COASTLINES VOLUME 21 // ISSUE 3 // Fall 2021
Sand Beach Provides First Line of Defense Against Storms
hutaff island is protected!
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he North Carolina Coastal Land Trust has purchased Hutaff Island, the last privately-owned undeveloped barrier island in North Carolina. This 2.5-mile long, gem of a barrier island and the adjoining 1,000 acres of salt marsh with shrub and forested islands is one of the best examples of a natural, dynamic barrier island complex left in North Carolina.
Photos by Walker Golder, CLT Above: The Coastal Land Trust has purchased Hutaff Island, the last privatelyowned undeveloped barrier island in North Carolina, along with the adjoining 1,000 acres of salt marsh with shrub and forested islands. The natural barrier island provides essential habitat to plants and animals, including shorebirds such as the piping plover shown at right.
Walk along the island’s beach and you will see a barrier island landscape shaped by wind and water, one allowed to move and breathe, and an island that has sustained itself over time. Sea oat-covered dunes and sandy beach provide the first line of defense against storms for local communities while providing essential habitat for birds, sea turtles, and plant communities that depend on barrier islands, including ten state or federally-listed species like Red Knot, Piping Plover, and seabeach amaranth. Venture in the marsh and you’ll experience a classic back-barrier salt marsh ecosystem rich with fisheries of all kinds, birds, and other wildlife, and some of the best water quality of any place on the North Carolina coast. Protecting this island will help sustain hutaff, continued on page 3
Navassa’s Jurassic Park By Janice Allen, Coastal Land Trust Director of Land Protection
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erily exhilarating. That is how I would describe my trek through the wild and wonderful Dollison’s Swamp of Brunswick County, a vast 1,000+acre swamp forest along the Cape Fear River in the Town of Navassa. I was following veteran swamp master, John Rudolph, our surveyor, who was showing me a property line he recently surveyed. As I slogged through the boot-sucking mud, swatting some mosquitoes, and scanning the murky water for slithering creatures, John yelled back to me, “I LOVE it out here. Swamps are so wild.” Yes, enjoying a swamp requires a certain Jurassic, continued on page 9
CoastalLandTrust.org
Photo by Walker Golder, CLT Along the Cape Fear River in the Town of Navassa is Dollison’s Swamp, a 1,000-acre swamp forest that takes us back in time.
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