This Land, Your Land

As prescribed burns continue to be scheduled on North Carolina recreation lands, the State Parks said today a burn will be conducted later this month at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area.

The controlled fire is to cover a 155-acre area near the public entrance to the RV campsites and shoreline at the Vista Point Access.

"Some plant communities and animal species rely on periodic fire for their existence," a state parks news release says. "The prescribed burn will also reduce the amount of potential wildfire fuel. The prescribed burn will help protect the park’s resources and neighboring landowners if lightning, arson or carelessness spark a wildfire."

The fire will be set when weather conditions make it safe. Monitor the state parks website page for Jordan Lake (through the link above) or our Twitter feed, @NCOutdoorsGuide, for notice of the burn.

Vista Point, one of five campgrounds at Jordan Lake, has 50 group camping sites for RVs and five group camping sites for tents. Vista Point is off of U.S. 64 and North Pea Ridge Road north of Pittsboro.

The New & Observer today had a nice story about a pair of nesting bald eagles raising two chicks at Jordan Lake that are being monitored by a webcam operated by N.C. State University.

"The eaglets hatched this month, and the website has received tens of thousands of hits and about 1,500 visitors from more than a dozen countries since it was put up in December," The N&O says. "The chicks should remain on the nest until they fully develop in mid-April."

The webcam project grew from a bird-watching class field trip for an NCSU biology class.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which administers the lake and a recreation area at the dam site, tracks eagle nests throughout the Triangle, and has been monitoring these eagles during the past several breeding seasons.

There are more than 70 breeding pairs of bald eagles in North Carolina today, including five active nests on Jordan Lake, where 32,868 acres preserved for recreation and wildlife management also include a popular state recreation area, which has five campgrounds, the underappreciated Jordan Lake Educational State Forest and state Game Lands.

The State Parks system is reporting success in the first full season of its camping reservations system, with more than 250,000 campers using the system.

The reservation system, which is available for the state parks' 3,000 campsites, 106 picnic shelters and community buildings, vacation cabins and visitor center auditoriums, was instituted in July 2009.

The Division of Parks and Recreation news release doesn't give figures comparing 2010 to 2009, but says state park campgrounds reported a 20 percent jump in use during the first few months that the reservations system was in place.

In total, the parks' online and call center-based system placed 61,484 reservations for campsites, picnic shelters and other amenities this year. While 47.6 percent of people making reservation still made them in person at the park, 52.4 percent of all reservations - 35.9 percent made online and 16.5 percent through a call center - went through the new system, the release says.

For campers, Jordan Lake State Recreation Area, which logged 14,124 reservations during the year ending July 30, was the most popular destination. It was followed by Kerr Lake State Recreation Area (6,162) and Hanging Rock (5,256), Stone Mountain (5,062) and Carolina Beach (4,410) state parks.

Most state park campgrounds are used by people from nearby towns, although there were exceptions. For instance, Hammocks Beach and Pilot Mountain state parks most often had campers from the Triangle. Visitors from Charlotte most often filled Lake James, Morrow Mountain, New River and Stone Mountain state parks.

Reservations can be made up to 48 hours in advance, online through individual parks' pages on the main state parks site at www.ncparks.gov, or by calling toll-free 877-7 CAMP NC (722-6762).

By the middle of next year, Jordan Lake should be a source of renewable energy via hydroelectric power generators being installed at the dam near Moncure.

The Corps of Engineers, which administers the B. Everett Jordan Dam and Reservoir, said today the road across the dam would close this week as construction began. The Corps operates a visitor center and picnic area at the dam and allows bank fishing below the spillway.

Installation of two vertical generators on the upstream side of the dam's water intake tower should take up to eight months, the Corps said. Each of the generators contains a 2.2-megawatt turbine.

A private enterprise, the Jordan Hydroelectric Limited Partnership, is installing the generators.

When complete, the project will generate up to 16,900 megawatt hours of green power annually, enough to power more than 1,500 homes.

In 2007, the state legislature required power companies to derive at least 12.5 percent of their energy from a combination of renewable sources and from energy-saving programs by 2021, according to a News & Observer article from 2009 about a hydroelectric firm previously expected to build at Jordan Lake.

Progress Energy, which gets less than 1 percent of its power from renewable energy sources, would buy the power produced at Jordan Lake.

This is the first of several such projects proposed or in process for Wilmington District Corps of Engineers facilities, which include W. Kerr Scott Lake in Wilkes County, Falls Lake in Wake County, and three Locks and Dams on the Cape Fear River, all of which also offer public recreation sites.

National Public Lands Day is set for September 25 this year, a Saturday, and five parks in North Carolina have official work events planned for volunteers.

National Public Lands Day celebrates service and recreation on public lands while educating volunteers about the effects of climate change on parks. In 2009, 150,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, planted trees and restored water resources, the website for National Public Lands Day says.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park will celebrate with two trail work projects - one on the North Carolina side of the park and one on the Tennessee side. The North Carolina project is to improve Smokemont Nature Trail (3/4-mile loop trail) located in Smokemont Campground near Cherokee. The plan is to work from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If you're interested, contact Trails & Facilities Volunteer Coordinator Christine Hoyer, at 828-497-1949 or Christine_Hoyer@nps.gov by September 17.

Elk Knob State Park in Todd near Boone has trail workdays for construction of a 2-mile summit trail every Saturday beginning at 9 a.m and lasting until 3 p.m. Call the park office at 828-297-7261 to sign up.

The Corps of Engineers is asking for help removing litter from aquatic habitat and shoreline at Jordan Lake. Contact Tom Colson with the Corps at 919-630-2569.

The Nature Conservancy is clearing woody vegetation with hand saws and chainsaws from grassy balds between Carver's Gap and Grassy Ridge along the Appalachian Trail at Roan Mountain. Some hiking will be required to get to the work site. Contact Megan Sutton at 828-350-1431.

Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve in Cary will be mulching trails. Contact Joy Logan at 919-387-5980.