The Roanoke River stretches for 137 miles across North Carolina's Coastal Plain and is up to five miles wide in some places. Its floodplain contains the largest intact and least-disturbed bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem remaining in the mid-Atlantic region. The middle section of the Roanoke River is characterized by alluvial forests and large backswamps, while the lower section contains vast tracts of bald cypress and water tupelo swamp forests. The Roanoke River provides a haven for a host of plants and animals, including more than 200 bird species.

Hawthorne in bloom, Bull Run Island, Roanoke River © Harold Malde

Conservation Highlights:
The Conservancy has worked with many public and private partners who have participated in the complex task of protecting significant natural areas along a 137-mile river corridor.

In 1989, the Conservancy purchased 10,626 acres in Bertie and Martin counties from Georgia-Pacific Corporation to create the Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge and add land to the state-owned Roanoke River Wetlands. In 1994, Georgia-Pacific Corporation and the Conservancy entered into an agreement to jointly manage and protect approximately 21,000 acres on the Roanoke. And in 2006, The Nature Conservancy purchased 22,000 acres along the Roanoke from International Paper, as part of the largest-ever land conservation project in the southern United States.

Clickable map

Learn more about this project with the
Online Field Guide.


Roanoke River, NC

(QuickTime, 2.4 MB)

 

Flood of Mud
(Click on "Products" to access QuickTime Video)
Produced by the Appalachian Laboratory Environmental Science Education (ALESE) Program University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

 

Discover the importance of the Roanoke River
to local communities in our brochure.
(Adobe .pdf, 2 MB)

The Roanoke River, from Hills Ferry Bluff
© Harold Malde