News

Sound Rivers staff was on the move this week, making two visits to sites that are the focus of North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant applications.

Sound Rivers Executive Director Heather Deck, Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop, Program Director Clay Barber and Program Assistant Sierra Stickney Digan met up Land and Water fund regional field office representative Jill Fusco, and staff of the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences to talk about potential projects and tour the Slocum Creek watershed and Havelock High School.

“We had a meeting at the City Hall with some representatives from the city, including the public works director, the city manager, their finance director and folks from University of North Carolina’s Institute of Marine Sciences to talk about all the work that we’ve been doing to monitor and identify bacteria sources in Slocum Creek and why we need the funding to do a watershed restoration plan for the area,” Samantha said. “We talked about what we’re envisioning in terms of future source tracking — water-quality sampling and DNA source tracking — how this project can help identify not only sources of pollution but possible watershed investment opportunities. So, things that could happen in that area that would be good.”

The tour of Slocum Creek included a visit to the city’s recreation area, which boasts a kayak launch and a kiosk from which people can rent kayaks via an app on their phones.

“That kind of resources just shows that people are really using utilizing the creek for recreation, both fishing and kayaking, so it really shows how important it is to do this study,” Samantha said.

Later, Heather, Clay and Sierra headed out to Havelock High School to talk about the potential for a wetland restoration, one of several stormwater control measures on the campus.

“Ultimately, a Land and Water Fund grant would be used to revitalize the wetland that exists there, but the main part of the funding is to set up a system for Havelock High School staff and maintenance staff to maintain this green stormwater infrastructure,” Sierra said. “We want to use the information gained from this project at other Craven County schools and across our watersheds. Maintenance of green stormwater infrastructure has been an issue across all the schools we work with and this project would help us highlight maintenance obstacles and find solutions, as well as support educational opportunities.”

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