This Land, Your Land

The state will present conceptual plans for Carvers Creek State Park, which is being developed in northern Cumberland County, in a public meeting in Fayetteville Monday night.

The public meeting at Pine Forest High School at 6:30 p.m. August 30 is part of the process to create a master plan, a park's blueprint for long-term development of facilities and recreation opportunities and a guide for protection of natural resources, a news release says.

Carvers Creek State Park was authorized in 2005 but has not been developed in part because of state budget woes. The state has continued to acquire land, though, and the park now encompasses 2,812 acres, including the former James Stillman Rockefeller estate near Spring Lake as well as undeveloped tracts that lie between Fort Bragg and U.S. 401 north of Fayetteville.

The Nature Conservancy, which donated parts of the property and coordinated the sale of other parts to the state, describes the Carvers Creeks property as "a mosaic of Sandhills communities, including pine/scrub oak sandhill, and wetland areas such as seeps, stream pocosins and a small swamp. The natural area is home to several active red-cockaded woodpecker colonies and several populations of Sandhills pyxie-moss."

Park design alternatives discussed at Monday's meeting will be available on the state parks website beginning August 31.

State park rangers and volunteers are monitoring more than twice as many sea turtle nests on Bear Island at Hammocks Beach State Park this season than last, a news release says.

One of the 19 sea turtle nests was created by the relatively rare green sea turtle, the release says, while the rest are by loggerhead turtles, which while also endangered are more common. The green sea turtle nest is among only nine known on the North Carolina coast this season.

There were eight sea turtle nests recorded on Bear Island in 2009.

There are three species of sea turtles that nest within Cape Hatteras National Seashore: the loggerhead, green and leatherback. All are federally listed as either threatened or endangered.

Programs at Hammocks Beach and Cape Hatteras enlist volunteers to monitor sea turtle nests and to ensure the success of hatchlings as they emerge and make their way to the ocean.

At Hatteras, volunteers are needed and will be trained to assist National Park Service biologists with monitoring nest sites, educating the general public about sea turtle management, installing and maintaining closures, handling hatchlings, and assisting with excavations.

Loggerhead and green sea turtles dig nests above the high tide line along beaches, and lay eggs that incubate for roughly 60-90 days before producing hatchlings from September to November. Hatchlings emerge from the nests at night and make their way toward the brightest horizon, which on an undeveloped beach is always toward the sea. Bright, artificial lights can confuse the hatchlings. Officials and volunteers re-orient confused hatchlings.

Each nest could produce more than 100 sea turtle hatchlings.

A loggerhead that was tagged at Bear Island with a GPS satellite tracking device and later nested at Brown Island can be tracked at the website www.seaturtle.org.

If you're interested in volunteering at Cape Hatteras and can commit to a specific number of hours, leave your contact information for Katy McCurdy at 252-995-6968 or 252-216-7829.

The state has added more than 1,500 acres of natural woodlands to the Bladen Lakes State Forest near Elizabethtown, The Fayetteville Observer reported Tuesday.

Bladen Lakes State Forest encompasses about 33,000 acres adjacent to Jones Lake and Singletary Lake state parks and Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest. White Lake is nearby, as well.

Bladen Lakes is one of the largest state-owned forests in North Carolina, The Observer says. It has 130 miles of dirt roads, and is open for hunting, fishing, camping, hiking and horseback riding, but requires permits.

The 1,562-acre addition comprises an approximately 777-acre Prestage tract, a 683-acre Boyette tract and the approximately 140-acre Stevens tract.