The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust is pleased to announce the purchase of the 32.16-acre Rocky Point Marl Forest Tract in Pender County!

Though small, the conservation values of this property are huge. This special property lies within the larger Rocky Point Marl Forest Significant Natural Heritage Area and is considered an “exceptionally significant site” by the NC Natural Heritage Program.

“Our thanks go to Diane Toothman and her son Byron for working with us to conserve this little wetland gem. This wet marl forest property was near the top of our Top 40 list due to its biological uniqueness. We are thrilled to have secured funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant program to conserve it,” said Janice Allen, Director of Land Protection.

In fact, Eric Bolen, professor emeritus of biology and marine biology at UNC Wilmington, included this site in his recently published 2022 book (with James Parnell), An Abundance of Curiosities: The Natural History of North Carolina’s Coastal Plain (University of Georgia Press). According to Professor Bolen, the Wet Marl Forest community highlights the region’s biodiversity and occurs where a high water table overlies flat-lying deposits of limestone – an exceedingly rare occurrence. This natural community features nutmeg hickory (the northernmost range of occurrence for this species which has a primary range in the lower Mississippi River valley), roughleaf dogwood (at one of the two sites in which it is found in North Carolina) and a thick cover of dwarf palmetto. It also home to and provides habitat for a relict population of eastern wood rats.

Mike Schafale, an ecologist with the NC Natural Heritage Program, remarked, “The Wet Marl Forest natural community at Rocky Point occurs nowhere else in the world. Of the highest priority, irreplaceable sites that were known when I started my career in the early 1980s, almost all have seen some substantial amount of protection over the years. Rocky Point is one of the last to see any protection success. HOORAY!”

“We are incredibly thankful that the Coastal Land Trust was willing to take on the conservation of this precious habitat. Rapid changes to the landscape, invasive species, logging, and mining have steadily chipped away at the already limited range of this unique community. It is difficult to overstate the importance of its preservation. There are no better hands in which to leave the stewardship of this parcel than the Coastal Land Trust. In addition to its protection, our hope is that the conservation of this land may also help seed the restoration of adjacent lands where wet marl forest once existed” said Byron Toothman.