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A CONSERVANCY CONVERSATION

A CONSERVANCY CONVERSATION

By: Andy Wood, Conservation Ecologist

A young Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) surveys a rainpool inside a Northeast New Hanover Conservancy property in the gated Landfall community. This sharp-eyed bird of prey eats mice, frogs, lizards, snakes, and other small animals. Southern Leopard Frog (Lithobates sphenocephala) were on the hawk’s menu this day.

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“Nature matters to people. Big trees and small trees, glistening water, chirping birds, budding bushes, colorful flowers – these are important ingredients in a good life.”

These words, penned in 1983 by psychologist Rachel Kaplan, underscore a human truth: Nature in its wildness is good for us. This truth extends beyond the physical ecosystem services provided by plants and animals interacting in their habitats; the natural services that clean the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the soil that grows our food. Yes, it is living organisms (Earth’s biota) that provide the life-support services our own species requires.

If text space allowed, I could launch into a tangent about how the actions of beavers, across North America, came to create some of the best soils a farmer could want. I can also explain, using mathematics and scientific facts, how mosquitoes fit in the great pyramid of life that ultimately sustains human beings; the living, breathing species poised on the pyramid’s tippy-top. These are the easy things for me to explain, ecologically-speaking, in part because they are tangible and physically-measurable benefits from nature.

The more difficult benefits of nature to describe are those not measured in acres of soil created, gallons of water filtered, or pounds of fruit produced. I speak here of what my college professors called “intangible” benefits; what Dr. Kaplan later called “…important ingredients in a good life.”

With thanks due to recent studies conducted by mental health professionals, we now have a better understanding about “intangible benefits” we derive from nature; the positive mental and physical benefits that come from connecting with nature outdoors including solace garnered by way of a quiet walk along a simple path meandering through a natural garden.

Of course in rapidly-urbanizing New Hanover County, NC, we are running short of unfettered natural places for plants and wildlife to dwell and for people to gently explore. Northeast New Hanover Conservancy (NENHC), this region’s longest-operating local land trust, was founded by a concerned group of citizens in 1981 with the simple goal of protecting natural habitats, large or small, and the beneficial ecosystem services they provide. And I can say with confidence that NENHC is protecting some very significant habitats.

At this time NENHC is caretaker for 1,350 acres, including more than 530 acres spread across 30 distinct parcels in and around the gated Landfall community. Our other notable acreages include an 88-acre parcel of coastal saltmarsh behind the north end of Wrightsville Beach, adjacent to Mason Inlet, and another 800 acres of saltmarsh habitat behind the north end of Figure Eight Island, adjacent to Rich Inlet.

For perspective, NENHC monitors and protects more natural habitat inside Landfall, than all the natural habitat areas owned and managed by the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County—combined! When our New Hanover County properties outside of Landfall are added-in, NENHC’s total protected acreage (1,350) is greater than New Hanover County acreage under NC State Park control (1,049).

Admittedly, the bulk of NENHC’s wooded land holdings rest inside Landfall and are only accessible by Landfall residents and guests. With all due respect, ecologically-speaking, whether or not a conservation property is accessible to the public is less important than the meaningful ecosystem services the property provides to everyone; much like other public trust natural resources.

As a not-for-profit land trust holding significant lands unopen to public access, NENHC is excluded from state and federal grants, and most private foundations that could otherwise help support NENHC’s property monitoring, planning, and management efforts. We instead rely on the generosity of individuals, especially people who do have access to our conservation areas, and others who care about habitat protection in general.

To the point about NENHC property access, we are working closely with Landfall managers and residents to develop and implement a trail management plan that will allow fun and safe admittance into some of our ecoregion’s most compelling natural places. While maybe not as glamorous as salamanders, songbirds, or colorful mushrooms, we are improving existing walking trails as an objective to build greater awareness and appreciation of the natural spaces NENHC protects to the benefit of people, plants, and wildlife.

On behalf of nature right outside, I hope you’ll consider making a tax-deductible donation to Northeast New Hanover Conservancy. Your gift will ensure the habitats we protect will continue providing tangible ecosystem services supporting “Big trees and small trees, glistening water, chirping birds, budding bushes, colorful flowers – [the] important ingredients in a good life.”

ANDY WOOD

Community Conservation Consultant

http://nenhc.org/?p=146

Landfall Nature Trail Update

Our nature trails within Landfall have suffered from storm damage over the years.  They were originally designed as walking trails with vegetative mulch used to create a raised and smooth surface.  The climate is causing the wetlands to fill more than normal so that some of the nature trails have some serious damage to the surface. 

