WILMINGTON – For more than two hours, residents in an area considered ground zero for PFAS contamination in North Carolina passionately, often angrily, chastised the Environmental Management Commission’s proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules.

Dozens of people who signed up to speak – 60 in all – at the public hearing Thursday in downtown Wilmington took turns at a podium unleashing what turned into a collective no-holds-barred rebuke of the proposed rules and, at times, the commissioners who pushed them forward for public comment.

Several of those who spoke in front of a crowd of about 230 people who filled a room in Wilmington’s Skyline Center shared stories about their own health issues, illnesses their loved ones have suffered, and family and friends they’ve lost to various forms of cancer.

Throughout the hearing, people snapped their fingers, signaling their agreement with those speaking at the podium. At the close of every short speech, the audience erupted in rousing applause and cheers.

The sheer number of people who signed up to speak prompted Environmental Management Commissioner Yvonne Bailey, the hearing officer that evening, to ask that residents to limit their comments to two minutes.

“Those of us living here have advocated relentlessly at the local, state and federal level, and even at the U.N. for protection of our air and water,” said New Hanover County resident Priss Endo. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality “has proposed new surface water standards, but in response, the Environmental Management Commission is proposing regulations that will still allow 500 industries across the state to release PFAS chemicals.”

The hearing last week was the third and final the commission scheduled this year on its proposed monitoring and minimization rules for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and a branded compound called GenX developed by DuPont spinoff Chemours. The commission has also been hosting public hearings on similar proposed rules for the monitoring and minimization of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent and likely human carcinogen that has also been found in downstream drinking water sources.

PFAS are a mixture of chemicals used in a host of consumer products from nonstick cookware and food packaging to stain-resistant carpets, water-repellant attire, and makeup.

These chemicals have been found in numerous drinking water sources in North Carolina and traced back to discharges from industrial manufacturers, landfills, firefighting facilities and publicly owned treatment works that accept industry effluent.

Ongoing research into human health effects of PFAS, of which there are more than 15,000 related compounds, have found that some of the substances, including PFOA and PFOS, have been linked to health issues such as weakened immune response, liver damage, low infant birth weights, and higher risk of certain cancers.

Nearly a decade has passed since residents in the Lower Cape Fear region first learned through a local newspaper article that Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility in Bladen County had for decades knowingly discharged PFAS directly into the Cape Fear River.

Since then, public drinking water utilities that pull raw water from the river have spent millions of dollars upgrading their facilities with filtration systems and methods to keep PFAS out of their final product.

Chemours, under a 2019 consent order, has had to test thousands of privately owned drinking water wells for contamination.

“The 2019 consent order was a start,” resident Jim Nesbit said. “It’s not enough. Your mission is to protect the health of the people of this state. Use the full authority you have to take on the pollution of corporations.”

The PFAS monitoring and minimization rules the commission agreed to put out for public comment have remained under a hail of verbal fire from residents, the public utilities that provide their drinking water, and environmental organizations throughout the Cape Fear region.

As written, the rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for PFAS dischargers found to be in violation of those rules.

“As a 33-year water professional and former EMC member, I am testifying that the voluntary minimization plans, as proposed, are ineffective,” Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Executive Director Ken Waldroup said Thursday. “They’re essentially empty facades that do not solve the problem. These minimization plans do not remove PFAS from the Cape Fear River because all reductions are voluntary. Voluntary plans are simply ineffective. Upstream dischargers have had decades to disclose and minimize their PFAS discharges. Unfortunately, history has shown that dischargers only do so in response to effective regulation with specific mandatory limits or mitigation.”

Dr. LeShonda Wallace, who serves on the advisory board for the GenX Exposure Study, one that is measuring GenX and other PFAS exposure in area residents, said the proposed rules ignore science.

Instead, the proposed rules prioritize corporate convenience over public health, she said.

“The impacts are also economic as well as generational,” Wallace said. “PFAS contamination reduces property values, and it shifts the cost away from the polluters and on to the rate payers. Environmental protection and justice requires that those who cause the pollution pay to prevent it and that they pay to clean it up, and I urge the commission to reject these ineffective minimization rules and adopt enforceable, evidence-based standards that reduce pollution at the source.”

Lifelong New Hanover County resident Chip Jackson carried a doll baby with him to the podium.

“I came here tonight to tell this panel how ignorant I have been. I’ve been ignorant because nine years ago I trusted you people. I trusted you to do something,” he said. “I’ll give y’all a pro tip. When you see a baby float by in a stream, you look upstream to see who threw it in the stream.”

Resident Rosemary Schmitt said she simply wants to trust that the water coming out of her tap is not harmful.

“Drinking water should be safe, not something that comes with a list of side effects,” she said.

Just two weeks away from graduating with an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Tyler Raines said he was in a conundrum.

“I don’t have much else to say that hasn’t already been said about the economic, environmental, and social impacts of PFAS on the health of all human beings,” he said. “As I think about where I’m planning to root myself post-graduation, I find myself at a loss. Do I stay here in Wilmington and get poisoned by PFAS or do I go back to my home in Fuquay-Varina and get poisoned by 1,4-dioxane?”

The Environmental Management Commission could decide as early as September to approve or reject the proposed rules. If adopted, those rules would go to the Rules Review Commission for final approval by early next year.

Written comments on the proposed PFAS monitoring and minimization rules are being accepted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject title “PFAS minimization” or by mail to Karen Preston, DEQ-DWR NPDES Permitting Section, 1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC  27699-1617.

Three meetings have been scheduled for the public to learn more about a plan intended to improve public access to the main highway for the Outer Banks.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation is working with the Federal Highway Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and other federal and local agencies to develop a plan for a section of N.C. 12 in Dare County.

The vulnerable, 11-mile stretch of two-lane highway between the Marc Basnight Bridge and the Rodanthe “Jug Handle” Bridge is bordered closely on either side by the Atlantic Ocean and the Pamlico Sound and regularly experiences closures and maintenance issues from repeated storm damage.

Being called the Solving Access for N.C. 12 in Dare County, or SAND, Plan, the group began work in January on short- and long-term solutions to reduce travel disruptions for that section of roadway.

NCDOT representatives will be available to answer questions, facilitate public surveys, and receive comments during the following drop-in informational meetings, all scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m.:

• April 28 at the Hatteras Civic Center.
• April 29 at the Rodanthe Waves Salvo Community Building.
• April 30 at Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

The SAND project is funded with $1.86 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient and Cost Saving Transportation, or PROTECT, grant program.

“The plan aims to minimize environmental impacts and account for community considerations and the costs and feasibility of those solutions,” according to the release.

The team is using the Planning and Environment Linkages process to streamline future environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. Community stakeholder and public input is being considered important to the process as the plan is developed.

“By addressing environmental requirements in the planning stages, project managers can avoid having to duplicate studies and tackle major environmental hurdles that could delay projects and increase the costs to deliver them,” officials said.

Written comments can be submitted at any of the public meetings or by calling at 984-205-6615 and entering project code 2463, by email at nc-12-access@ncdot.gov or on NCDOT’s public input portal.

Comments during this round of engagement must be provided by May 15. Additional public meetings will be held in the summer and fall. More information can be found on NCDOT’s website.

Energy providers wasted no time last year asking the Trump administration to rescind 2024 federal standards for coal ash disposal.

Five days before President Donald Trump returned for a second term in the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, 10 power suppliers, including Duke Energy, fired off a letter urging Lee Zeldin, Trump’s then-nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, “decline to defend these unlawful rules.”

Now the EPA is proposing to revise federal regulation for coal ash disposal, a move that would relax the Biden-era national standards for inactive, often unlined basins designed to store a sludgy mix of watered-down fly ash and bottom ash.

Here in North Carolina, where comprehensive coal ash legislation was pioneered, proposed changes at the federal level are not expected to affect, at least for the time being, the state’s robust coal ash management law.

Nor would the proposed federal revisions impact the terms of a 2019 settlement agreement between the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Duke Energy, and public interest groups that set closure schedules and monitoring requirements for the power company’s remaining coal ash basins.

“None of that is going to be changed by what EPA is trying to do now at the federal level,” Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney Nick Torrey said.

But Torrey cautioned that sites where coal ash has been removed may still contain residual groundwater contamination.

“The federal regulations require monitoring and corrective action for that pollution,” he said. “If utilities can get exceptions and exemptions from those things, that’s potentially concerning. Fortunately, we do have a state process as well that’s dealing with groundwater issues, but it was never meant to be a substitute for the federal standards. There’s more vulnerability that coal ash contamination could be allowed to persist. So, we’ll have to be watching that very closely as things go forward.”

Coal ash, referred to in regulation and industry as coal combustion residuals, or CCR, is the byproduct created when coal is burned for electricity. It contains toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead and radioactive elements, according to the EPA.

In early February 2014, some 39,000 tons of coal ash slurry discharged from a collapsed pipe at Duke Energy’s retired Dan River Steam Station near Eden into the river. The spill spread as far as 70 miles downstream.

In the fall of that year, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted the North Carolina Coal Ash Management Act, or CAMA.

CAMA (not to be confused with the Coastal Area Management Act) initially set deadlines for Duke Energy to close a group of basins at four of its power plants by certain deadlines.

EPA in 2015 finalized the federal CCR rule under the Obama presidency. The Biden administration strengthened those regulations in 2024.

By that time, DEQ had finalized a basin closure schedule for all 14 of Duke Energy’s facilities in North Carolina. Following litigation and a settlement agreement between community and conservation groups, DEQ and Duke Energy, a 2020 consent order was approved to govern the cleanup process for the remaining sites.

Duke Energy anticipates officially fully excavating the 12th of its 32 coal ash basins in North Carolina by year’s end. Both coal ash impoundments at the Sutton Steam Plant in Wilmington were excavated by July 2019.

Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton confirmed in an email earlier this week that the excavation of ash at its W.H. Weatherspoon Power Plant in Lumberton is complete, well ahead of schedule. The company is in the process of working through the basin’s clean closure certification, a process expected to be completed later this year, Norton said in the email.

“Not yet counting Weatherspoon, we have completed excavation at 11 North Carolina basins and are making strong progress at the remaining 20, with well over half of our basin ash safely excavated in the states,” he stated. “All sites remain on or ahead of schedule for basin closure deadlines as shown here.”

Norton said the EPA’s proposed rule changes will not impact Duke Energy’s proposed coal retirement dates.

“We continue making progress on coal retirements while balancing our regulatory approvals and increased load growth – regulators have made clear that replacement generation must be online and serving customers prior to further coal plant retirements,” he said. “While the potential EPA CCR rule changes have no impact on our proposed coal retirement dates, we appreciate prior changes to in the federal regulations that provided flexibility for our coal facilities, enabling us to maximize the value of existing generation by extending the operational life of these assets to help meet load growth at the lowest possible cost to consumers. Retirement dates are subject to regulatory approval.”

Coal-fired operations at Belews Creek Steam Station in Stokes County are expected to be shut down no later than Jan. 1, 2040. The retirement of that plant’s coal combustion operations will mark the end of Duke Energy’s coal-fired power generation in the state.

“We are making tremendous progress on meeting all obligations agreed to years ago in our North Carolina settlement with state regulators and environmental groups – that commitment is unchanged, and state regulators have confirmed our plans are protective of public health and the environment,” Norton said.

Beneficial reuse units at the company’s Buck Combined Cycle Plant in Salisbury, Cape Fear plant in Moncure, and H.F. Lee Energy Complex on the banks of the Neuse River in Goldsboro have been reprocessing coal ash at those sites to make it suitable for use in concrete since 2020, he said.

Katherine Lucas, DEQ’s Division of Waste Management public information officer, stated in an email that the agency “is evaluating the proposed changes to determine any potential impacts on ongoing excavation and remediation activities at Duke Energy facilities.”

“In the absence of an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved state permit program, utilities must comply with both federal and state requirements. North Carolina remains a national leader in coal ash management, both in establishing comprehensive regulations and in the scale and pace of closure and remediation efforts. DEQ believes the state’s regulatory framework is at least as protective as federal requirements and does not anticipate that federal changes would reduce existing environmental and public health protections.”

The EPA is accepting public comments on the proposed rule changes through June 12.

The agency is hosting an online public hearing at 9 a.m. on May 28. 

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

Debbie Swick has a way of spotting problems that most people barely notice — and then refusing to let them go.

On the Outer Banks, the Southern Shores resident is best known as the driving force behind the push to ban balloon releases, a grassroots effort that helped shift public awareness around a form of litter that can travel hundreds of miles before landing in waterways and harming wildlife.

This time, her focus is something less visible but just as persistent: discarded monofilament fishing line — the nearly invisible plastic filament that can linger in the environment for centuries, entangling and injuring marine life long after it’s been cast aside.

In partnership with the Outer Banks Anglers Club, Swick has helped launch a new monofilament recovery and recycling program — one that aims to intercept that line before it becomes a long-term hazard in the water by installing and maintaining collection vessels at sites across the Outer Banks.

“It is a strangling mechanism,” Swick said. “It becomes entangled in fish gills, sea turtles, seals, porpoise. It doesn’t break down. It will amputate and maim marine life.”

Discarded fishing gear — including monofilament line — is widely recognized by marine scientists as one of the most dangerous forms of ocean debris. Research has found that roughly 740,000 kilometers (about 460,000 miles) of fishing line enter the ocean each year — enough to circle the Earth more than 18 times.¹

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at least 260 marine species are known to be harmed by entanglement in marine debris, including sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals.² Monofilament line is particularly dangerous because it is nearly invisible underwater and extremely durable, capable of persisting in the environment for hundreds of years.³

That is something David Masters Jr., vice president of the Outer Banks Anglers Club, sees regularly. “It’s usually tumbled up in seaweed or buried in the sand,” he said. “I pick it up all the time. I’ve seen birds with fishing line caught on the wings or legs and that’s very sad.”

Local conservation groups and park officials have long warned that sea turtles along the Outer Banks can become entangled in discarded fishing line, which can impair their ability to swim or feed — and in some documented cases, lead to death.⁴ Necropsies of stranded turtles in North Carolina have identified monofilament entanglement as a contributing factor, underscoring the long-term danger posed by fishing line that remains in the environment.⁵

Swick is a member of the Outer Banks Anglers Club and last year’s Member of the Year. That, combined with her reputation as an accomplished environmental advocate and volunteer — including recognition with a Governor’s Medallion Award — gave her the standing and credibility to introduce the idea of monofilament recovery to the
anglers. She brought the concept to the club’s board in January, and by February, they were building the collection vessels.

“I told the board, under no circumstances were we going to half-ass this,” she said.

This time, Swick wanted something different: accountability. Each location would be “adopted” by a member of the Outer Banks Anglers Club, responsible for monitoring, emptying, and maintaining the vessel.

“I have the list,” she said. “I know who is supposed to be picking it up, when and where.”

Recreational fishermen are often among the strongest stewards of the waters they fish — a point echoed by fisheries managers and conservation organizations who increasingly emphasize angler participation in sustainability efforts.⁶

The Outer Banks Anglers Club has its own track record, including helping spearhead the creation of artificial reef AR-165 off Oregon Inlet.

The program itself is simple by design. Collection vessels made from PVC pipe have been installed at fishing-heavy locations across the Outer Banks, including piers, marinas, and public access points. Among the initial sites are Kitty Hawk Pier, Avalon Pier, Jennette’s Pier, the Manteo waterfront, Wanchese Marina, and several others.

“We haven’t spoken to one entity that said no,” Masters said, noting support from local governments, property owners, and organizations.

Anglers deposit used monofilament line into the vessels. From there, club members assigned to each site collect the material, clean it, and bring it to monthly meetings. Swick then weighs the line and ships it to a recycling facility operated by Berkley Fishing in Iowa. There, it is processed through the company’s national recycling program, which
has collected millions of miles of monofilament since 1990 and repurposes it into products such as tackle boxes, other plastic goods, and components used in aquatic habitat structures.⁷

The program is still in its early stages, but initial results are encouraging. At one early collection site at Pirates Cove, volunteers gathered 4.5 pounds of monofilament in a single pickup. “That could have all ended up in the water,” said Swick.

As of now, about a dozen sites are in place, with a goal of reaching roughly 20 locations. Organizers are also working to expand the program through local tackle shops and a developing partnership with the North Carolina Beach Buggy Association, whose members could help collect discarded line from beach areas on Hatteras and further south.

Swick has set a clear benchmark for the program’s first year: 100 pounds of collected line. But success, she said, will be measured in other ways too. “When the community starts talking about how much less monofilament they are seeing in the water,” she said, “and when they start asking for us to put more vessels up — that’s a good sign.”

For Masters, the effort reflects something broader about the club itself. “It’s important people realize recreational fishermen really respect the natural resources we have here, because it is our love to fish here,” Masters said. “We want to keep it pristine.”

Sources

1. Global estimates on lost and discarded fishing gear and ghost gear impacts, based on peer-reviewed research (Richardson et al., 2022, Science Advances), including annual losses of fishing line and gear.
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — Marine Debris Program, documenting entanglement impacts affecting at least 260 marine species.
3. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — monofilament fishing line persistence estimates (up to ~600 years in marine environments), widely cited in coastal management and debris mitigation guidance.
4. Outer Banks Forever — Cape Hatteras National Seashore conservation guidance on sea turtle entanglement risks from discarded fishing line.
5. Outer Banks Voice — regional reporting on North Carolina sea turtle necropsies identifying monofilament entanglement as a contributing cause of mortality.
6. NOAA Fisheries — Recreational Fishing Policy, emphasizing “proactive stewardship” and collaboration with the angling community as essential to sustainable fisheries management.
7. Berkley Fishing — Berkley Conservation Institute, “Dedicated to the Future of Fishing,” documenting the company’s national monofilament recycling program (established 1990) and reuse into products such as tackle boxes and habitat materials.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

North Carolina’s Coastal Resources Commission is moving through the steps to update rules for building along high-hazard coastlines that are particularly vulnerable to erosion and flooding.

When the commission met April 16 in Ocean Isle Beach’s town hall, members voted unanimously to advance the rulemaking process to draft language amendments for ocean erodible areas and inlet hazard areas. Proposed changes include using the most recent data for erosion rates and maps for the two zones, which are classified as areas of environmental concern.

If approved, this will be the first time new inlet hazard boundaries have been updated since they were initiated in the late 1970s. The commission has been discussing revisions for decades, but the complicated process and public blowback have pushed talks of updates year to year.

Both inlet hazard and ocean erodible areas fall under the ocean hazard areas category of areas of environmental concern, which are the foundation for the Coastal Area Management Act permitting program. CAMA was enacted in 1974, along with the commission to adopt rules for legislation that protects the state’s coastal resources. The Division of Coastal Management, under the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, acts as staff to the commission.

Inlet hazard areas, or IHAs, encompass land along the narrow body of water that allows for tidal exchange between the ocean and inland waters. These swaths of shoreline are susceptible to inlet migration, rapid and severe erosion, and flooding. Land within the boundaries is subject to the commission’s development rules.

Ken Richardson, the division’s shoreline management specialist, told Coastal Review that in addition to the proposed updates to inlet hazard area boundaries, one of the primary changes under consideration is that erosion rate setbacks within inlet hazard areas will be based on inlet-specific erosion rates detailed in a 2025 report rather than the adjacent ocean erodible area, or oceanfront, rates, which is currently the case.

Because of limited data and resources, erosion rate setback factors within inlet hazard areas have been based on the rates of adjacent ocean erodible areas, essentially treating the inlet shoreline as an extension of the oceanfront.

“Given the rapid changes that can occur at inlets, this method has often resulted in setback factors that underestimate the true erosion dynamics of these areas,” according to the division. Erosion rates are used to determine how far back new construction must be from the shoreline.

Richardson said that, “Additionally, the rules would effectively ‘hold the line’ of existing development by preventing seaward expansion of new development in inlet areas that have experienced natural accretion.”

He referenced the “Inlet Hazard Area Boundaries, 2025 Update: Science Panel Recommendations to the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission,” presented in August 2025 to the commission that explains “any accretion at most inlets is temporary and likely to reverse over time; maintaining this line helps reduce future exposure to erosion hazards.”

The commission’s Science Panel on Coastal Hazards was directed in 2016 to update IHA boundaries. Rules were in the process of being updated in 2019, but the COVID-19 pandemic paused draft rules from moving forward.

The “Science Panel recommended updating IHAs on a five-year cycle alongside oceanfront erosion rates, by the time work resumed after the pandemic, the next oceanfront study (2025) was already approaching.  As a result, some stakeholders asked the CRC to proceed with a coordinated update,” leading to the directive in 2023 to provide another five-year review, Richardson told Coastal Review.

Richardson explained during the meeting last week that the science panel analyzed for the 2025 update the state’s developed inlets, which are Bogue, New River, New Topsail, Rich, Mason, Masonboro, Carolina Beach, Lockwood Folly, Shallotte and Tubbs.

Panel Chair Dr. Laura Moore, professor of coastal geomorphology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, presented the findings in the inlet hazard area boundaries report during the August 2025 meeting.

Last February, the Coastal Resources Advisory Council and a subcommittee reviewed the report and suggested deviating from the panel’s recommendation to measure setbacks from the hybrid-vegetation line because of concerns that existing structures would be nonconforming, and therefore harder to replace if something happened to the structure.

They decided to base the language on existing rules and continue to measure setbacks within inlet hazard areas from the actual vegetation line or pre-project line but not extend farther oceanward than the footprint of an existing structure, or, in the case with vacant lots, the landward-most adjacent neighboring structure, according to the division.

Richardson told the commission that another recommendation included amending the language for ocean erodible areas language citing the 2019 report to the “North Carolina 2025 Oceanfront Setback Factors & Long-Term Average Annual Erosion Rate Update Study: Methods Report report.”

Richardson noted that there are no boundary maps for ocean erodible areas because boundaries are measured from the vegetation line, which are dynamic and could change overnight, so the landward boundary is determined in the field.

Staff also proposes eliminating the distinction of residential or nonresidential for the type of structure, because “It doesn’t matter to erosion what the structure is being used for,” Richardson said.

Now, the proposed rule changes will go through the fiscal analysis. This step in the rulemaking process determines the financial impact of the proposed amendments. After the analysis is presented and voted on, the commission will decide to move on to the public comment period, then to final approval before sending it to the Rules Review Commission.

Septic tank update

Cameron Luck, a policy analyst for the division, briefed the commission on the work to develop rules for septic system siting, repair and replacement within ocean hazard areas.

He began by sharing what took place during a meeting March 30 in Buxton coordinated by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, with representatives from the North Carolina Home Builders Association, North Carolina Septic Tank Association, Outer Bank Association of Realtors, National Park Service, and from county health departments.

Attendees were brought up to speed on some of the issues surrounding failed septic tanks on the oceanfront, heard from Cape Hatteras National Seashore representatives about their policies and ongoing struggles and efforts to address both the threatened oceanfront structures and the failed septic tank systems and systems out on the beach

Department of Health and Human Services provided a quick synopsis of their process, focusing on the role within and alongside local health departments, with a discussion on how the department permits and cites septic tanks and how and failure enforcement.

Luck said that he and other division staff presented the most recently proposed rule language for discussion.

“We spent a good amount of time talking through the proposed language and some areas that could be improved,” Luck said.

Main points in the discussion focused on defining what type of repair would qualify for a permit.

“In other words,” Luck explained, would property owners be required to secure a permit if a filter or a section of pipe needs to be replaced, or does the rule need to be more focused on extreme failures.

Discussion also focused on whether the proposed rule changes should be applied coastwide or be more targeted to specific situations or locations.

“Perhaps, key takeaway from that meeting was a clear consensus among those attendees that some form of action is needed to limit the repair of failed septic systems on the ocean beach and to prevent them from remaining on the beach once they failed,” he said, adding that staff is working on those rule language updates.

Featured Image

Two cottonmouths, aka water moccasins and known scientifically as Agkistrodon piscivorus, came face to face while foraging Sunday at the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s 6,000-acre North River Wetlands Preserve, with one rising up and the other backing down. One of six venomous snakes in North Carolina, the cottonmouth is the most aquatic, preferring wetter habitats. It’s a pit viper, having a pit on its face that senses heat. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission offers tips on how to coexist with snakes. Photo: Doug Waters

The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Wednesday that its officials are considering new design options for the Carolina Bays Parkway Extension project in Brunswick County after feedback from the public.

NCDOT, in collaboration with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, is planning to extend S.C. Highway 31, aka the Carolina Bays Parkway, from S.C. Highway 9 in Horry County across the state line to U.S. Highway 17 in Brunswick County.

Proposed is a multilane highway that would use portions of the existing road in addition to building roadway in new areas. The total anticipated cost for the project is ​​$797 million. North Carolina’s share of the cost is estimated at $610.9 million. South Carolina anticipates construction commencing in 2029. North Carolina’s start date was listed as “TBD” on the project website.

In October 2025, the state highway departments jointly held two public hearings about the project. Seven different design alternatives were presented, including the departments’ preferred alternative known as Alternative 4.

NCDOT said Wednesday that, after reviewing public feedback and considering funding challenges, it’s not going to proceed with the North Carolina portion of Alternative 4, which builds on new location, tying in near the intersection of U.S. 17 and N.C. Highway 904.

Alternative 4 would also upgrade part of U.S. 17 to a fully controlled freeway from N.C. 904 to N.C. Highway 130 in Shallotte. 

The two state agencies and the Federal Highway Administration continue to collaborate and explore other alternatives and modified routes to minimize impacts and meet the purpose and need of the project, according to NCDOT’s announcement.

“NCDOT deeply values the input from this community and our stakeholders. We want to provide the region with the best possible roadway designs. We’ve listened to the feedback, and we’re working hard to prepare a new alternative,” said Division 3 Engineer Trevor Carroll in a statement.

Alternative 4 was preferred because of factors such as requiring the lowest number of residential displacements, estimated at 39, and the lowest number of identified noise effects. The impacts to wetlands and streams were also deemed moderate relative to other alternatives, despite a large amount of designated High-Quality Waters impacted.

A new alternative must include connectivity through the transportation network, increased mobility for the region and reduced travel time through the project corridor, officials noted in the announcement.

Additional information regarding the new design is to be presented to the public at a later date. 

NCDOT said it is “committed to transparency, innovative solutions and exploring community feedback regarding this project.” Its response to all comments received is available on the project webpage along with the most updated information regarding the project.

You can also follow NCDOT on social media for additional updates. 

PEA ISLAND — Recently I had the pleasure of giving Johnnie Van Willis a tour of the historic Pea Island Cookhouse museum. Johnnie traveled to the museum from his home in Marshallberg, a historic fishing community situated on a peninsula in Carteret County and directly along the shores of the Core Sound.

Marshallberg has been characterized as a sleepy, close-knit village with a rich history of commercial fishing, boatbuilding and family heritage. Johnnie’s great-grandfather was Isaac Van Willis Sr. He’s the surfman sitting in the middle top row in the only known photograph of a “Checkerboard Crew.” This term was used in the U.S. Life-Saving Service, the predecessor to today’s U.S. Coast Guard, to identify racially mixed surfmen crews, crews with both Black and white surfmen, like a checkerboard.

In March 2023, a painting depicting this image was unveiled at the College of the Albemarle – Dare County Campus. Both the photograph and painting are on display at the “Cookhouse,” the shortened name for the museum housed in what once was a building in which surfmen cooked and ate their meals.

As background, Johnnie shares both his middle and last name with his great-grandfather and grandfather, Isaac Van Willis Sr. and Isaac Van Willis Jr. In spring 2018, Johnnie took a road trip with his wife and daughters in search of his great-grandfather’s grave. Through a friend, he had learned it was somewhere near the Marshall and Gussie Collins Trail, a trail named after my grandparents at the Collins homestead. They were part of a small and closely knit community of Black residents of Roanoke Island. It included those connected to the Freedmen’s Colony on Roanoke Island, as well as the rich Native American history here.

Like many Black people in their community, my grandparents were known for their hard work, family, friends, and record of service. They once owned a home and farmland near where the trail is now, including much of the property that surrounds the Dare County Governmental Center and not far from the Virginia Dare Memorial Bridge.

I had noticed when Johnnie and two of his daughters were walking on the trail and struck up a conversation with them. They told me they were searching for the gravesite but couldn’t find it, and they were super excited when I revealed that it was a just a few yards away. Leading them there, I sensed our special connection.

Johnnie did not know much about his great-grandfather, other than that he had worked several years in the Life-Saving Service.

I quickly realized the parallels and differences associated with our two families. My great-grandfather also worked in the service. We both had family members and friends who had lived in small, tightly knit communities and had grown up fishing, oystering, catching crabs, building boats, farming, hunting, and going to church together. Yet, we also shared the understanding that history shows the lives and experiences of our two families were very different, simply because of race. 

Born in January 1873, my great-grandfather, Joseph Hall Berry, began his career initially serving as a “substitute” surfman when the legendary Keeper Richard Etheridge commanded the historic Pea Island Life-Saving Station. He enlisted in February 1902, the same month that my father would do the same 37 years later. My great-grandfather Berry is also the only of several family members who served in both the Life-Saving Service and the Coast Guard. He retired in February 1917 after serving for 15 years.

The trail signage at Isaac Van Willis Sr.’s grave shows he served for 30 years. Given that Life-Saving Service stations that once stretched along coast were spaced about seven miles apart and that our great-grandparents worked at neighboring stations, in all likelihood they knew each other. They could have each lived on Roanoke Island, but I am uncertain where Isaac Van Willis Sr. may have lived. They also likely participated in joint rescues. Before motorized equipment was available, these rescues were especially difficult and dangerous, often requiring the manpower of several stations.

Today, Johnnie still chuckles when he recalls how we met. When I realized who he was, the first thing I told him was to wait a few minutes, that his visit was important and I needed to I grab a pen and piece of paper. Yet, as we stood talking, I realized that, other than knowing his great-grandfather spent several years in the service, Johnnie knew little about him. He died when Johnnie was just a small child.

Johnnie knew more about his grandfather, Isaac Van Willis Jr., had who worked in the U.S. Lighthouse Service at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

In 2018, I also knew little about Isaac Van Willis Sr., and the story of Checkerboard Crews. Yet, each time I looked at the gravesite, I sensed he was important. His prominent marker, which includes the Life-Saving Service emblem and information about his wife on the opposite side, has always intrigued me. I was delighted a few days ago to receive a call from one of Johnnie’s daughters telling me that she wanted to bring her father back to Roanoke Island and to visit the Cookhouse. The trip was quickly planned. Johnnie and his daughters were thrilled to see a framed copy of the 1910 photograph and the vibrant oil painting of the same, each showing Isaac Van Willis Sr. They had never seen either image before. The discovery even brought tears to one granddaughter’s eyes.

I also made Johnnie aware of a letter that I had discovered about Isaac Van Willis Sr. several years ago. I promised to search for it in the research material I have collected over the years. At the time he was Surfman No. 1 at the Oregon Inlet station, the position typically next in line to become Keeper. Although I haven’t looked at it for several years now, I still recall being surprised to find Keeper Richard Etheridge’s signature on it. He and several others had signed it in support of Isaac Van Willis Sr.’s desire to become Keeper. Before Johnnie left, I promised to search for it and send him a copy.

Likewise, although Johnnie did not have any pictures of his great-grandfather, he had brought along something very special for me to see. He showed me a cherished framed photograph of Isaac Van Willis Jr., a photograph showing him doing work inside the lantern at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. He promised to send me a copy of the photo when he returned home.

After a day that began with a seafood lunch, then a long visit at the Cookhouse, and ended with a cherished joint return to the Isaac Van Willis Sr. gravesite, I have concluded that our chance encounter eight years ago was destiny, simply something meant to be.

The broader story of Checkerboard Crews is a planned topic for “Cookhouse Chats,” a new initiative for 2026 that started in February. These periodic chats are to provide information on lesser-known stories associated with the history that the Cookhouse represents. Our next planned chat will be announced soon. 

The North Carolina Coastal Federation is set to break ground next month in Carteret County on what officials describe as a first-of-its-kind facility intended to help shellfish growers overcome market barriers.

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, says the Shellfish Mariculture Hub in Straits, an unincorporated Down East community with deep commercial seafood heritage, will serve as a shared resource for shellfish growers, marking a significant milestone in sustainable shellfish aquaculture in the state and supporting the local community. The Shellfish Mariculture Hub promises to enhance the production capabilities of shellfish farmers while promoting collaboration and innovation, according to the Coastal Federation, which plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 11 a.m. May 4.

Situated at the Straits Landing Boat Ramp, the facility will provide shared refrigeration, equipment and water access, all of which farmers need to grow a thriving local industry rooted in coastal heritage and vital to the state’s blue economy. 

“From costly water access to long hauls for refrigeration and distribution, oyster growers face logistical barriers at every step,” explained Coastal Federation Oyster Program Director Alyson Flynn. “This facility is the solution towards streamlining operations and strengthening the shellfish mariculture industry.” 

Construction of the 50-foot, square building is expected to begin this summer.

The Shellfish Mariculture Hub is part of a broader, coordinated effort to grow the state’s oyster industry into a $100 million sector by 2030 — creating jobs, strengthening the coastal economy, and advancing resilient working waterfronts. By addressing a critical industry gap, the hub will lower barriers to market entry for new growers while enabling existing growers to expand and scale their operations, supporting the next generation of shellfish farmers. 

“Not only is the hub a centralized support facility for growers, but it is also an innovative model for the future of shellfish mariculture—equipping growers to thrive and serving as a blueprint for industry growth and investment along our coast,” said Flynn. 

Services honoring the late Larry Strother, a North Topsail Beach alderman who “had an unwavering commitment to protecting the shoreline and a profound love for his community,” have been scheduled for early May.

Strother’s family will receive friends from 6-8:30 p.m. on Friday, May 1 at Snead’s Ferry Presbyterian Church, 776 NC-210, in Sneads Ferry. A celebration of life will be held at the church at 11 a.m. on May 2. A private family inurnment will be at a later time.

Strother died April 12. He was 79.

The native North Carolinian was an accomplished high school athlete who honed leadership skills as a teenager, according to his obituary.

He left college and enlisted in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, serving his country from 1965 until 1970. During that time, he received several awards and medals, including the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat “V” for meritorious service. 

Strother went on to thrive in a career in the real estate and construction industries.

As a North Topsail Beach alderman, Strother chaired the North Topsail Beach Inlet-Sound-Advisory Committee. He was also vice chairman of the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission.

“Larry understood the shoreline was more than sand and water — it was the heart of NTB, a source of livelihood, beauty, and connection for generations of residents and visitors alike,” his obituary reads.

A town release announcing Strother’s death last week states he was “a devoted public servant whose impact on our community will not soon be forgotten.”

“Throughout his years of service, he was a tireless advocate for the renourishment and preservation of our cherished beaches. His unwavering commitment to protecting North Topsail Beach reflected his profound love for this place and the people who call it home. He will be remembered not only for his leadership and dedication but for his kindness, his steady presence, and his deep-rooted passion for the community he served so faithfully. North Topsail Beach has lost a true champion, and his absence will be felt along every stretch of shore he fought so hard to protect.”

Strother is survived by his wife, Lori, two sons, Ryan F. Strother of Colorado Springs, and Christopher W. Strother, and wife Emily, of Athens, Georgia, six grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and multiple nieces and nephews.

