North River Wetlands Preserve

6,000-acre restoration project in eastern Carteret County

The North Carolina Coastal Federation’s 6,000-acre restoration project at North River Farms in eastern Carteret County is one of the largest wetland restoration projects in North Carolina and is among the largest project of its kind in the nation.

The primary goal of the project was to return farmland back to its original state – forested, freshwater, and tidal wetlands – in order to improve the water quality of degraded downstream estuaries and reopen these waters for shellfishing.

The re-created wetlands are retaining, filtering, and providing natural treatment of agricultural runoff from remaining upstream farmland. They are also effectively restoring watershed hydrology, trapping sediments, converting nutrients, and preventing other pollutants from reaching the downstream coastal waters.

The project began in 1999 with help from the previous owner, the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, various agencies, lots of volunteers, and our members. About 6,000 acres of farmland have been restored by the Federation.

Visit the Preserve

North River Wetlands Preserve, which is located at N River Farms Road in Otway, is open to the public. You can gain pedestrian-only access to this 6,000-acre preserve for free if you’re a member, or consider a donation of $5 per day if you’re a non-member. The preserve is open for hiking, biking, and other pedestrian activities. Visitors must park before the gate, sign in at the kiosk and walk around the gate to access the preserve.

Drop your payment in the cash box, or register online and sign the waiver through link below.

Map

Rules

Sign the Waiver

Mountains-to-Sea Trail

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail is a state trail that runs from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park all the way to Jockey’s Ridge State Park. The NC Trails Program, which is part of the North Carolina Division of Parks & Recreation, partnered with the Federation to route the trail through the North River Wetlands Preserve.

The 8 miles of trail running through the preserve were dedicated in 2017 and the Federation is currently working to help connect this segment of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail to a more accessible point. For more information about the trail, call 252-393-8185.

Restoration Underway

The Federation received funding from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund and Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Program to install a Donor Marsh at the Preserve. This project will create a tidal creek and saltwater wetland on one acre of ditched and drained farmland. This wetland will become a sustainable source of saltwater wetland plants for the Federation’s living shoreline projects.

A map of the various tracts. Click to enlarge.

Completed Restoration Phases

Otway

Acres restored: 1083 acres
Restoration design: NRCS and NCCF
Construction: Sawyers Land Developing and B.E.Singleton
Habitat Restored: Bottomland Hardwood Forest, shallow sloughs, mudflats, open water impoundments, emergent grassy freshwater marsh
Funding: NRCS WRE
Completion: 2022

Williston Creek Phase II

Acres Restored: 1000 acres
Restoration Design: AECOM
Construction: Sawyers Land Developing
Habitat Restored: Bottomland hardwood forest, shallow sloughs, mudflats, open water impoundments, emergent grassy freshwater marsh, Atlantic White Cedar stand
Funding: NRCS WRE and US FWS
Completed: 2020

Williston Creek Phase I

Acres restored: 8.8 acres of salt marsh
Restoration design: Designed by Kris Bass Engineering, constructed by Robert Willis of Carteret Land Development LLC
Restoration techniques: Enhanced tidal creek flow and sinuosity, and improved floodplain grading. Planted 2,006 wetland plants that included Spartina alterniflora (smooth cordgrass), Spartina patens(saltmeadow hay), and Juncus roemerianus (black needlerush).
Funding: Bring Back the Natives grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Completion: October 2017

Ward Creek Phase II

Acres restored: 3 acres of brackish marsh and 725 linear feet of tidal stream.
Restoration design: Kris Bass Engineering
Restoration techniques: Restoration of brackish marsh and tidal stream.
Funding: N.C. Environmental Enhancement Grant
Completion: 2015

NR Lands

Acres restored: 240 acres
Restoration design: NRCS
Restoration techniques: Restored to bottomland hardwood forest and a tidally influenced brackish marsh.
Funding: USDA Wetland Restoration Program
Completion: 2013

1804 WRP

Acres restored: 1,400 acres
Restoration design: NRCS
Restoration techniques: Restored to forested wetlands and waterfowl impoundments.
Funding: USDA Wetland Restoration Program
Completion: 2010

North River Phase II

Acres restored: 111 acres, including 53 acres of bottomland hardwood forest, 35 acres of tidal salt marsh, 23 acres of riparian freshwater wetlands, 1,900 linear feet of freshwater stream, 6,695 linear feet of tidal saltwater stream, and two tidal fingers
Restoration design: N.C. State University Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department
Restoration techniques: Shallow water depressions, planted more than 200,000 wetland plants
Funding: N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program, a national partnership among the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Community-Based Restoration Program and Restore America’s Estuaries, North American Wetlands Conservation Act, Fish America Foundation, N.C. Attorney General’s Office Environmental Enhancement Grant
Completion: November 2009

Ward Creek Phase I

The map shows the 116 acres along Ward Creek that was restored into forested wetlands and tidal marsh.

Acres restored: 116 acres of forested wetlands and three acres of tidal marsh
Restoration techniques: Excavation of 17 wetland depressions, ditch plugging and filling, construction of nine berms or linear hummocks, grading and planting 41,300 wetland trees and 14,600 marsh plants
Funding: N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, North American Wetlands Conservation Act, and national partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Community-Based Restoration Program and Restore America’s Estuaries.
Completion: December 2007

North River Phase III

The map shows the restoration that our partners in the project will undertake.

Acres restored: 206 acres were restored to forested wetlands and shallow water waterfowl and shorebird habitat
Restoration techniques: Eight plugged field ditches connected by sloughs, two low earthen berms, four water control structures, 30,000 hardwood trees and wetland shrubs planted
Funding: N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Completion: Spring 2005

North River Phase I

Acres restored: 250 acres of forested wetlands and 1.25 acres of brackish marsh at two locations.
Restoration design: N.C. State University Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department
Restoration techniques: Different types of restoration techniques were tested. The ditches in some farm fields were simply plugged and filled. In other fields, the crowns were removed and the fields leveled and in others, bulldozers created contours in the flat fields. Five structures were built to control water and wetland vegetation planted.
Funding: N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund and N.C. Ecosystem Enhancement Program
Completion: February 2003

Jarrett Bay Phase I

Acres restored: 89 acres of first-order streams and former headwater wetlands above the Outstanding Resource Waters of Jarrett Bay
Restoration techniques: Ditch plugs, two water control structures, excavated depressions
Funding: N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
Completion: December 2003.

Property Background

Through grants from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund, the Federation bought 1,991 acres (Tract 1) of the farm in 1999 and 2,168 acres (Tract 2) in 2002. That same year, Restoration Systems LLC, an environmental restoration and mitigation company, bought 385 acres (Tract 3), and the 1804 Wildlife Partners LLC, a private hunting club, bought the remaining 1,435 acres (Tract 4). These two partners restored their tracts to wetlands by enrolling them in the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), now the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program. In 2013, the Federation also enrolled Tract 2 in the WRP and purchased Tract 4. The Federation has performed the wetland restoration of North River Farms in various phases.

Construction Partners

Construction of these restoration phases was performed by Backwater Environmental. With the exception of Jarrett Bay Watershed Phase I, all phases of the North River Farms Wetland Restoration Project were monitored and researched by Duke University Marine Laboratory, N.C. State University’s Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department and by the N.C. Shellfish Sanitation Section. Other project partners include 1804 Partners LLC, Restoration Systems LLC, N.C. Coastal Land Trust, N.C. Natural Heritage Program, The Nature Conservancy, and Open Grounds Farm.