Return to North Carolina's Assessment of Need (draft)
Description of Forest Legacy Area and Important Environmental Values
Linking large public holdings, from Angola Bay and Holly Shelter Game Lands to the Croatan National Forest and the Hofmann Forest, this FLA includes immense pocosins, Carolina bays, riverine habitats and significant red-cockaded woodpecker habitat. Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and the New River estuary are central to this FLA. Some natural longleaf pine communities remain intact, but significant acreages have been planted in loblolly pine. The size of contiguous forest areas in this FLA is remarkable. Both intensively managed and relatively unmanaged areas exist. Features of particular interest found in this area include Great Dover Swamp, a number of large pocosins, estuaries of the White Oak and New Rivers, red-cockaded woodpecker colonies concentrated on Camp Lejeune and the Croatan National Forest,
This FLA includes all of Onslow Coiunty and portions of Carteret,
Craven, Duplin, Jones, and Pender counties. The FLA includes sub-basins
of three riverbasins: the Cape Fear , Neuse and White Oak (the White
Oak riverbasin includes the New and Newport Rivers).
Current and Future Conversion Pressures
Development in the small urban centers of New Bern, Kinston, and Jacksonville has been progressively faster over recent decades and is expected to continue to accelerate. For example, highway corridor studies by the City of Jacksonville, NC, project extensive growth north and east of the city within a decade or so. At the eastern end of the FLA, towns of Morehead City, Havelock, and Newport are expanding in response to the growth of the beach and retirement influx. Beach related and retirement community development in this area, as elsewhere along the North Carolina coast is predicted to continue at current or higher levels for some time into the future.
Tax burdens on working forest lands proximal to advancing development
are driving the conversion process. Already forest products companies
are abandoning silviculture on lands along the urban-rural interface and
in some cases are developing such lands themselves rather than persist
in traditional forest management in areas where congestion and proximal
neighbors are likely to create adverse conditions for effective forestry.
Goals and Objectives of FLA for Public Benefit
Maintain large contiguous blocks of working forest lands.
Enhance protection of Nutrient Sensitive Waters and forested wetlands in the Neuse and White Oak River Basins.
Connect Angola Bay and Holly Shelter Game Lands, Camp Lejuene, Hofmann Forest, and Croatan NF with viable corridors enabling wildlife population interactions among these large contiguous blocks.
Buffer key habitat blocks from secondary development effects.
Encourage prescribed burning and management for early successional species.
Potential Partnering Entities
North Carolina Coastal Land Trust
North Carolina State University Forestry Foundation
North Carolina Division of Forest Resources
North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
USDA Forest Service
US Marine Corps
Boundary Description
From US117 along NC3 to Hampstead at US17.
Peanut Road to the AIWW and New Topsail Inlet.
Along the coastal barrier islands to Beaufort Inlet.
Along the Newport River and Harlowe Canal to the Neuse River.
Along the Neuse River to New Bern.
Along the Atlantic Nortfolk Southern RR and US70 to NC41.
Along NC41 to Beulaville and then to US117 at Wallace.
Along US117 to close at interesection of US117 and NC3.
Figure B-5. New--White Oak--Lower Neuse Forest
Legacy Area.