Landfall Lake

Several Landfall residents have expressed their concern about Upper Lake’s (next to  Horseshoe Lake) appearance, notably the seemingly low water level. Discussions were  recently held with the Corps of Engineers to ask about raising the lake’s water level some six  to eight inches above its current static level.

The Corps deferred to the NC Department of  Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) for approval since the lake is considered a stormwater  control measure (SCM), and integral part of Landfall’s stormwater infrastructure. NCDEQ was  contacted and indicated the permit holder (Landfall) will need to make an application for  permit modification with an engineered solution to the issues raised about the water  level. NCDEQ will then conduct a review and if acceptable, will issue a permit modification  with the new outfall changes and elevations approved.

Unfortunately, this will require hiring  an engineering company to provide a surface water survey and revised calculations for  stormwater capacity. Because the Lake belongs to Landfall, this issue must be brought to Landfall’s Council of Associations for consideration, especially pertaining to funding this  effort. 

Landfall’s ponds and lakes provide valuable habitat for migratory waterfowl, including these ring-necked ducks  (center), young mallards (top), and pied-billed grebes (bottom) seen in Landfall Lake. 

Conservation Areas

This year we were contacted by the NCSU Agriculture Foundation and asked to consider  accepting deeds of conservation for a collection of conserved lands around the Mayfair shopping center. After conducting a rapid assessment of the properties, we determined the  liability and complex management challenges they pose make these sites unsuitable for us to  take-on. We will continue working with the Ag Foundation to advise them with management  recommendations. 

On the boiler-plate side of things, we are progressing with baseline documentation of our conservation areas, which includes on the ground surveys to observe natural features and  evidence of human impacts. We are glad to report the natural features of our properties  remain intact and continue to provide beneficial ecosystem services. Unfortunately, we  continue to find new evidence of vegetative and other debris dumping, including blue plastic  bags containing dog waste. Please be aware that dumping debris, whether yard waste or  animal feces, is not desired in our conservation areas.

Landfall Nature Trails Update

NATURE TRAILS 

A winter woodland in Landfall supporting several dozen plant species along with songbirds, turtles, and  amphibians. Note the storm-wrought debris that needs to be removed and mulched to reduce fire risk and  create walkable trail surfaces. 

In recent years, our nature trails, within Landfall especially, have suffered from storm damage  that accompany hurricanes. Several of the larger parcels include walking trails improved with  mulch to create a raised and smooth surface. Most of these parcels include wetland areas  that retain stormwater and in rainy periods some trail sections are saturated or covered with  shallow water. We recognize this is an impediment to casual walking and this past year we  entered in a joint effort with Landfall maintenance to add small wooden bridges across the  wetland areas. 

To ensure compliance with our easement restrictions, we met with the US Army Corps of  Engineers (USACoE) and they are receptive to this method of improving the trails. Proposed  sketches of strategic bridges will be submitted for approval once we secure the proper  funding. In addition to the bridges, we are exploring ways to efficiently clear woody storm  debris, that is both unsightly and unsafe, and grind that material into mulch to place on  accessible foot trails. 

Field Notes by Andy Wood

Andy Wood, NENHC Habitat Manager 

As mentioned in the introduction, the Northeast New Hanover Conservancy’s area of interest  is a roughly 20-square mile area of, as our name implies, northeast New Hanover County,  NC. The properties we manage include some of the last best examples of this region’s  natural heritage. For quick orientation, southeast North Carolina, specifically Bladen,  Brunswick, New Hanover and Pender Counties, comprise a small region of the larger Atlantic  Coastal Plain Ecoregion; an area of coastal lands extending from the Gulf of Maine to the  Gulf of Mexico. The pocket we call Southeast NC is the most biodiverse portion of the Atlantic  Coastal Plain, north of Florida. By that I mean, this small region hosts more different kinds of  plants and animals than anywhere on the Atlantic coast between Florida and Maine. Bragging  rights to be sure, but without the works of NENHC, some of those bragging rights will be lost. 

The Atlantic Coastal Plain Ecoregion is internationally recognized as a Biodiversity Hotspot; a  title bestowed on fewer than 40 other locations around the globe. To be a biodiversity  hotspot, an ecoregion must support at least 1,500 species of plants; the primary producers in an ecosystem that, in turn, support populations of wildlife that eat and are eaten in a layered  pyramid of life that ultimately supports our own species. Yes, we are part of the same  ecosystem that shares its air and water with fishes, frogs, and birds. In addition to the 1,500  species of plants requirement, the biodiversity hotspot designation is only given to regions  that have also lost more than 70% of its natural habitats. 

