What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

N.C. areas eyed for new 'unique wetlands' designat

Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
Staff member
Supporter
Moderator
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]N.C. areas eyed for new 'Unique Wetlands' designation

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]By Steve Jones

The Sun News

SHALLOTTE, N.C. - North Carolina may designate three wetland areas in Brunswick County among the state's first round of a new Unique Wetlands classification.

The classification would protect the wetland from any development other than that deemed to have a public need.

The four areas in Brunswick total more than 120 acres and are on land The Nature Conservancy owns along Myrtle Head Road and in the Green Swamp.

"There aren't that many sites left that haven't been plowed up or aren't grown over," said Hervey McIver of The Nature Conservancy in Raleigh, N.C.

The sites are among 30 being considered in 20 counties statewide.

Although one of the Green Swamp areas is just miles from a proposed private landfill in Columbus County, its designation as a Unique Wetland likely won't affect the landfill's permitting, McIver said. The two sites drain into different watersheds, so runoff from the landfill would not affect the designated site.

Two of the sites have plants that are classified as federally endangered species and threatened plants such as the Venus' flytrap and pitcher plants.

The third site, a small cypress pond, is home to frogs and salamanders found nowhere else.

McIver said there are a number of similar ponds in Boiling Spring Lakes but all have been altered somewhat by the development around them.

The Myrtle Head Preserve, which is near Ash, N.C., in the most northwestern corner of Brunswick County, is one of three areas nationally where Cooley's meadowrue is found. A second population is in Pender County; the third is in Florida.

The plant grows only in areas where marl desposits underlie the land and depends on fires that burn taller plants and trees so it can get the sunlight it needs.

The Green Swamp savanna site has rough-leaf loosestrife and Carolina goldenrod among other rare plants.

McIver said North Carolina is precise in the areas it has proposed for the Unique Wetlands classification. The Nature Conservancy owns 72 acres at the Myrtle Head Preserve and 15,551 acres in the Green Swamp.

The state chooses the sites to be classed Unique Wetlands based on the presence of endangered, threatened and rare species.

Private land will not be considered for the classification without permission of the landowner.

All the sites being considered in the initial round, except for one in New Hanover County owned by the federal government, are either in state parks or are owned by The Nature Conservancy.
Proposed Unique Wetlands

Myrtle Head Preserve

Wet pine savanna, 36.6 acres

Green Swamp

Wet pine savanna, 81.23 acres

Cypress pond, 3 acres

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld....598.htm
 
Near the end of the article, it says, "Private land will not be considered for the classification without permission of the landowner."  So the private land most at risk is excluded.  Earlier in the article, it says, "The classification would protect the wetland from any development other than that deemed to have a public need."

So it basically only applies to public land and, since any development on public land is probably considered a response to a public need, it doesn't really offer any additional protection to public land either.  Programs like this allow anti-environmental or spineless politicians and public agencies to give the appearance of doing something they haven't actually done.

I hate to come across as cynical, but things like this are what made this way.
 
It is a small step in the right direction if but for nothing else other than to heighten public awareness. I'm for it.  Baby steps!
 
Maybe I'm especially cynical because I work for a regulatory agency.  Or maybe I was just born or raised this way.  But I think there's a big difference between a small step in the right direction and something that just pretends to be one.

A program that protects land already owned by the Nature Conservancy or in a state park does essentially nothing for wetlands.  But it allows anti-environmental politicians and money-grubbing environmental organizations to strut around about their record of protecting wetlands.  I think that's a big negative that overwhelms the minimal extra protection.
 
I can certainly appreciate your position. To me, I'm so desperate for relief in my area that I am absolutely ecstatic if a newspaper even acknowledges the fact that we have environmental issues that aren't going to go away.

Recently HGTV acknowledged that some plants were not in the best interests of our fragile ecosystems.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv....00.html

Baby Steps.  That was a major first to the best of my knowledge coming from the folks who have been espousing the benefits of adding exotic invasive plants such as English Ivy, Purple Loosestrife, Burning Bushes, Bradford Pears, Buckthorn, and even Salt Cedar to landscape designs for years. Some of the plants they showcased/highlighted made me want to go ballistic.  Here are a few more plants I am relatively sure they have helped viewers "integrate" into their gardens over the years; Lily Of The Valley, Ox-Eye Dasiy, Queen Annes Lace, Reed Canary Grass, Phragmites, and Dame's Rocket. Some of these are major wetland invaders.  It has been my experience that HGTV has been a major promoter of plants that wreak havoc in our environment.  

