Balancing development 

 with conservation 



ATLANTIC 

 OCEAN 



Fort Fisher 



r^l BALD HEAD 

 ISLAND 



BY NANCY DAVIS 



Old Baldy stands watch 

 over the island 



The battleground was a small piece of paradise, 

 13,000 acres of sand, marsh and maritime forest 

 lying at the mouth of the Cape Fear River. 



It was North Carolina's first war of 

 the coastal environment, and it 

 raged for nearly two decades. 

 Environmentalists fought for preser- 

 vation. Developers sought a posh 

 resort with a population as high as 

 180,000 and even an international 

 airport. 



The prize was Bald Head Island, 

 which, along with Middle and Bluff 

 islands, makes up the Smith Island 

 complex off the Brunswick County 

 coast. 



In the end, neither side won. 



Those who wanted the island to 

 become a state park still shake their 

 heads over a paradise lost. But 

 there is a consolation, they say. 



If the island had to be developed, 

 its latest owner has created an ac- 

 ceptable blend of preservation and 

 change. 



The developer agrees. 



"Bald Head Island should have 

 been preserved," says Kent Mitchell. 

 "But if it had to be developed, then 

 I'm the best one to do it— without 

 question." 



On Bald Head, nature has united 

 an odd combination of temperate 

 and tropical life. Large stands of 

 palm trees grow farther north than 

 they're supposed to, and 

 temperatures average several 

 degrees warmer than on the 

 mainland just three miles away. 



At one time. Bald Head claimed 

 the state's largest maritime forest. 

 It is still the most popular nesting 

 ground in the state for the en- 

 dangered loggerhead sea turtle. 



"If Bald Head had been pre- 

 served, it would be even more 

 unique now," says Art Cooper, head 

 of North Carolina State University's 

 forestry department and one of the 

 leading proponents of preservation. 



But like the rest of the Tar Heel 

 coast, pressures to build won out 

 over the push to preserve. 



Mitchell is the latest in a succes- 

 sion of owners, and his plans for the 

 island are less ambitious than 

 previous designs. 



"My main overriding philosophy 

 is, 'What is a place that I'd like to 

 bring my kids back to in 20 years?'" 

 Mitchell says. "There is a natural 

 beauty that God gave this island," 

 he says. "It is a wild, volatile environ- 

 ment, and I have a chance to 

 preserve it." 



In the 1960s, Smith Island com- 

 plex owner Frank Sherrill proposed 

 the most elaborate plans for a Bald 

 Head Island resort. 



But frustrated by state opposition 

 to his plans, he offered the complex 

 of islands to the state for about $5 

 million, a price the state considered 

 too high. 



So in 1970, Sherrill sold to 



Photo by Scott Taylor 