A joint effort with Landfall maintenance to add small wooden bridges has been started.  Below is a photo of one of the bridges completed as a trial. 

We looked into an alternate method to improve the trails by adding some bonding agent to the trail soil but it proved to be too destructive to the surrounding environment in our test area so we have abandoned that idea. 

The trails will be enhanced by adding mulch to the surface as previously done and adding wooden bridges to the wet areas.

Landfall Conservation Areas

The NORTHEAST NEW HANOVER CONSERVANCY (NENHC) may be the smallest land trust you’ve never heard-of, but in truth, other than Landfall Associates, we are the largest single land-owner inside Landfall (more than 100 acres owned in fee simple and more than 420 acres that we protect in accordance with deeds of conservation).

The NORTHEAST NEW HANOVER CONSERVANCY manages natural habitats to protect ecosystem services they provide to the benefit of the entire Landfall community; services including storm water storage and filtration, air cleaning, carbon sequestration, and space for our ecoregion’s diverse array of plants and wildlife to continue thriving as they have for many millennia.

To that end, we are asking Landfall residents (and guests) to consider making a donation to NENHC’s “Adopt-an-Acre” sustaining campaign. Our goal calls for 10% of Landfall residents (~200 donors) to adopt an acre of Landfall conservation property. At $1000 per acre, the money we garner will go into direct, place-based habitat conservation work inside Landfall.

All told, NENHC protects more than 530 acres of undeveloped habitat spread across 30 distinct parcels inside Landfall’s boundary. That’s one quarter of Landfall’s total land area providing irreplaceable ecosystem services as intended when Landfall was first being developed.

For perspective, NENHC monitors and protects more natural habitat inside Landfall, than all the natural habitat areas owned and managed by the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County—combined!

When our New Hanover County properties outside of Landfall are added-in, NENHC’s total protected acreage (1,350) is greater than New Hanover County acreage under NC State Park control (1,049).

NENHC is a focused land trust. We have been protecting natural habitats in northeastern New Hanover County since 1982 and many of our most compelling properties, conservation areas inside Landfall, are among the last best parcels of New Hanover County’s natural heritage.

As steward of these precious natural assets, NENHC undertakes conservation actions designed and implemented to protect the beneficial ecosystem services these assets provide to all Landfall residents.

To be clear, the business-end of this work is driven by legally-binding deed restrictions that NENHC, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, must actively uphold on behalf of Landfall itself. As required by deed, we conduct baseline habitat assessment and annual monitoring of all the conservation areas under our control. We also respond to our neighbors who may have a question about some bird or wildflower they observed, or a concern regarding a storm-damaged tree near their property. 

Protecting the wild habitats we own and/or manage is NENHC’s imperative because these places provide ecosystem services that clean our air and water—in addition to providing habitat for our ecoregion’s native plants and wildlife, and space for people to connect with nature right outside their doors.

We accept this resource management responsibility and welcome Landfall residents to help us with our endeavors, whether it’s planting a pollinator garden for butterflies and birds, or sharing notes about plants and wildlife you observe during field explorations inside conservation areas, or inside your own yard. 

As example, NENHC’s “PROJECT BOX TURTLE” is a monitoring program that tracks Landfall’s population of Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapin caroliniana) (above). This once common species is in decline due to habitat loss throughout most of North Carolina. Not so inside Landfall however, where critical habitat areas support respectable, albeit isolated, populations of free-range box turtles that have dwelled in Landfall’s woods for half a century and more—before there were paved roads and cars. When encountered, each turtle is photographed and measured (without handling), and its location recorded (Note that no two box turtle shell patterns are the same).

Results of this work will help locate and mitigate areas where turtles are inclined to cross roads. We’ll expand this project with a pond turtle monitoring project, and welcome help from volunteer scientists.

Another example of our work includes a MILKWEED FOR MONARCHS project, funded in 2015 with a generous donation from a Landfall resident. This endeavor installed more than 1,000 milkweed plants (below right, staged before planting) and 4,500 other wildflowers around Landfall Lake in May 2015.

Above left, a Scarlet Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) being visited in summer 2015 by a Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris).

As part of this collaborative effort with COASTAL PLAIN CONSERVATION GROUP, Volunteers monitored more than 50 of the lake’s Monarch caterpillars through their full-life cycle; not to count the number of butterflies produced, but to learn which elements of the project will work best in other applications. In addition to monarchs, the wildflowers supported dozens of other pollinating insects, along with numerous insect-eating garden spiders, and lizards, that hid among the blooms.

Lessons learned from this experience will be applied in other Landfall conservation areas to benefit birds and butterflies, while also creating a colorful “urban-wildland” interface buffer. We think these garden spaces will in-turn build interest-in and greater awareness about NENHC and our works.

