Piece By Piece, N.C. Shoreline is Preserved

By Jeff Hampton, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Apr. 10–STATE WILDLIFE BIOLOGIST Tommy Hughes drove a four-wheel-drive over a muddy trail Wednesday through the latest tract set aside along the Alligator River.

Deep within the tall pines unseen were some of the biggest black bears in North Carolina, rare red wolves and endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers.

Hughes and others from several agencies led a tour through part of 8,476 acres along the Alligator River in Tyrrell County that were purchased for $8.2 million. Now, nearly all 75 miles of shoreline along the river have been preserved for wildlife.

Freshwater wetlands, salt marshes and wooded swamps are home to large mammals such as bear and red wolves. The river and its tributaries serve as spawning grounds for fish such as striped bass. The red-cockaded woodpeckers live in the old pines there.

“It’s such a diverse area from an ecological standpoint,” Hughes said.

No other river in the state has a higher percentage of its shoreline preserved, said Fred Annand, associate director of The Nature Conservancy.

Annand has been negotiating for six years to buy the property from owners who were logging it, he said.

Using grants from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission bought 5,101 acres. Meanwhile, The Nature Conservancy bought 3,375 acres to hold for the state until more funding is available.

Preservation along the Alligator River began in 1984, when Prudential Life Insurance donated 118,000 acres to The Nature Conservancy. The land was turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the form the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The Fish and Wildlife Service later bought other tracts, increasing the refuge to more than 150,000 acres.

Valued at $50 million, it was the largest conservation donation in history at the time. Creation of the refuge ultimately allowed the Fish and Wildlife Service to reintroduce four pairs of red wolves to the region. Now there are about 150 there.

In the years since the initial donation, The Nature Conservancy, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the state and others have set aside 270,000 acres of protected land along the river that features two national wildlife refuges, thousands of acres of state game lands and a coastal reserve.

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com

—–

To see more of the The Virginian-Pilot, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.pilotonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.