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www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
Barrier islands are geologi-cally
young coastal features
because the shoreline has
gradually moved inland since
the end of the last ice age
some 18,000 years ago. The
melting of mile-thick ice that
covered much of the northern
hemisphere has raised the
world’s oceans ever since.
Nowhere is this dynamic pro-cess
more evident than the
interface between land and
sea we call a barrier island.
Few places offer better
opportunity for barrier island
exploration than Wrightsville
Beach, located in the south-ern
coastal zone of North
Carolina.
Getting to Wrightsville
Beach involves traveling
east over the Intracoastal
Waterway, a boating highway
constructed in the early 1900s.
From the waterway you’ll
cross Harbor Island, just land-ward
of the Wrightsville Beach
strand. Growing atop the high
ground of Harbor Island, and
in places along Wrightsville
Beach, are patches of ever-green
shrub forest containing
a mix of trees including live
oak, red cedar, yaupon holly,
wax myrtle and even some
dogwoods and loblolly pines,
many of them naturally mani-cured
by salt spray that burns
back new leaves and twig tips.
Surrounding Harbor Island
and the west side of the
beach strand are vast areas of
grassy salt marsh broken by a
network of meandering tidal
creeks that flush the marsh
with salty ocean water twice
each day. The salt marsh is
one of earth’s most produc-tive
ecosystems. Its cordgrass
plays a key role as a source
of energy for feeding a great
number of animals, while also
serving as a shelter for fish,
crabs and a charming coastal
turtle, the diamondback
terrapin.
Coastal fringe forests and
tidal marshes are tempting
distractions, but the allure of
sand and waves is difficult to
overcome. Beachgoers must
still venture through a sandy
realm not too unlike a desert,
where spiky yucca plants
grow alongside spine-studded
prickly pear cactus.
Communities of barrier
island plants and animals are
part of ever-changing eco-systems
that include grassy
marsh and tidal creeks, sandy
dunes and shrubby swales,
and of course, the open
beach. North Carolina will
always have barrier islands
because they are the interface
between land and sea; they
just won’t always be where
we expect them because this
is a shifting realm where wind
and storm conspire with a ris-ing
sea to move “heaven and
earth.”
N O R T H C A R O L I N A ’ S
North Carolina is home to some 325 miles of coastal shoreline, where
land meets sea. Much of it is in the form of sandy barrier islands.
JOSHUA CURRY