•dar now thrive on refuge land - 800 acres worth. Refuge officials work to restore 10,800 acres of pocosin habitat by re flooding peatlands. At an NC State greenhouse, Eric Hinesley grows seedlings for restoration efforts. 



Wildlife Refuge. According to Stanton, the 

 pocosin ecosystem has been reduced to 

 less than 5 percent of its original range, and 

 designated "globally threatened" by The Nature 

 Conservancy. 



THE CEDAR'S DEMISE 



Pocosin Lakes, located in Tyrrell, Hyde 

 and Washington counties, experienced the 

 timber rush in the late 1 890s that cleared much 

 of an estimated 200,000 acres of Adantic 

 white cedar found in eastern North Carolina. 

 Commercial timber companies ditched and 

 drained pocosin wetlands to allow more 

 accessibility for timber harvesting. 



"If you look at an aerial photo of the 

 refuge, it's just a matrix of ditches and canals," 

 says Stanton as she drives along dirt roads once 

 traveled by logging trucks. 



Logging efforts were exhausted by the 

 1960s. The area then was used for corporate 

 agriculture for several decades. 



There was also an attempt to mine peat 

 from the area in the 1980s. However, plans to 

 construct a large peat-to-methanol synthetic 

 fuel plant were abandoned, along with the 

 agricultural enterprise. Thousands of acres were 

 left ditched and drained, exposing eight-foot 

 peat deposits that were 9,000 years old. 



By the late 1980s, The Conservation Fund 

 had acquired much of the degraded pocosin 

 habitat, and donated about 93,000 acres to 

 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). 

 The donation helped establish Pocosin Lakes 

 National Wildlife Refuge in 1990. 



Now, Atlantic white cedar restoration is an 

 ongoing mission for Pocosin Lakes and other 

 refuges in the southeast, where most of the 



estimated 10,600 remaining acres of Atlantic 

 white cedar are found. Smaller pockets are 

 scattered throughout the cedar's native range 

 — from Maine to northern Florida and west to 

 southern Mississippi. 



REBUILDING THE POCOSIN 



When the Pocosin Lakes refuge was 

 first established, officials there partnered with 

 USFWS and North Carolina State University to 

 restore 10,800 acres of pocosin habitat. 



The strategy involved returning natural 

 water flow to the pocosin by installing water 

 control structures within the network of canals 

 that would flood the habitat, helping support 

 reforestation efforts of white cedar, bald cypress 

 and other native pocosin vegetation. 



Today, about 2,000 acres of pocosin 

 are restored — with 800 acres of white cedar 

 planted and thriving. 



"It's a very high priority to try to restore 

 as much healthy pocosin wetlands as possible 

 to the most natural state as possible," says 

 Stanton. "The Atlantic white cedar is a large 

 component of that." 



Refuge officials expect to see wildlife 

 associated with the cedar return to the restored 

 area, including nesting songbirds and declining 

 species, such as the black-throated green 

 warbler, woodcock, black bear and eastern 

 diamondback rattlesnake. 



WATER QUALITY BENEFIT 



Pocosins, specifically Atlantic white cedar 

 bogs, naturally hold and filter runoff before it 

 enters surrounding waterways, improving water 

 quality downstream. Water from a pocosin 

 wetland is often cleaner than rainwater. 



However, when the refuge's peat lands 

 were ditched and drained for logging and 

 peat mining, they became aerated, causing an 

 increase in microbial activity that accelerates 

 decomposition and nutrient release. 



As a result, runoff from Pocosin Lakes 

 exceeded North Carolina water quality 

 standards for mercury. Excess nitrogen also 

 contributed to excessive plant and algal growth 

 in downstream areas of the Albemarle-Pamlico 

 Sound. Known as eutrophication, this process 

 reduces dissolved oxygen content in the water, 

 and can harm fish and other animals. 



"We would like to see the whole site 

 become nonpolluting and actually beneficial 

 to the sound," says Mike Wicker, Albemarle/ 

 Pamlico coastal ecosystems coordinator for 

 USFWS. 



Mercury runoff has been the easiest to 

 reduce. Wicker notes. After restoring just one 

 640-acre plot, previously toxic mercury levels 

 quickly became better than the state standard. 

 "The restored sections of that site now are just 

 as clean as rainwater," he adds. 



Reductions in nitrogen also have occurred, 

 but reaching the ultimate goal — site runoff 

 with mercury and nitrogen levels equal to, or 

 less than, that found in rainfall — will take 

 an estimated 10 to 15 years. For the pocosins 

 to achieve their full clean-up potential, the 

 remaining 10,800 acres must be restored, says 

 Wicker. 



However, funding is scarce. "It would be 

 a real bargain to restore the remaining acreage," 

 Wicker says. 



Education would help the project move 

 forward, he suggests, adding that the public is 



Continued 



COASTWATCH 13 