Point in context, this is what they consider a gardening boo boo-
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv....00.html

I believe the quality of any wetland is dependent upon the quality of our uplands. We need to start seriously protecting our wetlands and that is going to go hand in hand with protecting our uplands.
 
All the more reason for someone/anyone to grab seeds and plants from these endangered habitats....and grow them in their gardens.  I feel that poaching is justified in areas that are about to go under the bull-dozer.

I have cardinal flower that was poached from a soon-to-be developed site in my area.  I went in the fall before it was developed and got tons of seed. Now I have lots of local genotype cardinal flower, and I look at it as a hedge against extirpation, as cardinal flower(lobelia cardinalis)is endangered in my area.
 
Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), is a Swink 10 and it is endangered. Good for you.  

I was able to get my hands on 6 Kitten Tails (Besseya bullii) synonym (Wulfenia bullii) as a gift. There's another Swink 10 that is indangered that will go in over here on my property.

I too would go for anything in front of a bulldozer if given the opportunity.
 
Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm wrote a book titled "Plants Of The Chicago Region". They ranked the plants they observed in our natural communities based on "Coefficients of Conservatism".  The rating is used to determine the probability that an individual plant species comes from an intact natural community.

Here's an excerpt from here-
http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/summer2000/namethatplant.html

"The third resource, and the final say in plant identification, is Plants of the Chicago Region by Floyd Swink and Gerould Wilhelm. This bible-sized book provides a deep look into the intricacy of the ecosystem of the Chicago region along with a complete listing of the 1,638 native plant species and the 892 non-natives found here. Extensive keys separate species on the basis of their technical botanical characteristics. A write-up on each species includes information on its ecological niche and sometimes a piece of its local history.

We learn there that just over 50 years ago tens of thousands of fringed gentians grew in the vicinity of what is now 17th and Whitcomb Streets in Gary, Indiana. Today you could buy gas there, but you’d be hard put to find a gentian."

Within in the very near future, this publication will be updated and released. Although Floyd Swink has passed on, Gerould Wilhelm was out surveying several areas in my local vicinity presumably to update his Coefficients of Conservatism as well as to add to the list of non natives fnow found here.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]All the more reason for someone/anyone to grab seeds and plants from these endangered habitats....and grow them in their gardens.
That is still stealing. And nobody should ever use the excuse that they will probably be destroyed sometime in the near future anyway. That is still poaching. The only time to ever take a plant without permission is if the bulldozer is onsite and all other options have failed.
 
  • #11
Ummm, I'm thinking you two are on the same page and may not even know it. The site I believe her cardinal flower seed came from is now a shopping mall.  It's a nice sea of asphalt currently.

Around here, developers must go through a lengthy process in order to get permits. The entire process from land purchase to cutting ground can take 3 years or longer.  I have been watching one particular site for about 2 years now.  It is almost 200 hundred acres and 650 4-5 bedroom homes with 3 car garages on postage size lots will be built there. The developer is including some nice big retention ponds as well as a nice park with playground equipment on the future site according to their drawings. They have surveyed it and the heavy equipment is currently there presumably awaiting a thaw. They seem to be held up right now and I don't quite know why. I'm waiting and watching for the heavy equipment operators to come on in because I have always had tremendous success with them. They can usually direct me right to the project manager and I have never been told I could not take a plant yet.  I have taken several incredibly nice small local genotype oaks as well as hickories so far from other locations. The people working on the sites even helped me ram them in my car.

In addition to the above, my chapter of Wild Ones organizes plant saves. Somebody created a network many years ago in which our organization receives advance notification of properties slated wherein which land owners have already agreed to allow removal of plant material. This is a good thing.  What's even better, is my neighbor down the road receives the faxes of properties that will be stripped at his home. I plan on paying closer attention in the furure to any land that may include wetlands.  

To date, I have not been placed in a position where all options have failed. If I could not get approval and if the bulldozers were revving their engines to do their thing... I'd probably seriously consider coming back at night with a flashligh and a shovel all by myself. I'd most assuredly be sweating BBs and would most assuredly be in such a state of panic that I'd end up tripping all over my own feet doing a face plant in dirt but I think I would really at least try to take anything that was endangered.  I suppose one never knows until one is actually in that situation but at least I would hope I would have enough guts to try to take them.
 
Back
Top