2017 Wetland Treasures

Bluff Mountain Fen

  • Location: Bluff Mountain Preserve in Ashe County, NC
  • Wetland Type: Southern Appalachian Fen
  • Owner: The Natural Conservancy
  • Unique Feature: Only known wetland type in the region
  • Factsheet
  • Directions 

Photo provide by The Nature Conservancy

Croatan National Forest

  • Location: Craven, Carteret, and Jones counties, NC
  • Wetland Types: Pocosins, Carolina bays, salt marsh and more
  • Owner: U.S. Forest Service
  • Unique Feature: Approximately 75% of the Croatan may be considered wetlands with pocosins comprising the majority of the wetland acreage.
  • Factsheet
  • Directions


Photo by David Blevins

Merchants Millpond

  • Location: Gates County, NC
  • Wetland Type: Cypress Gum Swamp (Blackwater)
  • Owner: North Carolina State Parks
  • Unique Feature: Created 190 years ago, coastal pond and southern swamp forest mingle, creating one of North Carolina’s rarest ecological communities.
  • Factsheet 
  • Directions

Photo courtesy of Chuck Richardson

Santee Coastal Preserve

  • Location: Charleston County, SC
  • Wetland Type:
  • Owner: South Carolina Division of Park and Recreation
  • Unique Feature: Once a rice plantation, this reserve provides essential habitat for many species of wildlife, including migratory and wintering waterfowl, shorebirds and wading birds, and Loggerhead sea turtles.
  • Factsheet 
  • Directions 

Photo by Charles Slate

Woods Bay 

  • Location: Florence, Clarendon, and Sumter counties, SC
  • Wetland Type: Carolina Bay
  • Owner: SC Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism
  • Unique Feature: The park is the home to one of the last remaining, relatively undisturbed, large Carolina bays on the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain.
  • Factsheet 
  • Directions 

Photo courtesy of Regina Huff

We are thrilled to recognize and celebrate our second class of Wetland Treasures sites! Click the links below to open a fact sheet and learn about the ecology, significance, flora and fauna, and more for each site.


Congaree Swamp

  • Location: Congaree National Park Richmond, SC
  • Wetland Type: Bottomland hardwood forest, riverine swamp forest
  • Owner: National Park Service
  • Factsheet 
  • Directions


Hobcaw Barony Wetlands

  • Location: Georgetown County, NC
  • Wetland Types: Salt/brackish marsh, tidal freshwater marsh, basin wetlands
  • Owner: Belle W. Baruch Foundation
  • Factsheet


Kanuga Bog

  • Location: Henderson County, NC
  • Wetland Types: Bog
  • Owner: Kanuga Conference and Retreat Center
  • Factsheet (updated 9/20/2023)


Robertson Millpond

  • Location: Wake County, NC
  • Wetland Types: Riverine swamp forest, non-tidal freshwater marsh 
  • Owner: Wake County Parks and Recreation
  • Factsheet


Scuppernong River Swamp

  • Location: Tyrrell County, NC
  • Wetland Types: Non-riverine swamp forest, riverine swamp forest, hardwood flat, headwater wetland
  • Owner: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • Factsheet