Cape Fear
River
30
WBM october 2010 •How can you make a difference?
Herlevich has a few key suggestions as to how you can help: “Become
a member of local conservation nonprofits. Take care of what you
put into creeks, streams and backyards. Clean up after your pets. Be
a good steward of your own neighborhood. Watch what you eat, especially fish
caught from the ocean — try to eat fish that are farm raised, or sustainable.
Support local farmers, and keep our local agriculture industry alive.”
Want to help?
Though The Nature Conservancy doesn’t utilize a lot of volunteers, helpers
are sometimes needed for trail maintenance and other specific
activities. Contact Sarah Over at (910) 395-5000 if you’d like to lend
a hand. Cape Fear Riverwatch (910-762-5606) holds clean-ups on the second
Saturday of each month, and also needs help manning the boathouse facility at
Greenfield Lake, making sure that people safely get out on the lake in canoes,
paddleboats and kayaks. Coastal Land Trust (910-790-0392) has select administrative
and special events opportunities available for volunteers; to learn more, visit
www.coastallandtrust.org/pages/office_voluteers.html.
continue to focus on some crucial projects, as well
as take on some new challenges. “Stopping the proposed
Titan Cement kiln and mine, a facility that
would be the fourth largest in the entire country, is
an area that we will continue to focus on because
we know this facility would be bad for our region’s
environment, our health, our recreation and our
economy,” Burdette says.
Riverwatch is also intent on continuing to
strengthen their Fisheries Restoration Program,
which was created to revitalize severely depleted
populations of native fish such as shad, river
herring, short-nosed sturgeon and striped bass.
Burdette is passionate about the restoration program’s
success: “We are seeing some real progress
on this issue and construction has started on a $12-
million fish passage at Lock and Dam # 1 on the
Cape Fear near East Arcadia that will start to bring
back our fishery to its historic levels. This project
has great potential to have huge positive impacts on
the region’s environment, economy, and recreation
opportunities, as well as restoring part of the Lower
Cape Fear River culture and heritage.”