For almost four decades NENHC has been protecting many of the last best natural habitats on the New Hanover County mainland. And we’ve accomplished this work without a formal annual funding source outside of contributions from individual donors. Of course when calamity strikes, as with Hurricane Florence in 2018, we do get help from Landfall managers. But that help is understandably focused with attention to reducing hazards including fallen or broken trees, especially near conservation area trails.

With all due respect, Landfall’s conservation properties are in need of more help than Landfall managers can budget at this time and, because Landfall conservation properties are not available to public access, NENHC is excluded from most government grant opportunities. This is our conservation conundrum and this note is a NENHC appeal to Landfall residents and guests for financial support to ensure Landfall’s natural heritage legacy remains intact, ecologically healthy, and aesthetically pleasing.

Conservation properties under our management were originally established in partnership with Landfall’s founders to mitigate habitat loss resulting from development. The properties were set-aside but unfortunately no money was secured to sustain their proper management. The consequence of that lapse is seen in forested areas where fallen trees, broken branches and thickly-layered pine straw detract from what should otherwise be appealing natural gardens that provide a welcoming, natural sense of place.

Encounters in conservation: A few of the community members dwelling in Landfall’s natural heritage areas—

L to R: Slimy Salamander (Plethodon chlorobryonis); Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis); Amanita Mushroom

Based on the diverse plant and wildlife communities we’ve explored, some of Landfall’s natural habitats no doubt appear as they did when Pembroke Jones wandered these acres. Indeed, Landfall’s remaining wild places offer a glimpse of this region’s appearance when Europeans first set foot on North America’s Atlantic seaboard. Admittedly these habitats are mere vestiges of what once covered southeast North Carolina and that’s what makes them so very precious.

L to R: Marsh Pink (Sabatia stellaris); Old-growth Pond Pine (Pinus serotina); Coral Mushroom (Clavicorona sp).

The imperative tone behind these words has everything to do with ecological sustainability. NENHC properties are safe from development but they are not safe from languishing into decline as a consequence of neglect—an untenable condition for residents and guests of Landfall.

Nature Trails

NATURE TRAILS

Our nature trails within Landfall have suffered from storm damage over the years.  They were originally designed as walking trails but we hope to improve them enough for bicycles.  This will be done in a nature sensitive way without using impervious surfaces. The climate is causing the wetlands to fill more than normal so that some of the nature trails are wetter in areas than others.  A joint effort with Landfall maintenance has been discussed to add small wooden bridges where required.

CONSERVATION AREAS

We are handily progressing with the baseline documentation of the existing conservation areas within Landfall.  Unfortunately, we are finding debris dumping and blue dog waste bags within the areas. Please be aware that dumping of debris, yard waste or animal feces is not desired on our conservation areas. 

NENHC Updates

This has been another busy year for the Northeast New Hanover Conservancy!  Florence was not kind to our conservation areas and we are still getting notified of fallen trees near homes that are in conservation areas near residences.  We are fortunate that the adjacent landowners are helping by removing broken trees when it is deemed necessary.  

MEMBERSHIP DRIVE AND ADVERTISING

We are embarking on a much needed membership drive.  This drive is focused on Landfall as we have much protected area in Landfall and few Landfall members.  We intend to add signage to the entrance to the nature trails to ensure residents understand who we are and that we are the entity who created those trails.  We would like to contribute to the Landfall home owner’s newsletter by adding a section describing a unique feature of the conservation areas for each printing.  We have increased our visibility on the Landfall website and would like to get in front of the various Landfall groups to present the uniqueness of the conserved land.  This should encourage participation as well as creating new opportunities for education and programs to encourage children and teenagers. We are fortunate to have Andy Wood on board who is willing to do presentations, bird walks, nature talks and summer camps for the people of Landfall.  Forming a conservation group within Landfall made up of residents is another idea we are working on.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SALAMANDER?

This Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum), is a three-inch long burrowing amphibian that dwells in hardwood forests prone to periodic flooding from rainfall. Adult marbled salamanders live amid leaf litter
where they find earthworms and insects to eat.

In autumn, adult salamanders migrate to isolated woodland pocket ponds to reproduce. After mating, the female seeks shelter under a log near pond’s edge, where she will place a dozen or more silvery-white B-B-sized eggs, and then curl around them to conserve moisture while autumn and early winter rains fill the pond and eventually flood the log.
This phase in the salamander’s life cycle hinges on timing of rains that hopefully flood the log just after each embryo has developed into a 1⁄2-inch larva, complete with a pair of feathery gills that extract oxygen from the
pond’s water.

