3609 Hwy 24 (Ocean) | Newport, North Carolina 28570

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 February 21, 2003

Cape Lookout COASTKEEPER^®, Frank Tursi
252-393-8185
lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org

 NCCF holds 'open house' at
largest wetlands project in state history

     Ocean – The NC Coastal Federation will hold an open house at its North River Farms wetlands restoration project and invites people to tour the largest such project ever attempted in the state.
     Free tours will be held Saturday, March 8, at the farm near Smyrna in eastern Carteret County. They will start at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. To make reservations, call the Federation at 252-393-8185 or email Frank Tursi at lookoutkeeper@nccoast.org. Tursi, NCCF's Cape Lookout COASTKEEPER^®, will lead the tours. John Fussell, a noted local ornithologist, will also be on hand to help identify birds. The farm is a favorite for bird-watchers, who spotted sandhill cranes there during the annual Christmas Bird Count.
     With the help of the state's Clean Water Management Trust Fund, NCCF bought more than 4,100 acres of the farm. Bordering the North River, Core Sound, and the upper reaches of Jarretts Bay, the swampy land was drained and converted to cropland starting in the 1970s.
     Bulldozers arrived on the property in January to begin the long process of turning the farmland back into swamps. The restoration project will eventually improve water quality in Williston, Wade, Middens and Ward creeks, which start on the property and are now too polluted for shellfishing because of high bacteria in runoff from the drained land. The goal is to re-open those creeks again. Once the restoration is completed, the land will be protected as wetlands.
     Tour participants will be able to do their part by planting tree seedlings. More than 80,000 seedlings were recently planted on the property.