Looking around New Hanover County, once the epicenter of Atlantic coastal plain  biodiversity, it’s obvious this boast is in jeopardy; a sad thought that underscores the  significance of those parcels of natural habitats that NENHC stewards for public benefit.  NENHC’s collection of more than 35 individual properties range in size from less than one 

acre, to more than 800-acres. Regardless of size, each parcel is protected for public benefit  and each property, regardless of size, requires year-round monitoring and management. 

A tidal creek and saltmarsh in NENHC’s North Marsh conservation area provides critical habitat for diamondback terrapins, a, imperiled State-listed species of special concern. 

The habitats we protect include tidal saltmarsh and tidal creeks, coastal fringe forest, wet  pine flats, evergreen pocosin, hardwood swamp forest, isolated pocket ponds, and longleaf  pine savanna. Many of our properties are located inside and adjacent to Landfall, a  residential community located on the mainland across from Wrightsville Beach. Two of our  largest tracts include North Marsh, an 800-acre expanse of saltmarsh located behind Figure  Eight Island, between the swing-bridge and Rich Inlet; a natural opening separating Figure  Eight from Lea-Hutaff Island. The other tract is an 88-acre saltmarsh located behind the north  end of Wrightsville Beach and under the gaze of Shell Island Resort. 

These are protected areas, and we monitor them to prevent intrusions that might otherwise  diminish the plants and the wildlife they support. Our works also ensure these places provide  economic benefit to adjacent properties whose values are improved by close association with  compelling natural space; the most important economic asset this region has to offer. 

This said, NENHC needs support to fulfill our mission, which is a legal requirement incumbent  on all nonprofit land trust organizations. 

In the role of habitat manager, I am asking for your financial help to help us ensure continued  protection of the habitats we safeguard. Given the fact that most of NENHC’s holdings are in and around the residential communities of Landfall, Wrightsville Beach, and Figure Eight  Island, it’s a logical choice to focus our request for support in the communities that benefit  most from our work.

To that end, and to be forward, if each property owner in Landfall and Figure Eight Island  donated $100.00 to support NENHC’s work, we would be enabled to conduct much-needed  habitat restoration in our wooded parcels, and ramp-up our monitoring and management  efforts in the aforementioned marshes; work needed to ensure protection of diamondback  terrapin, a small saltmarsh turtle imperiled by lost crab pots and other entangling debris  accumulated in their home territories, which these charming marine turtles inhabit year-round. 

Saltmarshes under our stewardship are also critical habitat for feeding and migrating  songbirds, shorebirds and waterbirds, and our knowledge of their habitat use is essential for  conservation efforts throughout these bird’s respective ranges and their full life cycle. 

Protecting this region’s natural heritage is NENHC’s mission. This is work conducted in the  interest of everyone, as though we are protecting common property, which we are, especially  to the direct benefit of our neighbors. The fact is, NENHC is protecting resources that provide  benefit to all; people, birds, turtles, and myriad other organisms that share this ecoregion with  us. 

Thank you for your support of this important work. 

In one of NENHC’s conservation areas, a young Yellow-crowned Night Heron surveys the land-water interface  where fringing evergreen forest meets tidal saltmarsh habitat.

Message from the President

I hope this note finds you safe and healthy and that you have enjoyed some outdoor time. The Conservancy is glad we made it through hurricane season with little fanfare, considering  the harms these storms exact on trees growing in our conservation areas. 

This newsletter provides quick updates about our ongoing works to monitor, manage, and  protect this coastal region’s most precious assets: natural habitats and the plants, wildlife,  and ecosystem services they protect in return. Andy Wood, our habitat manager, shares  more about our on-the-ground works, and I hope you will consider his appeal for your  financial support to help support our work that, in truth, provides public benefits too precious  to ignore. 

NENHC’s stewardship area encompasses some thirteen thousand acres (20 square miles)  within the geographic region framed by US Highway 17 to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the  east, Mason Inlet (Wrightsville Beach) to the south, and Scotts Hill to the north. Within this  “service area” are tidal marshes, barrier islands, and the watersheds of four tidal creeks— Futch, Pages, Little, and Howe. 

At this time, NENHC is responsible for the management and protection of approximately  1,400 acres, more than 10% of the area in which we operate, owned in fee simple or held  with protective conservation easement.  

Thank you for your engagement with NENHC and for your consideration of a financial  donation to support our important work. 

Sincerely, 

Paula Bushardt, NENHC President

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.

———–

“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.