A marine debris egg hunt, a recycling relay race and marine debris trivia were a few of the many events on the agenda for Marine Debris Awareness Day last week on April 12. People of all ages and campers from the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island stopped by the event that was held from 10…
A small group of Dare County residents joined the North Carolina Coastal Federation on March 25 to learn about rain harvesting and to exchange ideas about how they can get creative with reusing stormwater in their yards. Those who participated in the rain harvesting workshop learned about how stormwater runoff impacts our water quality and…
Thirteen local realtors joined the North Carolina Coastal Federation at Carolina Beach State Park for living shoreline maintenance and a shoreline cleanup on April 4 for Realtor Action Day, a large volunteer event organized by Cape Fear Realtors. They helped straighten oyster bags on a reef that was displaced by Hurricane Matthew last fall. They also…
Twenty-four people helped raise money for the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s oyster projects while participating in a morning yoga class on Sunday, April 2. Jenna Livernois led the class, called “Ohms for Oysters,” at Outer Banks Yoga Studio as part of her yoga instructor certification. Each week, the studio offers a Sunday Karma class and chooses a…
The North Carolina Coastal Federation hosted a workshop on March 8 that trained local water quality professionals, planners and managers on coastal watershed restoration planning. The workshop, titled “Watershed Planning: Strategies and Tools to Protect and Restore Coastal Water Quality,” was organized in partnership with the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership (APNEP) and the North Carolina…
The City of Wilmington received an award from the Lower Cape Fear Stewardship Development Coalition on Feb. 24 for its collaborative efforts to reduce the volume of polluted stormwater runoff entering Masonboro Sound. The city won the award for a constructed wetland in the Raintree neighborhood of Wilmington. The wetland was built over a stormwater…
On Feb. 17, the North Carolina Coastal Federation broke ground on a salt marsh restoration project in Williston Creek, located at the 6,000-acre North River Wetlands Preserve in Otway. The project will restore and create approximately 8.8 acres of salt marsh and 3,500 linear feet of tidal creek. “This new salt marsh at the headwaters…
Nineteen birding enthusiasts ventured to the restored habitats of North River Wetlands Preserve in Otway on the cool and sunny morning of Feb. 26 to get up-close looks at the birds that flock to the peaceful preserve. The North Carolina Coastal Federation’s Birding at the Preserve program gives participants the unique experience of checking out…
The Town of Swansboro Board of Commissioners took proactive steps Tuesday to address stormwater runoff by unanimously voting to adopt a watershed restoration plan developed in partnership with the North Carolina Coastal Federation. This collaborative effort has been in the works since 2016. The federation has met with town representatives, Hammocks Beach State Park, the…
UPDATE: This article has been edited to reflect updated crab pot numbers. A fleet of boats crewed by 72 commercial watermen spread out along the North Carolina coast in January and collected 4,304 lost crab pots as part of the Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, which is a statewide effort to remove lost crab pots from…