Donations to the Snead’s Ferry Presbyterian Church’s building campaign, P.O. Box 758 Snead’s Ferry, NC 28460, are requested in lieu of flowers.

Maybe you noticed, maybe you didn’t, but Easter came really early this year. But what does a bunny hand-delivering colored eggs and loads of chocolates have to do with gardening?

Ever wonder why Easter hops around like a bunny trying to get away from a fox? Most, although not all, holidays fall each year on a set date. It’s much easier to keep track of them that way. What if Valentine’s Day and Christmas jumped around the way Easter does? It makes it kind of hard to plan decorating and festivities, doesn’t it? It’s a challenge to even remember when to celebrate.

So why is it that Easter skitters hither and yon like a drop of water on a hot skillet? Is it simply afraid of commitment?

How many of you, enticed by our warmer-than-usual March weather, gleefully donned your shorts and flip-flops and got all gung-ho about planting your garden or your flowerbeds? The big-box stores were certainly eager to foster your addiction with all kinds of Hansel- and Gretel-esque “gingerbread house” plant displays.

Long before Easter was, well, Easter, the date now chosen as the holiest of Christian holidays was earlier established as an ancient planting guide that varied, according to the full moon. Our ancestors didn’t always have calendars. Some of them just didn’t pay that much attention. Others, like some of us, wanted to jump the gun and get a head start on the planting season. Weather was cold, weather turned warm, and then they got antsy, the same way we do.

Unlike us, if they planted and lost their seeds or tender, young plants to frost or cold weather, they couldn’t just run out to the nearest garden center and buy more. Saved seeds were often the difference between having plenty of food and going hungry — or even starving to death.

And then there’s that pesky difference between cole crops and warm-season crops. Some plants thrive in cold weather, and some can’t stand it. Some plants love hot weather, and some melt. It’s like the difference between someone who loves winter and someone who prefers summer.

Not only do we need to know when to plant, we need to know what to plant. Blessed as we are, here on the coast, with multiple growing seasons, there’s still an art to getting the cole crops finished before the heat sets in, and getting the warm season crops in as soon as we can without them getting zapped by frost.

You may be thinking, “We’re not growing crops on the moon, so what difference does the moon make to anything?”

The moon, that gorgeous, greenish cheese wheel in the sky, waxes and wanes on a regular schedule. Full every 28-ish days, its increasing and decreasing size affects far more than we realize. Weather. Animals. Humans. Oceans.

Without looking it up, do you know what phase the moon is in right now? It cycles over 29 ½ days from new, when we can’t see it at all, through waxing crescent, which is a thin crescent on the right; and then first quarter, or half-moon; waxing gibbous, which is between half and full; full; waning gibbous, or between full and half; third quarter or half-moon; and waning gibbous, a thin crescent on the left.

Because it can be full every 28 days, it’s entirely possible to have two full moons in the same month, a phase we call a “blue moon.”

There’s usually a significant weather event a couple days on either side of a full moon, whether it be cold, storms, or what have you. Insects hatch out worse around a full moon. Animals, such as deer or fish, feed at different times, according to the phase of the moon. It’s long been a belief that humans get crazier around a full moon. Just ask any nurse, police officer, or teacher.

The moon, our lovely nightlight, moves all the water on the planet four times a day. Think about that! And since humans are walking, talking, thinking (sometimes) bags of water, it has to have an effect on us as well.

Living mostly inside in our heated and air-conditioned homes, most of us don’t pay much attention to the stages of the moon anymore, or even to the moon itself, unless we happen to catch sight of a full moon while moving from the enclosure of our cars to the enclosure of our homes. In times past, the moon was a valuable predictor or harbinger of numerous different events, and wise people paid attention.

So, what does the full moon have to do with Easter and planting?

The reason the holiday doesn’t fall a set date is this: Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21. The spring equinox is March 21, so depending on the Paschal Full Moon, Easter can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25. However, if the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter will be the following Sunday.

The spring, or vernal, equinox, is when the sun rises due east and sets due west, and it was marked by the ancients at places like Stonehenge and Chichen Itza to signify the end of winter and the renewal that follows, the beginning of spring.

Theoretically, in our area, there shouldn’t be any more frost after Easter. Easter this year was April 5, while our last frost date is usually determined to be around the 15th of April.

Now, are you beginning to see why Good Friday is often known as “planting day?” Seeds put out after that time should be OK. Keep in mind, warm season crops such as tomatoes, peppers, cukes and eggplants need nighttime temps in the mid-60s to thrive.

If there’s one thing consistent about weather, it is that it’s going to be weather, and like an exhausted, hyped-up toddler on a sugar rush, it’s going to pitch a fit and do what it wants!

This is exactly why there would always be one wise elder in the village or larger area who carefully and accurately kept track of the moon and its phases — the one who cried out, “Stop! It’s not time yet! It’s too early! Wait!”

Just like now, some people listened and some didn’t. Sometimes their jumping the gun worked, and sometimes they failed abysmally.

Help shape the future of Wilmington’s newest public park.

The city is hosting a public engagement from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on May 2 to gather community input on the park’s design, amenities, and overall vision.

Those who attend the engagement at the MLK Center at 401 S. Eighth St. will have the opportunity to share their ideas directly with project partners and design teams.

Family-friendly activities, games, and food trucks will be available to attendees of the vent 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Design teams at 1 p.m. will provide a brief recap of key themes and feedback shared during the event.

Last March, the city, with funding support from The Endowment and New Hanover County, purchased 25 undeveloped acres off Greenville Loop Road to undertake a project that aligns with Wilmington’s Comprehensive Parks, Recreation + Open Space Master Plan.

The city aims to open the site for public use in five years.

On May 2, the city is launching a digital survey as a way to encourage broader community participation.

Carteret County is offering its residents a free drive-through service on Saturday to collect common household hazardous waste.

The waste collection is hosted by the Carteret County Solid Waste Division, in partnership with Coastal Environmental Partnership, and is set for 8 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Carteret County Health Department parking lot, 3820 Bridges St., Morehead City. Proof of residency will be required.

Small quantities of household hazardous items, including cooking oil, automotive fluids such as gasoline, used motor oil and antifreeze, lawn and garden pesticides, batteries and paint will be accepted.

Trained staff who will be on-site to unload these materials from resident’s vehicles will not accept infectious waste, gas cylinders, commercial waste, radioactive materials, ammunition, or explosives.

“Proper disposal of household hazardous waste helps prevent contamination of water sources, reduces risks to sanitation workers, and protects the environment,” according to a county release.

Coastal Environmental Partnership, or CEP, which serves Carteret, Craven and Pamlico counties, provides a series of household hazardous waste collection events throughout the year.

For more information about this or future collection opportunities, visit carteretcountync.gov or contact the Carteret County Public Works Department at 252-648-7878.

Residents may also contact CEP Education and Outreach Coordinator Somer Peede at 252-633-1564 or somer@crswma.com.

As tree pollen continues to dust outside surfaces and flowers take bloom this spring, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is reminding residents to take precautions as native black bears become more active now through the fall.

The commission, in partnership with BearWise, encourages residents to look for potential bear attractants around their homes and in their communities.

“By being proactive in removing these attractants now, residents can avoid future interactions with black bears,” Wildlife Resource Commission BearWise Coordinator Ashley Hobbs stated in a release. “The majority of calls about bears to our NC Wildlife Helpline involve some form of unsecured food attractant. When bears have access to food attractants, they’re more likely to hang around our homes and communities. This puts people, pets and bears at risk.”

BearWise, an association of fish and wildlife agencies, provides a checklist of potential bear attractants around homes and in communities, including garbage and recycling, bird and other wildlife feeders, grills, pet food, and snacks and trash inside vehicles.

Residents are also encouraged to leash up pets and secure small livestock, including chickens, and their feed, during the spring.

“Dogs and bears don’t mix,” Hobbs said. “They often act defensively toward each other. Never allow your dog to harass, chase or corner a bear. Always keep your dog on a non-retractable leash. Leashes really do save lives and prevent injuries.”

Livestock owners, especially those with smaller animals, should consider bringing them inside a bear-resistant building at night, and install electric fencing around coops and pastures to keep bears away.

BearWise offers guidance on ways to ensure all feed and grain is locked up and out of reach of bears.

North Carolina’s black bear population stretches across the state, from the mountains to the sea.

The Wildlife Resources Commission offers assistance from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through its wildlife helpline at 866-318-2401.

SURF CITY – Kerri Allen acknowledged early on what was also obvious to her audience.

“I do not need to tell anyone in here we have a really high density of leases,” the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s coastal management program director said. “In our public trust waters, when you have that many users, there are going to be conflicts.”

Several people sitting inside the Surf City Municipal Complex’s town council chambers that April 14 afternoon nodded in agreement, eager to share their thoughts on the subject.

With either temporary or permanent shellfish leasing moratoriums in North Carolina waters to its north and south, Topsail Island’s waters have become a hot commodity for oyster growers.

There are now nearly 190 shellfish leases in the waters behind the 26-mile-long barrier island from the New River and its adjacent estuarine waters south to Topsail Sound.

That’s a roughly 46% increase from the collective number of leases in 2018 in Onslow and Pender counties.

The squeeze put on the waters around Topsail Island has prompted ongoing calls for a temporary moratorium on new shellfish leases in the area.

The Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission, or TISPC, which is composed of elected officials from each of the island’s three towns – Topsail Beach, Surf City and North Topsail Beach – initiated a request for a temporary pause on leases more than a year ago. Commissioners in Onslow and Pender counties did the same.

Shellfish lease moratoriums in the state may be enacted only by the North Carolina General Assembly.

On April 10, 2025, Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, introduced legislation requiring a statewide study on shellfish leasing and the current lease moratorium.

House Bill 841 made it no further than the Senate’s Rules and Operations Committee.

“If there is a temporary moratorium, we don’t feel that’s unreasonable,” Allen said last week.

A pause would give the Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant more time to talk with those who live along and use the waters around the island and come up with suggestions to help shape future policy that would protect the industry, make it sustainable long term, and ease user conflicts, she said.

Additional focus groups, including one for shellfish growers, will be scheduled this fall.

Meanwhile, a temporary moratorium that has been repeatedly extended since it was first enacted in New Hanover County in 2019 is set to expire in July.

“It’s very reasonable to say if we were able to open up some of these other areas that could help alleviate the pressure that this area is seeing,” Allen said. “A lot of the oyster growers that we work with in this region live in New Hanover County and they would love not to have to drive up here to take care of their farms. We are actively trying to get New Hanover to not extend their moratorium. I do not have a good feel, one way or another, how that’s going to go yet, but we are having those conversations.”

Surf City Mayor Teresa Batts said officials on the island do not intend to wait for a decision before asking for a temporary moratorium.

“I know you’re going to go through the procedural steps, but the TISPC, we’re not going to sit back and wait,” she said. “If we see that New Hanover County is trying to extend their moratorium, then we’re going to try to slide in there on their session and piggyback on their moratorium.”

The Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, and North Carolina Sea Grant teamed up last year to launch a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database pinpointing areas where leases may or may not be suitable in the waterways behind Topsail Island. The GIS database is anticipated to be published next year.

Recommendations shared with the organizations will help shape the North Carolina Strategic Plan for Shellfish Mariculture, a plan commissioned by the General Assembly in 2017.

This document is effectively the state’s roadmap for a sustainable shellfish industry. It’s not meant to be a fixed document, rather one that evolves as the industry evolves and conditions change, Allen explained, adding, “which they very much have changed since 2017.”

In the years since, the state has seen a shift where shellfish farmers are using floating gear to grow oysters in the water column, a method that allows them to maximize the spaces in which they grow their product.

Unlike cages that are placed on the waterbed, those in water column leases poke up from the water’s surface.

And, as more water column leases have been granted, complaints have mounted about their impacts to the viewsheds of waterfront properties, boating and kayaking access, and infringement on popular fishing spots.

Fishing guide Capt. Ray Brittain offered to take Allen and N.C. Sea Grant Extension Director Frank López on his boat, and on his dime, to show them how the leases affect his business.

“There’s so many PVC pipes out there,” Brittain said. “You don’t need a thousand PVC pipes to mark,” a lease area. “We can’t fish in those. I mean, mark your outer edge to show people where it is, but a lot of it is just unnecessary stuff.”

Brittain was among nearly 30 attendees at the April 14 meeting, where participants were asked to break into two groups to discuss concerns and recommendations that will be documented and shared with local elected officials, legislators, and state agency officials.

Those at the meeting in Surf City last week touched on a host of issues, raising concerns related noise associated with shellfish farming activities, nighttime navigation around shellfish leases, the density of leases around Permuda Island Reserve, and linear placement of leases along estuary island shorelines blocking anglers from following fish.

Some asked for shellfish farmers to be required to carry liability insurance, while others suggested the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries create a more robust public notification system announcing lease applications that would include property owners whose land is within and adjacent to the viewshed of a proposed lease.

Other recommendations included an implementation of buffers by moving leases further from shorelines based on specific locations within a waterbody, potentially increasing lease fees, decreasing the length of time a lease is valid, and the possibility of commissioning studies on the impacts of floating cages on the ecosystem.

The Coastal Federation and Sea Grant are accepting comments online through the Stump Sound shellfish mariculture planning – stakeholder input form through Aug. 1.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation said this week that it will conduct continuous lane closures on a major Beaufort County bridge over the next two years.

On Monday, crews are to begin preservation work along a portion of U.S. Highway 17 that connects Washington to Chocowinity. The 16-year-old bridge crosses over U.S. 17 Business and the Tar River.

This preservation work is part of routine maintenance to maximize the lifespan of the structure, officials noted in the announcement.

Crews are to begin by altering the existing pavement markings. Once installed, the inside lanes in both directions will close first, leaving the outside lanes open to traffic. Once interior lane work is completed, the outside lanes will close and the inside lanes will open to traffic.

Through traffic will be maintained for the duration of the project, officials said. Work is expected to last until summer 2028.

Drivers should use caution when traveling through the work zone and plan for increased travel times.

You can get real-time travel information at DriveNC.gov or by following NCDOT on social media.

Featured Image

A brightly hued eastern bluebird peeks out from a knothole in a tree at the Dare County Arboretum and Teaching Garden in Kill Devil Hills. Male bluebirds tend to draw attention to themselves at their nest cavities in this way to lure potential mates, according to Cornell Lab. Dare County Extension Master Gardener volunteers maintain the arboretum garden at 300 Mustian St. Photo: Kip Tabb

Residents and visitors to the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher have a little more than a month to visit the state’s southernmost aquarium before it temporarily closes for major renovation and expansion.

The aquarium in Kure Beach will close May 26 for construction to include a 400,000-gallon sand tiger shark habitat, a 10,000-gallon Pacific coral habitat, an interactive shark and ray touch pool featuring bottom-dwelling sharks, and a state-of-the-art education center.

Construction is expected to take about 30 months.

“This transformative project is beginning as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the North Carolina Aquariums,” Pamela B. Cashwell, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, said in a release. “It is a thrilling way to honor a legacy of conservation, exceptional visitor experience and dedicated animal care, while launching a bold vision for the future.”

Plans for the renovation and expansion project have been underway for more than 10 years. The project is made possible with state funding, along with support from the N.C. Aquarium Society.

During the closure, residents and visitors to the area can enjoy Discovery Bay, which will feature a gift shop hosted by the N.C. Aquarium Society, habitats with seahorses, dart frogs, and lionfish, and a carnivorous plant exhibit at Independence Mall in Wilmington.

The public may continue to visit the state’s other aquariums, including Pine Knoll Shores, Roanoke Island, and Jennette’s Pier in Nags Head.

“We look forward to beginning construction, while continuing to engage our community in new ways,” NCAFF Director Joanna Zazzali said in a release. “Discovery Bay allows us to stay connected with our visitors, advance our conservation mission, and continue to inspire wonder, as we look toward our next chapter.” 

Animal care, facilities and safety teams will remain at Fort Fisher Aquarium to care for the animals that will remain at the facility throughout construction.

Visitors are encouraged to reserve tickets ahead of the closure and share their experiences on social media using the hashtag #PoseBeforeWeClose.

For updates, follow the aquarium on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram.

Despite the utility poles connecting the network of overhead cables along the paved, two-lane road and other obvious signs of the 21^st century, Historic Halifax State Historic Site transported visitors to April 12, 1776, during “Halifax Resolves Days,” a weekend commemoration of North Carolina taking the first step toward freedom.

“Today is a huge day for North Carolina. Two hundred and fifty years ago today, the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina met here in Halifax and adopted the Halifax Resolves, the first official action by any colony to declare independence from the king,” Gov. Josh Stein said Sunday afternoon to the more than 300 gathered for the Halifax Resolves Ceremony.

Held under a sizable party tent near the Colonial Courthouse Site, where the 1760s wooden building once stood, the 250^th anniversary ceremony wrapped up the April 10-12 event. Visitors were able to watch living history reenactments, colonial life demonstrations, musical performances, and a ceremony led by the state-recognized Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe based in Halifax and Warren counties.

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela Brewington Cashwell introduced Stein before he took the podium.

During her brief comments, she explained that the department is responsible for organizing America 250 NC, the state’s celebration of the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Halifax Resolves Days is a signature event of that celebration.

“We will also have a major event at the capitol in Raleigh this Fourth of July titled ‘Capitol 250: North Carolina Freedom Fest.’ We hope that if you don’t have something going on in your local community, that you will join us in Raleigh for another massive event,” she said, then directed the audience to visit the A250 website that details 700 events taking place this year as part of the celebration, from dramatic presentations, festivals, murals that have been painted in various communities.

When Stein welcomed the audience, he encouraged them to see the Halifax Resolves document on display in the new visitor center that officially opened that week. The governor and other state officials made a trip to Halifax April 7 for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting and to view the document that will be on loan from the National Archives until October.

Stein explained that leading up to the delegates meeting in Halifax, there was tension in the colonies between those who wanted to reconcile with the crown and those who wanted to rebel.

Even after the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 9, 1775, a large portion of the colonial population wanted to make accommodation with England. When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in July of that year, they did not declare independence. Instead, they petitioned the king for more favorable terms. From 1775 to 1776, “the tide began to turn in favor of rebellion, but that path was by no means a certainty,” stein continued.

Then, Thomas Paine published “Common Sense” in January 1776, the pamphlet that Stein said made a “powerful argument for an independent, democratic nation founded on equality. Truly a radical notion.”

Then on Feb. 27, 1776, “a militia of patriots skirmished with loyalist troops at the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge,” located just west of Wilmington. “The Patriots soundly defeated the Loyalists, putting an end to English rule in North Carolina, blocking an English invasion of the south and lighting a flame of liberty within North Carolinians,” Stein continued.

As these events were taking place, North Carolina’s provincial delegates met with residents across the colony, and brought all those perspectives to Halifax in April 1776 when the fourth North Carolina provincial Congress gathered.

The delegates in the Halifax Resolves detailed their neighbors’ grievances, “or in their words, the ‘usurpations and violences’ committed by the king. They wrote that the ‘king and Parliament of Great Britain have usurped the power over the persons and property of the people, unlimited and uncontrolled and disregarding their humble petitions for peace, liberty, and safety. They made diverse legislative acts denouncing war, famine and every species of calamity daily employed in destroying the people and committing the most horrid devastations in the country.’”

By adopting these resolves, Stein said that these 83 delegates “did something radical, something revolutionary, something patriotic. They unanimously empowered North Carolina’s representatives at the Second Continental Congress up in Philadelphia to vote to declare our nation’s independence from the crown,” he said. “With these Halifax Resolves, North Carolina became the first colony to take any action declaring our nation’s independence.”

Though the document set the colonies on a path of expanding freedom in this nation, Stein acknowledged that the resolves were “far from perfect,” but still encouraged reading the text, even though parts will make the reader “feel very uncomfortable.”

“It’s easy, when you look back at history, to assume some sort of inevitability, like of course, it happened, but this historic action and the fact that it was unanimous was by no means a foregone conclusion,” Stein said, noting that rebuking the world’s greatest superpower “would have been considered treason, a crime punishable by death.”

The colonists depended on England for military protection and economic security. “Failure objectively was likely, and failure could have been fatal,” Stein said. “With these stakes and these odds, this vote for independence was brave and truly incredible.”

The British Empire could have easily subdued a “ragtag militia or a single colony, but a united force at least stood a chance.” With every single delegate voting in favor of the Halifax Resolves, “it was a precursor of the unity that the revolution would require.”

Less than three months later, at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “the 13 British colonies, so incredibly diverse and different from one another, declared that we were no longer 13 separate colonies. We are the United States of America,” Stein said.

And while “250 years ago, internal division was one of the greatest threats to our nation’s success. 250 years later, I would venture that that is still true,” Stein said. “There are so many forces seeking to divide us that profit from our distrust for one another. There are so many forces making the American Dream feel out of reach, telling us that our success requires others to fail, and too often, we hear crudeness, not civility and experience division, not decency. It does not have to be this way.”

Americans can chart a different course, lust like our forebears in Halifax, “After all, we are not red. We are not blue. We are red, white and blue,” Stein said.

“We have so much to gain from bridging our differences, not glossing over them, but having the confidence to find common ground and the patriotism to remember that we are all Americans, that we all love this place,” he concluded. “It is a revolutionary idea, and it is the North Carolina way.”

Rep. Don Davis, R-N.C., who represents the 1st District ecompassing 22 northeastern North Carolina counties, was among the handful of officials who spoke in addition to the governor.

Davis said that the day “shines a light on a true treasure from our great state and nation.”

“Right here in eastern North Carolina, 250 years ago, brave souls took courageous steps towards independence. Their actions remind us of our resilience and grit, illustrating what we can achieve together when we unite for common cause. The Halifax Resolves aren’t just a chapter in our history. They are evidence of hope for our future.”

The University of North Carolina Wilmington Blue Economy Index (Bloomberg Ticker: BLUEECO) declined 4.15% in March amid what index managers described in a news release as “a broad global market selloff.”

The index tracks the “economic activity of companies operating within oceans and waterways, with a focused lens on environmental sustainability.” It aligns with the World Bank’s Blue Economy definition: “the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.” It offers investors a way to evaluate the sustainable growth potential of sectors such as shipping, offshore energy, aquaculture, and marine infrastructure.

By comparison, the index’s major benchmarks recorded steeper losses than BLUEECO, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 falling 5.16%, the Morgan Stanley Capital International All World Index declining 6.22%, and the S&P Industrials dropping 10.66% during March.

“The downturn was driven by rising geopolitical tensions and renewed inflation concerns, which weighed on investor sentiment throughout the month,” according to the index managers. On a year-to-date basis through the first quarter, BLUEECO is still up 12.06%, compared to 4.30% for the S&P Industrials and declines of 3.52% for the MSCI All World Index and 4.63% for the S&P 500.

Industrials declined 7.61% in March, losing much of the strong gains seen earlier in the year, which was attributed to “renewed trade policy uncertainty and tariff escalation, which dampened capital expenditure expectations and weighed on cyclical demand across heavy industry and manufacturing segments,” according to the release.

Consumer staples declined 7.89% in March, driven by rising input costs across energy and logistics, alongside currency headwinds in key export markets, which, officials said, put pressure on margins for food production, processing, and distribution companies.

Utilities declined 3.90% in March, showing some resilience during the broader market selloff.

Consumer discretionary spending slipped 13.35% in March, making it the worst-performing sector. “The decline reflected deteriorating consumer confidence amid escalating trade tensions and equity market volatility, which weighed heavily on forward bookings and discretionary spending across travel, leisure, and cruise operators,” according to the release.

March’s top performers were concentrated in utilities and renewable energy, supported by rising energy prices and increased strategic interest in power and infrastructure assets.

For more, visit the Alliance for the Blue Economy.

Four new historic districts and 19 properties across the state, five of which are on the coast, have been added to the National Register of Historic Places in the last year, the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources announced this week.

Part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources, the National Historic Register is the “official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation,” that was authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and is under the National Park Service.

“Each addition to the National Register of Historic Places represents another step in preserving North Carolina’s unique story,” said the department’s Secretary Pamela Cashwell in a statement Thursday. “These sites help connect our communities to their past while supporting cultural tourism and local economies.” 

In Beaufort County, Pantego School No. 2 was listed Feb. 24. The Rosenwald-funded school building was completed in 1926 and remained operational as an integrated school after 1968, until it closed in the spring of 2001, the application states.

Winnabow is an 1845 Greek Revival frame house with a double-pile center-passage plan at 677 Governor Road, in Brunswick County that was was Dec. 29, 2025.

Clubfoot and Harlow Canal in Carteret and Craven counties, which was listed Feb. 23, is a roughly 3-mile artificial channel dug that opened July 1827 across a peninsula connecting Clubfoot Creek and the Neuse River at the north to Harlow Creek and the Newport River to the south.

The 1850 Adam Dough Etheridge House in Dare County was listed Aug. 11, 2025. The two-story, single pile, vernacular dwelling features a side-gabled roof and partially enclosed full-width porches on the façade, common among houses on Roanoke Island in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Located in Pasquotank County, Oak Grove Cemetery, which was listed Aug. 11, 2025, is Elizabeth City’s oldest extant Black cemetery. The Black community formally established it on 2.53 acres in 1886, expanded it twice in 1921, and again in 1955 to approximately 8 acres, which it remains today within a 14-acre parcel, according to documents.

The listing of a property in the National Register places no obligation or restriction on a private owner using private resources to maintain or alter the property.

Over the years, various federal and state incentives have been introduced to assist private preservation initiatives, including tax credits for the rehabilitation of National Register properties.

As of Dec. 31, 2025, there have been 4,455 completed historic rehabilitation projects with private investments of $4 billion statewide.

The recreational black sea bass fishing season in North Carolina waters north of Cape Hatteras will open for eight months beginning May 1.

During the season, which wraps Dec. 31, the size limit for black sea bass is no shorter than 13 inches in total length, specifically the snout to to the tip of the tail, excluding the filament at the end of the tail.

The bag limit is 15 fish per person, per day.

State regulations on the black sea bass recreational fishery apply to waters within three nautical miles from shore.

Those regulations are, at the moment, different from those covering federal waters, which extend from 3 to 200 nautical miles off shore, because of delays in the federal rulemaking process that would align regulations in federal and state waters, according to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries.

“The Division anticipates this change will occur later this year,” according to a release.

In federal waters north of Cape Hatteras, the size limit for black sea bass is a minimum of 15 inches and the bag limit is five fish per person, per day. The recreational season within federal waters is May 15-Sept. 8.

Recreational fishers who catch black sea bass in state waters must adhere to the state’s size limit, regardless of harvest location.

Next year, the state’s recreational black sea bass season north of Cape Hatteras will open April 1, extending the season by 53 additional days compared to this year.

The recreational black sea bass fishery south of Cape Hatteras, which is managed by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council, has the same size limit as the fishery north of Cape Hatteras.

The bag limit is 7 fish per person, per day.

The black sea bass season south of Cape Hatteras begins April 1 of each year and closes when the quota is met. That season remains open.

For additional information, contact Chris Batsavage at 252-241-2995 or Chris.Batsavage@deq.nc.gov.

FAYETTEVILLE — Proposed monitoring and minimization rules for industrial dischargers of 1,4-dioxane and the public sewage plants that accept those facilities’ waste fail to protect North Carolinians’ drinking water, speakers at a public hearing said Tuesday.

All but one of the 13 people who spoke at the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s hearing at Fayetteville Technical Community College criticized the proposed rules, arguing those rules fall short in reducing the amounts of 1,4-dioxane discharged into people’s drinking water sources and lack enforcement.

Those comments mirror ones articulated at the commission’s April 9 hearing on the proposed rules in Hickory. A third hearing is scheduled for May 12 in Jamestown.

“The so-called monitoring and minimization rule establishes certain monitoring requirements, but the term minimization is misleading,” Fayetteville resident Madison Williams said. “The way the rule is promulgated is in a way that does not require polluters to reduce PFAS or 1,4-dioxane emissions into North Carolina drinking water supplies, and it imposes no consequences, even if those discharges increase. This in effect is a polluter written rule.”

Related: Public hearings set on proposed wastewater discharge rules

The commission is hosting separate public hearings, the first of which was held in Asheville last week, on a similar rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS; perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA; perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, or PFOS; and GenX, a chemical specific to a manufacturing plant that sits near Cape Fear River in Bladen County.

Under the proposed rules, publicly owned treatment works that receive industrial wastewater, and their manufacturer customers, would be required to monitor for discharges of 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent, into rivers, creeks and streams.

Facilities would be required to conduct baseline monitoring every three months for one year. Based on those sampling results, dischargers may be required to conduct additional monitoring.

“If determined to need ongoing sampling the industrial direct discharger will be required to develop a minimization plan,” explained Bridget Shelton with the Division of Water Resources’ planning section. “A minimization plan is a strategy to reduce or eliminate pollutants at the source before they are discharged into the environment.”

Facilities that “meet certain criteria” may request exceptions from ongoing monitoring and minimization plan requirements, she said.

The proposed rules do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for violations.

That fact has drawn sharp criticism from residents, environmental groups and public drinking water providers who have been calling on the state to establish drinking water standards for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane and regulate direct dischargers of those chemicals.

“Over 1 million North Carolina residents consume water from the Cape Fear River, water that is contaminated with 1,4-dixoane, PFAS and other forever chemicals that will continue to proliferate without sufficient regulations at the federal and state levels,” said Jonelle Kimbrough, executive director of Fayetteville-based environmental nonprofit Sustainable Sandhills. “The proposed 1,4-dioxane minimization rules seem to be an attempt at regulation but, as written, they essentially do nothing to protect the natural resources or public health of our state and we need protection.”

Rob Clark, Cape Fear River Watch’s water quality programs manager, said the organization and its more than 1,000 members collectively opposed the proposed rules.

“These rules are completely inadequate when it comes to dealing with PFAS and 1,4-dioxane pollution in the Cape Fear River Basin,” he said. “The proposed minimization rules do not set enforceable limits on how much these toxic compounds can be discharged into our waterways. Instead, they rely on polluters to monitor their pollution and submit plans describing how they might reduce that over time. Do we really think that polluters are going to cut into their profits in order to do the right thing and stop discharging these chemicals into our waterways?”

Representatives of downstream public water suppliers said the proposed rules lack a clear objective to significantly decrease 1,4-dioxane levels in state surface waters.

Fayetteville Public Works Commission’s Environmental Programs Manager Rhonda Locklear pointed out that statewide monitoring has identified 1,4-dioxane primarily in the Cape Fear River Basin.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, “has sampled surface waters in 15 of North Carolina’s 17 river basins, confirming that most industrial 1,4-dioxane sources are in the Cape Fear River Basin, where 35% of these samples since 2017 were above non-detect thresholds, almost 10 times the rate in the Neuse River Basin, and nearly 200 times that of the Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin,” she said. “The problem areas are well-defined, documented, and PWC expects DEQ to set meaningful regulations and reductions in the Cape Fear River Basin.”

Cape Fear Public Utility Authority Deputy Executive Director Kevin Morris said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies 1,4-dioxane as a likely human carcinogen, warns that at even at concentrations of 0.35 parts per billion, long-term exposure to the chemical increases cancer risks to humans and may cause significant kidney and liver impacts.

“Downstream water systems continue to experience periodic spikes in 1,4-dioxane despite having no role in producing or discharging this chemical, which demonstrates the limitations of our current regulatory framework,” Morris said.

He highlighted how effluent from Asheboro’s wastewater treatment plant has periodically tested for elevated levels of 1,4-dioxane, concentrations of which far exceeded levels associated with long-term health risks.

“These discharges flow into waterways like the Haw and Cape Fear rivers,” Morris said. “They’re relied upon by downstream drinking water systems, and they require additional monitoring, treatment, adjustments and customer communication. The downstream public ultimately bears the risk from and the cost of managing contamination that they had no part in creating. Voluntary reduction measures are insufficient to ensure consistent outcomes or to protect downstream communities. Utilities can manage only what arrives at their intake.”

As of Wednesday, DEQ had received more than 2,000 public comments and counting on the commission’s proposed rules for 1,4-dixoane and PFAS, according to Josh Kastrinksy, DEQ’s deputy communications director.

“The comments we’ve received in writing have by and large reflected the comments we’ve received in person,” he said.

Andrew Mlot, chair of the North Carolina Pretreatment Consortium Inc., a nonprofit that represents more than 180 pretreatment professionals in 64 state-approved pretreatment programs across North Carolina, was the only person Tuesday to speak in support of the proposed rules.

But that organization has “several specific concerns” with the rules as they are currently written, he said.

“The costs to treat 1,4-dioxane at the POTW (publicly owned treatment works) level is staggering. Capital costs alone range from $10 million to $1.3 billion, making source control the only practical path forward,” he said.

The proposed rules would require public treatment works in Greensboro, Burlington, Asheboro, High Point and Reidsville, which have been conducting monitoring and minimization activities going back to 2015, to start over, Mlot said.

“We ask for an explicit offramp for POTWs that have already completed successful programs. Replace any detection with a workable screening threshold. As currently written, any detection of 1,4-dioxane triggers ongoing monitoring requirements and a full minimization plan. NCPC members do not believe this is workable. We support an alternative screening threshold based on meaningful concentrations or loading levels,” he said.

DEQ is accepting written comments through June 15. Comments may be submitted by email to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with the subject heading “1,4-dioxane minimization, or by mail to Bridget Shelton, DEQ-DWR Planning Section, 1611 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1611.

From a Core Sound Waterfowl Museum and Heritage Center announcement

As the Los Angeles Dodgers start the new baseball season hoping to win their third consecutive World Series title, it seems like a good time to remember a Morehead City native who helped the team reach even greater heights more than 40 years ago.

Ben Wade didn’t display his real talent, as it turned out, on the pitching mound. Prone to wildness and home runs, he was merely an average major-league pitcher in a five-year career during which he bounced around the National League. He showed his real skill later, as a scout and then longtime scouting director for the Dodgers. Wade’s ability to project the type of players youngsters would become led to nine pennants, seven World Series appearances, and four titles.

Frank Tursi, Coastal Review’s founding editor and the author of a new book about North Carolina natives who played major-league baseball, will talk about Wade and his brother, Jake, also a big-league pitcher, on Saturday, April 25, at the Core Sound Museum Store, 806 Arendell St. in Morehead City. His book, “Tar Heel Boys of Summer: North Carolina’s Major League Ballplayers,” will be available for purchase, and museum members will get a 10% discount. Tursi will sign copies.

The stories of 34 big leaguers are featured in the book. Included are all seven Hall of Famers: Luke Appling of High Point, Rick Ferrell of Friendship in Guilford County, Jim “Catfish” Hunter of Hertford, Buck Leonard of Rocky Mount, Gaylord Perry of Williamston, Enos Slaughter of Roxboro and Hoyt Wilhelm of Huntersville. Tursi also tells the stories of players who almost made it to Cooperstown like Johnny Allen, the hot-headed orphan from Thomasville, and Ferrel’s brother, Wes, the dairy farmer with the Hollywood good looks.

At least 50 Black North Carolinians, like Leonard, played major-league ball during the time of the sport’s apartheid. They played in their own leagues, mostly unseen by white fans. Most never heard of Red Grier of Catawba County, who threw a no-hitter in a Black World Series 30 years before Don Larsen pitched his perfect game, or Charlie Smith of Hamlet, who could very well be the best hitter there ever was. Tursi tells their stories as well as those of other Negro Leaguers for the first time in his book.

