Ooastwateh 



COASTAL 



TIDINGS 



Senior Editors 

 Daun Daemon 

 Jeannie Faris Norris 



Contributing Editor 

 Debbi Sykes Braswell 



Editorial Assistant 

 Athena Osborne 



Designer 

 Linda Noble 



Circulation Manager 

 Sandra Harris 



The North Carolina Sea Grant College 

 Program is a federal/state program that 

 promotes the wise use of our coastal and 

 marine resources through research, extension 

 and education. It joined the National Sea Grant 

 College Network in 1970 as an institutional 

 program. Six years later, it was designated a 

 Sea Grant College. Today, North Carolina Sea 

 Grant supports several research projects, 

 a 1 2-member extension program and a 

 communications staff. Ron Hodson is interim 

 director. The program is funded by the U.S. 

 Department of Commerce's National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration and the state 

 through the University of North Carolina. 

 Coastwatch (ISSN 1068-784X) is published 

 bimonthly, six times a year, for $15 by the 

 North Carolina Sea Grant College Program, 

 Box 8605, North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-8605. 

 Telephone: 919/515-2454. Fax: 919/515-7095. 

 E-mail: faris @unity .ncsu.edu or 

 ddaemon@unity.ncsu.edu. 

 World Wide Web address: 

 http://www2.ncsu.edu/sea_grant/seagrant.html. 

 Periodical Postage paid at Raleigh, N.C 



POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 

 Coastwatch, North Carolina Sea Grant, 

 Box 8605, North Carolina State University, 

 Raleigh, NC 27695-8605. 



Front cover photo of 

 Mattamuskeet Lodge 

 by Scott D. Taylor 



Table of contents photo 

 of blue marlin fishing 

 by Joel Arrington 



Printed on recycled paper. ® 



North Carolina Nature 

 at Your Fingertips 



North Carolina offers a range of 

 natural experiences — from the thick 

 forests of the mountains to the pinelands of 

 the piedmont to the salt marshes along the 

 coast. Amateur naturalists find plenty to 

 study here. 

 Nature's Ways: 

 Natural History 

 Essays gives 

 readers the 

 chance to make 

 some of those 

 discoveries from 

 their armchairs. 



The set's six 

 volumes present 

 essays that 

 appeared in 

 Wildlife in North 

 Carolina from 

 1978 through 

 1996. Most were 

 written by 

 Lawrence S. 

 Earley, the 

 magazine's 

 associate editor, 

 and illustrated by 

 David Williams. 



Arranged chronologically rather than 

 topically, the essays skip among subjects 

 as diverse as judging a tree's age, chimney 

 swifts, hibernation and the function of a 

 tail. Reading straight through is akin to 

 taking a nature walk through North 

 Carolina and stumbling upon discoveries. 



Nature's Ways: Natural Histon Essays 



The index provides helpful information for 

 more directed reading by listing key words 

 for each essay and topics of related essays. 



"This collection of North Carolina's 

 natural history profiles can introduce 

 children and 

 adults to the 

 fascinating and 

 complex stories 

 of life around 

 us," says North 

 Carolina Sea 

 Grant's Lundie 

 Spence, a marine 

 education 

 specialist who 

 reviewed articles 

 for the set. "Each 

 feature makes 

 us look closer to 

 see what is in 

 the water, land 

 and air." 



All of 

 the essays are 

 accompanied by 

 photographs or 

 detailed illustra- 



tions. The large, paperback format allows 

 easy photocopying for students. 



To order, send a check payable to 

 N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission for 

 $27.50 (North Carolina residents add 6 

 percent sales tax) plus $5 for shipping to 

 The N.C. Wild Store, P.O. Box 29607, 

 Raleigh, NC 27626-0607. — D.D. □ 



In the Next Issue of Coastwatch 



A II along the North Carolina coast, our most-recognized landmarks 

 derive from cultural history, natural wonder or sporting heritage. But at the 

 Outer Banks' Oregon Inlet, contention over plans to build massive jetties has 

 come to define a place whose wild shores have few parallels. In the second 

 installment of his series about coastal landmarks, Eddie Nickens visits Oregon 

 Inlet to find context in the controversy. □ 



2 EARLY SUMMER 1998 



