This Land, Your Land

Cape Hatteras National Seashore will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the relocation of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on October 2 with free admission to the 139-year-old beacon.

A program on the grounds of the lighthouse from 10:30 a.m. to noon Friday will recognize the 1999 project to move the lighthouse 2,900 feet southwest from its original 1870 location. The current location (below) is 1,600 feet from the eroding Atlantic Ocean shoreline.

The move, which required about 175 days of on-site preparation, was completed in 23 days from June 17 to July 9, 1999, amid a great deal of media coverage and controversy, a National Park Service news release recalls.

October 2 will be a "fee free" day at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the fee to climb the 248 steps of the iron spiral staircase will be waived. Normally tickets are $7 for adults and $3.50 for children and senior citizens.

The North Carolina Zoo’s newest exhibit is a group of five man-made geysers designed to help remind zoo visitors of the importance of stewardship of our national parks and our public lands, according to Zoo and Aquarium Visitor.

The exhibit, part of the Prairie Exhibit in the North America region, officially opens at 11 a.m. Saturday, September 26, National Public Lands Day.

Four of the geysers are smaller and erupt continuously, reaching two to eight feet in height, while the main spout bursts 20 to 40 feet high about every five minutes. A wooden deck brings visitors right up to this unusual fountain.

The N.C. Zoo is in Asheboro, and is an agency of the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Take A Child Outside Week - September 24 to 30 - is a program designed to help break down obstacles that keep children from discovering the natural world, says its organizer, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

"By arming parents, teachers and other caregivers with resources on outdoor activities, our goal is to help children across the country develop a better understanding and appreciation of the environment in which they live, and a burgeoning enthusiasm for its exploration."

The museum's Web site offers a map of activities for the week and ideas for making your own plans.

Our site, Carolina Outdoors Guide, offers hundreds of places in North Carolina to take a child outdoors, all of which you are paying for with your tax dollars. Particularly for children, we suggest Educational State Forests for easily walked, fun and interesting outings, as well as our state parks and national parks, which provide a variety of experiences across the state.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has announced that it will close the road atop Fontana Dam for more than four months as three of the dam's water intake gates are refurbished.

N.C. 1245, which crosses the 480-foot-tall dam, will close October 1 through early February 2010, the TVA says in a news release. Foot traffic will be allowed across the dam, enabling continued access to the Appalachian Trail.

The parking area, visitors center and observation deck at the dam site will not be directly affected by the work.

Sandblasting equipment and a mobile crane will be placed on top of the dam during the project.

Saturday, September 26, is the 16th annual National Public Lands Day, "the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance the public lands Americans enjoy." In 2008, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, and planted over 1.6 million trees, the National Public Lands Day Web site says.

The site's state-by-state event search engine shows 11 events in North Carolina, from picking up roadside litter at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge to mulching the trails at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary, to family events from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Wilson Lake in Nash County sponsored by Imagination Station.

Medoc Mountain State Park will open an 11-mile network of bridle trails with a public reception at 2 p.m. October 3, the Division of Parks and Recreation announced today.

The bridle trailhead is located off Medoc Mountain Road (S.R. 1002) just west of the Little Fishing Creek bridge, and includes nearly two acres of parking for trailers, a shelter, a well-water facility for horses and a picnic area with a large grill, a news release from the Division says.

Medoc Mountain, about 90 minutes from Raleigh in Hollister, also offers family camping, canoeing, education and events, fishing, hiking and picnicking.

More than three dozen volunteers, including the Cowboys for Christ chapter based in Nash County, worked since 2007 to build the bridle trails and completed the project in July.

A fish kill counted in the tens of millions is located near Flanners Beach in the Croatan National Forest's Neuse River Recreation Area outside of New Bern, according to the News & Observer of Raleigh.

A series of fish kills have hit the Neuse River since mid-August, the newspaper says, and Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Larry Baldwin puts the number at 50 million in the last week.

A naturally occurring depletion of oxygen in the water is blamed for the kill. The N&O says it is the largest such loss in at least five years.

The North Carolina Nature Conservancy on Friday announced the acquisition of a 1,263-acre Cumberland County tract that will eventually become a part of Carvers Creek Sandhills State Park.

The parcel includes a critical block of longleaf pine ecosystem at the eastern edge of the Sandhills. It shares a 2.5-mile border with Fort Bragg and a 2-mile border with Carvers Creek Sandhills.

"This truly is a keystone tract in every sense of that word," said Conservancy Conservation Director Rick Studenmund. "Several clusters of endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers nest on the property. It contains the headwaters of Carvers Creek and includes extensive forested wetlands."

Though development of Carvers Creek Sandhills, North Carolina's 38th state park, is "very much in a holding pattern," the Division of Parks and Recreation is writing a master plan for the park, spokesman Charlie Peek told The Fayetteville Observer in August.

In 2001, the Conservancy bought 1,173 acres in the area, which formed the core of Carvers Creek Sandhills. In 2004, James Stillman Rockefeller bequeathed the 1,435-acre Long Valley Farm to the Conservancy; that property will also be transferred to the state park system.

A third of North Carolina's state parks and state recreation areas report visitation has been up at least 20 percent this year, the state Division of Parks and Recreation said Friday. The report includes 35 state parks and state recreation areas along with Weymouth Woods State Nature Preserve.

Through August, state parks recorded 10.6 million visitors, up 14 percent from a year ago and surpassing visitation during the same eight-month period of 2007, which was a record year for state parks visitation.

Officials say the parks benefited from the bad economy, mild weather and the completion of several construction projects, such as the new observation tower at Mount Mitchell State Park and new roads and infrastructure at Gorges State Park in Transylvania County.

Parks seeing significant increases in visits include: Crowders Mountain, up 78 percent; Jordan Lake State Recreation Area, up 52 percent; Raven Rock, up 50 percent; Cliffs of the Neuse, up 40 percent; Lake Waccamaw, up 35 percent; Pilot Mountain, up 31 percent; Fort Macon, up 25 percent; Falls Lake State Recreation Area, up 24 percent; and Stone Mountain, up 23 percent.

Blue Ridge Parkway officials announced completion and reopening of the Goshen Creek Bridge and roadway (Milepost 285 to 288) near Boone on Thursday.

The section of road, approximately five miles north of the parkway's intersection with U.S. 321, closed in April 2008.

The rehabilitation restored the integrity of the historic structure while retaining most of the original design elements, the National Park Service says. Stonework was left undisturbed but did undergo cleaning and repointing. The most significant deviation from the previous design was replacement of the bridge's picket railing with horizontal guardrails to meet more stringent Federal Highway Administration safety standards.

Virtual Blue Ridge, which tipped us, has historical information about the Goshen Creek Bridge and the rehabilitation project. "There is no other bridge like it on the Blue Ridge Parkway," lamented Gary Johnson, the Parkway's chief of planning and professional services. "We will be losing an important detail and driving experience with the bridge repairs."