With help from the U.S. Navy, The Nature Conservancy has acquired 459 acres in Pender County that will add to protected habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.
The Navy covered half of the purchase price of the land—located north of U.S. 17 at the Onslow County line (See map below)—because the habitat expansion would also buffer nearby Camp Lejeune firing ranges from development, according to a release issued Tuesday. The Nature Conservancy plans to use a $250,000 wetlands conservation grant and cover the rest of its half through private donations.
The land, purchased from Batts Properties, will be used to restore longleaf pine forest—the preferred habitat of red-cockaded woodpeckers—through additional planting and controlled burning, said Hervey McIver, who leads the conservancy’s work in Pender County.
“There’s little history of soil disturbance in the area, which means the plants and wetlands that dot the land are in excellent shape but for the need for fire,” McIver is quoted as saying in the release. “It will respond well to fire—bringing out rare plants such as Venus flytrap.”
McIver also said the area has a significant cultural heritage, noting George Washington is known to have slept nearby.
“We plan to call it Sage’s Ridge Preserve,” he said, “named after Robert Sage who owned an inn nearby on the stage coach line from New Bern to Wilmington. George Washington stayed at Sage’s inn during his 1791 southern tour.”
The Nature Conservancy and its conservation partners have protected over 67,000 acres in the region known as Onslow Bight, stretching from the Northeast Cape Fear River to the Pamlico Rivers, the release notes. “These lands are home to a wide array of plant species, many of them dependent on regular fire” through controlled burns.
Beyond Pender County, The Nature Conservancy also owns the 15,000-plus-acre Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County, and helps to manage the state-owned Boiling Spring Lakes Preserve, which spans 7,000 acres around the city that is its namesake.
Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, has also played a significant part in preserving longleaf pine habitat, achieving a habitat conservation goal in 2011 of 100 active clusters of red-cockaded woodpeckers—an increase from 32 in 1986.
Jonathan Spiers is a reporter for Port City Daily. He can be reached at (910) 772-6313 or [email protected]. On Twitter: @jrspiers
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