Bald Head Earns Stellar Marks on Report Card! By Courtney Spears Conservation Biologist - Coastal Ecology Program Coordinator
Bald Head Island is a unique and precious place that includes sensitive habitats like the globally imperiled maritime forest, productive salt marshes, freshwater wetlands, and mature dune ridges. These ecosystems are vastly different from one another, and provide the community with invaluable services, such as protection from storm effects, and a beautiful setting to reconnect with family. The Village of Bald Head Island and the Bald Head Island Conservancy work together to monitor these ecosystems to ensure the community is living in harmony with nature so that we can continue to enjoy all the benefits of living on a healthy barrier island. For the July 2013 – June 2014 term we monitored: dune health/beach vitex, creek health, deer population and forest health, and freshwater resources. We measured dune health by monitoring the width of dune vegetation, presence of native, dune building species, and the amount of vitex removed. We determined creek health by monitoring for salinity, dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform bacteria, salt marsh accretion/erosion, and presence of filter feeders. We calculated deer and forest health by conducting a summer and fall deer count and monitoring for laurel wilt. We monitored freshwater resources by conducting monthly measurements of depth to the water table and quarterly water quality measurements.
Bald Head Island received excellent scores on this year’s report card! The dunes showed stability throughout the year, with healthy vegetation, and required less removal of invasive beach vitex than 2012. Bald Head Creek exhibited extremely high water quality, perfect for recreation, with excellent conditions for commercially and recreationally important fish. The deer and forest were also deemed healthy, with no indication of laurel wilt disease – a devastating fungal infection affecting red bay that is transmitted by the ambrosia beetle. Freshwater resources received a ‘good’ score due to an indication of some saltwater intrusion in the aquifer underlying the island. This is being closely monitored and further investigated through a partnership with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Overall, Bald Head Island boasts some superb examples of barrier island habitat. As Bald Head was developed with sustainability in mind, it is our responsibility to continue to care for the natural environment. Moving into the next year we will continue to vigilantly monitor the resources of Bald Head Island and protect this extraordinary place. For more detailed methods and results from our monitoring program, please visit http://www.bhic.org.
BHIC.org | BHI Conservancy
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