While marbled salamanders are in decline throughout much of New Hanover County, by good fortune the Northeast New Hanover Conservancy owns and protects several parcels of wooded habitat that support rainpools that we know still support other kinds of salamanders, and we are hopeful our monitoring work will reveal the presence of the beguiling Marbled Salamander.

The Conservancy’s monitoring work is ongoing and marbled salamanders are a focal species for us because they indicate forest ecosystem health, which is relevant to people because biodiverse forests deliver irreplaceable ecosystem services including carbon-sequestration, air filtration, and rainwater storage and cleansing; in addition to providing a compelling sense of place and inherent connection to this place we call southeast North Carolina.

Landfall Nature Trails

Our nature trails within Landfall suffered damage from Florence. They had already had damage from previous storms and we are embarking on a program to repair them.

They were originally designed as walking trails but we hope to improve them enough for bicycles. This will be done in a nature sensitive way without using impervious surfaces.

The climate is causing the wetlands to fill more than normal so that some of the nature trails are wetter in areas than others.

Landfall management had an intern last summer document the parts of the trails that are worse off and those will be targeted first. We will be able to get help building simple bridges over the worst areas by Landfall maintenance.

Update from NENHC

This has been another busy year for the Northeast New Hanover Conservancy! Hurricane Florence was not kind to our conservation areas and we have been working on cleaning up the nature trails and some of the conservation areas near residences. We are fortunate that the adjacent landowners are helping by removing broken trees when it is deemed necessary. Landfall maintenance has been a great help on the nature trails.

North Marsh Osprey Update

In 2014 we replaced Osprey nest platforms in the Conservancy’s North Marsh property located between the Intracoastal Waterway and north end of Figure Eight Island. This past summer (2017), all four Osprey nest platforms were occupied by nesting osprey! While many Osprey chicks were observed during the early part of their respective development, it is not known how many offspring successfully left the nest (fledged).

Ospreys are migratory fish-eating birds that spend winter in southern North America, and Central and South America. Ospreys migrate north in early spring to reach breeding grounds, including the Conservancy’s North Marsh property behind Figure Eight Island. While the North Marsh property is protected by a conservation easement, it is a habitat that needs monitoring and management in keeping with easement requirements…and the needs of Ospreys.

Landfall Lake

Landfall Lake is a 12 acre impoundment that was constructed as an infrastructure to receive stormwater from upland areas within Landfall. Landfall Lake is now a richly diverse ecosystem that supports several kinds of fishes, frogs, and turtles, along with river otter, mink, and gray fox. The lake and its fringing wetlands also draws thousands of birds representing dozens of species including colorful hummingbirds and neotropical songbirds, migratory ducks, shorebirds, herons and egrets, along with fish-eating Osprey, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and other birds of prey.

 

Landfall Lake was designed and built to help collect and filter stormwater from upland areas, before it flows to the Intracoastal Waterway and eventually the Atlantic Ocean. This ecosystem service is a prerequisite for the lake’s management.

 

In conservation easement parlance, the Conservancy holds the protective easement for Landfall Lake (as Grantee). As the Grantor, Landfall owns the Lake and its edge habitat. Because Landfall Lake was established as a stormwater mitigation project, certain restrictions are in place regarding its use and management. As example, the Lake’s water level is established by the US Army Corps of Engineers, along with guidelines for vegetation diversity and abundance. The financial responsibility for maintenance of the Lake and its perimeter is the responsibility of Landfall itself, not the Conservancy.

 

The Conservancy is working to craft a long-range management plan and budget, for Landfall’s consideration. Plan objectives include habitat enhancements using wetland plants to filter water and provide food and shelter for fishes, turtles, and birds, while also increasing the visual appearance of the lake for the benefit of its visitors. The primary goal of this plan however, is ensuring the lake’s ecological condition remains within the guidelines of the conservation easement, as defined by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

 

This work is needed, as many residents have recently expressed, and the Conservancy is ready to move forward with developing a comprehensive habitat restoration and enhancement plan in the interest of creating an attractive and ecologically-functional hallmark Landfall feature.

 

This scale of effort will require financial support to achieve. We’ve pursued grants from various foundations and funding agencies but securing conservation funding from outside sources is highly competitive and not assured, especially for a project that is not accessible to the public.

 

We think the surest way to restore Landfall Lake to an attractive and welcoming condition will be accomplished with input and funding from Landfall community members and Associations that are the Lake’s direct beneficiaries.

 

Financial donations to the Conservancy are tax-deductible because they fund work that contributes to the common well-being of our community; a community that includes people, plants, and wildlife; and the habitats that support us all.