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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 22, 2004

Todd Miller, executive director
252-393-8185
toddm@nccoast.org

White Oak Gets Early Christmas Present

     Ocean, NC – People along the White Oak River in Onslow and Carteret counties got an early visit from Santa, who dropped off a 1,400-acre present wrapped in marshes and trimmed with wild turkeys.
     The N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, a little-known state agency that has done innumerable good deeds across the state, played the role of jolly St. Nick when it recently gave the N.C. Coastal Federation more than $1 million to preserve one of the key pieces of waterfront property along the river. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also gave the Federation and its partner, the N.C. Coastal Land Trust, $461,842 to complete the purchase of the 1,443-acre tract in Onslow County.
     NCCF will place conservation easements on the property, known as the Quaternary tract, and transfer it the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, which will use it as public game lands.
"This is a nice Christmas present to the people of Eastern North Carolina," said Todd Miller, NCCF's executive director. "The preservation of this key piece of property will ensure that it will never be developed and become a source of water pollution."
     Curtis Estes, owner of Estes Homebuilders in Cedar Point in Carteret County and one of the tract's owners, could have built quite a few waterfront houses on the property. "There's enough upland that we could have built something there and maybe put some land in a conservation easement, but we always wanted to see that piece preserved," he said. "I'm tickled to death that it is."
     The land includes almost nine miles or 723 acres of riparian buffers along the western bank of the river and borders two creeks north of Stella. Here, the river flows back through time. Threatened alligators outnumber the houses. Wild turkey abound. So do a breeding population of the purple gallinule, a significantly rare water bird whose hen-like cackle competes with the contemplative cooing of mourning doves or the piercing screech of redtail hawks. American shad, Blueback herring and alewife come here to spawn.
     The 48-mile-long White Oak is one of the last relatively unblemished watery jewels of the N.C. coastal plan. Starting as a trickle in the Hoffman State Forest in Jones County, the predominantly blackwater river lumbers through Jones, Carteret and Onslow counties, gradually widening as it flows past Swansboro and into the Atlantic Ocean. It drains almost 12,000 acres of estuaries – saltwater marshes lined with cordgrass, narrow and meandering hardwood swamps, and rare stands of red cedar that are flooded with wind tides.
     The size and location of the Quaternary tract in the middle of a largely undeveloped section of river and extensive fringe of exceptional wetlands made it the critical ingredient to protect water quality and preserve the ecological integrity of the river basin. The Croatan National Forest is across the White Oak River from the property. The trust fund had previously given the Coastal Federation money to buy other critical tracts on the river.
     After the Federation transfers the land to the Wildlife Resources Commission, portions of the land will planted in native longleaf pine. The tract is located upstream of the White Oak River Impoundment Game Land managed by the Wildlife Resources Commission.
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund was created in 1996 at the urging of Marc Basnight, D-Dare, and president of the state Senate. The trust fund supports projects by private nonprofit and public entities to enhance or restore degraded waters, protect unpolluted waters, and contribute toward a network of riparian buffers and greenways for environmental, educational, and recreational benefits.
     Since its creation, the trust fund has awarded 407 grants, totaling $320.7 million. Those grants have leveraged at least $533.7 million in private and other public funds. The agency received $62 million from the N.C. General Assembly last year and will be reviewing $170 million in proposals this spring. The trust fund's board of directors plans to ask Gov. Mike Easley and the legislature to include $100 million for the fund the CWMTF this year.