Eight maritime forests on North Carolina's barrier islands are especially important because of their ecological significance and their potential for preservation. These eight have been rated as high-priority sites for preservation efforts.
A survey of the various dialects heard along the Outer Banks, this article addresses both the unique language patterns and the settlement pattern of the North Carolina coast.
Dare County's Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge is one of the last large pocosin tracts in North Carolina and home to several U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service projects, such as the re-introduction of the red wolf.
By the 1970s, the red wolf faced extinction. Six years after a groundbreaking experiment to save the red wolf began in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, the shy, nocturnal wolf has a chance of survival.
Fort Macon, built between 1826 and 1834 in Carteret County, is a popular tourist spot and a witness to decades of North Carolina history, including the April 25, 1862, Civil War battle.
Due to a new North Carolina Fisheries regulation, fishery agents and fishermen are working to reduce bycatch -- the amount of non-targeted catch -- fishermen net along with their intended catch. Various bycatch reduction devices (BRDs) are being tested.
The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission is working on a saltwater sportsfishing licensing program; concerned citizens are encouraged to involve themselves in the process.
Nonpoint source pollution is proving to be a complex problem along the coast, closing shellfish waters and causing concern about the general degradation of the water supply.
The project to deepen Morehead City's harbor presented the town of Atlantic Beach with five million cubic yards of free sand, yet the sand itself was not sufficient to settle the debate over beach nourishment.
As North Carolina's coastal communities attempt to deal with beach erosion, beach nourishment appears to be an alternative. High costs and imperfectly understood long-term effects, however, are clear drawbacks.
The Black River contains clean water and cypress trees thought to be up to 2,000 years old. Friends of the river hope to protect its pristine condition.
The Black River was a commercial highway from the colonial period until the late 19th-century. Truck and rail transportation ended this activity, which may have saved the river from environmental degradation.
Researcher Mary Kay Clark is working to establish the extent to which old-growth forests and abandoned buildings serve as habitats for the eastern big-eared bat, and to learn if populations are declining.
The wild horses on North Carolina's Outer Banks have spawned debate as to their true origin. The horses roam a 175-mile stretch from the Virginia line to Carrot Island, and face an uncertain future as development encroaches on their habitat.
Whether alone or with an expedition, professional or amateur, fossil hunters will find North Carolina's Coastal Plain a natural museum of fossils ranging from a few thousand to eighty million years old.