Tursi, a journalist who lives in Swansboro, has spent almost 40 years roaming North Carolina writing about its people, culture and history. His book paints a picture of a state now long gone, he noted. “Collectively, these stories tell of a North Carolina of the early and mid-20th century,” he said. “It was a rural state of small towns and family farms where tobacco and cotton were kings.”

Baseball, he noted, was truly America’s Game, back then, played in every school yard and hamlet. In the era before free agents, few got rich playing it professionally, he said. “I hope these stories give readers a sense of what it was like when farmers and mill hands and fishermen’s sons, like the Wades, left the tobacco fields, mill villages and small towns to play a game, not for the money, really, but for the pure pleasure it brought them,” he said.

The book, Tursi’s fourth, also includes thumbnail sketches of all 501 North Carolinians who played in the majors – the most-extensive compendium compiled of native players – complete career pitching and batting statistics and Top 10 rankings in major offensive and pitching categories.

Reprinted from the Ocracoke Observer

Waterfowl memories are woven throughout Ocracoke native Eddie O’Neal’s life.

He recalls redheads, pintails, teal and great flocks of geese on the Pamlico Sound and winter days in sink boxes with old-timers like Thurston Gaskill.

Because of that history and his skill of turning a block of wood into a work of art, he was named featured carver for this year’s Ocracoke Island Waterfowl Festival from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in the Ocracoke School gym.

O’Neal chose the Canada goose as his signature piece, honoring both the bird and the generations of island hunters and carvers who came before him.

“A Canada goose was a real trophy back then,” he said. “Something you showed off with pride and often shared with older neighbors who couldn’t get out to hunt themselves.”

O’Neal graduated from Ocracoke School in 1978 alongside classmates Vince O’Neal and the late John Simpson, two of the founders of the Ocracoke Decoy Carver’s Guild in 2018.

As a boy, O’Neal was constantly on the water.

Like many island youth, by age 12 he was already hunting and fishing around Springer’s Point and on his father’s nearby property.

He fished commercially with his father, Carson, who served in the Coast Guard, and brothers Andy and Albert, working pound nets and gigging flounder.

During his 23 years working for the state of North Carolina, he held a variety of positions: on a dredge crew, building spillways and working heavy equipment from Southport to Knotts Island.

Included in his working career, he also built golf courses, was a truck driver and worked on road paving crews for an asphalt company out of Norfolk, Virginia.

He and his wife Pam also ran the Island Galley restaurant on Ocracoke until damage from Hurricane Isabel (2003) forced them to close.

Although he appreciated decoys, he didn’t start carving as a hobby until around 2008 while living in Virginia Beach. Over time, that hobby “morphed into a full-time job.”

Among his fond memories are watching Wilbur and Clinton Gaskill, older Ocracoke carvers, who turned out small geese flyers and decoys at an astonishing pace. Wilbur could make 15 to 20 decoys a day and sell every one of them on a summer day when the island was far quieter than it is now.

His second cousin, Dave O’Neal, a retired Coast Guard man and renowned carver, has been an important influence offering tips on the techniques and tools of the craft.

Preferring to focus on his own carvings, O’Neal doesn’t collect or trade in other people’s decoys.

When he and Pam retired several years ago, they moved back to Ocracoke, and his carving became a daily practice.

Today, O’Neal does most of his carvings for the Island Ragpicker shop, run by his siblings Stephanie and Albert.

Not just decoys — he crafts shore birds, small flyers, fish, and a variety of decorative pieces that keep the shelves full and his hands busy.

Carving is his “therapy room” — something that keeps him grounded in retirement and balances time with his grandchildren Carter, Kyler, Amaya, Johnny and Angel.

He rarely sells pieces directly, except at some island events.

He prefers to stock the shop or donate carvings to local fundraisers like the Ocracoke Firemen’s Ball auction where his works have helped raise significant financial support over the years.

For materials, O’Neal favors northern white cedar, which he hauls back from a sawmill near Egg Harbor, New Jersey.

He also uses tupelo, sourced from a Mennonite mill near Pink Hill, and some pine.

Large decoys are almost always cedar, while smaller items, like flyers, often come from scrap wood he picks up from around the island, such as from the school that was torn down.

He appreciates cedar’s similarity to local juniper and its fine, aromatic grain. O’Neal shapes his birds with an angle grinder for the rough form, then refines them with a Dremel and extensive sanding, especially on the delicate heads and bills of shore birds.

He draws most of his own patterns by hand and also enjoys building furniture, having made tables and household pieces for family members from barn oak and other reclaimed woods.

This story is provided courtesy of the Ocracoke Observer, a newspaper covering Ocracoke Island. Coastal Review partners with the Ocracoke Observer to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest along our coast.

Brunswick County property owners and residents can dispose of everything but regular household trash and hazardous waste at no charge next week.

The county landfill in Bolivia is accepting during Free Cleanup Week scheduled for Monday through Saturday metal, tires, electronics, latex paint, clothing, shoes, used oil, oil filters, antifreeze, gasoline, fluorescent bulbs, used cooking oil, smoke detectors, household batteries, and yard debris.

Located at 172 Landfill Road, landfill hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Participants must show proof of Brunswick County property ownership or residency. Businesses and commercial vehicles will be charged normal tipping fees.

A full list of accepted items on the Accepted Items and Tipping Fees webpage.

Part of an ongoing series on North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

As the United States recognizes the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776, Dare County is celebrating its unique role in American history Saturday with “Liberty, Legacy, and Lift Off in the Land of Beginnings.”

The Dare A250 Faire is a two-event celebration, with the first scheduled for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday in downtown Manteo. The Star Spangled Spectacular is scheduled for that afternoon from 3:30-7 p.m. at Roanoke Island Festival Park.

“Rooted in a place known as the ‘Land of Beginnings,’ this milestone event honors Dare County’s unique role in America’s story — from the earliest English settlement attempts to the birthplace of powered flight. With a spirit of innovation, discovery and freedom woven throughout, the Dare A250 Faire promises a vibrant and meaningful tribute to 250 years of American history,” according to the county.

Both celebrations are no charge for the public, though the evening program requires those who wish to attend to reserve a spot through the online portal. As of publication, the tickets were all claimed. Those who wish to attend can continue to check the online portal to see if a seat has come available due to a cancelation.

Dare County is the “Land of Beginnings” because it is the location of England’s first attempt to establish a colony in 1587, now known as the “Lost Colony” because more than 100 settlers vanished from the site between arriving and 1590, and the birthplace of Virginia Dare. Dare was the first English child born in the Americas in 1587. The county is also the site of the Wright Brothers’ flight in 1903, the first controlled and powered heavier-than-air flight.

Dorothy Hester, co-chair of the Dare County A250 Committee, explained to Coastal Review that visitors can expect a full day of family-friendly fun in a festive, patriotic atmosphere.

“Downtown Manteo will come alive with a street festival featuring live music, street performers, storytelling, arts and crafts vendors, nonprofit exhibits, and several food vendors,” Hester said. “The celebration continues into the evening at Roanoke Island Festival Park with the Star-Spangled Spectacular, which has officially sold out–an exciting reflection of the strong community interest and support for this event.”

Hester said that the committee has been meeting for more than a year “to thoughtfully plan how our community would mark this historic milestone.”

The Dare A250 Faire emerged as the cornerstone event of that effort, which she said was designed to bring residents and visitors together in a meaningful and memorable way.

“What began as an idea has grown into a true community-wide collaboration among Dare County, local partners, local organizations, businesses, volunteers and sponsors,” Hester said.

Related: Dare County begins America’s 250th commemoration

The Dare A250 Faire was originally scheduled at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, but was relocated to Manteo and Roanoke Island Festival Park “to allow all aspects of the planning committee’s vision to be included in the celebration,” organizers said in a press release in late February. The park “highlights the area’s rich history as the ‘Birthplace of America,’ with the historic Elizabeth II serving as a meaningful backdrop to the festivities.”

The Elizabeth II is a representational 16th-century English merchant ship from the 1585 Roanoke voyage berthed at the park, where a settlement site illustrates an English military colony from the era.

Hester urged those interested in attending the celebrations to visit DareA250.org/faire for full event details, as well as information about other A250 initiatives, including the interactive map, and additional events taking place throughout the year.

The Dare County committee organizes events under the umbrella of the state’s official celebration, America 250 NC, an initiative of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The celebration committee launched earlier this year a passport program and an interactive online map to share the county’s history.

Musical performances

Entertainment begins at 11:10 a.m. Saturday at the All-American Stage in downtown Manteo with Cypress Society Singers & Dancers, representing the Lumbee and Kahtehnuaka Tuscarora Eastern Woodland Native nations.

An opening ceremony follows at 11:45 a.m., then attendees can listen to live music throughout the afternoon, including a jazz performance by Connected, Ruth Wyand to perform roots Americana and the Daniel Jordan Band to play Southern country-rock.

The Dare County All-American Award Ceremony starts at 3 p.m. The ceremony will recognize participants in a variety of categories, including patriotic attire, patriotic pet, most decorated business and boat displays, as well as Dare A250 Scholarship Awards. Participants should report behind the stage at 2:30 p.m. for judging.

Performances scheduled for the Magnolia Freedom Stage feature Ascension Music Academy, Shiloh and Enrique with the Mustang Music Outreach Program, and the OBX Jazzmen.

Street entertainment

Roving patriotic performers will wander throughout downtown Manteo from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., including stilt walkers, a bubble artist, a juggler and a hula hooper.

Historical interpreters from The Lost Colony, Roanoke Island Festival Park and Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station and more than 60 local artisans and community organizations will be on-site. Several local businesses and restaurants will offer special events and discounts. A list of visitors is available on the event website.

Student musicians from First Flight Middle School and Manteo Middle School will perform on Sir Walter Raleigh Street at noon.

Storytelling stage

The historic Pioneer Theater, 109 Budleigh St., Manteo, is hosting a storytelling series highlighting the people, traditions and defining moments of the Outer Banks.

Moderated by Miles Daniels, the program organizers are billing as “a marquee element of the Dare A250 Faire,” will feature the following four distinguished speakers sharing personal insights and historical perspectives:

• 11:30 a.m. Clark Twiddy: “Vision, Risk, and Reinvention: How the Outer Banks Became a Destination.”
• 12:30 p.m. Robin Daniels Holt: “The Families Who Stayed: Generational Memory and Cultural Continuity.”
• 1:30 p.m. Nancy Gray: “Water, Work, and Survival: The Working Coast of the Outer Banks.”
• 2:30 p.m. Ken Mann: “Stories of the Outer Banks: Voices, Characters, and Coastal Memory.”

Archival film and video presentations will be shown between speakers.

For young artists

Children can add their own touch from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to a large patriotic painting. Local painter Brad Price is to enhance the artwork before going on permanent display at the Outer Banks Community Foundation. 

Families can also enjoy coloring a rendering of the first governor of an English colony in America, called a “Flat John White,” and festive tablecloths. Placemats that can be colored will be available at participating businesses throughout Manteo. 

Star-Spangled Spectacular Finale

The Star-Spangled Spectacular performances at Roanoke Island Festival Park will begin at 3:30 p.m. with Just Playing Dixieland, followed by an opening ceremony at 4:15 p.m. and an Earth, Wind & Fire tribute by the Ray Howard Band at 4:30 p.m.

The day will conclude with the Dare A250 Grand Finale at 6:15 p.m. with a multimedia patriotic production with a community choir and tribute.

Volunteers needed

With the committee expecting thousands to visit downtown Manteo and Roanoke Island Festival Park for the two events Saturday, there’s a need for volunteers to help oversee parking areas, serve as a friendly point of contact for guests, and to ensure everything runs smoothly in each designated lot, according to the county.

“No special experience is required, just a welcoming attitude and a willingness to help,” and volunteering is a way to “be part of a once-in-a-generation community celebration,” organizers said.

Volunteers can register online for any of the multiple shifts and activities or contact contact Patty O’Sullivan at patricia.o’sullivan@darenc.gov.

Dare County, Manteo, Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Southern Bank, The Don & Catharine Bryan Cultural Series and Roanoke Island Festival Park are sponsors of the celebration.

North Carolina State Archives’ staff plan to explore during an hourlong webinar the historic records of various ethnic groups coming to North Carolina from the late 19th century to the present.

Scheduled for noon Wednesday, April 22, register in advance using the Zoom link to participate in the program offered at no charge.

For the program, America 250 Educator Alana Gomez will highlight the stories of several individuals and patterns in various counties with an overview of  “‘Alien,’ Naturalization and Citizenship Records (1880s-1950s).”

Government records archivist Evanna Derkach will focus on the papers of Hugh MacRae, a businessman and white supremacist who was a leading figure in the 1898 Wilmington coup and who also planned six rural farming communities in southeastern North Carolina. MacRae recruited 800 immigrants to populate these areas during the early 20th century.

Oral historian John Horan will discuss the launch of the “New Americans” oral history project, which captures the perspectives of more recent newcomers to this state with their own voices, according to the state.

All three panelists are first- and second-generation Americans themselves, representing Italian, Latin American, Lebanese, and Ukrainian descent.

The State Archives is part of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which is leading the America 250 NC, North Carolina’s commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary.

America 250 NC focuses on two broad concepts. The commemorative themes explore “Revolutionary US,” or the historical events of the Revolution and “North Carolina and When Are We US?” that explores the ideas of freedom, civic responsibility, overcoming challenges, and change as we lean into the ideals of democracy. This program is part of the “When Are We US?” theme.

For more information about America 250 NC, visit america250.nc.gov.

For more information, contact Adrienne Berney at adrienne.berney@dncr.nc.gov or 919-814-6863.

Dare county residents and property owners are invited to participate in an interactive workshop on Tuesday to review and discuss key preliminary findings from an assessment of the vulnerability of unincorporated areas to flooding.

The North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program is hosting the action development program from 5-7 p.m. in room 238 of the Dare County Administration Building, 954 Marshall Collins Drive, Manteo.

The workshop will be a drop-in, open house-style event with interactive stations where participants can learn about the program, review findings of from the assessment, and provide input on topics ranging from natural resources, stormwater management, infrastructure and residential adaptation in unincorporated Dare County.

The workshop will begin with a brief presentation. Refreshments and light snacks will be provided.

The assessment was conducted by a consulting firm through the North Carolina Resilient Coastal Communities Program, which is administered by the Division of Coastal Management to support coastal resilience goals, assess community capacity, and identify and prioritize projects that strengthen resilience to coastal hazards. The division is under North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

Microplastics and pharmaceuticals have made the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly published draft list of substances in public drinking water that warrant scientific scrutiny.

This marks a first for the EPA, which, along with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced last week that microplastics and pharmaceuticals are two of four contaminant groups and dozens of chemicals included on the draft Sixth Contaminant Candidate List.

The April 2 announcement kick-started a 60-day public comment period.

The Trump administration hailed the additions to the list, also referred to as CCL 6, as “a landmark set of actions to safeguard the nation’s drinking water.”

“For too long, Americans have vocalized concerns about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. That ends today,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stated in a release. “By placing microplastics and pharmaceuticals on the Contaminant Candidate List for the first time ever, EPA is sending a clear message: we will follow the science, we will pursue answers, and we will hold ourselves to the highest standards to protect the health of every American family.”

The announcement comes as the Trump administration is actively pursuing rolling back drinking water standards for several per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, established under the previous administration.

PFAS, along with disinfection byproducts, once again made it onto a CCL, which singles out contaminants that are known or anticipated to be in public drinking water systems, but are not regulated under the Safe Water Drinking Act and may be considered for future regulatory action.

Also making it back on the list is 1,4-dioxane, an industrial solvent that, along with PFAS, is known to be in the drinking water sources for tens of thousands of North Carolinians, perhaps most notably in the Cape Fear Region.

Last year, the EPA announced that it would retain current National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for PFOA and PFOS but rescind regulations and reconsider regulatory determinations for other PFAS, including GenX.

GenX is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility that is situated near the banks of the Cape Fear River and more than 70 miles upstream of Wilmington. The Cape Fear River is the raw drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians.

The federal agency also said it was extending deadlines for public water treatment plants to come into compliance with the federally established limits for those PFAS.

Since the late 1990s, the EPA has been required by law to publish every five years a list of contaminants that are either unregulated or not proposed for regulation.

CCLs are considered the initial step in a process to better understand, through scientific research, potential human health risks of contaminants in drinking water.

And, while clean drinking water advocates say this is a good first step, they urge the public to call for regulations to limit the levels of or altogether halt the discharge of contaminants into public drinking water sources.

“I think it’s important to recognize what chemicals are in our drinking water and to study the risks associated with that,” Hannah Nelson, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Chapel Hill office said. “But simply adding chemicals to this list isn’t going to protect our communities. They’re on the list because we know they’re in drinking water, so now we need to take the next step to control the source of that pollution at the source and get it out of our drinking water. I North Carolina, because we know these pollutants are already there, I think we really should be focusing on how do we keep them out in the first place, because that’s how we truly protect our communities.”

Residents in the Cape Fear region, the local governments that represent them, the public water utilities that serve them, and environmental organizations are embroiled in an ongoing fight pushing for state regulations to put the onus on dischargers of PFAS and 1,4-dioxane to reduce the amounts of chemicals they release into drinking water sources.

On Tuesday, the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission will host its first in a series of public hearings on proposed PFAS and 1,4-dioxane monitoring and minimization rules.

Three hearings will focus on proposed rules for discharges of PFOS, PFOA and GenX into North Carolina’s surface waters and three on proposed rules for monitoring and minimizing 1,4-dioxane in wastewater discharges from certain facilities into surface waters.

The proposed rules packages do not set specific discharge limits or penalties for discharge violations, which has become a sticking point for those who argue that the rules would do little in actually minimizing the amount of those contaminants in drinking water sources.

“We know our environmental rulemaking body is currently trying to pass rules on PFAS and 1,4-dioxane that don’t control chemicals at the source,” Nelson said. “Having drinking water standards would be a helpful too, but our real focus should be, how can we keep these out in the first place and how can we encourage our state and our federal leaders to protect the people from the pollution before it even reaches the point of coming out of our sink and pouring into our cups.”

Beyond Plastics, a Bennington College, Vermont-based organization dedicated to ending single-use plastic pollution, called for similar regulation for microplastics.

“The U.S. Environmental Agency has taken an important first step to regulate microplastics in drinking water,” Beyond Plastics President and former EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck stated in a release. “I applaud this decision by the EPA and urge the agency to move rapidly to not only regulate microplastics in drinking water but to also prevent microplastics from entering our water supplies.”

Cape Fear River Watch’s Water Quality Programs Manager Rob Clark agreed, saying that microplastics are ubiquitous – they’re in our environment and in our bodies.

“It’s a situation where it seems like we already have a lot of information on this,” he said. “What we need is ubiquitous monitoring across the country and we need regulation. The quicker that we get to setting a maximum contaminant level for microplastics, the quicker it’s not in our drinking water.”

In its April 2 release, the EPA noted that while human health benchmarks for pharmaceuticals are not regulations and not enforceable, “they are a vital resource, empowering local decision-makers to evaluate risks and protect their communities when pharmaceutical contamination is detected at concerning levels.”

The public comment period on draft CCL 6 will close June 5.

The EPA is expected to sign a final list by Nov. 17.

“I think public comment periods on action like this are really important because it’s a good time for folks to express concerns about the chemicals that are known to be present in their drinking water,” Nelson said. “Adding chemicals to the list is truly just an acknowledgement that they’re in the water. I don’t think we should read this list as a commitment to going above and beyond and advocating for folks. What we need to see is strong action to keep those chemicals out, whether it be from the federal administration or our state agencies.”

The Coastal Environmental Educators Network will again host its annual Earth Fair OBX at Jockey’s Ridge State Park later this month.

The fair taking place from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 25, will be an opportunity to hear from organizations working to preserve the delicate ecosystems of the Outer Banks.

“Share your love for the natural world and check out our fun and informative exhibits and activities for kids. Walk around and explore the exhibitors, state of the art Visitors Center and other features of the State Park,” organizers said.

Kitty Hawk Kites and Dare Arts Council teamed up to create the Outer Banks Sweep the Beach Trash Art Contest. Artists were asked to create and submit work from the trash they have collected from Outer Banks beaches now on display along the “TrART Walk” at Jockey’s Ridge Crossing. Work will be judged on April 20 and winners will be announced at the Kitty Hawk Kites booth during the event.  

North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are kicking off this year’s spring litter sweep this weekend.

The biannual statewide roadside litter removal initiative, ​​usually held last two weeks of April and September, encourages residents to join efforts in their community to help clean up North Carolina’s roadways. 

The 2026 spring litter sweep begins Saturday and ends April 25.

While NCDOT does not assign specific dates, groups or individuals can contact for recommendations their NCDOT County Maintenance Yard office​ or local coordinator for NCDOT’s Litter Management Program, who are responsible for managing anti-litter programs, such as Adopt-A-Highway and Litter Sweep, in their assigned counties.

NCDOT does provide cleanup supplies, such as reversible orange-blue trash bags, gloves and orange safety vests, that can be obtained from the volunteer’s county maintenance yard or through the local coordinator.

Organizers are asking volunteers that find anything unusual or interesting during the litter sweep cleanup, use the hashtag, #StrangeLitter on social media​.​​

More details and a frequently asked questions are on NCDOT’s website.

Gardeners, nature enthusiasts, educators, community organizers and others with a drive to help pollinators can join in the Great Southeast Pollinator Census in August.

North Carolina Cooperative Extension is launching the state’s census effort with a webinar at 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 15. Register for “Getting Started with the Great Southeast Pollinator Census in NC” through the online form.

The community science effort to track pollinator visitations across the Southeast is designed so that anyone, regardless of scientific background, can contribute.

Amanda Bratcher, the state’s census coordinator based at the extension office in Lee County, will lead the 90-minute webinar, which will review the 15-minute method for counting pollinators, and how to identify the insect.

A University of Georgia Project, the Great Southeast Pollinator Census was launched in 2022. In that time, more than 1.2 million insects across 66,000 individual counts have been documented in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama.

A seven-week online course is also being offered Tuesday afternoons from June 16 to July 28. The cost of the course is $50 and the commitment to lead, assist or participate in a Great Southeast Pollinator Census event this year. Registration is open for the few remaining seats for the course.

“Help us capture a snapshot of pollinator activity in communities across North Carolina, including the types of pollinators and which flowers they visit, and help build a southeast-wide data set with other states,” organizers said.

There are resources for those who want to participate as well as for groups interested in hosting a counting event on the extension’s webpage for the census.

Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. More of his work can be found on his website.

I first listened to a special group of interviews with African American community elders in Pamlico County almost 20 years ago, but I have never forgotten them. They helped me to see history as more than dates and wars, the rise and fall of the powerful, and the stuff of headlines.

They helped me to understand that history is all those things, but it is also the paths of our souls and the life of the spirit.

The oral history project was called “Preserving the African American Experience in Pamlico County, North Carolina.”

The project was led by Ms. Linda Simmons-Henry, a scholar, archivist and public historian whom I have known and admired for many years.

Ms. Simmons-Henry was uniquely well prepared to lead the project. At that time, she was the director of special collections and the senior archivist at Saint Augustine’s College in Raleigh.

She is currently the dean of the library and archives at Texas College, a historically Black colleges and universities in Tyler, Texas.

She is also a native of New Bern and has always remained deeply attached to the African American community there and in Pamlico County, just to the east of New Bern.

Over the spring and summer of 2007, Ms. Simmons-Henry and a talented team of local volunteers conducted oral history interviews with 20 of Pamlico County’s African American elders.

I found the interviews to be a rare treasure. Taken together, they are a compelling and intimate portrait of African American life in Pamlico County over most of the 20th century.

The whole tenor of the interviews is special. When you listen to them, you can tell that the project’s volunteers and the elders were people who knew and cared for one another.

In the voices of the project’s volunteers, I heard respect and reverence for the elders whom they were interviewing. I also heard a yearning to learn from their wisdom and experience.

In the voices of the elders, I heard a special kind of care. They talk about history, but they also sound like wise grandparents gently sharing love and guidance with those of a younger generation whom they know will need all the help they can get in this fragile, broken world of ours.

* * *

I first listened to the interviews back in 2007. The project’s volunteers had organized a banquet to celebrate and honor the community elders who had so graciously shared their stories with them.

I had been invited to say a few words at that banquet. To help me to prepare for the occasion, Ms. Simmons-Henry made a copy of the interviews for me.

At that time, the project’s volunteers had not yet transcribed the audio tapes, so I could not read transcripts of them. In a way, it was nicer: it meant that I had to listen to them, which I did, and it was a delight.

It made me feel as if I was sitting down with the elders and listening to their stories along with the project’s volunteers.

The interviews and transcripts are now available both at the New Bern-Craven County Public Library in New Bern and in the Southern Oral History Program’s collection at the Southern Historical Collection at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

* * *

The project’s oldest interviewee was a woman named Annie Rachel Squires. She was born in a little community called Maribel, on the Bay River, in 1908. At the time of her interview, she was 99 years old.

Ms. Squires and the other community elders shared stories about many different parts of Pamlico County’s history.

They talked about their teachers and schools. They spoke of childhood joys. They remembered long, brutally hard days of digging in potato fields and shucking oysters in the local canneries.

“All I know about my life was work, work, work,” I remember one woman saying, I believe in Vandemere, a small village in Pamlico County.

The community elders also recounted tales of the local struggle for voting rights and racial justice in Pamlico County.

Some remembered the landmark school desegregation lawsuit that black citizens in the coastal town of Oriental filed in 1951. Two or three recalled incidents involving the Ku Klux Klan.

Others told stories about serving in the Second World War and the Vietnam War. Yet others remembered the Great Depression.

My curiosity encompassed all of those historical subjects, but they are not what I remember most about the interviews.

What struck me most deeply about the elders’ words when I first listened to them back in 2007, and what I still find most unforgettable about them now, is how much they are a history of faith and the spirit.

* * *

For instance, I will never forget the project’s interview with the Rev. Kenneth M. Bell Sr., who at that time was still the minister at the Green Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Bayboro.

He was the only church pastor whom the project’s volunteers interviewed, but when it came to matters of the spirit, his words were very similar to most of the other elderly men and women that were interviewed.

Like Rev. Bell, they spoke of their faith and their struggles to know and understand God more fully.

They shared stories of Sunday schools and Bible study groups. They described a hunger to understand more fully what Scripture had to teach them about our purpose here on Earth, the nature of our existence, and what we are called to do for one another.

Rev. Bell was interviewed by Ms. Sandra Mae Hawkins, one of the project’s most devoted volunteers. At one point in the interview, she asked Rev. Bell what he considered the most important event in his life.

He did not hesitate for even a second.

He said it was the day in his boyhood that Mrs. N.F. Harper sang “Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior” at Green Hill Missionary Baptist Church and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior.

* * *

When Rev. Bell spoke of Mrs. Harper singing “Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior,” he was remembering a worship service 60 or 70 years earlier.

Born in Bayboro in 1941, he was the youngest of 12 children.

When Sandra Made Hawkins talked with him, he explained that he had grown up in hard times. However, he did not linger on his family’s hardships or the things they did without.

Instead, he talked about his father, who was a farmer and a devout member of the local African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

His father was not the pastor of the church, but he had been a missionary. Rev. Bell explained that when his father was not in his fields, he strove to live the Bible’s teachings.

He visited the sick, lonely, and down and out. He cut firewood for elderly neighbors. After hog killings, he shared the meat with those who had none.

In the interview, Rev. Bell recalled that his father’s face had been disfigured in a hunting accident when he was a boy.

When I heard that part of his life story, I wondered if his father’s malformity had helped to teach him, and maybe his son too, to look at people’s souls, not on that which is only skin deep.

Rev. Bell remembered that people in Pamlico County often referred to his father as a prophet. He said that his father understood how to listen for God’s word, and again and again, God spoke to him. God made him promises, and those promises, Rev. Bell said, came true.

He was not describing the world that we watch on TV or read about in the New York Times: he was describing a world where miracles happened.

 “He never talked much to us except about the Bible,” Rev. Bell recalled.

He spoke with great admiration and appreciation for his father. On the other hand, listening to his interview, I also got the feeling that he felt as if his father may have left some important things unsaid.

* * *

I was also taken with the project’s interview with a gentleman named Charlie Styron. Mr. Styron was born in Oriental in 1933.

I wish I had known him. He spoke with a beautiful voice, full of kindness.

In reflecting on his life, Mr. Styron described how he had always worked with his hands. Listening to him talk about his life, I got the impression that there was not much that he could not do with those hands.

For many years, he had worked at a sawmill and a veneer plant. But at different times, he explained, he had made his living as a heavy equipment operator, a bricklayer, a carpenter, and an electrician.

After he retired, he said, he found his greatest joy in playing with his grandchildren. He kept active, too. At the time of the interview, he was still operating a lawn mower repair business out of his home.

Passersby often saw him singing hymns and praying while he worked on the lawnmowers.

Sandra Mae Hawkins was also the project interviewer who spoke with Mr. Styron.

When she asked him, “What have been some important events of your life?” he, like Rev. Bell, did not hesitate even for a moment: “Well, to be born from above, that was the most important event,” he told her.

* * *

The project’s interview with a woman named Eula Felton Monk also stood out to me. Ms. Monk had grown up in Mesic, a rural, predominantly African American community on the Bay River.

I had a good friend there when I was young, Ed Credle, who was Mesic’s first mayor. Listening to Ms. Monk’s stories gave me a special joy because they brought back memories of Ed and his neighbors whom I got to know in Mesic back in those days, good people, all.

When Ms. Monk was a girl, she recounted, her father had been the captain of a shrimp trawler. He worked on the Bay River and out in Pamlico Sound, but he also followed the shrimp as far south as Key West.

At the time of her interview, Mrs. Monk had been a teacher for 43 years. She had retired from teaching full-time, but she was still working part time as a substitute teacher in the local public schools.

When asked about her childhood, she recalled long days of working in the fields: chopping cotton, digging potatoes, picking tobacco.

Her family worked on local farms, but also traveled to fields as far away as Merritt, Arapahoe and Aurora.

She spoke of her schoolteachers with great reverence. She had endless admiration for how they did so much, and cared so much for their students, back in those days of Jim Crow when Pamlico County’s schools were segregated by race and so little was given to the African American schools.

Mrs. Monk said that she would never forget the great debt that she owed those teachers.

When the interviewer asked her if she was religious, she, too, was matter of fact:

“I believe in God and I believe in being a doer of His word…, (and I) try very hard to do those things daily that He says that I should do in His world.”

The interviewer then asked a question with a kind of directness with respect to faith and religion that I do not often see in oral history projects.

She asked if Mrs. Monk believed in Jesus Christ.

Mrs. Monk was not caught off guard by the question in the least, and her reply was direct:

 “Oh, yes I do, as my Lord and my Savior. He is my Savior. Yes.”

When the interviewer asked her how she put her faith into action in her daily life — another question I do not often hear in oral history interviews — Mrs. Monk turned to Scripture.

“Second Timothy 2:15 says to study to show thyself approved of God, not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I study the word of God, and then I pray.”

She also said:

“And the Bible says we should visit the sick…, the Bible says that we should reach out to those who are less fortunate than we are… and to love thy neighbor as thyself.”

She said that she strove to do all those things, though of course she acknowledged that she was far from perfect.

Then she said:

“I love God with all my heart and all my mind, and all my soul. And I would like to say, the greatest point in my life, the most important event in my life, is when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, when I became saved.”

* * *

As I listened to their voices, I found a comforting sense of familiarity in the way that the lives of the Pamlico County elders were entwined so tightly and so seamlessly with their faith and their churches.

I grew up just across the river from Pamlico County, and I found that their voices reminded me again and again of home and the lives of my family and the people around whom I was raised.

* * *

There was a kind of cadence to the stories of their lives, like a gentle heartbeat, held steady by their knowledge of themselves as spiritual beings and kept in time by daily prayer, Bible study, worship services, Sunday school, church suppers, choir practices, baptism, weddings and funerals.

So many little things in these interviews caught my attention, and they did so in a way that, even all these years later, they remained fixed in my memory.

Listening to the interview with Annie Squires, the 99-year-old woman I mentioned earlier, I could feel how her heart filled with joy when she played the piano at her church in Maribel.

She told the young woman who interviewed her that she had been the church’s pianist for more than half a century.

Likewise, in my mind’s eye, I could see Roosevelt Stokes Jr., another of the interviewees, as he made his weekly rounds among the frail and sick in Grantsboro’s nursing home.

He had never been a pastor or a missionary at a church, but he had his own ministry visiting those people who lived in the nursing home.

On the days of his nursing home visits, Mr. Stokes would stop and read the Bible to any of the patients who desired him to do so.

He would hold their hand, and often they would pray together. Sometimes one of the nurses would join them.

His words brought back memories for me, and maybe helped me appreciate what it was like for Mr. Stokes to read the Bible by those bedsides, and how much it might have meant to those who lay there. Because, now and then, I have been called on to read the Bible at a bedside, too.

* * *

I know these are just little moments, but even some of the passing comments in the interviews made a deep impression on me.

For instance, another of the interviewees, Emma Bell, recalled how, when she was a small child, her mother began every day by giving a Bible verse to her and to each of her brothers and sisters.

They would read the Bible passage at breakfast.

I could see them: a mother and her children, early in the mornings of what I am sure were busy days, taking a few minutes to recite Bible verses before going out into this stormy world of ours.

I also loved a little something that one of the other interviewees, Sabia Ruth Gibbs, said.

Ms. Gibbs grew up in Maribel. Way up in her 90s, she was one of the oldest people who shared her life story with the project’s volunteers.

All the same, when she was asked to pause for a moment and think about the long span of her life, one of the first things she did was reach far back in time, as if to another world, and describe the joy of singing in the choir at St. Galilee Missionary Baptist Church when she was a girl.

She remembered it like it was yesterday.

It was a memory, in her telling of it, that seemed to be made of pure light.

* * *

I doubt that I am much different from anyone else. When I am driving through the countryside, as I did last night, on my way to my family’s homeplace on state Highway 101, I go by all the homes and see the lights on and I wonder how the people that live there are doing, and do they feel loved, and, if they pray, what they pray for at night before they fall asleep.

I wonder about their prayers, and all that goes unsaid in life, and the whispered words we have between us and our maker.

At those times, I think about the quiet joys for which we show gratitude at that late night hour. I think too of the fears that go unsaid everywhere else, the dreams that we keep to ourselves, the hungers that can’t be put into words.

The interviews in “Preserving the African American Experience in Pamlico County, North Carolina” are an invaluable historical record of life on the North Carolina coast throughout the 20th century.

The more times that passes, the more special they will seem, the more important they will be.

I cherish them for that reason but also because they help me to remember that our path through life, our history, is partly what can be seen and heard and touched, and partly what cannot.

A PBS docuseries exploring how to feed a growing population while protecting oceans, marine ecosystems and coastal communities will be featured as the Coastal Studies Institute’s Science on the Sound Lecture Series installment for this month, and in celebration of Earth Week.

The third episode of the series, “Hope in the Water,” titled “Changing the Menu,” will be shown at the historic Pioneer Theater in Manteo the evening of Monday, April 20. There is no charge to attend but registration is required at https://bit.ly/HopeInTheWater.

