Investment in the quality of the Lower Cape Fear River is a goal of a new initiative announced this week by The Nature Conservancy.
The conservation group is creating a water fund it says is intended to help improve the river’s water quality by encouraging investment from affected parties.
An announcement released this week described the fund as “a collaborative, voluntary, long-term approach to watershed conservation where water users and other interested parties invest in upstream lands to improve management and conserve natural areas in order to maintain clean water.”
The initiative has been years in the making, with representatives with The Nature Conservancy reaching out to affected property owners, conservation groups and government stakeholders. The release quotes Dr. Rebecca Benner, the conservancy’s science director, who noted the outreach efforts thus far.
“We’ve been talking with large water users, researchers, agricultural extension agents, government agencies, conservation organizations and others about this proposal,” Benner said. “The Conservancy and other groups have worked on the conservation of the Cape Fear River basin for many years.
“The water fund represents an opportunity to bring in new players and build new collaborations,” she said, “and with this, new ideas for helping achieve long-term conservation goals.”
According to the release, the conservancy is focusing on the stretch of the Cape Fear River between Lock and Dams 1 and 2, which Benner described as “important for people and nature.”
“New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties get their drinking water there. There is a rich diversity of aquatic species living there, and it is critical for migratory fish that must go upstream to lay their eggs,” she said.
The conservancy says algal blooms have increasingly plagued the river, resulting in reduced river flow and high water temperatures. Reducing the amount of nutrients that enter the river upstream—through runoff and other factors—is expected to help prevent future water quality problems.
Goals of the water fund initiative include identification and better understanding of the sources of those nutrients, developing feasible conservation practices that could be financed in the watershed to reduce nutrients, and determining how such efforts reduce risks to the river’s water quality.
“Next steps include developing a long-term financial mechanism and governance plan for the water fund to ensure that there are lasting investments in the watershed,” the release states, going on to quote Dan Ryan, project director of the conservancy’s Wilmington office, who called the water fund program a potential “win for everyone.”
“Water users have a vested interest in finding low-cost, sustainable options for maintaining clean water, and upstream landowners have the opportunity to be compensated for investing in practices that might interest them,” Ryan said.
More information on the program and the conservancy can be found through its website, www.nature.org.
