Happy American Wetlands Month

rick.savage • Apr 29, 2024

May: Celebrating Wetlands in the Carolinas

Greetings Wetland Supporters!

Happy American Wetlands Month! Normally, this month is when we announce a new class of Wetland Treasures of the Carolina. This year we are taking a break from designating new Wetland Treasures and will be celebrating our existing sites. We are working to improve our relationship with the managers of our existing Wetland Treasure sites. We want to promote events and activities that they host at the wetland sites and we want the site to better acknowledge that they are Wetland Treasures of the Carolinas such as posting signage and adding our logo to their websites.

Another reason for not announcing new Wetland Treasures this year is that we are considering changing the selection process and want input from YOU, our supporters. We need you to be the main source of nominating wetlands to be a Treasure. So don’t be concerned, we will continue the Wetland Treasures Program next year.

For a reminder of the existing Wetland Treasures - visit our website where we have an interactive map and factsheet for all the Treasures and even some video. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for daily updates during the American Wetlands month.

Finally, please keep in mind that our wetlands are in a serious crisis in terms of protection. The Carolina Wetland Association is working with other organizations to put as many wetlands in conservation as possible to ensure their protection.

We really need your support and if you can make a special donation to the organization, it will help us to continue our efforts to protect wetlands. Remember, there is no direct funding for this effort, all of the funding for protection wetlands comes from you, our supporters!

So go out and explore a wetland and make sure it is in fact protected.

Rick Savage, Executive Director

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Annual NC WRRI Conference

By rick.savage • 30 Mar, 2024

Carolina Wetlands Association Makes an Impacts at the Annual NC WRRI Conference

March 2024 highlights the benefits of wetlands

By chase.bergeson • 29 Mar, 2024

Wetland monitoring is important not only for the data we collect, but also to provide hands on education about why wetlands matter. Wetlands can provide so many benefits to humans and the environment, including creating habitat , flood reduction , filtering out pollution , settling sediment, storing carbon, recharging aquifers that we rely on for drinking water, and providing recreation opportunities for humans ! While not every wetland provides all of these services, this March we experienced many of these benefits during our monitoring visits. Habitat Wetlands provide important habitat for many species. This spring we conducted amphibian surveys at each of our sites and saw lots of amphibians! Wetlands are very important for the lifecycles of many amphibians who live in them, rely on them for food and habitat, or use them as nurseries to lay their eggs and protect their young. Unlike lakes and streams, ephemeral wetlands are not wet year-round. The periodic drying of surface water in these wetlands prevents them from being habitat for fish which may eat young salamanders. Our spring wetlands made a great nursery for amphibians and provide habitat for adults as well. We saw: mating American toads spotted salamander egg masses larval marbled salamanders northern cricket frogs a southern leopard frog upland chorus frogs northern dusky salamanders southern two-lined salamanders There were also several frogs that we couldn’t catch a picture of fast enough to identify. You can view our observations on our iNaturalist page .

NC Governor's Executive Order Helps Protect Wetlands

By rick.savage • 02 Mar, 2024

Greetings Wetland Supporters: On February 12, 2024, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper issued Executive Order (EO) 305 which is geared toward protecting wetlands that recently lost federal protection under the Clean Water Act. You can read the entire Executive Order here: https://governor.nc.gov/executive-order-no-305/open . What is the basis of the Executive Order? Let me tell you what caused EO 305 and the role the Carolina Wetlands Association played to help increase wetland protection in the state. It began with the Natural and Working Lands (NWL) initiative started by the Governor’s office based on EO 80 to address climate change impacts. The goal of the NWL initiative was to develop a plan to restore and preserve wetlands, forests, and other lands to sequester carbon and in the process provide co-benefits to communities. The Natural and Working Lands Action Plan was the result of the initiative and Carolina Wetlands Association was a significant contributor. How did wetlands lose protection? The Sackett v. EPA case resulted removing protection from millions of acres of wetlands in the Carolinas. North Carolina had a statute to protect these wetlands, but the recently passed 2023 NC Farm Bill eliminated that protection and limited North Carolina’s wetland protection be no more than the Federal protection. These changes resulted losing protection of about 60% of our wetlands as determined by the NC DEQ and probably a similar amount in South Carolina. How will the new Executive Order Protect Wetlands? The Carolina Wetlands Association work with several other concerned organizations (such as the Southern Environmental Law Center, NC Conservation Network, NC Wildlife Federation, and River Keepers) to attempt to find ways to reduce the devastating impact of these decisions. The result was EO 305 which Governor Roy Cooper announced and signed on February 12, 2024. The goals of the Executive Order are to: Permanently preserve 1,000,000 new acres of natural lands with special focus on wetlands Restore or reforest 1,000,000 new acres of North Carolina’s forests and wetlands Plant 1,000,000 trees in urban areas across the state This EO does not change to permit requirements or the jurisdictional wetlands definitions, but it does prioritize wetlands conservation. highly recommend reading the entire Executive Order. Your Carolina Wetlands Association has played a significant role in events leading to developing EO 305 and we will continue to do everything we can to continue this effort to protect our wetlands. Please think about how you can help the Association continue this work as we need to do so more than ever. So, when you explore that wetland, think about whether it continues to be protected! Rick Savage, Executive Director