“Hope in the Water,” produced by Andrew Zimmern and David E. Kelley, “blends science, food, and storytelling to spotlight innovative solutions in what’s often called the ‘blue food’ system—food sourced from oceans, rivers, and aquaculture. Rather than focusing solely on the problems surrounding fisheries, the series highlights practical, real-world solutions, from regenerative aquaculture to rethinking the species we eat,” organizers said.

The event starts with a prescreening reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Pioneer Theater courtyard, featuring local seafood available for purchase from Basnight’s Lone Cedar Café food truck, beverages, and educational displays from community partners.

The film screening will begin at 6:30 p.m., followed by a cookbook giveaway and discussion with the following panelists:

• Dr. Sara Mirabilio, fisheries extension specialist with N.C. Sea Grant.
• Chef Mac Buben, owner of Sea Chef Dockside Kitchen.
• Evan Ferguson, food blogger and media coordinator at Cape Hatteras Secondary School.
• Jake Griffin, a local commercial fisherman.

The panel will discuss local efforts to diversify seafood consumption and offer perspectives on the future of seafood in North Carolina and beyond.

“This event is an opportunity to connect our community with the people and ideas shaping the future of seafood,” CSI Executive Director Reide Corbett said in a statement. “By bringing together scientists, fishers, chefs, and educators, we hope to inspire more sustainable choices that support both coastal livelihoods and healthy marine ecosystems.”

The Coastal Studies Institute, located in Wanchese on the East Carolina University Outer Banks Campus, has partnered with Fed by Blue, North Carolina Sea Grant, and the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau to host the viewing. Science on the Sound is CSI’s monthly, in-person lecture series brings perspectives from all over the state and highlights coastal topics in northeastern North Carolina.

The Master Gardener Volunteer Association is hosting is annual native plant sale April 16-19 in Wilmington.

Now in its 39th year, the sale will feature more than 8,000 plant varieties, showcasing native plants that support wildlife populations in southeastern North Carolina and enhance the community’s botanical landscape.

Annuals, perennials, herbs and vegetables, azaleas, Japanese maples, and shrubs will be available for selection during the four-day sale, which will run 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Thursday, April 16, through Saturday, April 18, and noon – 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 19.

The sale will be held at the New Hanover County Arboretum and N.C. Cooperative Extension, 6206 Oleander Drive.

The event will host a free seed exchange in the Cooperative Extension’s Plant Clinic. Houseplants will be made available through the Ability Garden, and an expert talk will be held on Japanese maple care and pruning.

Expert guidance will be offered from master gardener volunteers and extension staff on plant selections and they will help with safely and securely transferring plants to vehicles.

Parking and plant carts are limited, so participants are encouraged to carpool and bring their own carts to reduce wait time.

The arboretum will be closed April 13-15 in preparation for the sale.

A North Carolina-based nonprofit is offering one lucky winner an opportunity to get away — really away — from it all for a few days.

FPTower Inc. is raffling off a four-night, five-day mission immersive eco-adventure at Frying Pan Tower for its 2026 “Save a Life” fundraising campaign to strengthen coastal rescue capabilities while supporting offshore research operations.

Participants of the raffle will be entered for a chance to win a stay on the former U.S. Coast Guard light station, which sits a little more than 30 miles off the coast from the mouth of the Cape Fear River.

Funds will be used to purchase and donate four U Safe self-propelled, remotely controlled, lifesaving buoys to the coastal communities that receive the most public nominations through raffle participation.

Each raffle ticket equates to one “coastal point.” The top four communities with the most points will receive a buoy.

“This campaign represents a direct investment in public safety,” FPTower Inc. Executive Director Richard Neal stated in a release. “By combining community engagement with lifesaving technology, we are helping coastal communities enhance rescue readiness while continuing our offshore research and maritime safety mission.”

The winner and up to three guests will be provided charter vessel transportation to and from the tower, private ocean-facing accommodations, chef-prepared meals, marine exploration opportunities, a guided tour of the historic station, and world-class stargazing.

The tower, which was completed in November 1964 and retired from active Coast Guard service in 2004, now serves as a platform for environmental research, coastal resilience initiatives, and maritime outreach.

The raffle runs through 11:59 p.m. Memorial Day, May 25. The winner will be announced at 9 a.m. May 26.

Film is the most significant art form of the last century. I don’t think a lot of people would argue that point. There might be a couple people who might say that literature is still tops. But how many people have seen “The Lord of the Rings” movies versus how many have read the books? (many times each for me).

It stands to reason that we anglers have films that stand out to us as great expressions of our favorite activity. Now, we’re not talking about documentaries or short films, although there are many worth your time, but rather feature films that received major studio releases.

There are a couple that are warmly remembered, a couple that have won awards, and there are even some that stand out as innovative pieces of art in their own right — films that actually changed film itself. Fishing and angling have had that effect on us.

“Grumpy Old Men” is a 1993 film that is remembered fondly for many reasons. Burgess Meredith straight up stealing the whole movie with perfect comedic timing (the sequel was his last film), Ann Margret looking transcendent, 30 years after her starring role in “Bye Bye Birdie”, the great chemistry between the stars Walter Matthau and Tony Curtis that hadn’t changed since “The Odd Couple” in 1968.

But in the interplay between legends, we see what fishing can mean to us. The main characters fight over lucky ice fishing poles, fishing spots, and try to take each other out with frozen walleyes. This resonates because not only is it funny, it’s also true. These are the real reasons people bicker about fishing, both on the water and off. Hopefully, you won’t actually try to kill somebody with a frozen fish, but the joke makes the point. The little love story with Ann Margret is almost an afterthought.

“The Perfect Storm” is not precisely a fishing movie, but it’s close. On the surface, the 2000 film is about a storm that swept the East Coast — one in which I was stuck in a third-floor apartment while my neighbors jumped off the balcony into snow piles. But beyond that it’s a “Moby Dick”-style tale of compulsion and ego that takes the lives of our handsome protagonists, including Mark Wahlberg, George Clooney, and William Fichtner. What makes it worse was that the guys could have turned back in time but instead pushed on to the Flemish Cap to fish untouched waters.

That is something that most anglers can associate with.

Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Old Man and The Sea” during winter 1953 as a tribute to those who make their living from the sea. He chose to weave in religious references that solidify the connection between his main character, Santiago, to a saintly figure. While Hemingway himself had problems with the 1958 film starring Spencer Tracy – issues mainly stemming from Hemingway being unable to suffuse his ego and having arguments with Tracy himself, he was pleased with the film overall.

Tracy got an Oscar nomination for best actor and Dimitri Tiomkin won for best original score. The first time I saw this as a kid, I was amazed by the shots of Santiago fighting the marlin, then I felt his pain as the sharks tore it apart, thus showing the futility of struggling against … whatever … anything. The ending is unclear. I always assumed the Old Man passed in his sleep after returning home, but maybe not.

He loves the sea and he loves the fish, feelings that many of us anglers can relate to. He loves it so much that even though he knows he needs to kill it; it breaks his heart to do so and his spirit when the sharks come. Tracy is a literal master of the craft of acting and he was the perfect choice. In my mind, this film holds up even after so long.

A film that literally changed the way movies were produced and marketed, “Jaws” was the first summer blockbuster. When it came out June 20, 1975, it was the first movie released to hundreds of screens nationwide simultaneously, something we take for granted now. Steven Spielberg became known as the genius we know today. Young actors such as Richard Dreyfus and Roy Scheider would build huge careers. Robert Shaw figuratively put a crown on his head as the finest actor of his generation (we can fight about it if you want).

Oscars were awarded for best sound, best editing, and of course, best score to the legendary John Williams. I bet you are playing the “Jaws” theme in your head right now.

The big gamefishing scenes are the best ever put on film. The amazing monologue from Quint about the USS Indianapolis gives me chills every time, and I watch every year to celebrate Fourth of July (I’m serious). When Quint first sets the hook and Hooper argues with him about what he thinks they really have on, I feel the tension. Of course, when the line breaks, well, who here has not experienced that disappointment?

The idea that somewhere “out there” is a fish bigger than anything else and we can conquer it, this is what makes us dream.

In my mind, “A River Runs Through It,” both the 1976 book and the 1992 adaptation, creates the perfect bridge between film and literature as artforms. The soundtrack by Mark Isham, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, is beautiful. It’s masterfully shot, winning a best cinematography Oscar for auteur Philippe Rousselot. The acting is outstanding with Brad Pitt in the role that would make him a household name, as well as Tom Skerrit, Craig Sheffer and many others in vastly underrated performances.

Robert Redford produced and directed the film, for which he was a Golden Globe nominee, and provided the voice of the story in his narration. In many cases, Redford spoke the precise words of author Norman Maclean.

While actually a story of how we truly try to help those we love, it’s also about how all will ultimately choose whichever path we end up on. Author Norman Maclean’s father was a Presbyterian minister. In the film, the Rev. Maclean gives a sermon during a church service, which the audience is led to believe happens as he’s near the end of his days:

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true, we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don’t know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so, it is those we live with and should know best who elude us. But we can still love them. We can love completely without complete understanding.”

This is the finest film about fishing ever. If you can sit through Redford’s final narration without getting emotional, I’m not sure we can be friends.

So, you’ve probably figured out I love movies. Good ones. Great ones. Sometimes even bad ones. I love a tornado full of sharks. But the closer they get to the things I live for, the more I can feel them.

Cape Hatteras National Seashore officials advise visitors to its east-facing beaches to exercise caution through Saturday because the persistent northeast winds and breaking waves forecast for the next few days could cause coastal erosion and damage to beach houses.

The National Weather Service is calling for strong winds, dangerous rip currents and longshore currents are expected for much of the beaches from Duck to Cape Lookout, as well as portions of Onslow County, over the coming days, with waves in the surf zone that could reach up to 8 feet at times, according to its social media.

In the advisory the National Park Service issued late afternoon Tuesday, officials said the potential weather could cause the partial or full collapse of one or more threatened oceanfront structures in Buxton and Rodanthe.

Officials also note that the entirety of Buxton’s beachfront is closed because of public safety hazards associated with the presence of threatened oceanfront structures in or near the ocean.

“The proximity of these structures to seashore lands poses a serious risk to visitors walking along the beach or wading in the surf,” officials said. “Additionally, a public safety closure of a stretch of beach from the south end of Buxton to just north of off-road vehicle ramp 43 remains in place.”

Being able to watch a mother sperm whale give birth to her calf in the eastern Caribbean Sea a couple of summers ago “felt like an encounter with something both impossibly rare and profoundly ancient,” marine biologist David Gruber told Coastal Review.

Gruber, a National Geographic Explorer and City University of New York distinguished professor of biology, is president of Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative). He founded the nonprofit based in the U.S. and Dominica in 2020. It’s made up of artificial intelligence and natural language processing specialists, cryptographers, linguists, marine biologists, roboticists and underwater acousticians from a network of universities and other partners, per the website.

He was aboard the organization’s sailing research vessel on July 8, 2023, off the coast of Dominica, where scientists have been observing whales for decades, when the team noticed that all 11 members of a known sperm whale unit had gathered at the water’s surface.

The team soon realized that they were witnessing the exceedingly rare 34-minutelong birth of a sperm whale in the wild and the coordinated care efforts for the newborn by the other adult females.

Project CETI published two reports detailing what the team observed, calling the work in a March 26 press release “the most comprehensive documentation of a sperm whale birth ever recorded and the first quantitative evidence of cooperative birth assistance among non-primates.”

The two studies analyze more than six hours of underwater audio and aerial drone footage recorded during the birth event.

Gruber, in the March 26 release, stated that these findings fundamentally reshape how we understand whale society. “What we’re seeing is deeply coordinated social care during one of the most vulnerable moments of life.”

Researchers said that understanding of labor, birth, postnatal and neonatal behavior is lacking for most cetaceans, with observations of these births in the wild recorded for less than 10% of species. Cetaceans are marine mammals such as whales, dolphins and porpoises.

“Of the described 93 species of cetaceans only nine species have reported birth observations collected in the wild,” the study states. “And reports of birth events of pelagic, deep-diving cetacean species, such as sperm whales, are exceptionally rare.”

Published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, “Description of a collaborative sperm whale birth and shifts in coda vocal styles during key events,” gives a chronological timeline of the birth framed within the context of known whale behavior, communication and evolution.

“Audio data revealed distinct shifts in vocal styles during key moments of the birth, including the presence of vowel-like structures, adding a new dimension to Project CETI’s ongoing work decoding sperm whale communication,” according to the nonprofit.

The journal Science published “Cooperation by non-kin during birth underpins sperm whale social complexity.” The organization explained that the study quantified the behavior of the 11-member unit by using high-resolution drone footage, computer vision, and multiscale network analysis using software developed for the work, combined with previously made scientific observations, including reports of whale births.

“The findings show that female sperm whales from two unrelated matrilines come together during a birth to assist the labouring mother, and both kin and non-kin taking turns assisting the newborn. This provides the first quantitative evidence of birth attendance outside of humans and a few other primates,” researchers state in the press release, adding that the birth attracted the attention of short-finned pilot whales and Fraser’s dolphins.

Gruber told Coastal Review what it was like to witness the live birth.

“To be on CETI’s sailing research vessel, in that moment, felt like an encounter with something both impossibly rare and profoundly ancient,” he noted.

“In marine biology, so much of a career is impacted by luck — being present when ocean life decides to reveal itself,” Gruber continued. “I’ve been fortunate enough to witness things like the first biofluorescent turtle seen to humans, but nothing compares to witnessing a sperm whale come into the world.”

Gruber went on to say that very few such births have been seen by humans, and the last scientifically recorded observation after the birth was decades ago.

“It makes you wonder what Herman Melville would have written had he glimpsed this: not the violence of whaling, but the circle of care and a society revealing itself through cooperation,” he explained about the author of the 1851 American novel, “Moby Dick,” that tells the tale of a whaling vessel’s captain and his quest for vengeance against the whale that took his leg.

“We witnessed culture in action,” when the 11 whales, across family lines, “coordinated to keep a newborn alive, communicating in ways we’re only beginning to understand.”

Gruber said it took more than 50 scientists 2.5 years “to begin to interpret even a fraction of that moment, because Project CETI sits at the intersection of marine biology, artificial intelligence, and network science — fields that must come together if we are to decode these lives,” he said. ”And, in some sense, this is why Project CETI exists: We are one of the few teams in the world continuously embedded with these whales, with the tools, the longitudinal data, and the interdisciplinary lens to not only witness something this rare, but to begin to understand it.” 

Shane Gero, National Geographic Explorer, Project CETI biology lead, and founder of The Dominica Sperm Whale Project, leads the research.

Researchers, who have been tracking since 2005, the mother that gave birth, observed her that day with both her mother and her daughter.

“This is the most detailed window we’ve ever had into one of the most important moments in a whale’s life,” Gero said in the release. “Because this family unit has been studied for decades, we could see what the grandmother was doing, how the new big sister acted, and how each helped mom and newborn, placing this rare birth within a deep social and behavioral context.”

The two studies point to cooperative caregiving during birth being ancient evolutionary behavior.

The behaviors documented in the research “suggest that cooperation during births functions to reinforce social bonds between sperm whales, which underpin their large-scale society. Helping unrelated companions drives them to help in return later. In this way, a foundation of trust and collective success builds their social world,” researchers said.

Share your experiences and learn more about the issues surrounding shellfish aquaculture in Stump Sound and Topsail Sound next week during an informational presentation and listening session.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation and North Carolina Sea Grant are hosting the session from 1 p.m. until 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 14, in the town council’s chambers at the Surf City Municipal Complex, 214 W. Florence Way, Hampstead.

“Your feedback will help shape a balanced, informed path forward,” according to a promotional flier for the event.

The session will cover conflicts and perceived and actual problems regarding shellfish leases, such as those associated with viewshed and property values, navigation and safety, congestion and density.

“We know coastal waters mean different things to different people, and we want to hear from you,” according to the flier.

Coastal Federation Advocate Kerri Allen and Sea Grant Extension Director Frank Lopez are to facilitate the session, which is to be a scripted presentation and listening session, not a public hearing.

In April 2025, Rep. Carson Smith, R-Pender, introduced legislation to require a statewide study on shellfish leasing and current lease moratoriums. That measure, House Bill 841, was cleared by the House but stalled in the Senate, where it passed a first vote but was then referred on May 7, 2025, to the rules committee, where it remains.

Organizers of the listening session noted that space is limited and registration is required.

Those unable to attend but who wish to share their input may submit comments to https://forms.gle/sCJ1uLGCgbhig6Zr8.

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This year, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor wanted to shake things up, get away from what has been their traditional meeting formula, and instead offer an up-close and personal, historically engaging experience.

The nonprofit’s North Carolina Summit invites you to take part in the “Black Church Crawl,” an immersive tour celebrating the history of Black churches that have housed decades of congregants in Brunswick and New Hanover counties.

Scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18, the tour will allow participants to step within the walls of three historic Black churches, where speakers will delve into the stories of how these cultural landmarks came to be and their significance as spaces of faith, fellowship and community.

“Although you might live in a certain area, you might not be really invested in what’s going on,” said Nora Williams, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor public relations and marketing campaign coordinator. “We wanted something that was happening in their community and something that they also could get involved in. Of course, anyone is allowed to participate, but we felt like this would be a great way for people to learn more about themselves and their history and the culture.”

The summit in North Carolina kicks off the first of four meetings the commission-led nonprofit holds annually in each of the states in which the corridor spans.

The corridor is one of the largest of the 62 designated national heritage areas in the country, encompassing about 2,200 miles through coastal counties from Florida to southeastern North Carolina.

“We’re one of the ones that primarily focus on people,” Williams said.

The Gullah Geechee are the descendants of West and Central Africans ripped from their native land and shipped to America, where they were enslaved to work on the coastal rice, Sea Island cotton and indigo plantations of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

Their enslavement on isolated coastal plantations and barrier islands helped them retain many of their indigenous African traditions, which remain today through spiritual traditions, arts and crafts, and food.

They even created their own language, Gullah, a mixture of West African dialects and English that is not spoken anywhere else in the world.

Congress enacted the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and the commission established to oversee it on Oct. 12, 2006, through the National Heritage Act of 2006 with the aim of recognizing, sustaining, and celebrating the Gullah Geechee’s contributions to American culture and history.

The nonprofit assists the four state governments and local governments within those states in interpreting the Gullah Geechee’s story and preserving historic sites, data and artifacts associated with its people and culture.

One of those sites sits just off Cedar Hill Road in Navassa, the first stop of the church crawl, an event that will feature public historian, performance artist and Gullah Geechee’s own Tyanna Parker-West, Wilmington native and WilmingtoNColor founder Cedric Harrison, and Pastor Derrick Parker.

Just last year, a multiyear, more than $1 million effort to restore Reaves Chapel, a one-room church built on the bluffs of the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County by people formerly enslaved at Cedar Hill Plantation more than a century ago, was completed.

The little chapel in Navassa was eventually relocated by its congregation, using logs and a team of oxen, inland on land Ed Reaves, a former Cedar Hill Plantation slave, donated to the church in 1911. The church eventually became affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal denomination and remained an AME church until its doors closed permanently in the mid-2000s.

Today, it is a tangible testament to those who built it, maintained it, and worshiped in it.

The crawl will continue across the Cape Fear River to downtown Wilmington, where Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church, the oldest African American presbyterian church in North Carolina, and St. Stephen African Methodist Episcopal Church continue to welcome congregants.

Services have been held at Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church for more than 150 years since it was erected during the third great awakening, a time in the United States of religious activism and social reform that occurred from the late 1850s to the early 20^th century.

Roughly a third of a mile away, congregants have filled the pews in St. Stephen AME Church’s current sanctuary since its completion in 1886. The building that stands at 501 Red Cross Street today replaced the original, simple wooden chapel whose members, about 1,500 by 1879, had outgrown its sanctuary.

“The congregation of the popular church was a powerful influence on the community and the state,” according to the North Carolina Department of Cultural and Natural Resources.

When President William Howard Taft visited Wilmington in 1909, he stopped at the church to make a speech to African American schoolchildren.

Williams said in a telephone interview last week that heritage corridor officials chose to hold the church crawl in the Wilmington area because the nonprofit organization wants to preserve and celebrate the Gullah Geechee community in New Hanover and Brunswick counties.

“We understand that Wilmington and the surrounding area is growing very fast,” she said. “Our goal as the corridor is to preserve and amplify the Gullah Geechee community in these areas, so we felt like this was a great time to highlight that community.”

Registration for the Black Church Crawl is $25, which includes transportation and a lunch featuring the culinary flare of two-time James Beard nominee Chef Keith Rhodes, owner of the wildly popular Catch in Wilmington and Voyce Bistro, his newest restaurant featuring coastal cuisine infused with Caribbean flavors.

“We would love for it to fill up and have as many people as possible,” Williams said of the church crawl. “We’re flexible and we have the ability to provide more transportation if more people are interested.”

She anticipates the organization will hold future events as part of its state summits, adding “We do see this growing and being a more interactive experience as opposed to you come in and it’s a presentation. I think we really want people to experience these spaces, experience the people.”

The North Carolina Coastal Federation has acquired 787 acres along the North River in Carteret County, expanding the North River Wetlands Preserve to close to 7,000 acres.

The property, purchased for just shy of $1.9 million, is expected to further the nonprofit organization’s mission to protect water quality, while supporting military operations. The new land is also going to provide a new official portion of North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail, the environmental group said Monday.

The North River Wetlands Preserve was once mostly ditched and drained farm land but has been restored over the past two decades into one of the largest rehabilitated wetland systems in state.

The new property was purchased through a partnership of state, federal and nonprofit funding, including $590,000 from the U.S. Department of Defense, $449,000 from the Complete the Trails Program for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, and $964,691 from the N.C. Land and Water Fund for acquisition and transaction costs. 

With the property acquisition April 2, the preserve includes the headwaters of the North River, Wards Creek, and Jarrett Bay, “forming a connected natural system that filters runoff, improves water quality, and sustains productive fisheries downstream,” according to the organization.

“The newly protected tract includes forested wetlands, upland areas, and approximately 6,900 linear feet of tributaries flowing into the North River—a designated Primary Nursery Area and contributor to the Outstanding Resource Waters of Core and Back Sounds,” the organization added.

The Coastal Federation said it plans to begin restoring the site’s natural hydrology by reconnecting wetlands, improving drainage patterns, and enhancing long-term resilience to sea level rise. 

Coastal Federation Executive Director Braxton Davis explained in a release that the acquisition reflects the kind of forward-looking investment North Carolina needs.

“One that protects water quality, strengthens coastal ecosystems, supports military readiness, and creates meaningful public access. Expanding the North River Wetlands Preserve to nearly 7,000 acres ensures this landscape will provide lasting benefits for communities, fisheries, and future generations,” he said.

The land will be a new official section of North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail, which is a 1,400-mile route connecting the Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks, and is managed by North Carolina State Parks. 

“The acquisition of this property represents a transformational moment for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail in this area,” Brent Laurenz, executive director of Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, said in a release. “We’re so appreciative of the partnership with the Federation to acquire this property for both the significant addition it will make to the MST and for its long-term conservation value.” 

The Department of Navy used funding from the Defense Department’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration, or REPI, Program, to secure a permanent restrictive use easement over the property where low-altitude helicopter training routes associated with Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point operations are held.

“This project represents years of work bringing together the right partners and funding to protect a truly special place,” Todd Miller, senior adviser to the Coastal Federation and project manager for the acquisition, said in a statement.

“By securing this property, we are safeguarding the headwaters of the North River, expanding one of the most important coastal preserves in the state, and creating a permanent route for the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. It’s a powerful example of how conservation can deliver clean water, public access, and support for our military at the same time,” he added.

This project is part of the organization’s “Lands for a Healthy Coast” initiative, which focuses on conserving strategic coastal landscapes that protect water quality, sustain fisheries, and build resilience to climate change. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review.

Additional partners on the project include the North Carolina General Assembly, and Morehead City attorney John Harris.

The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission is to meet next week to consider proposed language amendments for inlet hazard areas.

The meeting for the commission, which establishes policies for the N.C. Coastal Management Program and adopts rules for both the Coastal Area Management Act and the N.C. Dredge and Fill Act, will begin with a field trip to Ocean Isle Beach’s terminal groin at 3 p.m. on April 15. 

The full commission meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. on April 16 at 111 Causeway Drive, Ocean Isle Beach. An in-person public comment period is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. that day. The public may sign up to speak upon arrival at the meeting.  

Members of the public may attend in-person or join the meeting Thursday through the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s YouTube channel. 

The commission establishes areas of environmental concern, which are authorized under CAMA, and are the bases of the permitting program for regulating coastal development.

There are three types of ocean hazard AECs: ocean erodible, inlet hazard, and unvegetated beach.

The ocean erodible area is “the area where there exists a substantial possibility of excessive erosion and significant shoreline fluctuation,” and the inlet hazard area is defined as “locations that ‘are especially vulnerable to erosion, flooding and other adverse effects of sand, wind, and water because of their proximity to dynamic ocean inlets,” according to the division, which carries out the rules and regulations for the commission.

During the meeting, the commission will consider ocean erodible area and inlet hazard area erosion rates and setback factors.

The division has since 1979 used the same long-term erosion data to determine construction setbacks in inlet and ocean hazard areas, and to establish the landward boundaries of ocean erodible areas of environmental concern.  

The commission’s setback rules are used to site oceanfront development based on the size of the structure according to the graduated setback provisions. In areas where there is a high rate of erosion, buildings must be located farther from the shoreline than in areas where there is less erosion. The size of the structure determines how far back a house must be located away from the shoreline.

Because of limited data and resources, erosion rate setback factors within inlet hazard areas have traditionally been based on the rates of adjacent ocean erodible areas.

“Given the rapid changes that can occur at inlets, this method has often resulted in setback factors that underestimate the true erosion dynamics of these areas,” division documents state.

During the commission’s August 2025 meeting, Dr. Laura Moore, the chairperson of the commission’s Science Panel on Coastal Hazards, presented the panel’s recommendations on updated boundaries for inlet hazard areas and ocean erodible areas, and their corresponding erosion rate setback factors.

A subcommittee was appointed at the time to evaluate the possible changes, and presented its recommendation during the February meeting.

Updating ocean hazard area boundaries for inlet hazard areas and ocean erodible areas, along with the associated erosion rate setback factors, requires rule amendments to reference the updated report and maps, documents continue.

Because inlet hazard area boundaries have remained static and adjacent ocean erodible area erosion rates were applied within the inlet hazard areas, the primary amendment has been to the rule “to simply reference the updated oceanfront erosion rate report.  However, this update includes revised IHA boundaries and inlet-specific erosion rates within IHAs, necessitating additional rule amendments to reference the applicable reports, maps, and use standards,” documents explain.

Division staff noted that the 2025 study is consistent with previous update studies, in that inlet hazard area boundaries at undeveloped inlets were not analyzed.

The commission at this month’s meeting is to consider approving rule amendments that reflect the subcommittee’s findings and recommendations and supported by the Coastal Resources Advisory Council, updated inlet hazard boundaries, and updated ocean erodible areas and inlet hazard areas erosion rate setbacks, to include ocean erodible areas landward boundaries.

Division staff are to recommend removing the inlet hazard area designations from Little River Inlet, New River and Brown’s Inlets at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, Bogue Inlet at Hammocks Beach State Park, Barden Inlet, Ocracoke Inlet and Hatteras Inlet.

“It is important to note that while inlet hazards are present at these sites, these areas are not being developed,” staff said.

In addition, division staff are to present updates on septic systems within the ocean hazard areas of environmental concern, consider draft rule amendments for human-made ditches requested by a petition for rulemaking, and a permit for temporary weather monitoring structures on the beach in the ocean hazard area of environmental concern.

The full meeting agenda and briefing materials are on the commission’s website. 

Part of an ongoing series on North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

When Halifax was founded in 1760 on the south bank of the Roanoke River, the town became a thriving commercial and social hub, largely because of its access to the Albemarle Sound, but as the American Revolution took hold in the 1770s, the town found itself at the epicenter of North Carolina’s move from British rule to independence.

North Carolina’s Fourth Provincial Congress met in Halifax in the spring of 1776, when delegates from across the colony unanimously adopted a document recommending freedom from England that was later called the “Halifax Resolves,” according to state historians.

“North Carolina played a significant role in winning America’s independence,” Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement. “The creation and adoption of the Halifax Resolves on April 12, 1776 was the first official action by any colony calling for independence from Great Britain, forever cementing North Carolina’s place in history as ‘First in Freedom.’”

The state will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the document with “Prelude to Revolution: Halifax Resolves Days,” at the Historic Halifax State Historic Site in Halifax County.

Scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, there will be living history vignettes, lectures, live colonial music, Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps performances, historic trades and weapons demonstrations, a military parade, food trucks, vendors, exhibits, tours and themed photo booths.

The site, which holds a smaller-scale observation each year in April, features several authentically restored and furnished buildings including the 1838 Jail, the 1790 Eagle Tavern and the Underground Railroad Trail. 

Halifax Resolves Days is a signature event for America 250 NC, the state’s official initiative led by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrate the state’s role in the American Revolution.

Signature events like this “honor our state’s pivotal role in shaping the American story. From historic reenactments to cultural festivals, these events will inspire, educate, and unite communities across the state.”

N.C. Department of Natural & Cultural Resources Assistant Communications Director Michele Walker told Coastal Review that some event highlights include a ceremony with the state-recognized Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, a living history reenactment of the Provincial delegates debating independence, the annual Halifax Resolves Day Ceremony April 12 at the colonial courthouse site, and live music and a drone show at dark on King Street.

A full schedule is available on the event website.

As part of “Halifax Resolves Days,” the state will officially open Historic Halifax State Historic Site’s newly renovated visitor center at 25 St. David St., “unveiling a modern facility and a new exhibit detailing Halifax’s significant role in the state’s history,” according to the release.

Starting Friday and continuing through Oct. 6, visitors to the center will have the unique opportunity to view the Halifax Resolves document on loan from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

This is the first time the Resolves document – the only known copy to exist — is believed to be returning to Halifax since it was sent to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1776. The State Archives of North Carolina holds the journal copy of the Resolves that will be displayed in Halifax this fall, the state said.

“The opportunity to view this 250-year-old document in the place where it was created is a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience,” N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said in a statement. “The Halifax Resolves is one of the most important pieces of our state’s story — its date is emblazoned on our state flag — and we’re so excited for North Carolinians to see it in person.”

Halifax’s role in the American Revolution

The Roanoke River, which is one of the five largest rivers in the Southeast that flows from the foothills of the Appalachian into the Atlantic Ocean, begins in Montgomery County, Virginia, enters North Carolina in Warren County and flows through Halifax, Northampton, Bertie, Martin, Washington counties, before emptying into Batchelor’s Bay of Albemarle Sound, according to state documents.

English colonists from Virginia in the early 18^th century settled in the Roanoke River Valley and began farming the fertile land. In the following decades, a plantation system evolved that relied on slave labor to grow wheat, corn, peas, tobacco, and other staple crops for markets outside of the colony.

At the behest of the merchants, Halifax was founded in 1757 to use to their advantage the river’s access to the Albemarle Sound and its ports. Though a smallpox epidemic in 1758 stalled settlement, the town was settled in 1760 as the seat of Halifax County, which was designated Jan. 1, 1759. There were nearly 60 houses and public buildings at the time.

“This new town was at a major crossroads between North-South trading paths between the American colonies and West-East trading paths between the coast and the interior of the state. With this advantage, the small town quickly became a major trading center and river port for good moving between the backcountry, the plantations, and Virginia,” the state continues.

Not long after, the town became the backdrop for monumental political events during the American Revolution.

After the patriot victory Feb. 28, 1776, at Moores Creek Bridge in Pender County, the battle that effectively ended British rule in the colony, 83 delegates met in Halifax April 4, 1776, for the Fourth Provincial Congress of North Carolina.

Related: Rainy remembrance marks Revolution’s first decisive win

The delegates unanimously adopted on April 12, 1776, the document now called the “Halifax Resolves.”

“The Halifax Resolves were the first official action by any of the 13 colonies to call for independence from Great Britain. It is acknowledged as an important precursor to the Declaration of Independence,” Walker told Coastal Review.

The document gave William Hooper, Joseph Hewes and John Penn, the state’s representatives to the Second Continental Congress, authority to vote for independence. The Second Continental Congress was the governing body for the colonial governments that coordinated resistance to British rule during the American Revolution.

The Fourth Provincial Congress adjourned on May 15, 1776, after appointing a single Council of Safety to rule the entire colony. While the council was meeting in Halifax on July 22, 1776, the group learned that the Declaration of Independence had been signed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

“The council adopted a resolution declaring North Carolinians ‘absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown’,” according to the historic site’s webpage.

Cornelius Harnett, a resident and Revolutionary patriot, was selected for the North Carolina’s first public reading of the Declaration of Independence to the town of Halifax Aug. 1, 1776.

The Fifth Provincial Congress assembled in Halifax that November, and by Dec. 18, the delegation had approved the new state’s first constitution. As its last official act Dec. 23, 1776, the congress appointed Richard Caswell as the first governor of the State of North Carolina.

“This one small town of Halifax saw the adoption for national independence, the first state constitution and the election of the first governor after colonial rule. Clearly Halifax was a front runner for the independence movement in not only North Carolina, but the entire nation as well,” according to the site.

Walker said that this was the state’s big moment in Revolutionary history, and Historic Halifax State Historic Site preserves this important action for all North Carolinians.

Visitor center renovation

Division of State Historic Sites Public Information Officer Terra Schramm told Coastal Review that in 1976, during the nation’s Bicentennial, this visitor center first opened its doors to welcome guests to Historic Halifax State Historic Site, which was established in 1965.

The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $5.2 million to renovate the visitor center in 2022 and to complete the restoration of the William R. Davie House, a part of the historic site, in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary this year, she continued.

“The renovation of this building is now complete the interior has been thoroughly replaced, new climate control systems installed, the building foundation sealed, a clerestory added to light the lobby, and the conditioned interior space expanded from 4,900 square feet to just over 6,000 square feet,” Schramm said.

Of note, is a specially designed document display case that has been built to meet security and environmental control standards outlined by the National Archives and Records Administration.

“The case will be used to exhibit a rotation of significant historical documents, starting (appropriately) with the Halifax Resolves,” Schramm explained in her email response.

Clearscapes of Raleigh was hired to design and oversee the work, with Calvin Davinport Inc. of Rocky Mount serving as the general contractor. New historical exhibits for the building were designed by Design Dimensions of Raleigh, she said.

And, we’re live!

With the expected hatch date just around the corner, the public now has 24-hour access to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission’s live cam, with audio, for Barn Owlet Watch 2026.

Watch all the action inside a nest box that’s housing six barn owl eggs for a chance to welcome hatchlings into the world sometime April 8-15.

“The Barn Owl Live Cam is our newest conservation adventure,” Wildlife Resources Commission Education Development and Evaluation Supervisor Sydney Brown stated in a release. “What began as a dream quickly grew, thanks to our incredible internal partners, into a 24/7 window into the secret life of barn owls for North Carolinians who may never see these birds in their own backyards.”

The nesting pair closely guarding their eggs are believed to have previously used the nest box the agency installed in western North Carolina in 2011.

