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Go DeeperThe Nature Conservancy in North Carolina The Nature Conservancy's Global Climate Change Initiative |
Now & Then: Staying the Course — River Gains
Protection and Faces New Challengese
By Jennifer Winger
The Alligator River carves a dark vein through 75 miles of forested swamp on North Carolina’s eastern shore. Songbirds trill from tangles of evergreen shrub along its banks, and a host of forest-dwelling mammals pad about the peat soils of this wetland habitat — home to one of the largest remaining concentrations of black bears on the mid-Atlantic coast.
This river that safeguards rare species such as the red wolf and the red-cockaded woodpecker has now gained some protection of its own. In April, The Nature Conservancy and partners purchased the last 8,500 acres of unprotected land along the river. All told, nearly 270,000 acres along the
fingers of freshwater and brackish marsh reaching inland from Albemarle Sound have been preserved. According to Tommy Hughes, a biologist for the state Wildlife Resources Commission, this conservation success is historic.
“There is no place else in the state where both sides of a river are protected,” says Hughes. “And protecting the river means protecting species and peatland rare to North Carolina.”
The river (so named because it is the northernmost haven of the American alligator) is also important for the local economy. The Alligator empties into the Albemarle Sound — a booming estuary that generates $1 billion in revenue
from commercial fishing.
The conservation of this ecologically and economically valuable pocosin habitat — “pocosin” is an Algonquian word meaning “swamp on a hill” — began in 1984, when the Conservancy worked to secure a gift of 118,000 acres from the Prudential Insurance Co. of America to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. At the time, the donation was valued at more than $50 million and was the largest conservation donation in history. To further protect the river’s associated habitats, the Conservancy purchased an additional 25,000 acres of freshwater wetlands, saltwater marshes and wooded swamps. These acreages were combined to form the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, where, in 1987, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reintroduced the endangered red wolf. Today, the howl of nearly 100 free-ranging wolves can be heard in the refuge’s swamp forests.
While the recent acquisition will protect the river from the development pressure and agricultural runoff that plague the Albemarle Peninsula, the Alligator’s wetland habitats now face a threat that no fence can hold at bay: Sea-level rise brought on by climate change could flood these lands in as little as 60 years. But scientists will help these ecosystems adapt by planting saltwater-loving marsh grasses in lands likely to be submerged and building oyster reefs to protect the shore from strong waves and fast currents.
“Almost 500,000 acres of protected land in northeastern North Carolina are extremely vulnerable to small changes in sea level,” says Fred Annand, associate director of the Conservancy’s work in North Carolina. “But by protecting the shoreline, we can give it a chance to evolve into a healthy, albeit different, ecosystem."
Nature picture credits (top to bottom): TNC (Alligator River National Wildlife Reserve) © TNC (Peat soil)
