Keel Creek

In early January 2022, the Coastal Land Trust purchased 766 acres of floodplain forest in Bertie and Hertford Counties, near the Town of Colerain. With 3 miles along the Chowan River and more than 7 miles of Keel Creek, this expansive forest will help store floodwaters and reduce flooding, enhance water quality, and protect habitat for fish and wildlife.

The forest contains the heart of Cow Island Swamp, an “ecologically significant” site designated as such due to the age and expanse of the mature bald cypress and tupelo gum forest, with many trees more than 100 years old.

The preserve provides important nursery areas for anadromous fish and habitat for rare mussel species and rare crayfish. It is equally important for many species of birds.

A unique feature of this preserve is that it conserves almost all of Keel Creek, from its mouth at the Chowan River to its headwaters.

Dr. Stan Riggs, coastal geologist and Distinguished Research Professor at East Carolina University, describes Keel Creek as “remote, wild, and brimming with an incredible abundance and diversity of fauna and flora; a great natural treasure within North Carolina’s awesome coastal system.”

Tom Earnhardt adds, “the area was one of the first settled in North Carolina in the late 1600s and early 1700s. Here, those settlers, and the Native Americans before them, were supported by huge concentrations of shad, herring, and striped bass. The preservation of Keel Creek is one of North Carolina’s great conservation success stories in recent years. It is places like Keel Creek that make us take a closer look at how our cultural history is closely tied to our natural heritage.”