After the pair returned to the nest last December, the female laid the first of her six eggs March 11.

Commission Conservation Biologist Joe Tomcho estimates the first egg will hatch April 12, based on a normal 32-day incubation period, according to the release.

“Usually once the first egg hatches, the others start hatching at about an every-other-day timeframe,” Tomcho said. “Barn owls typically lay around four to five eggs. Six eggs is an indication these are an experienced pair. It’s a really exciting experience to watch them hatch, but then to also watch them hop around in the nest as they prepare for life outside the nest.”

The nest box has been used by barn owls six times in the past 16 years, possibly by the same nesting pair, according to the WRC.

Man-made nesting boxes allow biologist to study nesting behavior, chick development and the species’ seasonal patterns.

In some regions of the state, the barn owl population has declined as a result of habitat loss and some agricultural practices. Barn owls are in the the commission’s Wildlife Action Plan, a comprehensive planning tool the agency developed to help conserve and enhance the state’s full array of fish and wildlife species and their habitats.

Solar-powered live cameras were installed at the nest box in August of last year “and, so far, have operated steadily since December with minimal interruptions,” the release states.

This is the commission’s first live camera experience, but officials hope to offer more in the future.

“We’re excited to keep expanding this project with fun educational content, conservation updates and plenty of owl magic,” Brown said in the release. “And we assure the public that owls are completely wild. We do not intervene or interfere with their natural behaviors or nesting process.”

Contact the commission’s wild observer program for more information about barn owls and nest boxes.

Additional information about barn owls is available on the agency’s website.

Join the debut of Earth & Arts OBX, a celebration of Earth Day and the official opening of Nags Head’s new soundside boardwalk on April 22.

The event, hosted by the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, is scheduled to kick off with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4 p.m. at the Soundside Event Site, 6800 S. Croatan Highway.

There will be live music by Brooke & Nick and HotSauce, a curated marketplace featuring environmentally conscious artists and makers, hands-on children’s activities, and opportunities to interact with local nonprofits that focus on conservation and sustainability.

“We’re excited to share this incredible new gathering spot with the community,” Outer Banks Visitors Bureau Executive Director Lee Nettles stated in a release. “This event is an opportunity to experience the new Soundside Boardwalk while connecting with the people and organizations dedicated to preserving the character and environment of this special place for generations to come. The views from the boardwalk are spectacular and give us all yet another way to experience the natural beauty of the Outer Banks.”

The event will wrap up at sunset.

North Carolina’s Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool now includes enhanced flood mapping and risk information for five river basins in Eastern North Carolina.

The online tool designed to help local governments, agencies and nongovernmental partners develop, evaluate and prioritize resilience actions has been updated with new nonregulatory or “advisory” flood maps for the Cape Fear, Lumber, Neuse, Tar-Pamlico, and White Oak river basins.

The need for new maps and modeling efforts were identified in the draft blueprint, which was created by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality at the direction of the General Assembly.

The updates were made through extensive coordination with local leaders, other state agencies, nongovernmental organizations, university researchers and evaluating programs in other states like Texas and Louisiana for guidance, according to an NCDEQ release.

NCDEQ Secretary Reid Wilson, in the release, stated that research from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill found that more than 90,000 buildings in Eastern North Carolina flooded at least once from 1996 until 2020, and 43% of those buildings were outside the mapped Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain. “The General Assembly’s investment in updated modeling and mapping means that North Carolinians in five river basins now have a more accurate picture of their actual flooding risk, Wilson said.”   

The improved mapping was done in partnership with the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, one overseen by the North Carolina Emergency Management.

“NC Emergency Management is proud to provide flood mapping support to DEQ which will produce additional flood mapping products to build resilient communities across the state,” N.C. Emergency Management Director Will Ray stated. “As part of a multi-year advisory flood data web application development project, which began in 2022, the NCEM Floodplain Management Program was able to provide data and resources to assist in this project, once again showing the whole-of-community approach to disaster preparedness In North Carolina.” 

The mapping includes numerical models that simulate surface runoff and routing on a landscape, and are available for previously unmapped or undermapped basins too small to be included on regulatory maps and extend beyond what is normally included in traditional regulatory floodplain mapping.

The maps also include areas that flood despite being many miles from the nearest stream and allow communities to explore their future risk associated with projected growth patterns and the changing climate fueling more frequent and severe storms and sea level rise.

“These new maps, available through our Flood Resiliency Blueprint Tool, mean that Eastern North Carolinians can make more informed decisions and better investments to build their resilience in the face of more frequent and severe flooding,” Flood Resiliency Blueprint Manager Stuart Brown said in a release.

River Basin Action Strategies for the five river basins are expected to be available this summer, and new maps for the French Broad River Basin available this fall, according to DEQ.

Notorious for its bloated and rigid regulatory structure, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works program is looking to slim down and speed up, all while redirecting resources and prioritizing programs.

As detailed in 12 memorandums released in March, the agency’s new initiative, “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork,” seeks “to deliver critical projects and programs for the nation more efficiently, sooner, and at less cost than the current ways of doing business,” Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam R. Telle stated in a February press release.

“This will eliminate bureaucratic delays and provide fast, clear decisions needed to save lives and empower our economy,” he added.

According to the release, the plan’s 27 initiatives are grouped under five categories: maximizing ability to deliver national infrastructure, cutting red tape, and focusing on efficiency, transparency and accountability and prioritization. The plan would not affect the Corps’ execution of its emergency response support to natural and human-made disasters.

Even by federal government standards, the Corps’ Civil Works is massive, managing about $259 billion in water resource assets and employing an estimated 37,000 full-time-equivalent employees, 98% of whom are civilians, according to a 2025 congressional report.

Through the initiatives, there are assurances that all projects are reviewed for the best path forward, said Eugene Pawlik with the Corps’ public affairs in an email, responding to questions from Coastal Review. “(The Corps) will be focused on strategically allocating available resources to prioritize the most pressing infrastructure needs across the country.”

The slow pace of the permit approval process will be addressed with new technology and geospatial tools that will expedite jurisdictional and permitting decision-making as well as reduce subjectivity in identification and elimination of Clean Water Act areas, Pawlik said.

Additional permitting goals, he wrote, include reissue and expand the existing Nationwide Permit program, eliminate barriers that prevent establishment of new mitigation banks, leverage private capital to modernize and expand generating capacity at Corps facilities, provide long-term leases with rights to additional revenues to entities willing to pay for capital improvements, and reform how the Corps conducts Section 408 reviews and engineering oversight.

The Section 408 program allows people or entities to make changes to a civil works project following reviews that are to verify that the changes do not have negative effects on the public interest or the project itself.

No additional funds nor dedicated budget item is being requested to implement the program.

“We believe the transformation initiatives will be a more effective use of annual appropriations,” Pawlik said.

But a closer look at just two interconnected and increasingly important tasks that the Corps is charged with in North Carolina and numerous other states — that is, dredging clogged inlets and nourishing eroding beaches by pumping in sand — may seem logical and sensible. But it’s not that simple.

With both activities being done more frequently, while sand supplies are becoming more sparse, the Corps is more often being asked to put the dredged sand from navigation channels on the beach. And more often, and to the enormous frustration of the permit applicant, it’s not permitted.

“In the Wilmington District, maintenance dredging often serves a dual purpose through the Beneficial Use of Dredged Material,” the Corps press release said, referring to a program created under the Water Resources Development Act of 2016. “The district uses beach-quality sand removed from navigation channels and inlets to provide for North Carolina’s coastal communities.”

On the Outer Banks, for instance, dredged material from Oregon Inlet in past years had been pumped onto an adjacent beach on the north end of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.

“Maintenance dredging is about more than just keeping the channels clear and ships moving; in North Carolina, it’s also a critical tool for coastal resiliency,” said Col. Brad A. Morgan, commander of the Corps’ Wilmington District. “By placing dredged sand back onto our beaches, we aren’t just maintaining a channel—we are protecting coastal infrastructure, supporting the local tourism economy, and restoring vital habitats.”

But the state Division of Environmental Quality has to permit sediment placed on state beaches, and it requires that sand to meet standards. On federal lands, such as the Pea Island refuge and Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the U.S. Department of Interior also must permit the sand placement. Even when sand is removed from a nearby location, it’s not necessarily transferable to the beach where it’s needed.  Dredged sand may be the wrong color or size, or testing has revealed pollutants or toxins. It might be mucky and unsuitable for bird habitat. It might be too fine for the targeted location, meaning it would soon blow away. Or as happened in 2015 at North Topsail Beach, it could be too rocky.

Still, the Corps would continue to ensure that dredged material used as beach fill meets required standards, Pawlik said.

“The Flood and Coastal Storm Risk Reduction programs reduce risk for millions of Americans and billions of dollars of infrastructure,” he wrote. “(The initiative) will ensure USACE pursues cost efficiency through better use and scheduling of dredging assets nationally and increased use of dredged materials for beneficial use.”

Pawlik said that the Corps’ district commanders would review all projects and be “key players” in forward motion of projects and allocation of resources “to prioritize the most pressing infrastructure needs across the country.”

Each of the 12 memorandums provides details of different aspects of implementation of the “Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” program, addressing what many people have frequently noted about the agency.

As one excerpt from the memo, “Prioritization of Efforts Within the Army Civil Works Program” reveals, there’s room for improvement: “In recent years, the Corps has prioritized every effort all at once, which of course means there are no priorities and that we can mask lack of delivery with progress on paper.”

Coastal Review will not publish Friday as our offices will be closed in observance of Good Friday.

Presales for commercial and for-hire fishing licenses and permits for the new license year will begin April 15.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries is encouraging fishers to schedule appointments to obtain licenses and permits in April and May, when presales traffic is typically lighter.

Walk-in only service will be available in June.

Under new rules this year, all license sales offices will stop taking customers at 4 p.m. during the last two weeks of June and the first week of July. Service may be slower at license offices during lunch between 12- p.m., according to a division release.

The new license years starts July 1.

Applicants are asked to bring any one of the following current/valid photo identifications:

• State Issued Driver’s License.
• State Issued Identification Card (issued by Department of Motor Vehicles).
• Military ID.
• Passport.
• Resident Alien Card (green card).
• Individuals applying for another license under the authority of Power of Attorney must submit a photocopy of the power of attorney and a current/valid photo ID.

Current/valid state vessel registration or U.S. Coast Guard vessel documentation is also required. Anyone applying for a transfer of ownership with pending U.S. Coast Guard vessel documentation may bring a notarized bill of sale.

Those applying as a business are required to provide the following documents to renew:

• A copy of the original business documents from the Secretary of State in which the business was created.
• A copy of the annual report from the Secretary of State in which the business was created.
• A copy of the written agreement partnership.
• A copy of the assumed name statement from the register of deeds in the county in which the business was created.

Currituck County’s America 250 NC Task Force has launched a yearlong challenge to visit 10 of North Carolina’s lighthouses as part of the country’s celebration of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Called the NC Lighthouse Challenge, participants must visit the 10 sites and submit their photos with the lighthouse visible to nc.lighthouse.visit@gmail.com by the Dec. 31 deadline. Those who complete the challenge will be awarded a personalized certificate from Currituck County upon completion, and earn a free lighthouse climb.

Organizers noted that Hatteras, Lookout, Ocracoke, and Bodie are not offering the free lighthouse climb because of either long-term maintenance or National Park Service rules.

Register at https://www.eventcreate.com/e/nc-lighthouse-visit to receive the official set of rules.

“Long before modern navigation systems, lighthouse keepers and members of the U.S. Life-Saving Service stood watch along North Carolina’s treacherous coastline. Their dedication—often in isolation and through severe weather—helped guide ships safely and protect countless lives,” organizers said in a release.

“These early services were eventually unified under the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939, continuing a legacy of vigilance and service that remains today. The NC Lighthouse Challenge honors that legacy, inviting participants to walk in the footsteps of those who helped ‘light the way’ for a growing nation,” they continued.

The 10 historic sites include the following:

• Old Baldy on Bald Head Island, built 1817.
• Ocracoke Lighthouse, 1823.
• Cape Lookout Lighthouse, 1859.
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, 1870.
• Bodie Island Lighthouse, 1872, on Cape Hatteras National Seashore.
• Currituck Beach Lighthouse, 1875.
• Oak Island Lighthouse, 1958.
• Roanoke River Lighthouse, 1886, in Edenton.
• Roanoke River Lighthouse 1867 replica in Plymouth.
• Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse 1877 replica in Manteo.

Tony Cerri, a member of the county’s celebration task force, said that at its core, the challenge is about more than visiting beautiful places.

“It’s about recognizing the vital role North Carolina’s lighthouses — and the people who served in them — played in guiding commerce, protecting lives, and supporting the growth of our nation,” Cerri added in the release.

Currituck County’s America 250 NC Task Force is one of the county committees that plan and organize events, projects, and initiatives at the county level as part of America 250 NC. The state’s official commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary is a program of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Featured Image

An American alligator sunning at North River Wetlands Preserve in Carteret County slides in for a dip recently as March temperatures rose. The 6,000-acre preserve is the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s project to return farmland back to its original state and to use the wetlands to naturally treat polluted runoff. The Coastal Federation publishes Coastal Review. Photo: Doug Waters

Editor’s note: Coastal Review regularly features the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who writes about the history, culture and politics of the North Carolina coast. More of his work can be found on his website.

Earlier today, March 20, I gave a lecture at the annual Whales and Whaling Symposium in Beaufort. It is a special event, and one that I treasure.

Sponsored by the Bonehenge Whaling Center, which is part of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the symposium invites scientists, historians, and the public to come together and share their knowledge of whales and the history of whaling on the North Carolina coast and throughout the Atlantic.

My lecture was titled “Nye’s Clock Oil and the Bottlenose Dolphin Fishery at Hatteras Island.”

The photograph above was one of the illustrations that I used in my lecture. It shows one of the crews that was hunting bottlenose dolphins on Hatteras Island in the winter of 1907 to 1908.

This crew worked for the William F. Nye Co., a New Bedford, Massachusetts, firm that operated a bottlenose dolphin fishery on Hatteras Island between 1907 and 1928.

Arising in New Bedford when it was the whale oil capital of the world, the William F. Nye Co. was the country’s largest maker of highly specialized whale and dolphin oils uniquely suited for lubricating clocks, watches, chronometers, scientific instruments, and other delicate machinery.

The company did not obtain those oils from whale blubber, but from two anatomical structures only found in the heads of bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, belugas and other small-toothed whales.

Specifically, the William F. Nye Co.’s “oilers” extracted those oils from the fatty tissues in the animals’ lower jawbones and from an organ in their foreheads that is called the “melon.” 

Both play central roles in the echolocation ability of those whales and dolphins. That is, they are key to the way that they navigate, find prey and generally “see” underwater by emitting sound waves and interpreting their echos when they reflect off objects around them.

On Hatteras Island, the company’s workers butchered the dolphins on the beach. They then did a small degree of refinement at a facility on Durant’s Island, a knoll on the sound side of the island.

They then shipped the oil to the company’s factory in New Bedford for far more extensive refining.

Between the American Civil War, which spanned from 1861 to 1865, and 1900, the William F. Nye Co. acquired the largest part of its supply of those oils from pilot whale strandings on Cape Cod and Long Island.

In many of those cases, local fishermen herded the whales into shallow waters where they were trapped and grounded.

To establish a more stable supply of those oils, William F. Nye’s son Joseph came south and established the bottlenose dolphin fishery on Hatteras Island in 1907. He recruited local fishermen and seafarers, many of whom had been involved in earlier bottlenose fisheries on Hatteras.

Hatteras Island was the site of the oldest and longest running bottlenose dolphin fishery in North America.

At the National Museum of Natural History’s Paleobiology Archive, I found records indicating that there had been a commercial bottlenose dolphin fishery on Hatteras Island on and off since at least 1851.

To oversee the Hatteras fishery, Joseph Nye employed a third-generation Hatteras oiler, William C. Rollinson.

Rollinson had been involved in hunting bottlenose dolphins most of his life, as had his father and grandfather before him.

His father, John W. Rollinson, had been superintendent of a bottlenose dolphin fishery at Hatteras that had been operated by a company based in Wilmington, Delaware, in the 1880s and 1890s.

Even further back in time, his grandfather had been captain of a bottlenose dolphin crew at Hatteras Island before the Civil War.

It was hard, dirty work. When I was younger, and some of the men were still alive, they described it as a very grim business, the kind of job that one only did if there was no other way to make a living. But that was often the case on Hatteras Island in those days.

The William F. Nye Co.’s bottlenose dolphin fishery remained on Hatteras Island until 1928 or 1929.

I do not want to give the whole story away here, but if you want to learn more, the North Carolina Maritime Museum has already posted my lecture on its YouTube channel.

The whole symposium was wonderful. The amazing Vicki Szabo, who teaches at Western Carolina University, gave a fascinating presentation on the extensive mythology and scientific knowledge of whales in Medieval Iceland and other parts off the North Atlantic.

Keith Rittmaster, the founder and driving force behind the museum’s Bonehenge Whaling Center, gave an extremely informative overview of the 35 species of cetaceans that have been documented on the North Carolina coast.

Keith also discussed the conservation challenges ahead for whales and dolphins on our coast, and he charted some the exciting, day in and day out work that is happening at the Bonehenge Whaling Center, also in Beaufort.

Another exciting presentation was by marine biologist Tommy Tucker of the Coastal Studies Center on Cape Cod. With a contagious passion, they are devoted to understanding and raising public awareness of the critically endangered Rice’s whale, which is only found in the Gulf of Mexico.

Their presentation was brilliant. In addition to studying Rice’s whales, Tommy also uses arts and crafts to nurture interest in them, including this tapestry in which each depiction of a Rice’s whale represents one of the 51 Rice’s whales currently known to be surviving in the Gulf of Mexico.

All of these presentations are now available on the museum’s YouTube channel. I don’t know about mine, but the presentations by Vicki, Keith, and Tommy are not to be missed!

I found the whole day inspiring. It was so encouraging to be at a museum where the staff are so dedicated to telling the story of North Carolina’s coastal history and do so in such a professional way.

The museum’s auditorium was full of people from many walks of life, including scientists, historians, students, fishermen and women, and all sorts of other lovers of whales and the sea.

All were coming together to discover more about these glorious creatures of the sea and what we might do to make sure that they are still here to inspire and enthrall our children and grandchildren.

It was a joy to be part of it.

* * *

The Bonehenge Whale Center was built by volunteers dedicated to marine conservation, education, and research on the whales, dolphins, and porpoises of the North Carolina coast. You can learn more about the Center’s remarkable work and how you might contribute to it here.

North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Ferry Division is expanding the schedules of four ferry routes to accommodate the increase in spring traffic.

As of Tuesday, the Hatteras-Ocracoke route increased daily departures from 36 to 52, and the Swan Quarter-Ocracoke and Cedar Island-Ocracoke schedules both increased from four to six daily departures.

The Southport-Fort Fisher route moved to its spring schedule, increasing daily departures on weekdays only from 28 to 32, but the weekend schedule will remain unchanged.

The Cherry Branch-Minnesott Beach, Bayview-Aurora and Currituck-Knotts Island routes will all remain on their year-round schedules.

Spring ferry schedules as of Tuesday, March 31, were the following:

Hatteras-Ocracoke

• From Hatteras: 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 7 a.m., 8 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9 a.m., 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m., 11 p.m., and midnight.
• From Ocracoke: 4:30 a.m., 6:30 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 10 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., noon, 12:30 p.m., 1 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 6 p.m., 6:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 9 p.m., 9:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m., and midnight.

Cedar Island-Ocracoke

• From Cedar Island: 7:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 4:30 p.m.
• From Ocracoke: 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m.

Swan Quarter-Ocracoke

• From Swan Quarter: 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m.
• From Ocracoke: 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m.

Southport-Fort Fisher weekdays

• From Southport: 5:30 a.m., 7 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 10 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1 p.m., 1:45 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:15 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 6:15 p.m.
• From Fort Fisher: 6:15 a.m., 7:45 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9:15 a.m., 10 a.m., 10:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:15 p.m., 1 p.m., 1:45 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:15 p.m., 4 p.m., 4:45 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7 p.m.

The full 2026 schedule is available for download. For real time text or email notifications on schedule adjustments and other ferry information, sign up for the Ferry Information Notification System at www.ncdot.gov/fins​.

Elizabeth City State University will present in April a special concert honoring two jazz greats.

The John Coltrane/Miles Davis Centennial Celebration is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 14 at the Floyd L. Robinson Auditorium inside the Mickey L. Burnim Fine Arts Center. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Scheduled to perform are the university’s Jazz Ensemble with guest artists Dr. Steven Cunningham, Cedric Easton, Dennis Figgs, Christian Howes, Stephanie Sanders, Shannah Boone and Jeremy Ward, and a special performance by the Arts of the Albemarle River City Strings.

“Join ECSU for a night when history, artistry, and community come together to celebrate the enduring legacy of jazz and the icons who defined it,” organizers said.

The program is part of Elizabeth City State’s Community Connections performance and lecture series, and is sponsored and supported through a combination of student fees and a private donation from Phyllis Bosomworth, a former member of the university’s Board of Trustees.  

While there is no charge to attend, those interested are encouraged to register in advance through www.ecsu.edu/community-connections. For additional information, contact ecsucommunityconnections@ecsu.edu.  

Millions will be awarded to broadband providers across rural North Carolina to connect homes, businesses, and community anchor institutions to high-speed internet access.

The governor’s office announced last week that $26 million will go to bring 5,161 rural homes, businesses and community anchor institutions in 66 counties access to high-speed internet infrastructure by the end of the year through the Stop-Gap Solutions program.

A part of the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Division of Broadband and Digital Opportunity, the program administers funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to coverage gaps in internet access. This is done by targeting broadband line extensions to reach individuals and small pockets of homes and businesses in hard-to-reach areas.

“These broadband projects will ensure more families can soon access telehealth, students can complete their homework, businesses can compete in larger markets, and communities can thrive,” Gov. Josh Stein said in the release. “I am committed to improving broadband access across the state and making sure no community is left behind.”

On the coast, FOCUS Broadband, also known as Atlantic Telephone Membership Cooperative, has been selected to receive $1.65 million to connect 145 locations in Duplin and Pender counties.

Connect Holding II, LLC, doing business as Brightspeed, will be awarded $1.68 million to connect 2,439 locations in Beaufort, Camden, Carteret, Craven, Currituck, Hertford, Hyde, Onslow, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Tyrrell and Washington counties on the coast. Other counties to benefit from this award are Alamance, Bladen, Caldwell, Caswell, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Edgecombe, Franklin, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Jones, Martin, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, Northampton, Orange, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Rockingham, Sampson, Stokes, Surry, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wayne and Wilson counties.

HarvestBeam Inc., a broadband provider for rural North Carolina, will receive $413,260 for 95 locations in Craven and Pitt counties.

Roanoke Connect Holdings, operating as Fybe internet provider, will be awarded $2.4 million to connect 826 locations in Bertie, Chowan, Gates, Granville, Halifax, Hertford, Martin, and Northampton counties. 

Wilkes & RiverStreet Networks has been selected to receive $959,828 to connect 306 locations in Camden, Currituck, Stokes and Wilkes counties.

Other providers to be awarded serve customers in Alexander, Bladen, Buncombe, Durham, Henderson, Hoke, Iredell, Forsyth, Jackson, Macon, Orange, Robeson, Rowan, Sampson, Scotland, Swain, Transylvania and Yadkin counites.

“High-speed internet access is the foundation for health care delivery, public safety operations, workforce development, and economic growth in our state,” Teena Piccione, NCDIT secretary and state chief information officer, said. “This program allows us to move with urgency and precision to connect more North Carolinians.”

Businesses now can apply for federal funds to build and operate electric vehicle charging stations along state interstates and major highways.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation announced Friday that requests for proposals will close at midnight May 11 for the second round of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program, which will provide money to help build and operate 16 EV charging stations along the state’s alternative fuel corridors.

Businesses interested in applying should visit NCDOT’s NEVI Program website to view the request for proposal documents, applications, a geographic information system- or GIS-based map with the proposed locations for the EV charging stations, and other resources.

This latest batch of EV chargers will add to the chargers being constructed along interstates and highways by six firms already under contract.

North Carolina received $109 million in NEVI funding to build out EV infrastructure along a network of approved interstates and highway corridors and in communities.

The federally subsidized program is meant to supplement the state’s existing DC fast charging ports. All of the charging stations funded through the program will be privately owned and operated.

NCDOT expects it will take another three years to build out the remaining charging infrastructure on the alternative fuel corridors such as Interstate 40, I-77 and U.S. 17.

Once these charging stations are built, the state will transition to Phase 2 of the EV buildout that will focus on Level 2 chargers that take between 4 and 8 hours to charge a vehicle, and DC fast chargers.

NEVI funds are to be used to reimburse businesses for project costs, including procurement, installation and operation of the EV charging stations.

You might not have noticed, but the pine trees seem to have been in overdrive the last few years, throwing out pollen like they’re dishing out revenge for every one of their brethren that’s been cut down. Ever.

We all know pollen season is coming when the loblolly pines (Pinus taeda) turn vibrantly green, standing out like the Jolly Green Giant outlined against a cerulean sky. Then they get the yellow candles on the ends of their branches, which some people say look like crosses. Personally, I think they look more like a vampire-warding motion.

“Back! Back,” I say! “Get thee gone, thou foul spawn of Satan!”

One day, you’ll be standing at your kitchen window, washing dishes and minding your own business, enjoying seeing things beginning to green up. Maybe a few early flowers have popped here and there, the cheery yellow of daffodils, or the pinks and purples and blues of hyacinths. A splash of purple where some grape hyacinths are poking their stack of miniature-cannonball-looking, pyramidal heads out. A bit of fragrant jasmine draped over the myrkle bushes.

Then comes the squint and head tilt. “Wow. It’s really hazy out today!” Haze isn’t that unusual around here. Maybe it’s a fog bank moving in off the ocean. Again, not that unusual.

Another squint, and a head tilt in the other direction. A grimace.

“Maybe my windows are just really, really dirty.”

Again, nothing unusual. The way the never-ending wind blows around here, dust is almost as much a factor as during the Dust Bowl. Add in some heavy dews and a fuzz of mildew … and how does that stuff stick to something as slick and impenetrable as glass?

A gust of wind, another cloud of sulfur yellow, and you realize … it’s not haze. It’s not dust. It’s not even merely windows severely in need of some Windex and elbow grease. Nope, this year’s Pollen-palooza has descended.

Like marauding army ants — those in the jungle that swarm over everything in their path, leaving nothing but destruction and desolation in their wake — the pollen drifts and blows.

Your newly applied windshield tint wouldn’t pass inspection, not even if you slipped the mechanic a hefty tip and paid the fine. Activating the windshield-washer fluid and the windshield wipers results in yellow sludge drooling down the sides of your windshield like somebody christened your car with a bottle of Karo syrup.

Whatever color vehicle you have, it’s either become snot green or looks like the primer gray and rust have been awaiting paint so long they’ve faded to a noncolor.

Congratulations on your spring decorating skills! Your porch, sidewalk, and steps have been painted yellow. Walking across the yard means your shoes and the cuffs of your jeans match the trim on your porch rail. Dust puffs with every step, like videos of men walking on the moon. The airborne menace sticks to your face worse than pancake makeup on a rodeo clown.

Better hope you have stock in Kleenex and Benadryl, because you’re fixing to need copious quantities of both! Sniffles and sneezes and wheezes, oh my! And Visine. Can’t forget the red, itchy eyes.

Pollen is necessary. We all know that. Without it, things can’t get pollenated. Although do we really need any more pine trees? Flowers and vegetables get pollenated without all the over-the-top, absolutely outrageous hoopla associated with pines. We’ve all seen cute little bee’s knees all decked out in puffy orange pantaloons as they visit various flowers. The bees and the flowers both seem well satisfied, so what gives?

Why do pines go crazy? Other trees need to be pollenated as well! It’s discrimination, I tell ya! Pine pollen particles are larger than those of hardwoods and theoretically don’t affect allergy sufferers as much as hardwoods. More visibility means pines get blamed. Yeah, right! Sure!

Pine trees are pollenated by the wind, as if we humans weren’t already aware. All you have to do is watch the dense clouds of pollen blowing across fields and roads, obscuring the sky like a haboob of epic proportions. Because they are wind pollenated instead of being pollenated by insects, pines rely on quantity and chance. Less pollen means fewer pines, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless you’re a pine tree.

Short winters and warmer weather earlier in the spring make pollen season worse, as does less rainfall. So we’ve had a short winter and an early spring combined with very little rain this year, therefore … pollen-palooza.

But wait! Maybe we should be bottling this stuff instead of battling it.

Pine pollen is supposedly a super food, nutrient-dense and high in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Used in China for thousands of years for whole-body wellness and to boost energy levels (among many other things) pine pollen can be consumed in several different forms, powders, capsules and tinctures.

Pass. Hard pass.

If pine pollen was really that good for humans then everyone in eastern North Carolina should be able to cancel their health insurance straightaway. Maybe China has different pines than we do. Who knows?

Native to the Southeastern coastal plains and once the dominant species of pine, longleaf pines (Pinus palustris) made many North Carolina naval suppliers wealthy. Consisting of exports like whole tree trunks for masts and various other much-needed products for wooden ships such as pitch, rosin, turpentine and lumber for shipbuilding, harvesting the slow-growing, fire-resistant trees was a booming operation. Because of this, it’s not unusual to find the remains of tar kilns, or tarkle beds, throughout eastern North Carolina.

The pine is also the state tree, and the Order of the Longleaf Pine is the highest awarded civilian honor. Some famous recipients include Maya Angelou, Billy Graham, Charlie Daniels, and Dale Earnhardt.

Meanwhile, for those of us affected by pollen-palooza , it seems there’s little we can do except grin and bear it. Wash our cars. Spray the porch and the steps off.

Rinse and repeat.

Cheer up! Pollen season can’t last forever.

The North Carolina Forest Service last Saturday issued a statewide ban on all open burning and canceled all burning permits until further notice as dry conditions persist across the state.

No new permits will be issued until the ban, which went into effect at 6 p.m. on March 28, is lifted.

Due to increased wildfire risk, the N.C. Forest Service has issued a ban on all open burning and has canceled all burning permits statewide effective 6 p.m. Saturday, March 28 until further notice.  

“With drought severity across the state, forecast fire weather and the potential for limited rainfall, it is critical to reduce the number of new fire starts,” N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler stated in a release. “Vegetative fuels will dry rapidly, and with the amount of fuel loading in the mountains and drought impacts statewide, a burn ban for all 100 counties is necessary to reduce the number of wildfires across our landscape. Please follow this burn ban to help reduce the risk for everyone.”

The ban does not apply to fires started within 100 feet of an occupied dwelling, but check with your local fire marshal to make sure a local burn ban has not been issued on fires within 100 feet.

Violators of the ban face a $100 fine plus $183 court costs. Anyone found to be responsible for setting a fire may be liable for costs associated with extinguishing that fire.

Forest Service officials will continue to monitor conditions. If you have specific questions, you may contact your N.C. Forest Service county ranger or county fire marshal’s office.  

Jockey’s Ridge State Park will be under new leadership, North Carolina State Parks announced last week.

Steve Rogers, most recently the superintendent of Merchants Millpond State Park in Gates County, has been selected to serve as the superintendent for the Dare County destination featuring the tallest living sand dune system on the Atlantic Coast. He succeeds longtime Jockey’s Ridge superintendent, Joy Cook, who retired in January.

Rogers said he is committed to preserving natural resources, enhancing visitor experiences, and fostering community partnerships at the park, according to the release.

Rogers began his parks career with the Wake County Parks, Recreation and Open Space Division as a seasonal employee in 1998 and was hired full time in maintenance the following year. He acted as herd manager for the nonprofit organization Corolla Wild Horse Fund from 2006 to 2009 before becoming a ranger for Pettigrew State Park in Creswell. There he was promoted to superintendent in 2015. He has served as superintendent of Merchants Millpond State Park since 2017.

“Steve’s leadership, experience and commitment to park stewardship have made a lasting impact at every park he has served,” State Parks Director Brian Strong said. “We are confident he will continue that legacy at Jockey’s Ridge, ensuring this iconic landscape is protected and enjoyed for generations to come.”

Park superintendents manage operations and administration at a park and have wide-ranging responsibilities that include staffing, training, law enforcement, planning, resource management, interpretation and education, and visitor services.

The North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, a part of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, features 35 state parks, 25 state natural areas, four state recreation areas, seven state lakes, four Natural and Scenic Rivers, and 15 state trails, spanning over 264,000 acres of iconic landscapes and welcoming 18 million visitors annually, state officials said.

The Friends of the North Carolina Maritime Museum Beaufort is set to offer a two-week travel opportunity next year to see the birds, wildlife and natural history of Finland.

The nonprofit friends group is partnering with EcoQuest Travel for the trip, “The Birds & Mammals of Finland — Brown Bears, Wolverines and Boreal Birds,” May 16-29, 2027, with an optional six-day, post-trip extension to the Varanger Peninsula in the Norwegian Arctic.

“Finland is an extraordinary country, a throwback to an older wilder Europe,” the friends group said in a press release. “It is a land of great evergreen forests, rugged coastlines, shimmering lakes and stunning wildlife.”

The group said Finland is arguably the best country in Europe to observe brown bears and probably the best place in the world to see the enigmatic wolverine.

“We will concentrate our efforts on these two species, but we are traveling to Finland in the spring which will find us there at the best time to see owls, lekking grouse species and migrating shorebirds,” according to the release.

The tour will arrive in Finland’s capital of Helsinki and travel north to Savonlinna to search for the rare Saimaa ringed seal before heading farther north to the Koli, “our jumping off point for two very remote areas where we will use specially designed hides to look for Brown Bears and Wolverines,” according to the release. “Wolves occasionally show up at both hides and even the mysterious Eurasian Lynx sometimes makes a brief appearance. Being able to observe and photograph these iconic mammals of the north will be a rare and special privilege.”

From there, the group will travel west to Oulu and the Baltic Sea in search of owls, grouse, woodpeckers, songbirds, shorebirds and waterfowl.

Then for the final leg, it’s northeast to Kuusamo in the boreal forest to search for “specialty birds” such as the  willow ptarmigan, black grouse, capercaillie and boreal songbirds.

Those who do not depart for home head on to Arctic Norway to explore two new habitats with chances to see such iconic Arctic species as willow ptarmigan, bluethroat, Eurasian dotterel and long-tailed jaeger on the tundra; and king and Steller’s eiders, yellow-billed loon, Lapland longspur, snow bunting, gyrfalcon and huge colonies of alcids, or auks, on the Arctic Ocean.

For more information, contact JoAnne Powell at joannepowell1208@gmail.com.

Ocean Conservancy has launched an online calculator that lets users see how many seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals they’ve helped by picking up plastics from the environment.

Whether you’re a party of one scooping up plastic trash as you stroll on an ocean beach, or part of an organized group cleanup effort along a roadside, the conservancy’s new wildlife impact calculator lets you plug in different types and amounts of plastics you’ve kept from reaching our oceans and seas.

“Then the calculator uses our science to output the amount of animals that you helped protect had they eaten this plastic,” said Ocean Conservancy Ocean Plastics Research Manager Dr. Erin Murphy.

