TYRRELL COUNTY BOASTS 

 NEW PRESERVE 



Tyrrell County's third protected area, 

 Palmetto-Peartree Preserve, is now open to 

 visitors. Like its neighbor Pocosin Lakes National 

 Wildlife Refuge, the new preserve boasts unique 

 habitat in need of conservation. 



Established in 1 999 as a partnership 

 between The Conservation Fund, the N.C. 

 Department of Transportation and the U.S. Fish 

 and Wildlife Service, the preserve spans 1 0,000 

 acres of forests. 



Best known for birding, the preserve's 

 quarter-mile boardwalk leads visitors through a 



wetland forest to the Albermarle Sound — where 

 myriad opportunities await for spotting rare red- 

 cockaded woodpeckers. 



"We really want people in the community 

 to get out there and see what the preserve has to 

 offer and utilize it as much as possible," says Jill 

 Simonetti, ecotourism program coordinator with 

 The Conservation Fund. 



"It is a beautiful property that has great 

 opportunity for recreation and community 

 development," says Simonetti. 



The new preserve provides habitat for the 

 largest population of endangered red-cockaded 

 woodpecker on private land in the state, she 



adds. Bald eagles, peregrine falcons, black bears, 

 red wolves, bobcats and more than 1 00 migratory 

 bird species also seek shelter at the preserve. 



An April celebration — including a red wolf 

 howling, birding competition, hikes, and races 

 — launched the ongoing development of the 

 preserve as a public park. 



By working to integrate economic, cultural 

 and environmental efforts at the preserve, The 

 Conservation Fund eventually hopes to establish 

 an "ecotourism destination" in Tyrrell County. 



To learn more and plan a day trip, visit 

 the Palmetto-Peartree Preserve Web site: www. 

 palmettopeartree.org. — LL 



Preserve visitors take the shoreline boardwalk trail out to Hidden Lake, accessible from Albemarle Sound, offers sport Visitors catch a spectacular view of Palmetto-Peartree 



Albemarle Sound, where a canoe pier is located. for paddlers. It is also the site for a future camping platform. Preserve from the shoreline boardwalk. 



areas — Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife 

 Refuge, the Emily and Richardson Preyer 

 Buckridge Coastal Reserve, and the new 

 Palmetto-Peartree Preserve. Each is devoted to 

 environmental conservation and preservation 

 of coastal heritage. 



In conceit with the mission of Pocosin 

 Arts — a traditional arts education center 

 located in Columbia and dedicated to 

 "connecting culture to environment through 

 the arts" — Tyrrell residents gathered with 

 friends and partners to plant a "Millennium 

 Forest" of 7,000 young juniper trees. 



The project — 7000 Juniper. An Art 

 Action for the Millennium — was inspired 

 by Joseph Beuys, a German artist famous for 

 planting 7,000 oak trees in Kassel, Germany, 

 in 1982. The 7000 Oaks project symbolized 

 a movement to reforest the country and left 

 a legacy that continues to spread across the 

 world — with plantings in the British Isles, 

 France, Holland, Italy and the United States. 



On March 20, 2000, the dawn of the 

 vernal equinox, Phillips initiated the first 

 of four plantings for the millennium forest, 

 creating a place where both residents and 



visitors of the pocosin region could find solace 

 under a quiet cathedral of juniper trees. 



Handmade clay markers were buried 

 with each new juniper, expected to last 1,000 

 years as a memorial of the day, of the care 

 taken by the project and people involved, and 

 of loved ones celebrating in spirit. 



"Combining ritual with the planting 

 and initiating of the forest was part of the 

 imprinting in the minds of the children that this 

 was special, this was powerful, this was worth 

 our care," says Phillips. 



The last juniper in the millennium forest 

 was planted on April 7, 2004, in Pocosin 

 Lakes. A public celebration marked the event, 

 complete with the release of a young bald 

 eagle by the Carolina Raptor Society in honor 

 of life and an effort to give back to nature. 



Watching the eagle circle overhead and 

 take flight was a pinnacle moment for Phillips 

 and others present. But the vision is not yet 

 complete — the trees are still growing. Some 

 have reached 12-feet-tall, others only 12 

 inches. 



"It's a work of art that you can have in 

 your imagination. . .A Stonehenge idea. . .A 



place of ritual," Phillips explains. "I'm still 

 imagining, and it looks like it's going to be 

 great." 



The millennium project is now a budding 

 seven-acre forest. Shedding the exactitude 

 offered by tape measures and technological 

 gadgets, Carl Twarog and Eva Roberts, faculty 

 members at East Carolina University's School 

 of Art, designed the plantings in concentric 

 circles to emphasize the human dimensions of 

 this visionary forest. 



To form the circles, the volunteers 



— including more than 500 students — held 

 hands, and the seedlings were planted at their 

 feet. Two giant steps measure the distance 

 between each circle in the imperfect, yet 

 successful, pattern. 



"The idea of a perfect anything was 

 thrown out the window," says Phillips of the 

 unusual planting method. "We really wanted 

 to pay honor and tribute to the way trees really 

 grow." 



In 100 years or so, when the junipers are 

 overhead, the small center circle will remain 



— tended as the tree cathedral Phillips first 

 envisioned — a sacred place. □ 



COASTWATCH 15 



