Annand and Todd Miller, execu- 

 tive director of the N.C. Coastal Fed- 

 eration, lament that it's come to this. 

 The history of maritime forest preser- 

 vation in North Carolina is full of 

 missed opportunities to buy and regu- 

 late the land, they say. The state 

 passed up chances in the 1960s and 

 1970s to buy Bald Head Island prop- 

 erty for its assessed tax value. Simi- 

 larly, Buxton Woods tracts were 

 passed over when they were much 

 more affordable. 



"It's really unfortunate that here 

 in North Carolina, the state itself 

 didn't have the vision or foresight to 

 protect maritime forests years ago, 

 when land was more affordable," 

 Annand says. 



On the regulatory front, the 

 Coastal Area Management Act 

 doesn't offer a protection category 

 for maritime forests. Nor has any site 

 been specifically listed as an Area of 

 Environmental Concern, worthy of 

 special requirements on develop- 

 ment. 



"Are we doing enough to protect 

 maritime forests?" Miller asks. "No." 



Nobody knows precisely how 

 many acres stood before the start of 

 the coastal development boom of the 

 1970s. But today, less than 12,000 

 acres, owned publicly and privately, 

 stand on barrier islands, according to 

 the 1988 survey commissioned by 

 the DCM. About 30 percent have 

 been corralled by preservation 

 efforts. 



The remaining maritime forests 

 number 20 along North Carolina's 

 barrier islands, ranging from 12 acres 

 to 3,000 acres. The top-priority sites, 

 the jewels of our coast, are Kitty 

 Hawk Woods, Nags Head Woods, 

 Buxton Woods and Bald Head 

 Woods. Efforts continue to save 

 them. But at sites less known, the rate 

 of development has been dizzying, 

 and it's been accelerated in recent 

 years by talk of protecting maritime 



land. Since 1988, when the 12,000 

 acres were inventoried, four forests 

 have fallen to development. They 

 were Atlantic Station, Emerald Isle 

 Canal, Ocean Ridge and Piney Point 

 — all on Bogue Banks. 



North Carolina is the meeting 

 point of subtropical, broad-leaf ever- 

 green trees of the southern coastal 

 forests and the temperate, deciduous 

 elements of the northern forests. 

 Bald Head Island, for example, is the 

 northernmost range for the cabbage 

 palmetto, while American beech is 

 found only in the maritime forests 

 from Nags Head north. 



The tortuous shape of the 

 maritime trees may be their 

 most distinguishing feature - 

 at points all along the coast. 

 Salt spray and wind seem to 

 age the oaks beyond their 

 years, giving them an ancient, 

 gnarled appearance. 



Lundie Spence 



Consequently, there is no such 

 thing as a typical maritime forest in 

 this state. They vary to the north and 

 south, inland and shoreward, and 

 eventually they blend into mainland 

 forests. But that's not to say that they 



don't share defining features. The tor- 

 tuous shape of the maritime trees may 

 be their most distinguishing feature — 

 at points all along the coast. Salt spray 

 and wind seem to age the oaks beyond 

 their years, giving them an ancient, 

 gnarled appearance. Their branches 

 reach wide over the forest floor, and 

 their waxy leaves form a canopy to 

 deflect salt and heat. Underneath this 

 leafy umbrella grows an understory 

 of smaller trees and plants, as well 

 as a population of animals hardy 

 enough to live in this rigorous 

 environment. 



The uniform appearance of mari- 

 time forests, belying the regional dif- 

 ferences, is one of several paradoxes 

 of these unique wooded habitats. 



There are others. Maritime forests 

 are at once fragile and hardy. Fragile 

 because they're crippled by intrusive 

 breaks in their canopy that let in salt 

 and wind. The airborne salt tips the 

 fragile balance of nature, and the 

 trees begin to die. But they're hardy 

 enough to grow on inhospitable bar- 

 rier islands, where they live life on the 

 edge, already stressed by the natural 

 forces of salt spray, wind and nutrient- 

 poor and droughty soils. 



"I think these are the toughest 

 forests we have," says Ralph Heath, 

 now retired from the U.S. Geological 

 Survey. "If they weren't tough, they 

 wouldn't be living in these environ- 

 ments." 



Maritime forests anchor the shift- 

 ing soils of barrier islands, preventing 

 erosion, protecting against storm dam- 

 age, preserving groundwater and pro- 

 viding habitat. But these bulwarks of 

 nature, disfigured by the elements, 

 appear to crawl away from the ocean 

 spray. 



The shrubs tilt landward. Trees 

 reach and twist for inland shelter, all 

 the while changing size, shape and 

 species as they retreat from the water 

 and wind. Closest to the water, 

 stumpy shrub thickets take root. They 



4 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1993 



