, find water to drink, mate and raise their young, and use as migratory corridors.
Many species of fish come upriver to mate and spawn before heading back into estuaries or the ocean. Botanists celebrate the diversity and abundance of plants that grow at the edges of rivers and streams where water meets land. Transitional habitats and micro-climates allow special plants to flower. Historians point to rivers as primary transportation routes used by Native Americans and by early settlers from Europe. For the enslaved men and women brought to work Carolina’s plantations, rivers were a spiritual connector via waters that flowed to the Atlantic, and then lapped the shores of Africa. The financial “value” of rivers and streams are almost beyond calculation. Rivers supply drinking water for cities and towns up and down the coast and water for commercial uses such as irrigation. Our seafood industry depends on estuaries, where rivers meet the ocean, as nurseries for shrimp, oysters, and other shellfish. And rivers are also places for great fun—for fishing, boating, sailing, and paddling. We all depend on clean water! Rivers supply many of nature’s most abundant gifts, wherever they are located. From our beginning, the Coastal Land Trust has focused on saving rivers by saving the lands through which rivers and creeks flow. We’ve saved bottomland hardwood forest filled with oaks, tupelo, and cypress and sandy river banks of loblolly and longleaf pine. Protecting these river buffers is key to keeping water clean and safe for everyone. Below we provide some news on two of our favorite rivers along the southeastern coast - the Waccamaw and Northeast Cape Fear.
Northeast Cape Fear
Waccamaw
Legal and Administrative Assistant
ext. 208 maryellen@coastallandtrust.org Jesica C. Blake Director of Stewardship ext. 203 jesica@coastallandtrust.org Jennifer Avesing Stewardship Biologist ext. 207 jennifer@coastallandtrust.org Tatum Justice Stewardship Assistant ext. 201 tatum@coastallandtrust.org Vann Pearsall Director of Development ext. 210 vann@coastallandtrust.org Beth W. Steelman Development Associate/ Volunteer Coordinator ext. 200 bsteelman@coastallandtrust.org Stephanie Borrett Development Assistant ext. 209 stephanie@coastallandtrust.org
STAY IN TOUCH www.CoastalLandTrust.org
NC Coastal Land Trust
Pre-Press Composition By: Copycat Printshop, Wilmington, NC
Above: Janice Allen and Scott Pohlman of the NC Natural Heritage Program paddle from Babson’s to Pireway landing on the Waccamaw River. Photo credit: Christine Ellis of the Winyah Rivers Foundation of the Waccamaw
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he Coastal Land Trust recently completed the purchase of 670 acres of bottomland hardwoods and cypress-gum swamp along the Waccamaw River just south of Lake Waccamaw State Park. Lake Waccamaw and the Waccamaw River, which flows south from the lake, are recognized by scientists as nationally significant because of the variety and abundance of nature that can be found there. “The Waccamaw is unique and wild,” said Janice Allen, Deputy Director of the Coastal Land Trust. “It includes some of the most beautiful and extensive cypress swamps in the state, and portions of the river and Lake Waccamaw contain fish and mollusks that are found nowhere else on Earth.” The property was sold to the Coastal Land Trust by Campbell Global LLC, a timberland investment company based in Oregon, with offices in Wilmington. “We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with our partner, the Coastal Land Trust, so that this region of the Waccamaw is preserved,” said John
Gilleland, CEO of Campbell Global. The Coastal Land Trust used part of its award from a 2012 courtordered settlement of the Clean Water Act case brought by the US Attorney against Freedman Farms, a corporate hog farm, to buy the property. We raised additional funds from the North Carolina Attorney General’s Environmental Enhancement Grant program, from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetlands Conservation Act grant, and from private donors Fred and Alice Stanback of Salisbury, NC. “Acquisition of this property on the Waccamaw is exactly the result that was contemplated in the court settlement ordered in 2012,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Thomas G. Walker. NC Attorney General Roy Cooper said, “We all rely on clean water and our Environmental Enhancement Grant program works to improve water quality by funding worthy projects like this effort to protect the Waccamaw River, one of North Carolina’s gems.”
Both black bears and wild turkeys are common along the NE Cape Fear. Photo credit: Joe Hughes
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he Northeast Cape Fear River flows 120 miles through Duplin and Pender Counties to its confluence with the Cape Fear River in New Hanover County. It is a shallow, slow, meandering river, with wide floodplains and rich swamp forests along its banks. Ranked as nationally significant for its ecological values, the land that drains into the river (its watershed) includes some of the state’s largest game lands, the 64,000-acre Holly Shelter Game Lands and 33,000acre Angola Bay Game Lands. This vast landscape hosts a variety of creatures from rambling black bear to the secretive gopher frog. In 2002, the Coastal Land Trust received the donation of a conservation easement over the 1,200+ acre Five Eagle Partners Farm by the Thomas family. Since then, the Coastal Land Trust has protected about 5,000 acres with more than $3.7M in capital funds invested. And stay tuned, there may be
more to come! Our partnership with the Owens Family of Pender County last December resulted not only in a conservation easement over 2,300 acres of their family holdings, but also an innovative partnership to protect another 2,000 acres or so on the Northeast Cape Fear. The Coastal Land Trust’s successful, on-the ground conservation work provides the community an opportunity to envision the Northeast Cape Fear River corridor as a refuge for plants, animals, and wildlife.