INTRODUCTION 



Purposes of Study 



The goals of this study were to identify and map 

 the most significant "natural areas" of the county. 

 These include exemplary physical features, exemplary 

 plant communities, and special habitats. Special 

 habitats — habitats harboring rare species and/or 

 notably large populations — may or may not be asso- 

 ciated with exemplary physical features or plant 

 communities. Also, we prepared reports, according to 

 Natural Heritage Program specifications, on natural 

 areas that had not previously been reported on. 



Brief Description of Carteret County 



Excluding water area, Carteret is a medium-sized 

 (land area about 340,000 acres) but long (axis oriented 

 generally WSW-ENE) county on the central North Carolina 

 coast. Especially prominent physical features are the 

 great length of barrier islands (including a Carolina 

 cape — Cape Lookout); large shallow sounds and other 

 estuaries); extensive tracts of salt marshes, especially 

 the irregularly flooded marshes (ca. 38,600 acres), 

 which are primarily in the NE half of the county; and 

 extensive pocosins — poorly drained flatlands dominated 

 by stunted pond pines (Pinus serotina) and several 

 broadleaf evergreen shrubs. Also notable are several 

 Pleistocene relict beach ridge complexes with their 

 associated Carolina bays. These ridges support the 

 majority of longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris ) woodlands 

 and savannahs found in the county. 



Until recent years, the great majority of the land 

 area of the county was "undeveloped". As recently as 

 1965, most towns and communities, agriculture and 

 sylviculture were largely restricted to well-drained 

 sections of the mainland adjacent to the estuaries 

 or larger drainage systems. Since then the barrier 

 island Bogue Banks has been converted from a mostly 

 undeveloped to a mostly developed island. In the last 

 decade, vast areas of pocosin (which formerly totaled 

 over 118,000 acres in the county) have been converted 

 to sylviculture and agriculture. One agricultural 

 enterprise alone, the Open Grounds Farm, has converted 

 over 30,000 acres of pocosin to agriculture. Only about 

 half of the original pocosin area of the county remains. 

 Most of this is in Croatan National Forest in the 

 western half of the county. 