The science to which Murphy refers is a study conducted by researchers with the nonprofit environmental advocacy group who reviewed the results of more than 10,000 necropsies of animals recorded to have died by ingesting plastics.

The peer-reviewed study published last November focused on dozens of species of seabirds, all seven species of sea turtles, and 31 species of marine mammals from across the globe.

“From these 10,000 animals from around the world, we found that nearly half of sea turtles had plastic in their gut, a third of seabirds, and 12% of marine mammals,” Murphy said. “And then we found that these actual lethal thresholds for these animals were much smaller than we expected.”

For example, seabirds like Atlantic puffins that consumed less than three sugar cubes’ worth of plastics were found to have a 90% mortality rate.

Loggerhead sea turtles experience, on average, that same rate of death if they ingest just over two baseballs’ worth of plastics. For every one in two harbor porpoises, the threshold is about a soccer ball’s worth, or 60 inches, of plastics.

Scientists found that soft plastics like grocery bags and fishing debris are especially hazardous for marine mammals. In fact, 28 pieces of plastic smaller than the size of a tennis ball is enough to kill a sperm whale.

Rubber and hard plastics were found to be the largest threat for seabirds. Both soft and hard plastics are of particular harm to sea turtles.

Some of the animals autopsied and included in the study were found to have entire garbage bags in their digestive systems. These bags block food from being able to move through an animal’s intestinal tract, leading to starvation and death.

An albatross was found to have died from eating an entire disposable water bottle.

Larger animals, like sperm whales and manatees, had died from eating numerous fishing lures, ice cream wrappers and, in one case, a fully intact three-gallon bucket, Murphy said, adding, “all sorts of things that we frequently find in our beach cleanup.”

Since 1986, more than 400 million pounds of trash has been picked up from beaches and waterways across the world through Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup.

The wildlife impact calculator aligns with the organization’s Clean Swell mobile app, which allows users to record each item of trash collected off a beach, in a park or neighborhood.

Information recorded through Clean Swell is plugged into an international database shared with scientists and policymakers around the world. The app allows the user to track the amount of trash that person has collected and share cleanup results with friends on social media.

Murphy said the organization hopes to eventually streamline its wildlife impact calculator with the Clean Swell app.

“We do encourage people to use (the calculator) as a learning tool so even if they’re not able to go out and participate in a cleanup that day, they can absolutely put in numbers and try to understand the relationship between what’s on the beach and how that could affect marine wildlife,” she said.

More than 11 million metric tons (8 million tons) of plastics enter the ocean each year, according to the conservancy.

“Ocean Conservancy does a lot of advocacy work to reduce the amount of plastic we produce and to improve waste management,” Murphy said. “But the third prong in this global effort to address plastic pollution is really cleanups, and every single person going out on the beach and picking up what they see does make a difference in help protecting our ocean animals.”

Commercial and recreational fishermen, scientists, nongovernmental organization representatives and others with an expertise in southern flounder have an opportunity to guide the latest amendment to the state management plan for the fishery.

Applications are due by April 10 to volunteer to serve on the Southern Flounder Fishery Management Plan Amendment 5 Advisory Committee.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries will work with the advisory committee to develop the amendment intended to address the Marine Fisheries Commission’s request to expand recreational access to the flounder fishery while continuing to rebuild the southern flounder stock, as well as issues in the commercial fishery.

Interested individuals must attend and actively participate in the three-day workshop scheduled for June 2 to June 4 at Carteret Community College in Morehead City. Participation includes reviewing documents to provide input to the Division for consideration to refine management options in draft Amendment 5.

An in-person, workshop-style meeting will be held for committee members and division staff to collaborate on a potential southern flounder management measures in a more effective and less formal setting than traditional meetings.

To be qualified to serve on the committee, applicants must not have had a significant fisheries violation within the past three years.

Advisers who complete the necessary paperwork will be reimbursed for travel and other expenses incurred in relation to their official duties.

To apply, complete the online form or download the printable application and mail it attention to Southern Flounder FMP, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557.

The Museum of the Albemarle is to welcome the author of a recently published book on the United States Coast Guard’s 235-year history on the North Carolina coast for its monthly “History for Lunch” program.

Starting at noon Wednesday, April 22, inside the Elizabeth City museum’s Gaither Auditorium, retired U.S. Coast Guard Capt. George E. Krietemeyer is scheduled to discuss his book, “Guardians of the Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

His talk is to begin with the arrival of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Diligence in 1792, which was built in Washington to Alexander Hamilton’s design and specifications, the vessel’s primary mission was to collect tariffs but soon became involved in chasing pirates and aiding vessels in distress. The Coast Guard now has more than 5,000 members working in North Carolina, saving lives and overseeing oil spills all over the world.

Registration is not needed to attend the lecture in person but those wishing to attend virtually must sign up in advance to receive the meeting link. Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle support the virtual program.

The Museum of the Albemarle is a part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The Museum of the Albemarle is at 501 S. Water St., Elizabeth City, and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

North Carolina Colonial Records Project has launched a new, online exhibit featuring the letters of the state’s first governor, who served 1776-1780, as part of the ongoing America 250 commemoration.

The exhibit, “Governor Richard Caswell and Revolutionary North Carolina,” contains 337 newly transcribed and searchable documents about Caswell’s career, the mobilization of patriot troops during the early days of the American Revolution, loyalists in North Carolina, and interactions with the Cherokee Nation.

The North Carolina Colonial Records Project is part of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages more than 100 historic, cultural and natural sites across the state, and oversees America 250 NC, the state’s official commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence taking place this year.

MosaicNC is hosting the exhibit. The North Carolina Office of Archives and History, under the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, oversees the online digital resources that features interactive exhibits and transcribed primary sources from a wide array of topics in the state’s history.

Before accepting the Trump administration’s $1 billion taxpayer buyout, TotalEnergies fostered a campaign that its wind energy project off the coast of Brunswick County would eventually generate enough electricity to power 300,000 homes in the Carolinas.

“Our team is passionate about creating a clean energy economy and the new opportunities it brings to our local communities,” reads an excerpt from TotalEnergies Carolina Long Bay website. “Our partnerships in the Carolinas are making renewable energy a regional priority, building a stronger future for us all.”

TotalEnergies Carolina Long Bay, a wholly owned subsidiary of the France-based global energy company, “will harness the power of offshore wind to generate abundant energy and significant economic growth for the communities of the Southeast.”

The Interior Department’s announcement Monday that TotalEnergies had accepted a federal buyout of its wind energy leases off the New York and North Carolina coasts is a sharp pivot from the company’s previous narrative on offshore wind in the United States.

TotalEnergies’ chief executive officer and chair of the company’s board of directors said in a Department of Interior release that the decision to relinquish offshore wind development in the United States was made because such projects are “not in the country’s interest.”

Instead, TotalEnergies will invest the refunded money in a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Texas and other fossil fuel projects.

The Trump administration lauded it as an “innovative agreement,” one that is a major win for President Donald Trump, who has made offshore wind the biggest bullseye in his target to dismantle renewable energy projects and replace them with fossil fuel and nuclear power.

“Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a release. “We welcome TotalEnergies’ commitment to developing projects that produce dependable, affordable power to lower Americans’ monthly bills while providing secure U.S. baseload power today – and in the future.”

Shortly after taking office in January 2025, Trump issued an executive order barring new offshore wind leases and requiring reviews of existing and permitted wind projects.

Last December, the Trump administration, citing risks to national security, ordered work to stop in five offshore wind energy areas on the East Coast, including Dominion Energy’s 2.6-gigawatt project based in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Courts have since allowed all five of the projects to operate for the time being until final judgments are rendered in those cases.

Monday’s announcement drew immediate rebuke from opponents who argue the deal sets a dangerous precedent and limits alternative energy production as Americans face rising electricity bills and concerns mount about the amount of power artificial intelligence data centers use.

“Donald Trump truly can’t leave a good thing alone,” BlueGreen Alliance Vice President of Federal Affairs Katie Harris said in a release. “His never-ending vendetta against offshore wind shows that he either doesn’t understand the affordable energy crisis or that he just doesn’t care. Either way, it’s clear he’s never paid his own electricity bill, and he’s determined to raise bills for working people.”

Southeastern Wind Coalition Senior Program Manager Karly Brownfield said that the agreement “feels really counterproductive” at a time when people are closely watching their energy costs at home and at the pump.

“The whole thing is unprecedented and it’s also completely unprecedented to take a lease payment and then refund it in exchange for investment in the natural gas industry. That has never happened before,” she said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “Whether you’re investing in offshore wind or you’re investing in solar or whatever it might be, it’s not a great feeling to know that just because you have a project that’s permitted or a project that’s received all the stamps of approval that it still runs the risk of the plug being pulled halfway down the line. Certainty is what drives business and the more uncertain we make our energy market the more complicated this is all going to become in the long term.”

North Carolina is investing in natural gas, but the gas turbine industry is facing years-out backlogs on turbine orders. Nuclear power, from permitting to production, can take upwards of 15 years to build.

“And the leg up we had with offshore wind was that these projects were leased. Permitting had started. The sites were secured. There was some sort of headway that was made on those projects,” Brownfield said.

The Carolina Long Bay wind energy area spans a little more than 110,000 acres roughly 22 miles offshore, south of Bald Head Island.

The area is split into two leases.

In May 2022, Duke Energy paid $155 million for what equates to a little more than half of the total wind energy area.

In June of that same year, TotalEnergies Renewable USA paid more than $133 million for the adjacent lease.

Projects in the Carolina Long Bay area were anticipated to generate up to 3 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 675,000 homes, and estimated to provide more than $4 billion in net economic impacts.

According to information on its website, Duke Energy was collaborating with TotalEnergies on “early development activities.”

When asked for comment, Duke Energy spokesperson Bill Norton responded to Coastal Review by email, writing in part, “Large offshore wind projects involve substantial capital investments and extensive development timelines. It’s reasonable that policy makers question cost-exposure of such projects to customers. We continue to evaluate next steps as it relates to the Carolina Long Bay lease, which is currently maintained by Duke Energy’s nonregulated subsidiary, Cinergy.”

Duke Energy prioritizes energy sources “proven to be the most cost-effective while meeting the growing needs of our customers,” he wrote. “A diversified energy mix is essential to meeting the moment of high demand under all conditions.”

Offshore wind, Brownfield said, offers just that.

“What offshore wind is really, really good at is providing that really stable and predictable energy during extreme weather, and especially at nighttime, when solar is not really working, or when either gas is really constrained or you’re looking at scarcity pricing,” she said. “And, with wind being a free resource, yes, it’s an upfront investment, but it’s a very predictable cost of the project.”

There are still active leases for a wind project off Kitty Hawk that’s owned by Avangrid Renewables and Dominion Energy.

“As far as I know, Avangrid is still very much firm on engaging in North Carolina and they’re still looking at a longer-term future for their lease,” Brownfield said.

As she sees it, the Interior Department’s agreement with TotalEnergies is perhaps less of a setback to offshore wind energy production in the U.S. but rather increases the need for other energy resources.

“Not saying that we don’t need natural gas. SEWC is a very technology-neutral organization,” Brownfield said. “We don’t want to shoot down other resources by any means. But your grid is a lot more balanced when you’ve got a little bit of everything on it. And, right now, we’re on track for our grid to be about 50% gas by 2034, and that’s a lot of gas.”

The North Carolina Division of Water Resources is accepting proposals for stream restoration, water-based restoration and water management projects now through June 30.

Project proposals are being accepted through the current spring 2026 application cycle of the Water Resources Development Grant Program, which provides two different types of grants.

There’s the state and local program, which offers cost-sharing grants of up to 50% of nonfederal project costs for stream restoration, water-based restoration and water management projects.

Grants are also offered for stream restoration projects on agricultural lands that are cost-shared with the Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP. Applications for that program will be accepted through July 30.

The division typically receives $3 million for state and local projects, and $2 million for EQIP projects each year, according to a release.

Links to previously funded projects and additional resources are available online.

Contact Amin Davis, grant manager, at amin.davis@deq.nc.gov for more information. 

Outdoor warning sirens around the Brunswick Nuclear Plant will be tested next week to ensure they are functioning properly.

The test will be conducted by Duke Energy and officials in Brunswick and New Hanover counties between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on April 1.

Sirens will sound for five to 30 seconds and some may be tested more than once.

Follow-up testing may occur after 11 a.m.

A network of 38 Duke Energy-owned and maintained sirens are dispersed within 10 miles of the nuclear plant 2 miles north of Southport.

Officials in Brunswick and New Hanover counties are responsible for sounding the sirens.

Local broadcasting stations, including television and radio, do not interrupt regular programming to broadcast Emergency Alert System messages. That occurs only during a real emergency.

For more information about outdoor warning sirens and nuclear emergency preparedness visit duke-energy.com/NuclearEP.

Second and final in a series

As the North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel studies the effects of permanent beach erosion control structures such as seawalls and jetties, a critical aspect of the analysis will be looking at the lessons learned.

The commission banned hardened structures on the ocean shoreline in 1985 because of the down-shore erosive effects on the beach. Still, there are numerous examples of such structures in place along different parts of the coast, with varied degrees of effectiveness.

Erosion is not only more severe and longstanding on the Outer Banks, which are more exposed to the power of the open ocean and coastal storms than other parts of the North Carolina coast, it is the most dramatic and unforgiving, especially on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. But coastal erosion is a statewide issue. To that point, federal beach nourishment projects in North Carolina began in 1965 at Wrightsville Beach and at Carolina Beach, and nourishment at both locations has been done in recent years.

When development and tourism took off on the Outer Banks in the 1980s, it didn’t take long before beach cottages began lining ocean shorelines.

Still, the forces of erosion had no mercy, and Kitty Hawk began losing beachfront properties. After the commission issued a variance to the hardened structures ban in 2003, permitting sheet-piling along N.C. Highway 12 in the beach community, then-Sen. Marc Basnight strongarmed the state’s ban into legislation.

Then in 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law that permitted four “test” terminal groins and has since expanded the permissible number of groins to seven. To date, four communities submitted permit applications: Figure Eight Island, Ocean Isle Beach, Bald Head Island and Holden Beach. Holden Beach has since withdrawn its application.

Long before the ban, numerous attempts were made to shore up the beach oceanward of the 1870 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in Buxton. By 1930, the nation’s tallest brick lighthouse was a mere 98 feet from the ocean.

According to National Park Service records, interlocking steel sheet-pile groins were installed in the 1930s on the beach near the lighthouse and reinforced a few years later. Over the years, dunes were built, grasses were planted, the beach was nourished, revetment and sandbag walls were installed.

In 1969, the U.S. Navy installed three reinforced concrete groins to protect its base, which was adjacent to the lighthouse at the time. But the erosion continued. More sandbags were put in place; more beach nourishment was done. The Navy left in the 1980s. While the National Park Service officially gave up its beach nourishment and dune stabilization efforts in 1973, it continued trying in ensuing years to protect the lighthouse from the sea with rip-rap, artificial seagrass, sandbags and a scour-mat apron.

Finally, after much study and public debate, with the ocean lapping at its foundation, in 1999 the lighthouse was relocated about a half mile from the beach.

Fast-forward a quarter-century and, since September 2025, 19 unoccupied beach houses near that same beach in Buxton have collapsed into the ocean.

Escalating beach erosion along the state’s entire coast, but especially in Buxton, has put difficult discussions about lifting the hardened shorelines ban back on the table. The few existing permanent erosion-control structures built over the years on North Carolina beaches have yielded mixed results.

Oregon Inlet

One of the most successful examples of a terminal groin doing what it was intended to do, and with relatively minimal harm, is the 3,125-foot terminal groin and 625-foot revetment built in 1991 to protect the N.C. Highway 12 tie-in at the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge, which has since been replaced and renamed the Marc Basnight Bridge. The $13.4 million groin is substantial — ranging from 110 to 170 feet wide at its base and 25 feet wide at its landward end, and 39 feet wide at its seaward end — and was built to withstand waves as high as 15 feet, according to an analysis done by the state Division of Coastal Management, “North Carolina’s Terminal Groins at Oregon Inlet and Fort Macon,  Descriptions and Discussions.”

Located on the south side of Oregon Inlet at the north edge of Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge land, the groin placement encouraged sand buildup, or accretion, landward, resulting in a wide expansion of 50 acres of sandy property on the inlet side of the historic state-owned Oregon Inlet Life-Saving Station. The building is vacant, but has been weatherized to preserve it for future use.

The groin site and surrounding beach have been regularly monitored by state and federal coastal scientists. Studies have shown that the structure has likely increased shoaling of a spit on the Bodie island side and deepening of the channel. Yet, the groin has cause little if any destructive downstream erosion while adequately protecting the highway and bridge infrastructure.

But the report warned that within the next 20 years or so, the continued southward migration of the Bodie Island spit could push the inlet’s main navigational channel up against the terminal groin structure itself.

“If this were to occur, the result would be severe scour and an increase in the maintenance necessary to preserve the threatened integrity of the structure itself,” according to the document.

Beaufort Inlet/Fort Macon

Since Fort Macon was constructed in 1834, about 25 erosion-control structures adjacent to Beaufort Inlet have been built, including groins, breakwaters, timber cribbing, sand-fencing and seawalls, as well as multiple beach nourishment projects, according to the terminal groin report.  The first phase of the terminal groin project began in 1961 and included a 530-foot seawall, a 250-foot revetment and 720-foot long, 6-foot-high terminal groin. Phase II, beginning in 1965, extended the groin 410 feet oceanward, and another groin was built west of the revetment to address extensive soundside erosion, while 93,000 cubic yards of sand was placed on the ocean beach.

The third phase, started in 1970, extended the terminal groin another 400 feet, to a total of 1,530 feet long. A 480-foot-long stone groin was built to stabilize the beach fill, and another 100,000 cubic yards of sand was placed on the ocean beach. Total costs for the three-phase project was $1.35 million.

Effects of the project include increased wave energy along the Fort Macon State Park and Bogue Banks area, and continued increases in wave energy were predicted. A sediment deficit has created erosion on the inlet’s western shoreline. Meanwhile, the sand spit at Fort Macon has migrated into the western bank of the navigation channel, indicating that the terminal groin has become inefficient at trapping sediment.

“Without constant beach nourishment, the terminal groin would no longer perform as observed historically and potentially fail altogether,” the report concluded.

Buxton

Dare County is planning a nourishment project in Buxton, as well as restoration of one of the Navy’s three abandoned reinforced sheet-pile groins that had been installed in 1969. According to the recent application to repair the southernmost groin, which is 50% or more intact, that groin had been lengthened in 1982 on the landward side by 300 feet, and armor stone was added two years later. New sheet piles and additional scour protection were added to the structures in 1994. The other two groins in the original groin field are too damaged to qualify under the Coastal Resources Commission’s “50% rule” that permits repairs.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten has said publicly that the county is under no illusions that the project planned for this summer will solve the erosion issue for good. But the hope is that it will serve as a Band-Aid long enough to find a more permanent solution to erosion that is now so severe it is threatening the livelihoods of community residents and the island’s tourism economy, as well as N.C Highway 12.

Retired East Carolina University professor and veteran coastal geologist Dr. Stanley Riggs, who has studied the Outer Banks since the 1970s, agreed that the fact that the lighthouse had to be relocated to save it illustrates why Buxton’s erosion is not going to be easy to tame for long, with or without groins. When the first coastal survey from Virginia to Ocracoke was done in 1852, the original 1802 Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which was destroyed, had been 1,000 feet from the shoreline, Riggs recently told Coastal Review. All told, the shoreline has receded 3,000 feet, or about two-thirds of a mile, at the cape, he said.

“And it’s been constant,” Riggs said. “It oscillates a little bit, but the main direction has been constant.”

As Riggs explained, offshore just north of the motel area in Buxton, there is an underwater rock structure that is set at an oblique angle relative to the barrier island. Similar “old capes” are also off Avon and Rodanthe, he said. The rocks are under as much as 50 feet of water, and they dictate how the waves refract there.

“And so, if you fly over it, and you get the right angle down there, what you see is a series of cusps, and one side of that cusp will be stable, the other side will be highly erosional,” he said. Groins will only make the eroding side erode faster. And when there are permanent or semipermanent structures along the beach, the shore face — the part that is under water — starts to erode and gets steeper and steeper, he said. And the steeper it gets, the more severe the overwash and the more difficult it is to hold the sand in place. That’s a big reason why beach nourishment is having to be done more frequently.

Not only does the Outer Banks stick out farther into the Atlantic, there is also a narrower continental shelf, which allows the bigger waves to come ashore from the open ocean without the wider “speed bump” needed to dissipate the power.

There’s no negotiating with the ocean, Riggs said. Considering the combination of coastal dynamics at play in Buxton, efforts to control erosion will continue to fail.

“It’s that land-sea-air interface that is really the highest energy place that we’ve got on our planet,” Riggs said. “And there’s some things you can do there. There’s some things you shouldn’t do there, you can’t do there, and it’s a matter of understanding how that system works.”

Ocracoke Island

A persistent erosion hot spot on the north end of the island along N.C. Highway 12, the only road between the Hatteras Ferry Docks and Ocracoke Village, has been patched on and off for decades by increasing numbers of ever larger numbers and size of sandbags.

But even the type of large, new, trapezoidal bags permitted at Ocracoke, Pea Island and Mirlo Beach have not held up as expected, according to a presentation provided by Paul Williams of the North Carolina Department of Transportation at the February Coastal Resources Commission meeting.

Williams presented details at the meeting of NCDOT’s revised request to increase the base of the sandbags from 20 to 30 feet and the height from 6 feet to 10 feet, to better protect them from being undermined by waves.

The newer bags have open ends at the top, which proved to be a problem at Pea Island, Williams told the commission. The Pea Island Refuge at the Visitor Center, he added, faces similar risks now to that seen at Mirlo Beach in Rodanthe in the years before the hotspot was bypassed with completion of the Rodanthe “Jug-Handle” Bridge.

“The performance has not been what we anticipated,” he said, describing how they were flooded at the top, which caused the sandbags to deflate. “This product, there may be some modifications that can be made to make them more resilient.”

Some of the new bags were also installed along with traditional sandbags at Ocracoke, and they’re still covered, Williams said, but roughly 1 mile of sandbags along N.C. 12 are at risk of being undermined during the next big storm.

“So it’s basically to give us more latitude on different products, to try to protect the roadway out there better than traditional sandbags have,” Willams told Coastal Review after the meeting. “We’ve used them for decades out there, and especially Mirlo, they really got tossed around during storms. We were looking to find a more resilient product, and we’re working on evaluating other options out there.”

The new sandbags with an opening at the top are quicker to fill, he said. They’ve worked at other areas, but conditions elsewhere are not as fierce.

“When you’re on the Outer Banks, you’re under constant pressure during some of these storm events, because we’ll have a storm set up on the coast and grind for days at a time,” Williams said. “And every tide cycle is just steadily pulling sand out of the bags, and we need to have some way to stop that.”

Even though many of the traditional sandbags without the troublesome opening are still in place at Ocracoke, Williams said that about half of them, or about 1,000, have been exposed and need to be replaced. Another issue on the island is the limited amount of sand available to cover.

Sandbags, which are considered temporary erosion-control structures that are permitted parallel to shore to protect imminently threatened roads or structures, have rules about color and size, but those rules have been notoriously abused with regard to the “temporary” part, with extensions often adding up to decades at a site, making them “hardened structures” in everything but name.

Before Nags Head in 2011 started nourishing its eroded beaches in South Nags Head, for instance, even battered and torn sandbags weren’t removed for years, and property owners often successfully sued the state to keep longstanding stacked rows of protective bags in place in front of their oceanfront homes on the eroded beach.

As sea levels continue to rise, storms intensify and erosion accelerates, even sandbags as fallbacks in the absence of other impermissible erosion-control structures are becoming less effective, as evidenced by photographs of huge piles of sandbags lined up against undermined houses at North Topsail Beach.

Ocean Isle Beach

Responding to the state legislature’s repeal of the ban on hardened erosion-control structures on the coast, Ocean Isle Beach in 2011 began the planning process to pursue permits to install a terminal groin at Shallotte Inlet to stem erosion that for decades had chewed away at the island’s east end. Five years later, state and federal approval was in hand to build a 750-foot-long terminal groin, but environmental groups in 2017 filed a lawsuit to stop the project. A ruling in March 2021 in the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the project alternatives were properly considered. By April 2022, the $11 million terminal groin was completed.

Today, a diminished beach remains in front of multi-million-dollar homes that were built after the groin was in place. Rows of sandbags block the surf from reaching some of the oceanfront homes, and several lots remain vacant because there is no longer enough property left to meet setback requirements.

In November, the Coastal Resources Commission allowed the owners of eroding vacant oceanfront lots to use larger sandbags to protect their properties.

Interest in future terminal groins

The Village of Bald Head Island, the first community to build a terminal groin after the “test groin” law passed, was issued a permit in October 2014 to build the erosion-control structure, which was completed in 2015.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality monitoring of the project after its completion did not turn up significant issues requiring corrective measures, according to its January 2024 report.

“While ongoing post-construction monitoring performed by the permittee has not identified any significant issues that would require corrective or mitigative measures, the Village performed a maintenance beach nourishment event, received nourishment from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ regularly scheduled Wilmington Harbor maintenance project, and is currently seeking permit authorization for a second Village-sponsored maintenance nourishment event,” according to the document.

Six other communities have expressed “varying degrees” of interest in building a terminal groin project, including North Topsail Beach and Figure Eight Island, as noted in the report.

A lovely spring weekend. The forecast looks perfect. Light south winds. Tides are perfect. Not too hot. Let’s go fishing.

Head out in the morning. Get to the spot. It’s perfect. Fish are there. They’re biting. Awesome. Fish all day and don’t even have to make up any stories, because this was a good one.

Get home that evening and you feel hot. Skin feels warm all over. Look in the mirror. How did you get so sunburned? It wasn’t hot out. It was a nice clear day, but the sun wasn’t blazing. What in the world?

The reality is that every day we spend outside all day in the open, as in fishing, we have the opportunity to get a sunburn. It doesn’t matter how strong the sun shines. Honestly, it can be cloudy. In fact, a low overcast day is sneaky because it won’t get hot at all.

Let’s talk about some common things we can do to prevent sun damage and still be able to have a great day on the water.

One of the things we need to know about is SPF. It stands for Sun Protection Factor and according to Dr. Dawn Davis of the Mayo Clinic, it is a way to determine how long we can stand out in the sun before getting redness on the skin.

Dr. Davis recommends an SPF of a minimum of 30, which means we can stay outside 30 times longer than we normally would without any coverage at all. The SPF is printed right on the box of the sun protection products we see and is ubiquitous.

Here is the problem. When we are fishing, we transfer smell to our baits and lures. I have personally witnessed fish actively rejecting live baits that were tainted with sunscreen lotion and seek out untouched baits. What are we to do? There are many options available.

As I said, the old-fashioned lotion that our mom used to lather us up is not a great option. Fish can smell it. First of all, I like the spray sunscreen. For years I’ve used the Neutrogena brand. It’s available anywhere, it’s not as expensive as some other brands, and it’s oxybenzene free (I don’t know what that is, but it sounds bad). I’ll spray it on my face and ears and avoid my hands. But that’s just the beginning.

You’ll want a variety of clothing options to keep you protected and comfortable on the hot days. When you’re out there all day and concentrating on fishing and little else, there are many helpful ways to keep your skin safe.

I always start with a long-brimmed baseball-style cap. Not only does it provide shade for your face, it also helps you see in the water. Nowadays, I’m seeing more anglers using bucket-style hats or even sombreros to keep the sun off the back of the neck too. I would say that’s a pretty good idea and I wish I had thought of it 30 years ago.

Next are quality polarized sunglasses. Squinting all day is tough for the eyes. Take care of your retinas and they will continue to work. Astigmatism is a real thing in your 50s.

A lightweight shirt with long sleeves is imperative. The “performance” tees made of the lightweight nylon material are the way to go here. They were first popularized by high performance sportswear manufacturers and now have been co-opted by the outdoor industry.

Above, I mentioned hats to protect your neck. Some folks are now making hoodies that are made from performance fabric for the same purpose. The neglected areas like the back of the neck and even the backs of the hands are where I see older anglers having spots removed. There are even lightweight “sun” gloves to protect the hands.

For the legs there are a couple things that you need to keep in mind. Most of the time, I usually wear shorts. The lower leg/calf area doesn’t seem to be an area of concern for most people. If you are very light-complected, you may want to wear lightweight nylon “fishing” pants. Another consideration might be if wade fishing in an area with small stinging creatures like micro jellyfish in the Bahamas (That was a surprise!) or greenhead flies right here at home. They’ll bite right through socks.

Surprisingly, an area of concern for me over the years was the tops of my feet. Flip-flops or other sandals left me with sunburned feet. Sunscreen down there leads to slippery situations. I opted for lightweight deck shoes. Avoid darker colored uppers because they will have a tendency to get unpleasantly hot on the sunniest days. Ask me how I know.

Now a little more spray-on sunscreen on the nose and ears, and we are good to roll out.

Next time you head out, you are covered. It’s a really sunny day. You’ve been out the whole time. At the end of your trip, because you covered up, you’re not burning. The fish bit your lures because they weren’t covered in sunscreen lotion. The tops of your feet feel good.

Now make sure you don’t walk through the parking lot with no shoes at the end of a summer day. Otherwise you have burned the bottom of your feet.

That’s a whole different story.

The North Carolina Symphony is performing for free in Jacksonville this summer in honor of the nation’s 250th birthday.

Conducted by Sophie Mok, Classical Favorites Celebrating America 250 will showcase the music of composers including Copland’s “Buckaroo Holiday,” John Williams’ “Liberty Fanfare” and “Armed Forces Salute,” and Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. June 16 at Northside High School, 365 Commons Dr. S in Jacksonville.

Tickets are required and may be reserved now.

The inaugural Wilmington Community Science Fest this Saturday aims to bring together the wide array of community science activities offered in the region for people to explore.

Festivalgoers can pop into lectures explaining the concept and importance of citizen science and hear about some of the more popular area projects, such as iNaturalist and eBird, and make the rounds between exhibitors who will explain how to connect with local community science efforts.

The first presentation, from 10:15 until 11:15 a.m., will cover the importance of community science, featuring Katie Kingston, Science Across North Carolina, and Sammy Calderon, who will provide an introduction to using iNaturalist.

The next presentation, held from 11:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., will include Kristen Holloman-Noe, who will present on FrogWatch USA, and Mason Randolph, who will provide an introduction to using eBird.

The final presentation, Journey Through Participatory Sciences, will be held from 12:45 until 1:45 p.m. and feature presenter Dr. Caren Cooper, who will share her firsthand experience in participatory sciences as a researcher and an instructor.

“Knowing that researching opportunities requires time and patience, we hatched the idea of creating one event where interested parties could browse projects and instantly move from wanting to participate straight into registering to participate,” Holloman-Noe, Fort Fisher Aquarium outreach coordinator and FrogWatch USA regional coordinator, stated in a release. “The support and enthusiasm we’ve witnessed in planning this event has truly warmed my heart.”

The festival is scheduled for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Davis Center in Wilmington Maides Park, 1101 Manly Ave.

The event will include a number other headliners, such as Science Across NC, EcoExplore and Project Explore, Terrapin Talley of the N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve and N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, N.C. Audubon shorebird surveys, Cape Fear Audubon and the University of North Carolina Wilmington Marine Mammal Stranding Program.

Volunteers will be there to help direct participants to the projects that interest them most.

Wilmington Community Science Fest is being hosted by the Fort Fisher Aquarium, Valerie Robertson, publisher of Cape Fear’s Going Green, and Savannah Lytle, North Carolina Environmental Education Certification candidate.

Featured Image

A snapping turtle climbs from the water for a snack recently at Sandy Run Park in Kitty Hawk. The park at 4343 The Woods Road offers public access to the Kitty Hawk Woods Maritime Forest, a half-mile nature trail with a pair of gazebos, canoe or kayak access, a nature observation tower, a catch and release fishing pier, picnic tables, benches and interpretive signage. While Sandy Run Park is home to friendly turtles, visitors are asked to not feed them. Photo: Kip Tabb

First in a series

Something potentially and significantly consequential is underway now in North Carolina that could alter management of the state’s increasingly battered Atlantic coastline.

The state Coastal Resources Commission’s Science Panel is in the process of finalizing an analysis of beach erosion-control structures, a report that is expected to be submitted to the commission in June. Although the 10-member advisory panel’s study is meant to inform policymakers of their options, some fear – or hope – that it’s the first step toward repealing the state’s longstanding ban on hardened shoreline structures.

“Alarms are sounding in nearly all of our oceanfront counties,” state Division of Coastal Management Director Tancred Miller said at the commission’s meeting in November at Atlantic Beach, referring to threats from accelerating beach erosion. “Nourishment costs continue to rise and the lifespan of many of these projects is painfully short. Infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable, and some communities are very concerned.”

Since September 2025, the Hatteras Island village of Buxton, home of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the massive corner of wild beach known as Cape Point, has seen 19 unoccupied oceanfront homes collapse into the surf. In addition to a beach nourishment project, Dare County this summer is planning to restore the only salvageable groin of a 57-year-old groin field in an attempt to prolong the project’s lifespan.

In response to calls from Dare and Hyde counties, among others, to allow more options to address erosion, the division last winter asked the Coastal Resources Commission to review the structures.

“We must approach these challenges with open minds, innovation, and balanced pragmatism,” Miller urged. “We must take a critical view of our past and current practices, embrace what continues to succeed, and replace practices that are no longer working.”

But even the draft outline that the Science Panel submitted at the commission’s February meeting,  titled “Report on The Effects of Hard Structures on Sandy, Open-ocean Coastlines,” revealed the complexity involved in redirecting, blocking, deflecting, buffering, or absorbing the power of an open ocean energized by high winds, with forceful longshore and cross-shore currents feeding beaches with sand here, starving them of sand there.

“We’ve broken this into two categories according to how these erosion-management measures function; essentially all erosion-management approaches fall into two categories,” CRC Science Panel Chair Laura Moore told the commission. “One is structures or approaches that trap sand, and the second is structures that that really harden the shoreline.”

While the report will provide details about protective barriers and techniques, she said, it is less about offering remedies than providing information about effects of each option. It will also include comparisons to beach-restoration methods such as nourishment and living shorelines.

Erosion has been a fact of life along North Carolina’s 320-mile-long ocean shoreline for centuries, but before coastal development and tourism went into overdrive, the Coastal Resources Commission, the 13-member body that sets coastal policy in the state, took steps to preserve beaches.

In 1985, after studying the down-shore erosive effects of seawalls, bulkheads, groins, jetties and sandbags, the commission established a policy banning permanent hardened structures on the ocean coast. Sandbags were permitted as temporary structures.

Upheld in court in 2000, the ban was codified as law three years later by the North Carolina General Assembly. Then in 2011, a law was passed that permitted a limited number of terminal groins — sand-trapping barriers built near inlets or at the end of an island. Much of the ban, however, remains the law of the land. Environmentalists and countless coastal scientists have credited the limits on hard structures for preserving the state’s coastal wildlife and beautiful natural beaches, which attract millions of tourists every year. But critics blame the ban for limiting the ability to protect shorelines, as well as private and public property and infrastructure.

