This Land, Your Land

The state's purchase of land around Rumbling Bald Mountain will expand Chimney Rock State Park by more than 20 percent, the Asheville Citizen-Times reports.

The N.C. Council of State agreed Tuesday to pay the Nature Conservancy $4.2 million for 1,222 acres at Rumbling Bald, which is just north of Chimney Rock in the Hickory Nut Gorge.

The tract includes Rumbling Bald Mountain, with its a massive rock face visible from Lake Lure, steep cliffs, granite domes and a mature hickory forest, Nature Conservancy in North Carolina spokesman Debbie Crane told the newspaper.

The state established Chimney Rock State Park in 2007 after buying the Rutherford County tourist attraction from private owners in 2005, and has continued to add adjacent land to it. The park now comprises more than 5,700 acres.

The master plan for Chimney Rock State Park calls for development of three day use areas in phases over the next 20 years. The Rumbling Bald area, which is popular with rock climbers, is to be developed in phase three.

Miller-McCune magazine in a November feature profiles a pilot project at the 154,000-acre Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge to determine whether man can slow rising sea levels and the inevitable loss of land and habitat.

The world's sea level has been stable for about 5,000 years, Jim Morrison's 2,600-word report says, but "today, melting glaciers and rising sea waters have accelerated the transformation, making larger areas vulnerable to flooding, erosion, saltwater intrusion, and loss of wetlands and biodiversity."

At the Alligator River site, the Nature Conservancy has built oyster-shell reefs to slow currents and lessen the impact of waves to stave off erosion. Other efforts include filling man-made drainage ditches and installing gates in others to slow the advance of salt water, and planting salt-tolerant trees such as bald cypress and black gum.

Orrin Pilkey, the Duke University professor who is well-known for his warnings about the vulnerability of North Carolina's coast, says the state should plan for a rise of 7 feet. Meanwhile, models demonstrate that a 1-foot rise in sea level would flood up to 469,000 acres of the Albemarle Peninsula, the article says, and a 20-inch rise might inundate nearly 750,000 acres, more than a third of the peninsula.

Morrison quotes an independent report co-written in 2008 by Jim Titus, an EPA expert who has been considering the dangers of sea-level rise for three decades. About North Carolina, Titus concludes "there is no explicit plan for the fate of most low-lying coastal lands as sea level rises."

If you're looking for some charitable outdoors work to do sometime soon, the Nature Conservancy is looking for volunteers to help with trail maintenance and habitat restoration at its Green Swamp Preserve next weekend and again in November.

The 17,424-acre Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County is one of four Nature Conservancy in North Carolina properties open to the public for recreation.

Green Swamp Preserve contains fine examples of longleaf pine savannas and pocosin. It is also home to 14 carnivorous plant species and a number of rare animals including the American alligator and fox squirrel.

The workdays are October 16 and November 13, and begin at 9 a.m. Meet at the Green Swamp parking area, 5.5 miles north of Supply on N.C. 211. They'll provide tools, water and a snack, and even work gloves if you don't have them.

Contact the Conservancy’s Southeast Coastal Plain Office at (910) 395-5000 for more info.

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.