National Estuaries Day Rain Garden
On Saturday, Sept. 26, the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program partnered with the N.C. Coastal Federation, the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries and the N.C. National Estuarine Research Reserve to plant a rain garden on the DMF office grounds in celebration of National Estuaries Day.
The rain garden will be used to educate homeowners, elected officials, land use planners, regulatory personnel and coastal managers throughout the year about the use of stormwater best management practices and in conjunction with N.C. NERR’s Coastal Training Program.
National Estuaries Day is an annual event on the last Saturday in September to celebrate estuaries – where the rivers meet the sea – and the need to protect them. According to APNEP director Bill Crowell, construction of this rain garden will provides a great opportunity for the community to become engaged in a small action that will greatly improve water quality at this site.
The Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds are irreplaceable resources that contribute more than $1 billion annually to the nation’s economy, protect coastal communities against storms and flooding and provide invaluable habitat to plants and animals. North Carolina has some of the country’s largest and most productive estuaries.
“Nearly all species important to North Carolina commercial and recreational fisheries spend some part of their life in the estuaries,” said Louis Daniel, director of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries. “Maintaining healthy estuaries serves a vital role in maintaining a healthy fishery.”
Unfortunately, many of these areas are being damaged and destroyed, and remaining habitats are shrinking fast, threatening an extraordinary diversity of species and the fishing and tourism industries.
“We believe it is important for us to set an example for private businesses in retrofitting older developed property, like ours, for stormwater control,” Daniel said. “The rain garden is just one of several initiatives that have been taken at the Division of Marine Fisheries toward this end.”
“It takes everybody doing their part to restore and protect our estuaries,” says Todd Miller, executive director of the N.C. Coastal Federation and APNEP policy board member. “This project lets people know that there are simple things they can do that will make a big difference.”
Volunteers were on site at the Division of Marine Fisheries site at 3441 Arendell Street in Morehead City to plant the rain garden on Saturday morning. If you have questions about this event, please contact Lori Brinn, APNEP community specialist at (919) 715-4196 or lori.brinn@ncdenr.gov. For more information about estuaries, please visit http://www.apnep.org.
News coverage of this event:
Rain garden to help boost water quality
Environmentalists celebrate National Estuaries Day
River Herring Habitat Restoration
A collaborative effort in the APNEP region. Click here for more information.
Coastwatch Autumn 2008
Article: "Education In Action: Schoolyard Projects Protect Estuaries" Coastwatch is a N.C. Sea Grant Publication. Please visit: http://www.ncseagrant.org/ for more information.
Public Listening Session Report
The Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP) and the Albemarle-Pamlico Conservation and Communities Collaborative (AP3C) held seven public listening sessions about sea level rise and population growth in the APNEP region over the summer of 2008. The full report from the sessions is available here for download.