No magic, one-size-fits-all formula exists to address erosion, Moore said, and many factors will need to be weighed.

“There are approaches and strategies that can either shift the erosion problem to another adjacent location, or in some cases, we can slow the problem down,” said Moore, who is professor of coastal geomorphology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. “We can create more time to make perhaps bigger adjustments that are likely to be needed going forward.”

With seas rising and Atlantic storms intensifying over recent decades as a result of climate change, erosion on the state’s barrier island beaches has been happening faster and more dramatically, especially along the high-energy Outer Banks coastline, where erosion rates at some locations – as severe as an annual average of 14 feet – are among the highest on the East Coast. Dozens of oceanfront houses on eroded beaches, pounded and undermined by surging surf, have fallen into the sea. At the same time, more Outer Banks inlets and waterways are filling with sand, clogging channels that until the recent past had always been navigable.

But the entire coast has been experiencing its own degree of changing and increasingly destructive conditions, and the pressure has been building to find ways to prevent or mitigate damages at different locations, each with different conditions.

“I would say most of the North Carolina coastline is either barrier or behaves like barrier,” Moore told Coastal Review. “Certainly, subsidence in the north is a factor that’s going to make the relative rate of sea level rise a little higher. But there’s also the shape and the orientation of the shoreline and the wave approach angles and the wave energy and how those drive longshore sediment transport gradients, and how much sand is coming into a stretch of coast versus how much is leaving. Also, a really big factor is how frequently in the past the coast has been nourished.”

The final report is to be centered on sand-trapping and shoreline-hardening structures, Moore said. But it will also look at other widely used erosion management tactics, ranging from avoidance with setbacks or relocation, sand trapping with fences or beach plants, and building the beach with sand nourishment and dunes.

The two-category design of the document is focused on function of the structures, she said, “because there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of coastal erosion management approaches out there, and they all essentially fall into two buckets.” What the panel of volunteer scientists cannot do, she added, is analyze each approach.

“What we are trying to do is provide a better, clearer explanation of how structures function and what their effects are,” Moore said.

Moore emphasized that the science panel’s task is to provide an assessment of structures on the coastline. But she understands the urgency people feel for finding a “solution” rather than a range of options.

“And although we’re not providing recommendations, I do want to highlight that we will be discussing tradeoffs, and I think that’s really important, because whether an approach has benefits or negative effects depends on the perspective and goals of the beholder,” she said. “We certainly know that there are efforts afoot to repeal the ban. And again, it’s not our job to say whether that should or should not happen. It’s our job to lay out in a clear way what the tradeoffs are, given how these different approaches to mitigating erosion function.”

Next in the series: How have hardened structures currently installed on North Carolina beaches performed?

The city of Wilmington is hosting an open house on Wednesday to highlight proposed plans to replace a decades-old metal bulkhead along the downtown riverwalk on the Cape Fear River.

The open house is scheduled for 5:30-7 p.m. in the azalea room of the Skyline Center at 929 N. Front St.

City staff will be on hand to talk about the plan to replace a 59-year-old metal bulkhead near the former Coast Guard Cutter Diligence mooring with a modern “relieving platform.”

The replacement “will provide the same shoreline stabilization in a more environmentally friendly way,” according to a city release.

The city has proactively repaired or replaced large sections of the riverwalk, a project initiated in 1980 and fully completed in November 2017.

The metal bulkhead the city plans to replace has outlived its expected lifespan after sustaining decades of exposure to water, debris, and wave action, according to the city.

The city is applying for a federal Economic Development Administration grant to help fund the project and hopes to draw community support from residents, businesses, and organizations to sign a letter backing that application.

Parking at the Skyline Center is available at 33 Brunswick St.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s State Energy Office has released a plan that identifies ways to cut the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.

The North Carolina Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, or CCAP, includes resilience and carbon reduction measures to meet the goal of Executive Order 246, which was signed by former Gov. Roy Cooper in early 2022 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.

“The Comprehensive Climate Action Plan lays out a path for how North Carolina can successfully achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals,” DEQ Secretary Reid Wilson stated in a release. “Investing in clean energy and energy efficiency will ensure that electricity supplies are reliable and affordable for families and businesses while driving down greenhouse gas pollution.”  

The plan targets six key areas, including electricity generation, industry, transportation, buildings, waste management and natural and working lands.

The state’s 2024 Greenhouse Gas Inventory forms the analytical foundation for the six key sectors by establishing a statewide baseline for past emissions and future emissions projections, allowing the state to evaluate the potential impact of future greenhouse gas reduction measures. 

Specific strategies such as increasing options for renewable electricity, improving energy efficiency in buildings, and expanding electric vehicle use and land-based carbon sequestration, will help the state reach this carbon reduction goal, according to state officials.

While a majority of the measures the plan identifies are already funded or anticipate funding, in order for the plan to be successfully long-term, continued and increased investments will need to be made to strengthen resilience and reduce climate pollution, support economic development and workforce readiness, and deliver cleaner air and healthier communities.

“Implementing projects to achieve the measures in this plan will result in significant energy savings in all sectors of the economy: electricity, industry, buildings, waste and more, which will help North Carolina keep energy costs down, reduce strain on the grid and help us meet our quickly growing energy demands,” State Energy Office Director Julie Woosley said in a release.

DEQ first published a Priority Climate Action Plan in 2024 after the agency received $3 million in Climate Pollution Reduction Grant planning funds. This plan identified the state’s highest priority greenhouse gas reduction measures.

The CCAP builds on that plan by updating and expanding greenhouse gas emission strategies through new data, modeling and stakeholder input, and identifying strategies that can be implemented and are feasible and measurable, according to a DEQ release.

People like plants.

People love plants.

As long as there have been people and plants, plant lovers have been sharing seeds and snips and starts, probably a holdover from our Garden of Eden days when humans were the Head Gardeners in Charge.

People love beauty, and what could be more beautiful than sharing our love of plants with other people?

Sharing new species of plants is how figs got to the United States, via settlers bringing starts.

It’s how corn and squash and lima beans got to Europe from the New World.

People love to try new foods and new recipes, and you can’t cook a new favorite dish unless you have the proper ingredients.

With new ingredients comes a lot of reward as people expand their palates. It can also come with some risk, as people who have cooked with a certain vegetable for a long time know all the ins and outs.

For example, I said something to an older friend of mine one Fourth of July about eating corn on the cob and how much Americans love it and asked if he and his wife were going to enjoy any while it was fresh and available. His wife was from England. His reply? “Oh no, no, no. The Brit doesn’t eat corn. That’s what you feed to hogs.”

Upon questioning him, he had no idea why, only that it’s the way things were done across the pond.

So, my little over-curious squirrel brain went into action. Researching it, I discovered that when corn was first brought back to Europe, people loved it. Loved it so much in fact, they tried to use it the way we do potatoes. For everything.

What the Europeans didn’t know, and the natives of South America had figured out over a long period of growing and eating corn was that — it’s a bit more involved than I’m making it out to be — but corn, eaten solely by itself, causes horrendous multigenerational birth defects.

Eaten in conjunction with squash and lima beans … Voila! No problem! The other vegetables fill in the missing nutrients, which the Europeans had no idea about, and why would they have?

Plant diversity is awesome. When humans depend on a single source of nutrition — think potatoes and the Irish potato famine — it can be devastating when that plant fails.

Diversity is part of why seed saving is so important, and I went more in-depth on that subject in one of my past articles.

Before there were cameras, thankfully there were explorers and plant junkies who drew scarily accurate renditions of plants they found or saw — intricate renderings of bark, leaves, flowers, and seeds. Thanks also to them for nabbing starts, seeds and seedlings, taking them back to their own countries, and nurturing their finds.

Plant names can often give you an idea of their origins. For instance, japonica means that plant originated in Japan. Chinensis, China. Think camellia japonica, or lorapetalum chinense. Otherwise known as camellias and fringe flowers.

We all know and love azaleas, but did you know that, while most of us are familiar with the gorgeous azaleas featured at Orton and Airlie and Wilmington in general, as well as in our yards, they are not natives. Go figure. North Carolina does have around 15 native varieties.

Many of the plants we know and love have been imported and planted to the point we think they’re indigenous. Some of them are beloved, and some of them, despite people’s best intentions — think kudzu, Pueraria montana — have become insanely invasive.

Kudzu, a native of Asia, was introduced to the U.S. in 1876, via the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. At its introduction to our country, it was initially praised for its fragrant flowers and ease of care. In the 1930s and ’40s, it was touted — subsidized even, by the government — for its uses in erosion control and as livestock feed. Farmers were encouraged to plant kudzu by the acre, and the Civilian Conservation Corps was enlisted to plant it. We all know how well that worked out.

An overabundance of the same type of plants in one place creates the perfect environment for insects and diseases that prey on said plants to thrive. Lantana is super popular here, not only because it’s beautiful and attracts butterflies by the score, but because it likes heat and tolerates drought. During the last few years, because of the excessive availability of their food source, lantana lace bugs (Teleonemia scrupulosa) have become a huge problem on this once carefree plant.

Same with diseases. The disease that’s currently wiping out most of Florida’s citrus trees? Citrus greening, huanglongbing — say that fast five times — is a bacterial infection. Spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, again, the overabundance of the insect’s food source only makes the problem worse.

So, what’s our take on mass plantings of the same nonnative plants? The results speak for themselves.

Not good.

Nonnatives that become invasive, i.e. Chinese privet, (Ligustrum sinense), which was imported as a hedgerow plant in the mid-1800s, while fast-growing and good for delineating fencelines and yard boundaries, yields berries that are attractive to birds, and thus easily spread.  Its rapid growth and dispersal rates make it one of the most invasive plants in the South. Often taking over and crowding out natives, privet is extremely hard to kill. Privet often forms dense thickets, impenetrable to wildlife.

Sharing plants can be a great, inexpensive way to expand our gardens, and plant people love to help other gardeners. Sharing is caring, right?

Am I advocating being selfish? Absolutely not! I am, however, urging a bit of caution. Do your research. We have so much information available to us, information that our ancestors didn’t have when they thought they were doing the right thing by introducing new plants. There are tons of gorgeous natives, and more and more nurseries specialize in native species.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but sometimes it truly is only skin deep.

Fishing for striped bass by hook and line will be allowed in sections of the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse rivers April 1-30.

The season for harvesting striped bass by this fishing method is being allowed under a temporary rule amendment and proclamation the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission approved this month.

Areas open to harvest include inland and joint fishing waters of the Tar-Pamlico River and its tributaries upstream of a line between Gum Point near Mixon Creek and Fork Point near Durham Creek in Beaufort County.

Inland and joint fishing waters of the Neuse River and its tributaries upstream of a line between Cooper Point near Good Creek in Pamlico County and Fisher Landing Point in Craven County will also open to harvest striped bass.

Inland water tributaries to both rivers downstream of the boundaries established by the Wildlife Resources Commission are closed year-round for striped bass and striped bass hybrid fishing.

Striped bass and striped bass hybrids creel limits are one fish in aggregate with a minimum size limit of 18 inches. However, no fish between 22 and 27 inches long may be harvested.

Anglers who keep any striped bass caught in the Tar-Pamlico and Neuse rivers must report their harvest electronically through an online webform or iPhone app provided by the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries.

The regulatory change is part of the cooperative striped bass management between the Wildlife Resources Commission and the division, both of which recently determined that most striped bass using these areas of the rivers are hatchery fish.

“These rivers have been stocked for over 30 years and despite this effort, recovery goals have not been met,” Assistant Chief of the Division of Inland Fisheries Ben Ricks stated in a release. “There appears to be a bottleneck in an early life stage of naturally reproduced striped bass that limits survival. While we investigate this issue, striped bass stockings in the Tar and Neuse rivers will provide angling opportunities similar to reservoir striped bass stockings.”

Proclamations to open a similar harvest season and provide regulatory consistency in Coastal and Joint Fishing waters of the same area have also been approved by the Division of Marine Fisheries.

Have ideas on ways the federal government might better streamline the nationwide permit program?

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wants to hear from you.

The Corps recently announced it is accepting input on ways to make nationwide permits, which authorize activities that are similar in nature and cause no more than minimal adverse environmental impacts to aquatic resources, more efficient.

Those activities include work associated with aids to navigation, residential developments, utility lines, and maintenance activities.

Comments will be “considered in future rulemaking related to the nationwide permits,” according to a Corps release.

This year’s nationwide permits went into effect on March 15. The 2026 permits may be modified before they expire March 15, 2031.

Comments sought on the nationwide permits may include, but are limited to ways to eliminate unnecessary review over activities that require a Corps permit, ways to boost efficiency in the reviews of requests for permit verifications, activities categories that the Corps should consider for establishing new nationwide permits, and measures to improve conditions or processes that would ensure authorized activities would not cause more than minimal adverse environmental effects.

Written comments will be accepted through May 15 through the Federal eRulemaking portal at docket number COE-2026-0001. Comments may also be submitted by mail to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Attn: CECW-CO-R, 441 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20314-1000.

A state historical marker commemorating the life and accomplishments of Zachariah Jacobs, a free-born African American patriot soldier who served in multiple regiments during the Revolutionary War, will be dedicated next week in downtown Wilmington.

The North Carolina Highway Historical Marker will be dedicated at 10 a.m. on Thursday at the corner of Third and Grace streets in Wilmington.

Jacobs was in his 20s when he was drafted into the Bladen County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia as a private in late 1778.

In only a matter of a few months, Jacobs marched with his regiment through South Carolina into Georgia, where he fought in the Battle of Briar Creek in March 1779.

That battled ended in defeat for the American forces, “and amid the confusion of retreat, Jacobs returned to his home in Brunswick County,” according to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Roughly two years later, in early 1781, he rejoined the militia, serving a nine-month term during which in March of that year he fought in one of the most significant battles in the Southern campaign, the Battle of Guildford Court House.

It was during this battle that Jacobs sustained a wound to one of his legs. After spending time recovering in a hospital, he started his journey home, only to be captured by Loyalist soldiers and taken to British Maj. James Henry Craig in Bladen County.

Craig later paroled Jacobs, who returned briefly returned to civilian life before enlisting for another nine-month term in October 1781 in a North Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line.

In March 1782, under Maj. Michael Rudolph in operations near Charleston, South Carolina, the unit in which Jacob served captured the British galley Alligator on the Ashley River, a move notable for its disruption to British supply lines.

Jacobs spent a majority of that tour stationed at Ashley Hill, after which time he marched to Wilmington and was discharged in December 1782.

He lived out his remaining years in Brunswick and New Hanover counties.

After successfully applying for a federal pension in April 1835, Jacobs received $28.33 semiannually for 17 months of service as a private.

He died April 10, 1847 in New Hanover County. He was 93.

His widow, Sally Jacobs, would later secure a pension in recognition of her late husband’s contributions.

“Jacobs’ story underscores the vital role played by free people of color in the Revolutionary War. His perseverance through multiple enlistments, wounds, captivity, and eventual recognition reflects the broader struggle for liberty that defined the era,” according to NCDNCR.

The Highway Historical Marker Program is a collaboration between the North Carolina departments of Natural and Cultural Resources and Transportation.

More information about the historical marker is available at https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2026/02/06/zachariah-jacobs-d-125 or by calling (919) 814-6625.

Part of an ongoing series on coastal North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

Tensions began to brew between the colonists and Britain in the early 1760s after the Seven Years War, also called the French and Indian War, in North America. The British decided to impose new taxes on the colonies to recoup the funds that went to the war, but instead incited widespread protest.

Britain passed the Stamp Act March 22, 1765, and then in June 1767, the Townshend Act imposed duties on paint, paper, tea and other commodities. British troops attempted to enforce the Townshend duties in Boston October 1768, ultimately leading in March 1770 to the Boston Massacre that left five dead.

The British, to help the struggling United East India Co., passed the Tea Act in May 1773, allowing the company to import and sell tea to the colonies duty-free, undercutting the Dutch who had been smuggling tea in, and creating a monopoly.

Then, on Nov. 28, 1773, the Dartmouth sails into Boston Harbor, and three more ships were expected to arrive, all carrying chests of tea.

Over the next few weeks, colonists met to figure out a way to fight back. On the night of Dec. 16, 1773, around four dozen men impersonating Native Americans boarded the ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

Almost a year later, 51 women in Edenton took a more peaceful approach to protesting the tea tax by drafting a document explaining their boycott. The women committed to no longer drinking tea or wearing British cloth because of taxation without representation and sent the final copy to England.

“This action forms one of the earliest-known political actions written and organized by women in the American colonies,”  the Edenton Historical Commission explains. “The events of the ‘Edenton Tea Party’ today form an iconic moment in our nation’s history, when a community of women used their own voices to stand by their loved ones and risk the wrath of the Crown by protesting injustice.”

The women of Wilmington responded to British taxation with a similar protest in the spring of 1775, though little is known about the gathering to publicly burn tea.

Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens Assistant Museum Director Hunter Ingram told Coastal Review that the Wilmington Tea Party is an oft-overlooked event in the final days before the start of the American Revolution.

In the port city of Wilmington, the import of tea had ground to a halt by the spring of 1775.

The Continental Congress had forbidden tea from coming through the colonies’ ports, so it had become a scarce commodity, he said. That is why events like the Boston Tea Party and the Edenton Tea Party were so crucial to the cause of resistance.

“Tea was hard to come by and sacrificing it sent a message to those who were already hurting from the disruption of its trade,” Ingram continued.

The Wilmington Tea Party happened in the spring of 1775 and is only documented in one place: the writings of Janet Schaw, a Scottish woman who was traveling through Wilmington to visit her brother.

“She wrote a single line about her observations of the tea resistance in Wilmington, which she did not support. ‘The Ladies have burnt their tea in a solemn procession, but they had delayed however ’til the sacrifice was not very considerable, as I do not think anyone offered above a quarter of a pound,’” Ingram said. 

While the simple description doesn’t give many specifics, Schaw was clear in what the protestors did, Ingram said. “Burning the tea was unique, and it meant the women of Wilmington, even in the eleventh hour before the outbreak of war, were willing to set a precious privilege blaze in the name of revolution.”

The Burgwin-Wright House is the oldest and largest historic site in Wilmington, comprised of four of the eight remaining colonial structures in town, Ingram said of the house’s importance during the Revolution.

“We have three buildings from the city’s first jail, circa 1744, and the mansion home built in 1770 on top of the main jail building after the prisoners were relocated. It has sat at the corner of Third and Market streets for 256 years, and it has watched Wilmington grow from small-but-mighty port city into a thriving town that was, for a time, the most populous area in the state,” Ingram explained.

“The colonial era in Wilmington doesn’t always get its due, but the surviving home built for merchant and politician John Burgwin can tell that story –– and has been for generations,” said Ingram.

Ingram explained that that the Burgwin-Wright House had partnered with the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Wilmington Ladies Tea Walk Chapter to commemorate the 251st anniversary of the protest with the “Wilmington Ladies Tea Walk.”

The Wilmington Ladies Tea Walk event begins at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 26, at 224 Market St. the program will include remarks from a few historic organizations and officials and samples of a brand-new tea blend by Cape Fear Spice Merchants.

“Guests can walk through the gardens, enjoy a presentation about Janet Schaw and then join members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution as they walk, in a solemn procession, to river to burn tea in commemoration of this act of resistance on the eve of revolution,” he said.

The historic home is a good fit for the Wilmington Ladies Tea Walk because the site likely would have been “witness to that solemn procession into history, and the act of resistance that helped give Wilmington a reputation for rebellion even before the war.”

Schaw was also a Loyalist, as was Burgwin, and it’s “likely she would have visited the house during her time in Wilmington. This was a home built for a wealthy guest list, and Janet would have qualified,” he said.

Though the program is offered at no charge, registration is required. Call 910-762-0570 to register.

“If you can’t get in this year, we hope to make it a recurring event through multiyear A250 celebration,” Ingram said, referring to the state’s official celebration of 250 years of independence, America 250 NC, a program under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Blue Economy Index (Bloomberg Ticker: BLUEECO) saw gains during February, outperforming broader, global benchmarks that suffered weaker performance.

The Blue Economy Index rose 8.66% from 2,882.49 to 3,132.02. At the same time, the S&P Industrials rose 5.64%, the MSCI All World Index increased 1.24%, and the S&P 500 fell 1.40%.

The index trackers said in a news release Thursday that the comparatively strong performance “showcases” the blue economy’s “concentrated exposure to ocean-related industries and balanced sector allocation.”

“This month’s returns were defined by strong expectations in infrastructure demand and international economic activity, as well as a sharp decline in large technology and growth stocks.”

The UNC Wilmington Blue Economy Index tracks the economic activity of companies operating on or in oceans and waterways, with a focus on environmental sustainability. The index was developed through a collaboration between UNC Wilmington’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Alliance for the Blue Economy, or AllBlue, the Cameron School of Business, and it relies on data from FactSet.

The index aligns with the World Bank’s definition of the Blue Economy: “the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem.”

“The index represents a fusion of academic insight, environmental science, and financial market expertise,” according to the university.

February’s performance was supported by strong gains in industrial and utilities sectors, which benefited from rising expectations for global infrastructure spending and energy demand. Sector rotation also played a key factor as investors transitioned from technology to industrial sectors.

Industrials climbed 16.61% after investors rotated into companies tied to infrastructure, heavy manufacturing and energy systems. A large wave of AI storage and network demand helped prop up the sector’s performance, which signaled higher future revenue and earnings, according to the release.

Consumer staples, supported by increased expected demand and improved profitability in the global seafood and animal feed markets, increased 8.06%. The sector also gained from higher aquaculture prices in Asian and North American markets, which improved margins for fishing and processing companies.

Utilities rose 5.60%, driven by expanding economies and the rapid build-out of data centers, AI computing, and renewable energy systems. Furthermore, many utility companies are expanding renewable energy projects which investors view as long-term growth opportunities, the analysts said.

Consumer discretionary spending gained 3.12%, supported by steady continued growth in travel and tourism spending.

Doosan Corp. saw a 50.65% gain and topped the index for February thanks to new legislation that provided a regulatory framework for modular reactor development and export.

Harbin Electric Corp. saw a 41.88% gain thanks to an increase in Chinese gas turbine demand and the company’s financials, which forecast a 57% increase year-over-year net profit and 33% revenue growth.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. Realized a 40.31% gain based on increased submarine and defense systems production after Japan planned to increase defense spending to 2% of its GDP.

More information about the Alliance for the Blue Economy is online at https://uncw.edu/research/centers/innovation-entrepreneurship/events-programs/programs/all-blue.

Elected officials in Leland seek to tighten language related to the town’s purchasing guidelines following a highly contentious, well-publicized investigation into one of their own.

The Leland Town Council voted Wednesday night to direct the town attorney to consult with the North Carolina Local Government Commission about the town’s procurement policies and ask for suggestions on amending those policies with respect to the role of elected officials.

The unanimous vote was cast in a special-called meeting to discuss a legal advisory opinion the town’s attorney released following his investigation into Councilman Frank Pendleton, a relative newcomer to the town board.

Attorney Steve Coggins determined in his 175-page report that Pendleton’s effort earlier this year to expedite the delivery of a laptop the town signed off on buying him did not break any laws.

But Pendleton’s attempt did violate the town’s policies, Coggins concluded, telling council members Wednesday night that the matter was a “learning lesson.”

After he highlighted his findings to the council, Coggins thanked Pendleton for taking the time, one-on-one, to explain his side of the story.

“I appreciate it very much his willingness to do that and his candor with that,” Coggins said. “It certainly made this most unpleasant task more palatable and for which I extend my gratitude for that, as well as to staff who spent time in educating me.”

Pendleton, who asked for an opportunity to speak when the mayor asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting, did not reciprocate, instead rebuking Coggins and Town Manager David Hollis.

“When you look at this entire situation, if it weren’t for the fact that this process has needlessly wasted a huge amount of time and, more importantly, a great deal of taxpayer monies, it would be laughable,” he began. “This entire situation speaks volumes to the professionalism on the part of this council, the council attorney and especially the town manager.”

Pendleton refuted various points Coggins identified as undisputed facts in his report, disputing he called the laptop vendor on Jan. 21 to try and expedite the time in which the laptop would be delivered. When he made that call, he was under the impression that the delivery time would be up to 13 weeks.

“I called simply to verify the lead time from the vendor and to see if the town manager had lied to me,” Pendleton said. “As it turned out, someone was lying because the vendor told me that the computer would be delivered between January 30 and February 4, which would have been two weeks from the delivery date or from the order date. So, someone was indeed lying. Either the town manager was lying to me, or the vendor was lying to the staff.”

“What actually happened, but was conveniently left out,” of the report, he continued, “was that the vendor called me back two days later on January 23 to tell me that the delivery would actually be pushed back two additional weeks. This would put it at four weeks from the original date, not 13-plus weeks.”

Pendleton said he did not ask or attempt to authorize canceling the town’s laptop order.

“The question that should have been asked when the town manager was made aware of the conversations between myself and the vendor, why didn’t he handle this situation like the CEO he claims to be?” he continued. “Why didn’t he act like a man and pick up the phone and call me? He could have said, ‘Mr. Pendleton, you shouldn’t be speaking with the vendor and, going forward, please director those questions to me.’ Why didn’t he tell me about the procurement policy that applies to town employees regarding purchases when he provided me the name of the vendor and the specs on the computer? No, he chose to attempt to discredit me by implying that I did something that I didn’t do. It certainly appears that this was a case built on entrapment, political meddling, violations of employee code of ethics and insubordination on the part of the town manager.”

Meeting attendees sitting in the council’s chambers broke out in applause when Pendleton, who was sworn in last December to serve his first term on the council, finished speaking.

They jeered when his fellow Councilman Bob Campbell fired back, “I absolutely agree somebody was lying. And, in my opinion, just from what I read, sounds more like you.”

Mayor Brenda Bozeman repeatedly hammered her gavel to quiet the audience as other council members questioned Pendleton about his actions.

“I was hoping this was going to be put to bed tonight,” Bozeman said. “I’m tired of it. It’s an issue we need to get rid of.”

Councilwoman Veronica Carter reminded the board of a previous discussion it had about how, in the town’s 37-year history, nothing like this issue had occurred until now.

“I think we all want it to end, but we don’t want it to come back to bite us later,” Carter said. “We haven’t put it to bed if we haven’t come up with any change.”

The 2026-27 recreational fishing season for black sea bass in federal waters south of Cape Hatteras opens next month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries announced Thursday.

The season will open at 12:01 a.m. on April 1 and tentatively remain open through March 31, 2027.

The season is being opened for the entire 2026-27 recreational fishing year because recreational landings are estimated to be below the seasonal catch limit, according to a NOAA Fisheries announcement.

“NOAA Fisheries projects that recreational landings will not exceed the 2026-2027 recreational catch limit of 366,510 pounds whole weight based on recent landings data,” according to the announcement.

The closing date for recreational black sea bass fishing remains tentative pending the implementation of Regulatory Amendment 37 to the fishery management plan for the South Atlantic Region’s snapper-grouper fishery.

The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has approved that amendment for review and implementation by NOAA Fisheries.

“If implemented, the regulatory amendment would establish an annual catch target for the recreational sector of 63,143 pounds whole weight,” according to the announcement. “NOAA Fisheries would project the length of recreational fishing seasons based on this annual catch target. It is currently unknown whether the timing for Regulatory Amendment 37 could affect the 2026-2027 fishing year for black sea bass.”

If the regulatory amendment is adopted, the National Marine Fisheries Service will inform the public about its impacts to the length of the recreational season for black sea bass.

This story is presented in celebration of Women’s History Month, the theme for which in 2026 is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.”

Heather Rose flashes a knowing smile toward her sister, Becky, across a table at Blackbeard’s Grill, their family’s seafood restaurant in Beaufort. “Honey, we’ve got some gooood memories together.”

“Epic memories,” Becky replies.

Those unforgettable moments were often squeezed into late nights between the grueling days when Heather clocked 12-hour kitchen shifts, and Becky, stepping away from the restaurant and neighboring Rose Seafood Market, worked dawn to dusk, moving dirt, hauling rocks and setting shrubs for her own landscaping company.

Their grind never stood a chance against the tide.

“When darks come and the businesses closed, we go get in the truck, go to the boat ramp,” Heather says.

Pushing off for the banks to fish until the sun touched the horizon, the women were overjoyed to be under the stars, even that night when a mud-clogged motor stranded them, exhausted and ravenous, until their parents arrived like a rescue squad with cheese biscuits.

“We just sat there in the boat eating those biscuits. We could barely hold our eyes open,” Heather chuckles, Becky nodding in rhythm. “But we had a boatload of flounders, and we had spent all night talking to each other.”

The sisters’ bond is as deep as their roots on the Carolina coast. It’s a connection forged in the salt of their shared seafood heritage and tested by the daily demands of the family business.

Despite the relentless labor of running both Blackbeard’s and Rose Seafood Market, and the looming shadow of an uncertain commercial fishing industry, Heather and Becky are unwavering. They’ve made it their mission to keep their landmark corner of Beaufort thriving for the next generation.

A legacy without blueprints

Surrounded by black-and-white snapshots of the commercial fishers and boat builders who came before, the women reflect on the proud way of life handed down to them. Today, the sisters lead that legacy: Heather oversees the seafood market, while Becky serves as the chef and proprietor of Blackbeard’s Grill.

Their ties to the coast reach back to the 1700s, Becky says. Ancestors were boat captains in the Northeast before navigating south to Swan Quarter, where a bay bears the Rose name. Some relatives headed to Cape Lookout, establishing the early Rose Town community.

In 1910, their great-great-grandfather, George Rose, moved his family from the cape to Harkers Island. There, later generations established Rose Brothers Boat Works, which became famous for crafting fine wooden yachts and charter boats built entirely by eye without plans or blueprints.

It was in that boatyard that Heather and Becky’s parents, Rodney and Mary, first met.

Rose Seafood Market was born of necessity. Frustrated by low dockside prices, Rodney and Mary founded the business in 1986 to eliminate the middleman. What started as a backyard mom-and-pop grew into a Marshallberg fish house sourcing from 30 local commercial fishers. By 1993, the couple moved to their current Beaufort location, soon after adding a take-out window. Two years later, they opened Blackbeard’s Grill to highlight “Down East” heritage recipes.

Today, the sisters manage day-to-day operations, with their parents’ constant inspiration and presence. The women draw strength from recollections of their father networking with fishermen, setting the standard for relationship building his daughters rely on today.

Dad, who still fishes, pops in — though not often enough, Heather laments, missing her father — to deliver and help process the catch, as well as share insight with customers about the challenges facing commercial fishers.

Years of watching their mother diplomatically negotiate the sale of thousands of pounds of fish weekly to far-flung markets in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, then turning around to masterfully head shrimp, shuck scallops and pack fish, made anything seem possible.

“Growing up and seeing that, I never felt like a woman was out of place in this industry,” Becky says of the male-dominated seafood sector.

The market still sources catches docked by local commercial fishers, including Heather, and carries beloved Rose family recipes, like their Aunt Dora’s shrimp salad. Locals watch Blackbeard’s specials for regional favorites such as scallop fritters and hard crab stew. Offerings depend on what’s fresh next door.

The scale is staggering. “We’re probably going to feed about 60,000 people here (at Blackbeard’s), and just on five nights that we’re open each week, for the year,” Becky says. Between the restaurant and the market’s grab-and-go section, which Becky stocks with crab pies, lasagnas, shrimp salad and more, the sisters are in a state of constant motion.

“We love the connection,” Becky says. “When you go and catch something yourself, do all the work involved in doing that, and then you prepare it and cook it for somebody, and you hand it to them and they eat it…that’s a feeling that can’t be duplicated in any other way.”

‘Don’t fight it, accept it’

Heather remembers happy childhood days clamming and shrimping with her parents and packing seafood at their then-fledgling business. “I was young, full of energy, you know, and always willing and anxious to help.”

Becky, 11 years younger, was just a toddler at the time, trying to stack boxes in her tiny oilskins. As a youngster, she headed shrimp after school at Rose Seafood in Beaufort and told customers, “My daddy caught these.”

“I still have some older ladies that come here and say, ‘Were you that cute little blonde-headed girl that waited on me in the seafood market?’”

Despite those precious memories, both women envisioned paths away from the water. In college, Becky studied marketing, a talent she skillfully applies to the businesses’ engaging social media feeds. Heather worked for 10 years as an officer with the Morehead City Police Department. Throughout their own careers, both sisters kept a foot in the family seafood business.

“I think both of us felt that was our calling,” Becky reflects.

“There was a time when I was younger, I was always trying to run away from it,” Heather adds.

“Well, I think we both knew how hard it was,” Becky says, finishing her sister’s thought.

The pair’s management era began with the COVID-19 pandemic. When the virus’s spread shuttered dining rooms, the Roses, like many restaurateurs, turned to walking takeout orders to vehicles lined up in the parking lot. By then, the market had closed, but with the public’s limited access to grocers and other seafood outlets, the Roses realized that they needed to reopen the store to sustain the community and their own livelihoods.

Heather had already left police work to help her parents at the restaurant, but she was facing burnout even before the pandemic. That’s when Becky stepped in, leaving an unfulfilling job in the wholesale plant industry to help her family keep up.

“It was really hard on me at first, because I hadn’t really been dealing with seafood for a decade,” she remembers. “It was hard to build up to the strength and endurance that it takes to clean 500 pounds of spots a day, to filet 1,000 pounds of flounder, to head 1,000 pounds of shrimp.”

The sisters stop to compare scars. “You can look at our hands, and you know,” Becky says.

Heather smiles. “Me and Beck, we look at each other when we’re exhausted and we say, ‘Don’t fight it, accept it. This is your calling.’”

‘These are the really special times’

Demanding work and a powerful desire to make their parents proud fuel the sisters’ mission. They also genuinely like their jobs.

Becky, always a foodie, found that working in horticulture deepened her interest in herbs and cooking, setting her up as a chef who understands both local food culture and how to craft contemporary dishes like crispy crab Rangoon with sweet Thai chili sauce or half-shell oysters roasted with bacon jam, a dollop of goat cheese to finish.

“She literally elevates this kitchen to a different level than it’s ever been,” Heather says of her sister. “She has a lot of pride, and she’s, she’s a perfectionist. She wants it to be right and won’t accept it any other way.”

Heather loves nothing more than fishing, but her wide-ranging experience in and outside the business make her indispensable to both operations, Becky says. Heather’s seafood chowder is an enduring menu staple, and she formulated the various breading recipes used to fry different seafoods.

“The tenacity,” Becky says of Heather, “if she makes up her mind that we’re doing something or she’s doing something, she’s doing it…And she can wire things. She’s very mechanical, and I am totally not…So when we come together, we don’t fight or argue like sisters sometimes do. We really work well together.”

Who will take on the business years from now is a constant worry, especially as North Carolina commercial fishers lose docks to new waterfront development. They also face fierce competition from recreational fishing interests with the capital to fund lobbyists and marketing campaigns that, as the sisters see it, demonize fishing families as destroyers of the very resources they depend on.

“We don’t have family to leave it to,” Heather says. “And that makes me very sad,” Becky adds, “and it’s something I think about every night before I go to bed.”

