HAVELOCK BYPASS SETTLEMENT FUNDS USED TO SAVE INHOLDING IN THE CROATAN
The Coastal Land Trust, which received $7.3 million as part of the Havelock bypass settlement a year ago, completed another project using a portion of these funds on May 1, 2019. The 182-acre Craven County property purchased features pond pine woodland, pocosin wetland habitat, bottomland hardwoods, and some longleaf pine forest. Surrounded on three sides by the Croatan National Forest, it also includes ½ mile of frontage on Reedy Branch, a tributary of the Trent River in the Neuse River Basin, an important watershed in this mostly rural area.
The Coastal Land Trust received the $7.3 million from a settlement between N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and Sierra Club over the State’s proposed U.S. 70 Havelock Bypass that goes through the Croatan National Forest. The Coastal Land Trust also secured a grant from the Enviva Forest Conservation Fund for the acquisition.
“We’re pleased to see the new Croatan Protection Fund is being well-used by the Coastal Land Trust to help protect wildlife habitat and the unique properties of the Croatan National Forest. We hope that this recent acquisition will be one of many that Coastal Land Trust is able to add to the Croatan National Forest with the help of willing landowners and the ability to leverage funds from the Croatan Protection Fund,” said Cassie Gavin, Senior Director of Government Relations for the Sierra Club’s North Carolina Chapter, in Raleigh, NC.
“We are thrilled to be able to acquire this forestland that is nearly surrounded by the Croatan and lies within an important ecosystem that includes several types of forested wetlands,” said Janice Allen, Deputy Director of the Coastal Land Trust in New Bern. “The tract will be forever preserved and will remain a healthy habitat for wildlife. The Coastal Land Trust will offer it to the U.S. Forest Service for inclusion into the Croatan National Forest.”
“Thanks to the Havelock bypass settlement, we were able to act quickly to purchase this property—a doughnut hole within the Croatan National Forest. We are looking forward to saving more lands near the Croatan in the near future,” said Ms. Allen. The Coastal Land Trust’s previous purchase using funds from the Havelock Bypass Settlement was a 113-acre addition to the Gales Creek Preserve at Camp Sam Hatcher along a scenic tidal creek that empties into Bogue Sounds near Newport in Carteret County, which was completed in November 2018.
PC: Dab Shackelford
