2023 Preservation Recap

COASTAL LAND TRUST 2023 PRESERVATION RECAP

NEWPORT RIVER –WEYERHAEUSER PHASE I

TYPE: PURCHASE

ACRES: 1,436.9

COUNTY: CARTERET

Just north of Morehead City, this property features a mix of pine timberland, bottomland hardwoods, and estuarine marsh with four miles of frontage along Newport River and Little Creek Swamp.

BAY RIVER – BATE

TYPE: PURCHASE & TRANSFER

ACRES: 402.57

COUNTY: PAMLICO

A beautiful property with more than four miles of frontage along the Bay River and Smith and Newton Creeks. It was transferred to the NC Wildlife Resources Commission and added to the Goose Creek Game Land.

CHOWAN RIVER BLUFFS

PRESERVE

TYPE: PURCHASE

ACRES: 17.72

COUNTY: BERTIE

A new state natural heritage area featuring 90-foot bluffs overlooking the Chowan River and a unique ecosystem of white oak, American beech, and holly rarely found on the North Carolina coast.

MORGAN SWAMP PHASE III

TYPE: CONSERVATION

EASEMENT

ACRES: 70.8

COUNTY: CRAVEN

A donated conservation easement along a tributary of Upper Broad Creek. This easement completes the protection of a riparian buffer on both sides of Morgan Swamp.

TRENT RIVER –OAK GROVE

TYPE: PURCHASE

ACRES: 402.57

COUNTY: JONES

Active farmland along the Trent River and adjacent to a Marine Corps landing field. With river access and extensive road frontage, this property was at great risk of residential development.

BRICE’S CREEK PRESERVE

TYPE: TRANSFER

ACRES: 172.61

COUNTY: CRAVEN

An exciting project that was years in the making, NCCLT successfully transferred the Brice’s Creek Preserve to Craven County to be managed as a nature park.

Photo credit: Tom Earnhardt

Photo credit: Scott Pohlman

COASTAL LAND TRUST 2023 YEAR IN REVIEW

ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

4,870 PEOPLE SERVED

490 PLANTS

870

FOR

21st

23

5,855

2,283

3,799

VOLUNTEERS

762 VOLUNTEER HOURS $23,683 THE VALUE OF OUR VOLUNTEERS’ HARD WORK

442 VOLUNTEERS

15 VOLUNTEER EVENTS

4 COUNTIES

EVENT ATTENDEES

95 ANNUAL CELEBRATION AND LAWN PARTY

86 PARTY FOR THE POINT

54 MID-COAST 30th CELEBRATION AT TRYON PALACE

68 “CHEERS FOR 30 YEARS” EDENTON PARTY

51

SUPPORTERS

745 INDIVIDUAL DONORS (<$1,000+)

198 TIDEWATER LEVEL ($1,000+ CUMULATIVE)

95

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD

The31st year of the Coastal Land Trust proved to be one of our most successful, protecting another 2,334 acres forever. On behalf of the Coastal Land Trust Board and Staff, thank you for supporting these efforts to preserve important lands along the North Carolina coast.

Thanks to your generosity, the Coastal Land Trust had a very good year financially and the organization remains on strong footing to continue our mission. Our annual audit is not finalized as of the time this newsletter goes to print, but we are confident the preliminary financial results depicted here fairly represent the results of our last fiscal year which ended September 30, 2023.

Protecting land, whether through purchase or donation of property or conservation easements, remains our purpose for being, and this newsletter highlights our projects completed during 2023. The life cycle of land projects is long, sometimes spanning several years, and each project is special in its own way. We are very excited about projects that are nearing completion, and several new projects just getting underway now!

We hope to see you at a volunteer activity on one of our properties or at an event during 2024 to celebrate the lands we love!

Gratefully,

Hal Kitchin President, Coastal Land Trust Board of Directors

FINANCIAL SUMMARY FISCAL YEAR 2023

OCTOBER 1, 2022 – SEPTEMBER 30, 2023

PRELIMINARY AND APPROXIMATE RESULTS

The Finance Committee of the Coastal Land Trust meets regularly to review the financial health of the organization. Together with the staff and the Board of Directors, they ensure the vast majority of funds raised are directed to our core missions of land protection, land stewardship, and environmental education. Details for the most recent fiscal year are below (figures unaudited).

Land Protection $4,198,880

and Environmental Education $497,693

NATURE TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: B. Southeastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger) has several possible color phases from gray, red, black or a combination of these colors. The Southeastern fox squirrel, the largest native species of tree squirrel in North America, is found in mature longleaf pine

forests and open pine-oak forests in the Southeast. It eats the seeds of longleaf pinecones along with a variety of acorns, nuts, fruits, and fungi. Interestingly, only the fox squirrel has the size and strength to remove the seeds from the larger, green longleaf pinecones!

from page 3o

Photo courtesy of Tim Tabak. Taken at Weyerhaeuser Company’s Cool Springs Environmental Education Center in Craven County.