That uncertainty pulls at them, but it hasn’t slowed their pace. Instead of pulling back, the duo doubles down with new ideas, like Heather’s upcoming seafood boils to go and adding beer and wine sales to the market’s offerings. Becky takes on public education, sharing the story of the state’s seafood heritage through speaking engagements and staging fundraising dinners aimed at preserving the commercial fishing way of life.

Both agree they’d like nothing better than to fire up the boat after work more often and head out for an all-nighter. Meantime, they try to live by the advice Becky often gives Heather.

“You’re going to look back on today, and you’re gonna say, ‘Those were good times,’ even if you’re having a bad day here … We got to make the most out of each day, because these are really special times right now for this business and for our family.” 

Fort Fisher historian Becky Sawyer will share the gritty history of tattoos that adorned sailors who fought in the 1865 battle that ended with the capture of the last open port in North Carolina and the Confederacy.

Sawyer will dive into the results of five years of research on tattoos worn by the sailors who participated in the Battle of Fort Fisher during a presentation entitled “Red, Blue & Black Tattoos Among Sailors at Fort Fisher.” The event is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday at the New Hanover County Public Library’s main library at 230 Grace St. in Wilmington.

Through images and stories, Sawyer will “explore this fascinating and sometimes gritty aspect of maritime history. Not for the faint of heart,” according to the library.

In mid-January 1865, joint Army and Navy forces commanded by Union Rear Adm. David D. Porter and Maj. Gen. Alfred Terry attacked and captured the fort situated at the mouth of the Cape Fear River at the Atlantic Ocean.

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust plans to buy a sprawling tract of land off one of Wilmington’s busy corridors to convert it into a publicly accessible nature preserve.

The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners on Monday authorized county staff to negotiate a purchase and sale agreement with the Coastal Land Trust for an approximately 60-acre tract at 3990 Independence Boulevard.

The organization plans to buy the land, referred to as the Flossie Bryan tract, for $3 million.

Bryan was a longtime Wilmington resident and licensed practical nurse who worked at James Walker Memorial Hospital, which operated for more than 60 years until it closed after New Hanover Regional Medical Center opened its doors in 1967.

Bryan willed the property to the county and asked that it be preserved, offering a natural, undeveloped space for public benefit, according to a Coastal Land Trust release.

“Flossie Bryan left an extraordinary gift to this community, and we take that trust seriously,” Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Harrison Marks stated in the release. “This property sits in the middle of one of the fastest-growing residential corridors in New Hanover County. Protecting it permanently as a nature preserve means generations of Wilmington residents will have access to irreplaceable green space, right where they live. We are grateful to the Board of Commissioners for their partnership on this property, and for their vision and foresight in securing full ownership of the property in 2025, which created the opportunity to ensure its long-term conservation.”

The Coastal Land Trust aims to work with county staff to finalize a purchase and sale agreement, with closing proposed to occur on or before Dec. 31, 2027.

Commissioners will review the sale agreement before final approval.

Within the tract are more than seven acres of mature longleaf pine forest, among the few remaining unprotected longleaf pine savanna habitats in New Hanover County. And, there are more than 20 acres slated for longleaf pine restoration.

Natural freshwater wetlands and headwater tributaries of Barnards Creek are also on the property.

Once under the Coastal Land Trust’s ownership, the preserve will be developed in phases to include a parking area and natural train system, which will be largely unpaved, designed for nature-first recreation and outdoor learning, and will incorporate Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible areas.

Coastal Land Trust’s longer-term plans for the property include an onsite environmental education facility.

“The Flossie Bryan tract offers a rare opportunity to protect and restore one of the most ecologically important habitat types in our region, in the county with the highest population density along the North Carolina coastal plain,” Kenneth Lingerfelt, Coastal Land Trust director of land protection said in a release. “Conserving this property means protecting water quality in the Barnards Creek watershed and ensuring that this irreplaceable longleaf pine habitat is never lost.”

The Coastal Land Trust plans to launch a public and private fundraising campaign to raise the $3 million needed to buy the tract.

The Coastal Land Trust has created and manages a number of nature preserves across eastern North Carolina, including Brunswick Nature Park, the Latham-Whitehurst Nature Park in Craven County, Brice’s Creek Nature Preserve in New Bern, and Springer’s Point Preserve on Ocracoke Island. The organization also manages the Stanley Rehder Carnivorous Plant Garden in Wilmington in partnership with the city.

In an effort to restore and maintain wildlife habitat, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission conducts prescribed burns across tens of thousands of acres of state game lands each year.

To find out whether smoke you’re seeing on state game lands is from a prescribed burn, check out the commission’s prescribed burns dashboard mapping system.

To help support wildlife on most of the 2 million acres of state game lands used by hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers throughout the state, the agency sets about 200 to 300 prescribed burns across 20,000 to 30,000 acres ever year.

“Most of the prescribed burning on game lands occurs between January and March because the cool, humid air with minimal wind provides conditions for low intensity fires,” Commission Forestry Program Leader Casey Phillips stated in a release. “However, we will still conduct burns well into spring and summer, because growing season fires provides for better control of young hardwoods in certain habitats.”

Prescribed fires are more cost efficient than mowing and spraying because they reduce the use of hazardous fuels, such as leaf litter and pine straw, and improve biodiversity at a significantly larger scale than chemical or mechanical methods alone, according to the agency.

Maintenance burns are typically conducted in multi-year cycles to open groundcover for quail, grassland birds, deer and turkeys. Prescribed fires are also crucial for many of the state’s habitat-sensitive or rare species, including red-cockaded woodpeckers and Venus flytraps, which are adapted to fire or found only in fire-dependent habitat.

“Fire is a natural occurrence that native wildlife has adapted to,” Phillips stated. “We also use burning techniques intended to give animals time and room to escape. After an area is burned, we typically see new vegetation within a few weeks, which means the animals won’t be far behind.”

For additional information, view No Cause for Alarm and visit Prescribed Fire: What NC Citizens Need to Know.

AHOSKIE — Between 35 and 40 protestors gathered on a downtown street corner Saturday to call attention to the proposed reopening of the Rivers Correctional Facility in Winton as a federal immigrant detention center.

While the number protesting was modest, they were buoyed by the overwhelmingly supportive response from passing drivers.

The 257-acre, 1,450-bed facility shuttered in 2021 is being considered as a facility to house people seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and suspected of not being in compliance with U.S. immigration law. The facility is owned by international private prison company GEO Group, “the largest detention services provider to ICE, with nearly 40 years of operational experience under ICE contracts,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU on Jan. 29 released the information it had obtained via a Freedom of Information Act process, and within three weeks, during the Hertford County Board of Commissioners Feb. 16 meeting, at least 10 people spoke out against the prison plan.

One individual, while not expressing support, noted that the decision about the fate of the Riverside prison was in the federal government’s hands, leaving county officials little, if any, recourse.

County commissioners, as of this publication, had declined to take a position on the property. Soon after the Feb. 16 commissioners meeting, Coastal Review asked County Manager Bill Shanahan whether he had been contacted about reopening the facility.

“I can tell you that the county manager has not been contacted,” he said, indicating that he had no more to add.

In an email following Saturday’s protest, Shanahan said nothing had changed.

Caroline Stephenson, who helped organize the protest, told Coastal Review that while she opposed ICE moving in, she had also been thinking about the “implications for citizens and residents,” she said. “I think the implications are not great.”

She said the facility would overwhelm the sheriff’s office, emergency medical services and hospital. “We’re a really small, rural county in terms of the amount of capacity that we have,” she explained.

Hertford County had fewer than 22,000 people when the last census was taken, and the official estimate was fewer than 20,000 as of 2024. Its population is roughly 58.4% Black, 36% white, 6.7% Hispanic or Latino, 1.9% Native American and 1.2% Asian. Nearly 23% of residents live in poverty and the per capita income is less than $29,000.

Walking along the protest line, Bobby Riddick used his cellphone to record the protest, planning, he said, to use it on his Facebook page. As cars passed by honking in support, he talked about the challenges of organizing a protest in Hertford County.

“It’s a very small area. A lot of people here have been here all their life,” he said. “They’re not used to protesting. They’re not used to fighting for their rights.”

Stephenson agreed, telling Coastal Review, “A lot of people, I think, are unsure or afraid of using their First Amendment rights and any of their rights that are provided under the Constitution. I think it’s important to educate people about their rights, but also about the dangers of not speaking.”

Standing with two friends behind a sign reading “ICE Out,” C.S. Brown High School senior Bird Lashbrook spoke clearly about her feelings.

“I have a voice that should be put to use, and I’m happy to give my support,” she said.

In 2021, President Biden, citing Justice Department reports that found private prisons were often less safe and had lower safety standards, as compared to publicly managed facilities, ordered the Justice Department to no longer renew contracts with private prison companies.

The North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries has scheduled a public hearing on a proposed shellfish bottom and water column lease in a Pamlico County waterway.

Evan R. Gadow has applied for a 0.72-acre lease in Little Bear Creek.

A public hearing on the proposed lease is set for 6 p.m. on March 24 at the Pamlico County Courthouse, 202 Main St. in Bayboro. The hearing will also be held via Webex.

Anyone who wishes to speak online should preregister at deq.nc.gov/pamlico-county-shellfish-lease-hearing-speaker-registration. Those who attend the in-person hearing must register to speak at the meeting location between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on the night of the hearing.

Written comments on the proposed shellfish lease are also being accepted up to 24 hours after the hearing through an online form or by mail to N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, Shellfish Lease and Aquaculture Program, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557.

Additional information, including a call-in telephone number, may be found at deq.nc.gov/2026-03-24-pamlico-county-shellfish-lease-hearing or by contacting the Shellfish Lease and Aquaculture Program at 252-515-5600 or SLAP@deq.nc.gov.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking volunteers for its annual spring count of diamondback terrapins.

The 2026 Terrapin Tally occurs in areas of the state’s southern coast, where the small, aquatic turtles call marshes, estuaries and tidal creeks home.

Diamondback terrapins are listed as a species of special concern in North Carolina and federally as a species of greatest conservation need.

“Diamondback terrapins are a keystone species, critical to the health of the saltmarsh ecosystem,” Sarah Finn, a Wildlife Resources Commission biologist said in a release. “Studying their populations is difficult due to their habitat characteristics and North Carolina’s expansive estuarine systems. Understanding the population status and trends of terrapins in North Carolina is important to the long-term management of this species, and we can work toward this goal with the help of volunteer community scientists.”

Volunteers must supply their own kayaks, mobile phones and take part in a mandatory training session. There will be two training sessions, the first of which is scheduled for 10 a.m. – noon on April 11 at Carolina Beach State Park visitor center. Another training session has been set for 10 a.m. – noon on April 18 at Hammocks Beach State Park visitor center.

Registration is required.

“It’s a wonderful way to get out to explore and learn about our local waterways, while also contributing to a long-term citizen science project,” Amy Long, who will be volunteering in the tally for an 11th year, said in the release. “Really, who doesn’t want to spot adorable terrapins?!? It’s like an easter egg hunt, and when you have friends doing other days or trails, it’s fun to see who had better luck out on the water.”

The Terrapin tally is headed by the Wildlife Resources Commission and supported by partner organizations including the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, N.C. State Parks, Bald Head Island Conservancy, N.C. Audubon, N.C. Aquarium and National Park Service.

Data collected in the tallies has contributed to fisheries management to protect terrapins from drowning in blue-crab pots, according to the Wildlife Resources Commission.

Additional information is available at 2026 Terrapin Tally.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality State Energy Office has set a public hearing next month on a state program that provides free weatherization services for income-eligible households.

Comments will be accepted on the proposed adoption of the New North Carolina Project, a nonprofit founded to increase civic engagement among underserved communities and to act as the service provider to a regional territory that includes Brunswick, Carteret, Craven, Duplin, Greene, Jones, Lenoir, New Hanover, Onslow, Pamlico, Pender and Wayne counties. 

The N.C. Weatherization Assistance Program, funded under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, aims to reduce energy bills and increase home comfort and safety by providing free weatherization services for eligible households.

The state program in 2021 was appropriated $89 million for enhancing energy efficiency in income-eligible households throughout the state. In March 2023, DEQ held a hearing on the proposed plan, which was approved by the U.S. Department of Energy in August of that same year.

DEQ has conditionally approved the New North Carolina Project to be the region’s service. The organization will be awarded about $5 million to be the regional service providers until 2029 or funds are depleted.

The hearing is scheduled for 4 p.m. April 8 at the DEQ Green Square Office Building, training room No. 1210, 217 West Jones St. in Raleigh.

To join the hearing by Webex link to https://ncgov.webex.com/ncgov/j.php?MTID=m21fb07102030a6f681df2f99a5537f0c and use meeting number/access code 2438 254 6635. You may also join by phone at  +1-415-655-0003 with meeting password ncwap (62927 when dialing from a phone).

The hearing officer may limit speaking times to accommodate all speakers.

The agency is also accepting public comments by mail to DEQ Weatherization Assistance Program, 1613 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1613, or by email to seo.publiccomments@deq.nc.gov, with “2026 NNCP Comment” in the subject line.  

All comments must be postmarked, emailed or hand-delivered no later than April 10.

Additional hearing documentation is available at www.deq.nc.gov/wap-hearings. 

Part of an ongoing series on coastal North Carolina’s observance of America’s 250th.

The patriot victory over loyalist forces at the Battle of Moores Creek in the early morning of Feb. 27, 1776, set North Carolina up to be one of the first colonies to vote for independence from British Rule.

That bloody battle in a Pender County swamp is considered the first decisive win of the American Revolution and is commemorated every year with a wreath-laying ceremony by the National Park Service and regional partners at Moores Creek National Battlefield.

This year, the commemoration was expanded to two days, Feb. 27-28, and anchored the weeklong inaugural First in Freedom Festival held Feb. 21-28. Taking place at historical sites, museums and other locations in Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender and Sampson counties, the festival was supported by the state’s official celebration of independence, America 250 NC, under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The weekend was both somber and celebratory, with a wreath-laying ceremony that began the two-day commemoration, living history demonstrations with both loyalist and patriot reenactors who camped on the grounds near the earthworks built by patriots for the battle, a ribbon-cutting for two new exhibits in the visitor center, and special guest, Diana Gabaldon, creator of “Outlander.”

“Outlander,” both a series of books and a television show, is about a World War II nurse who travels through time to 18^th century Scotland, where she meets a young Highlander. The historical fiction series follows the couple from 1740s Scotland to the colony of North Carolina after the American Revolution.

While rainy conditions on the first day, Feb. 27, prevented a handful of the outdoor programs from taking place, including the weapons demonstrations. The weather, while still gloomy the next morning, allowed the sun to peek out later that day.

“Despite some challenges brought forward by the weather, the event was a great success, bringing over 17,500 visitors to Moores Creek National Battlefield during the event. The success was the result of a wonderful collaboration and partnership among the National Park Service, state and local partners, as well as volunteers, reenactors and living historians,” Battlefield Chief of Interpretation, Education and Volunteers Jason Collins told Coastal Review after the event.

With the steady pitter-patter of raindrops drummed on umbrellas and tents, leaves and puddles in the background, Michael Elston, president general of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, said from the podium during the wreath-laying ceremony that North Carolina was one of the earliest colonies to end royal rule and establish its freedom from Great Britain.

The last royal governor of the North Carolina Colony, Josiah Martin, fled to the safety of a royal naval ship in July 1775 and began plotting his return to power as head of an army of loyal colonists. “Unfortunately for Gov. Martin, he overestimated the support he had in North Carolina,” Elston said. About 1,600 loyalists answered met him in what is now Fayetteville and they began marching to the coast to join British forces.

Meanwhile, patriot forces maneuvered the loyalists toward Moores Creek Bridge, where they had established a strong position.

“The patriots fought on their terms and won an extremely short battle with only one man killed and another wounded in the aftermath,” Elston said, disrupting loyalist recruiting efforts in the state. “The battle put an end to loyalist organization in North Carolina, more than five months before the Declaration of Independence.”

Historic Halifax State Historic Site Assistant Site Manager Frank McMahon, also coordinator of the 3rd North Carolina reenacting group, took the podium as well, and filled in what happened next on the state’s road to freedom.

After the Battle of Moores Creek Bridge, the people of North Carolina elected a provincial congress to lead the colony. The fourth provincial Congress, made up of 83 delegates representing 29 counties and six of North Carolina’s most populated towns, met in Halifax to define a new direction for the American Revolution.

On April 12, 1776, the members unanimously adopted the Halifax Resolves, the date for which on the North Carolina flag acting as a direct reminder of the significance of the event, McMahon said.

The document known as the Halifax Resolves was first read to the members of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in June of 1776, and “would empower North Carolina’s members of the Continental Congress to collaborate with other united colonies to declare independence from Great Britain,” McMahon said.

McMahon took the opportunity to mention the next America 250 NC signature event, the “Halifax Resolves Days: Prelude to Revolution.” There will be living history activities, historic weapons demonstrations, guest speakers, food and live music at the site southeast just east of Interstate 95 near the Virginia line.

Special to the weekend is the original copy of the Halifax Resolves that was presented to the Continental Congress in 1776, on load from the National Archives. The document will be on display in the newly renovated historic Halifax State Historic Site visitor center.

Part of the afternoon activities was a ribbon-cutting ceremony to introduce two new exhibits in the visitor center.

Collins said from inside the building that the existing displays were installed in 2006 but only tell part of the story.

“A couple of the major parts of our history that we don’t get to tell are the stories of the naval stores and the story of music in this battle,” he said, which are the focus of the two new exhibits.

‘Outlander effect’

A “Weekend with Diana Gabaldon” featured three ticketed events, starting with “An Evening with Author Diana Gabaldon” Feb. 27 in Penderlea Auditorium in Willard, followed by a guided tour of the battlefield early Feb. 28, and concluded that afternoon with a book signing at a private venue. All events were sold out months ago.

During the evening program, Hunter Ingram, the assistant museum director for the colonial Burgwin-Wright House and Gardens, a 1770 structure open to the public, had a conversation with Gabaldon about how her path as a historical fiction writer brought her to Moores Creek and the influence her detailed accounts have had on tourism.

A lifelong and avid reader, Gabaldon said she knew at the age of 8 that she was supposed to write novels, “I just didn’t have any idea how.”

Before trying her hand at writing, Gabaldon pursued a career as a scientist, earning three degrees in the subject, including a master’s degree in marine biology and a doctorate in quantitative behavioral ecology. After she and her husband married, they just celebrated 54^th anniversary, they had three children in the space of four years.

“It was busy, and at this point in my life, and I’m not sure why, probably sleep deprivation, I decided that this was the time to start writing a novel,” Gabaldon said. “Two jobs and three small children and a husband who decided to quit his job and start his own business.”

The inspiration for “Outlander” came from a “really old rerun of ‘Doctor Who’ on public television,” she said. “Doctor Who” is British science fiction television series that began in 1963. 

“I was attracted, in this particular instance, to one of the doctor’s companions, who was a young Scotsman who appeared in his kilt, and I was thinking, ‘well, that’s kind of fetching’,” she explained, leading her to begin researching 18^th century Scotland.

“So that’s when I started writing ‘Outlander’,” she said, explaining that she opted for historical fiction because “it seemed easier to look things up than to make things up.”

She begins “Outlander,” the first book that was published in 1991, with “people disappear all the time.” The line came to her one day but wasn’t the first line she wrote.

“I was thinking, ‘Well, sure, they do, but why do they?’ and then the next couple of lines just sort of evolved. This is one reason. This is another reason. And it got more mysterious, and I was sitting there thinking, ‘Well, why do they disappear?’ And that’s why there’s time travel in these books.”

As for how the characters end up in North Carolina, it’s because she’s following history. After the Battle of Culloden April 1746 in the Scottish Highlands, she said there was no reason for her characters to go back to Scotland and brought them to the Americas. Culloden was the final conflict in the Jacobite Rising and is featured prominently in the series.

“I was following history,” she said and the Highlander migration across the state, which is how colonial historic sites became part of the “Outlander” story.

Ingram praises her detailed description of Moores Creek in “A Breath of Snow and Ashes,” which is set in 1770s North Carolina.

It is not often that there are examples of someone looking at the region’s history from the outside and making it part of something so globally beloved, he said, adding it’s an interesting way to look at not just Moores Creek, but local history in Wilmington, in the Cape Fear region, and across North Carolina.

“A lot of the historic sites have seen an impact from people being interested in ‘Outlander’,” Ingram said.

Gabaldon told the audience that she’s seen similar in Scotland and has been given honorary doctorate degrees for services to country by the University of Glasgow and the University of the Highlands, and the Scottish Government gave her a Thistle Award, which spotlights the tourism industry.

It is being called the “Outlander effect.”

She recounted that when the show first began filming, she was on set for about six weeks in a village near Glasgow. During lunch, she and another writer went to a café to buy sandwiches, but the shopkeeper didn’t have change. He then realized she is the creator of “Outlander,” and explained that she had had no idea what she had done for the economy there.  

Ingram said the effect has been noticeable at historic sites in the region and mentioned the discussion they when she was a special guest on the podcast he hosts for the Burgwin-Wright House called, “Outlander in the Cape Fear.”

He said that during the podcast, they discussed her impact and, “You said you felt it was a lovely side effect of the work that you’ve done, not just here in North Carolina — but we’re kind of biased that, you know, we want to see more people pay attention to our history — and so the fact that we’re all here on the 250th anniversary of Moores Creek today, I think, is a testament to what you’ve done.”

During the tour of the battlefield the next day with Historic Weapons Supervisor and Special Park Uses Coordinator Jason Howell and Gabaldon, Howell said something similar.

“She does a really good job of pulling you into the earthworks in the morning fog,” he said, adding how he remembered being captured by her writing. “And one thing Diana does is, she gets people like you interested in these sites. It’s from her viewpoint and it’s from an alternate viewpoint, but she captures your attention.”

And, as a result, he’s seen Outlander fans come to the site, who admit to not liking history that much but are interested in the battlefield.

More information on America 250 NC events, including details on the Halifax Resolves Days, can be found at america250.nc.gov.

Dare County is finalizing plans to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary taking place next month.

Scheduled for Saturday, April 18, in downtown Manteo and at Roanoke Island Festival Park, Dare A250 Faire is Dare County’s signature event commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The celebration will feature a variety of vendors, along with live music, historical reenactments and storytelling, art displays, educational programming, community exhibits, family-friendly activities and patriotic festivities that highlight Dare County as the “Land of Beginnings.”

Activities will take place throughout downtown Manteo from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., before transitioning to Roanoke Island Festival Park for the Star Spangled Spectacular, an evening celebration featuring headlining musical acts and a special performance highlighting Dare County’s rich history.

The Dare A250 Faire was originally scheduled at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills but was relocated to Manteo and Roanoke Island Festival Park to allow “all aspects of the planning committee’s vision to be included in the celebration,” organizers said. “The Roanoke Island setting highlights the area’s rich history as the ‘Birthplace of America,’ with the historic Elizabeth II serving as a meaningful backdrop to the festivities.”

The Dare A250 Celebration is designed as a full-day experience and is offered free of charge. While the daytime festivities in downtown Manteo are open to all, free tickets will be required for the evening performance at Roanoke Island Festival Park due to venue capacity. Tickets can be reserved online.

Musical acts are to be announced in the coming weeks.

Oak Island is hosting an Arbor Day Celebration Friday to commemorate the town’s recognition as a 2026 Tree City USA, an annual, national program of the Arbor Day Foundation.

The celebration will feature a tree planting ceremony of two live oak trees and attendees may take home a free one-gallon live oak seedling, courtesy of Penderlea Farms of Burgaw.

The Brunswick County town has over the past several years taken steps to preserve, manage and expand its tree canopy, including its creation of a tree canopy assessment, identifying heritage trees within town limits, and planting live oaks throughout the town.

More than 250 new live oaks have been planted within the last two years through the town’s popular adopt-a-tree program for residents.

Tree City USA provides a foundation for community forestry management based on set of core standards established by the Arbor Day Foundation.

In North Carolina, Arbor Day is celebrated on the Friday following March 15.

The celebration is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. in Bill Smith Park, 4410 Fish Factory Road.

Construction and other projects expected to affect waters or wetlands will now be vetted through a newly implemented state process.

Depending on a its impacts to streams and wetlands, some projects will get to bypass a 30-day notice as part of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources Clean Water Act 401 general certifications updates that took effect March 15.

The new certificate of coverage process is anticipated to apply to “many project” currently requiring individual Clean Water Act Section 401 water quality certifications, according to a DEQ release.

Applicants must still apply to the division through the new process, but those that meet thresholds and conditions under the general certification will receive a letter of concurrence, which will allow the project to proceed without a 30-day notice.

Project located in sensitive areas, those with a significant quantity of impacts to waters or wetlands, or those that cannot meet the general certification conditions must still go through the process of a 30-day public notice and project-specific decision letter to obtain individual 401 water quality certification.

The state’s update reflects corresponding U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 404 Nationwide Permits, which have been modified following a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that changed the definition of “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS.

That same year, the North Carolina General Assembly passed session law directing the state Environmental Management Commission to adopt a rule that aligns the state’s definition of wetlands to those of the federal definition.

The latest definition excludes noncontiguous wetlands, or those that are not connected to navigable waters.

The Corps has extended a one-year grace period to projects it has approved for permitting to complete impacts to waters outlined under their existing federal permit. New certifications will not be required for those projects.

DEQ advises permittees to check with their Corps representative to confirm whether the grace period is applicable to their projects.

The division has included a list of frequently asked questions online for general information.

It’s been nearly a month since a video first aired of Wilmington’s mayor invoking residents to voice their opposition to one town’s plans to pull millions of gallons of water daily from the Cape Fear River.

“Today this vital resource is under threat from growing water-hungry communities upstream,” Mayor Bill Saffo says in the clip as he stands along the city’s downtown Riverwalk.

Fuquay-Varina, a town about 30 miles south of Raleigh, wants to move more than 6 million gallons of water each day from the Cape Fear River to the Neuse River, he explains in the video made in collaboration with the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

“That’s 6 million gallons gone, each day, forever. It is important that you make your voice heard now for your family and for future generations. Add your voice to those of your neighbors and friends who already are telling the state to say no to Fuquay-Varina’s permanent taking of our water,” Saffo concludes.

Only a couple of more weeks are left until the public comment period on Fuquay-Varina’s request for an interbasin transfer, or IBT, certificate closes.

Maya Holcomb, a Division of Water Resources representative, told members of the state Environmental Management Commission’s Water Allocation Committee last week that she anticipated receiving comments all the way through to the April 1 deadline.

In her presentation to the committee Thursday, Holcomb provided an update on the numbers of correspondence she’d received in the days since she initially crafted her report, when the email count was at 283.

Related: Opponents say river water transfer puts Cape Fear in peril

“But I just keep getting so many emails, which — we’re hearing from the public, that’s great — but I have received an additional 42 emails since this PowerPoint was created last week,” Holcomb said.

Holcomb said she had also received 41 resolutions from cities, towns, counties, homebuilders, substations and public utilities.

She did not say how many of those resolutions oppose the IBT, but instead highlighted what she described as the “newest” issues of concern: loss of water for agricultural purposes, nutrient concentration in the Neuse River Basin, such as those that cause algal blooms, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, hypoxia, drought vulnerability and chemical export of industrial pollutants from the Cape Fear River.

Those concerns mirror some of arguments made by dozens of people who spoke out against the transfer during a series of state-hosted public hearings in December.

Fuquay-Varina projects that the water supply, from which it currently buys from Raleigh and Harnett and Johnston counties, will fall short of demand by 2030.

Under the proposed preferred alternative identified in a draft environmental impact statement for the transfer, Fuquay-Varina would source its entire water supply from a water treatment plant in Sanford, which is in the Cape Fear River Basin.

Once water pulled from the Cape Fear River is used by residents and businesses in that town, the treated wastewater would then be discharged into the Neuse River Basin.

This would permanently subtract 6.17 million gallons each day from the river flow that currently serves about 900,000 residents of counties, cities, towns and communities from Fayetteville to Wilmington.

“Put in perspective, 6.17 (million gallons per day) of raw water from the river is enough to provide treated drinking water to more than 27,000 homes,” according to Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s website.

In the weeks and months leading up to CFPUA’s campaign against Fuquay-Varina’s plan, several local governments and utilities adopted resolutions and sent letters of opposition to the state.

New Hanover County, Wilmington and Brunswick County and more than a dozen Brunswick County municipalities have officially gone on record opposing Fuquay-Varina’s request.

Holcomb explained last week that, after April 1, state environmental officials will respond to comments on the draft environmental impact statement and then formulate a hearing officers’ report, which will be finalized sometime between July and September.

After that, the Environmental Management Commission will determine whether the EIS is technically adequate. Following that determination, the Department of Environmental Quality will issue its record of decision.

Another round of public hearings will be held before the EMC makes its final determination.

If approved, the transfer would occur after 2031, according to the draft impact statement.

Comments may be submitted to Maya Holcomb, Division of Water Resources, 512 N. Salisbury St., Raleigh, NC, 27604, or by email to maya.holcomb@deq.nc.gov.

Whether its a nature hike, a stormwater tour at North Carolina’s premiere coastal university, or helping a town’s staff permanently mark storm drains, there’s something for nearly everyone during Cape Fear Creek Week.

Creek Week kicks off on Sunday and goes through March 21, offering opportunities to connect with, celebrate, and care for local waterways of the Cape Fear Region.

Throughout the week, participants are invited to play Cape Fear Creek Week virtual bingo by completing activities for a chance to win a swag bag.

The events lineup starts Sunday with a birding walk from 10-11 a.m. in Leland, where participants will be given tips on how to identify local and migrating birds. Registration for this event is through the town of Leland.

On Monday, gather beneath cypress trees in Wallace Park at 2110 Market St. in Wilmington for a scavenger hunt from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. The Alliance for Cape Fear Trees will have resources on hand to share tips on how to properly plant and care for trees.

The University of North Carolina Wilmington is hosting that afternoon a behind-the-scenes tour of its stormwater-control measures, including rain gardens, permeable pavement systems and other sustainable features that reduce runoff and support healthier waterways. This event will be held 2-3 p.m. Monday at 4935 Riegel Road. Registration is required.

On Monday evening, discover ways to diagnose and restore wetland habitats through Habitat Fixer Uppers with Fort Fisher Aquarium, a program scheduled for 6-7:30 p.m. at 1212 Magnolia Village Way in Leland. You may register here.

Tuesday, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority will host a tour of its Southside Water Reclamation Facility, 3436 River Road in Wilmington. Registered participants must be age 5 or older.

Events for Wednesday include a bird hike at Burnt Mill Creek 8-9:30 a.m., an opportunity to work alongside employees of Leland’s engineering department 4-5:30 p.m. to permanently mark the town’s storm drains, a children’s scavenger hunt 5-6 p.m. at Cypress Cover Park in Leland, and resilient coastal communities program public meeting drop in between 5p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Skyline Center in downtown Wilmington.

Events later in the week include a golden hour guided tour by paddleboat in Greenfield Lake Park, a walking tour at Pages Creek, a sustainability brewery tour at Mad Mole Brewing (for those 21 and older), a Brunswick Nature Park tour in Winnabow, and a cleanup at Greenfield Lake Park.

Details, including all dates, times and locations, are available on the N.C. Cooperative Extension website.

Cape Fear Creek Week is a collaboration between the N.C. Cooperative Extension, Wilmington’s Heal our Waterways, Leland, Cape Fear River Watch, New Hanover County Soil and Water Conservation District, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, Coastal Land Trust, Cape Fear Birding Observatory, Plastic Ocean Project, Mad Mole Brewery, UNCW Sustainability, and Alliance for Cape Fear Trees.

A hand-stitched replica of George Washington’s sleeping and office tent, which served as the command center for the Continental Army, will be on display March 26-28 at Tryon Palace historic site in New Bern.

The First Oval Office Project travels the country providing interactive education and outreach programming that brings George Washington’s wartime headquarters to life. The full-scale replica of Washington’s Revolutionary War tent, often referred to as the “First Oval Office,” is the centerpiece of the project.

“Tryon Palace will be the only site in North Carolina to host the First Oval Office Project during 2026,” North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said in a release. “This immersive living history program can provide us a deeper understanding of the Revolutionary War by telling the story of General Washington and all those who served alongside him.”

The Museum of the American Revolution’s First Oval Office Project and its adjoining educational programming is a signature event for DNCRs’ America 250 NC initiative that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrates the state’s important role in the American Revolution.

A team of interpreters from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, where the original sleeping and office tent is on permanent display, will be on site to guide visitors and answer questions about Washington’s military life while on campaign.

Tickets to tour the First Oval Office Project are $20 for adults and $10 for youth, and may be purchased online or at the North Carolina History Center Ticket Desk on Front Street or at the Waystation Ticket Office just across from the Palace’s front gates on Pollock Street.

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort will devote a full day to exploring whales and whaling from multiple perspectives, highlighting both the cultural history of whaling and today’s conservation efforts.

The annual Whales and Whaling Symposium is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 20, followed by an evening program at 5:30 p.m. in the museum’s auditorium. The symposium was held at Fort Macon State Park last year while the Beaufort facility was undergoing renovations.

The symposium is offered at no charge, but reservations are requested because there is limited seating. For more information or to RSVP, call call 252-504-7758 or visit ncmaritimemuseumbeaufort.com.

“We wanted to create a program that looks at whales through many lenses: science, history, art and conservation,” Associate Education Curator Christine Brin, who coordinated the symposium, said in a release. “Whales have shaped coastal communities for centuries, and they continue to shape conversations about how we care for our oceans today.”

The program begins at 10:15 a.m. with “NC Whales: Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation,” presented by Keith Rittmaster, the museum’s natural science curator and director of the Bonehenge Whale Center.

Rittmaster is to discuss the 35 species of cetaceans, or the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, documented off North Carolina’s coast, conservation challenges and ongoing work at Bonehenge Whale Center, a facility in Beaufort focused on marine conservation, educational programming, outreach, publications, and stranded specimen collection and maintenance for these mammals.

Next on the schedule is historian David Cecelski who will present at 11:15 a.m. “Nye’s Clock Oil and the Bottlenose Dolphin Fishery at Hatteras Island.” His talk examines the surprising connection between North Carolina’s coastal fisheries, the waning days of American whaling and the rise of the U.S. clockmaking industry at the turn of the 20th century.

After lunch at 2 p.m. Dr. Vicki Szabo, professor of ancient, medieval and environmental history at Western Carolina University, will present “Watching Whales in the Middle Ages.” In her talk, Szabo contrasts whale mythology in medieval Europe with the practical knowledge of coastal communities, drawing on historical texts and archaeological evidence.

Marine biologist and conservation-based crafter Tommy Tucker is to present at 3 p.m. “How Many Whales Does It Take to Save a Species?” that focuses on the critically endangered Rice’s whales and uses the stories of individual whales to illustrate the intersection of maritime history, natural history and conservation.

The day concludes with the evening program featuring the North Carolina aerial survey team for North Atlantic right whales. Operated locally in Beaufort by the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute in Florida and funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the team will discuss right whale biology, current population trends and how aerial surveys are supporting recovery efforts for this critically endangered species.

“Each speaker brings a unique perspective, but together they tell a much larger story,” Brin said. “From medieval whale myths to modern aerial surveys, this symposium shows how our understanding of whales has evolved and why that understanding matters more than ever.”

The North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort is part of the Division of History Museums under the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.