The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust recently completed the acquisition of a 78-acre property Carteret County. This property, which adjoins the Coastal Land Trust’s Sea Gate Woods Preserve, was generously donated to the Coastal Land Trust by Radio Island Investments, LLC (principals Dan, David, and Steve Eudy). With this latest project, the Coastal Land Trust has expanded its Sea Gate Woods Preserve to 201 acres!
The Sea Gate Woods Preserve is a special place. It is considered to be a regionally significant natural heritage site by the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program. The property hosts a rare wetland community type known as non-riverine wet hardwood forest, which has a range from Craven County to northeastern Virginia. This forest type is home to the same plants and animals found in bottomland hardwood swamp forests along coastal plain rivers even though non-riverine forests are isolated wetland habitats. Once fairly common in several coastal counties in northeastern North Carolina, this natural community is now relatively rare because of logging operations and the conversion of this type of land to agriculture or development. This newest property also once featured a high-quality non-riverine wet hardwood forest, but like similar properties, it was heavily timbered about 30 years ago. Now it is permanently protected!
This property was special to the Eudy family, and their ownership of the property dates to the 1920s when Samuel (Sam) Willson Morgan (1880-1965), the brother of the Eudys’ grandmother, purchased the property that includes Sea Gate Woods. Dan Eudy explained that the property was known in the family as the ‘Canal Farm’ due to its location adjacent to the Intracoastal Waterway connecting Adam’s Creek to the Newport River in Craven and Carteret Counties. Initially, Sam Morgan cleared a portion of the land, and after a business trip to southern Georgia, he decided to “put in a pecan farm” on the property. The area was later used as a well to graze cattle and horses, which, according to Dan, provided additional fertilizer for the trees. Dan Eudy shared more of the colorful history of the property remembering, “the boys were entertained by their dad and other hunters with numerous stories of large rattlesnakes.
In recalling his fond childhood memories of the property, Dan said, “As a boy, hunting with my dad Joe Eudy, and brothers Steve and David, we often got our limit on squirrels. Prior to the development of Sea Gate, the property was quite isolated, and it was here that I first saw deer, bear and turkeys in the wild. There was a great peace found in camping in these dense, dark woods overnight. I am happy that this beloved property is now in good hands with the Coastal Land Trust.”
“The Coastal Land Trust is ever thankful to the Eudy Family for this generous donation of 78-acres of land, the Captain Sam Morgan Preserve, named after the brother of the grandmother of Dan, Steve, and David Eudy” said Janice Allen, Director of Land Protection. “This property will be managed as part of the Coastal Land Trust’s adjacent 123-acre Sea Gate Woods Preserve in Carteret County. This land meant a lot to the Eudys, who shared stories of hunting and exploring the woods there. The Eudys can be assured that the property will be forever protected from development, and the forest will grow on.”
