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ORIGINAL EXTENT,
STATUS AN D
TRENDS OF
WETLANDS I N
NORTH CAROLINA
A Report to the ''~;;
N. C. Legislative Stuffy .
. .~
Commission on °~
Wetlands Protection - ~~;
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Department of Environme
Raleigh, North Carolina
tal, Health, and Natural Resources
Report No. 91-01 /January, 1991
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ORIGINAL EXTENT, STATUS AND
TRENDS OF WETLANDS IN
NORTH CAROLINA:
A REPORT TO THE N.C. LEGISLATIVE STUDY COMMISSION
ON WETLANDS PROTECTION
SEPTEMBER 1991
NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH,
AND NATURAL RESOURCES
DIVISION OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
WATER QUALITY SECTION
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA
This report has been approved for release _Y LC.~-ems
Geor T. Everett
Director
Date -/
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report describes the original extent (before European
settlement) of wetlands in North Carolina and the status and
trends of wetlands in coastal North Carolina where the vast
majority of the state's wetlands are located. This report was
originally prepared in October 1990 to answer questions raised by
the North Carolina Legislative Study Commission on Wetlands Pro-
tection. It represents a compilation and analysis of data avail-
able on that date and also describes needs for further study.
The primary source of information on the original wetland extent
was hydric soil delineations shown on U.S.D.A. Soil Conservation
Service soil maps. Information on status and trends came from a
reinterpretation of existing data and new data on ownership and
headwaters or isolated status. The following numbers are esti-
mates and are intended to provide a general (rather than
detailed) picture of N.C.'s wetlands. Supplemental information
was gathered to answer questions raised by the Commission.
Originally, North Carolina had about 7.8 million acres of
wetlands (not including water). The vast majority (95%) of these
were located in the coastal plain with smaller percentages in the
piedmont (20) and mountains (3%). Percentages of counties which
were originally wetland varied greatly depending on physiographic
region. Wetland originally covered about 30 of the landscape in
the mountains and about 20 of the piedmont. In the coastal
plain, wetlands originally covered about 520 of the land (not
counting water).
The impact of human activities on wetlands is often inaccu-
rately described as wetland "loss." This term is scientifically
imprecise and too inaccurate for regulatory purposes. Wet-
lands often provide a variety of important values such as pollu-
tant retention, flood control, wildlife habitat, groundwater
recharge, aquatic life production and habitat for rare or endan-
gered species. Activities in wetlands can remove all, portions
or none of each of these values. For instance, conversion of a
bottomland hardwood forest to a housing development usually
removes all wetland functions. In contrast, conversion of a
pocosin to a ditched pine plantation impacts some wetland values
(such as water quality control) but does not eliminate wildlife
and groundwater recharge values (although they may be impacted).
Therefore, it is more accurate to discuss whether the wetland
supports, partially supports or does not support its original
uses (values). This terminology is consistent with water quality
analyses performed by the State of North Carolina in the federal
Clean Water Act-mandated 305 (b) report.
For this report to the Legislature, wetlands which are
impacted by agriculture and urban development are considered to
be nonsupporting, while those impacted by forestry are considered
to partially support wetland uses. This demarcation is consis-
tent with current determinations by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers whereby "prior convertr~d" agricultural lands (wetlands con-
verted to agricultu~~l uses .`-efore 1985) are not wetlands subject
i
to 404 permits while many pine plantations are 404 wetlands. Rel-
atively undisturbed wetlands mapped by the National Wetlands
Inventory are considered to be supporting intrinsic uses.
Of the original wetlands in the North Carolina coastal plain,
about 24% do not support their uses. Of the nonsupporting wet-
lands, most were impacted by agricultural conversions and the
remainder primarily by urban development. Of the remaining 760,
about 2/3 support and 1/3 partially support their uses. Partially
supporting wetlands were impacted by forestry. Most of the par-
tially and nonsupporting wetlands are freshwater wetlands rather
than estuarine salt marshes.
About 69% of the supporting coastal plain wetlands in the
early 1980's were forested swamps (probably mostly hardwood
swamps). Other major supporting wetland types were estuarine
salt marsh (230), and pocosins (4$). The partially supporting
wetlands were predominantly loblolly (and other species) pine
plantations.
About 320 of the wetlands in the coastal plain are publicly
owned. About 360 of the coastal plain wetlands are headwaters
(located on streams with less than 5 cfs flow}. About 590 of the
freshwater wetlands are headwaters wetlands. About 80 of the
coastal plain wetlands are hydrologically isolated (without per-
manent or intermittent stream connection). No estuarine wetlands
are headwaters or isolated. Headwaters or isolated wetlands are
readily filled under Corps of Engineers Nationwide 26 permits
which allow fill for activities under 10 acres in headwaters or
isolated wetlands.
The present extent of wetlands in an individual county is
probably unique to that county since it reflects the original
extent of wetlands in the county, the type and degree of develop-
ment pressure on that county and land ownership patterns. In
this report, Carteret County was evaluated as an interesting case
study since it is a coastal county, originally had a large amount
of wetland and has had considerable urban development pressure.
Originally, about 830 of the land in Carteret County was wet-
lands. By the mid-1980's, about 52~ of the county was still wet-
lands. About 320 of the county was covered by freshwater wet-
lands while another large portion (20~) was covered with estuar-
ine wetlands. Of the land area of Carteret County, only 17° was
freshwater wetland which was privately owned in the early 1980's.
Privately owned, undeveloped upland areas in Carteret County
occupied 36% of the county. These figures demonstrate that there
are large amounts of upland, undeveloped areas in the county.
Additional research is needed before several important ques-
tions can be answered. Important research questions include 1)
what is the impact of wetland regulations on developable land, 2)
what proportion of pine plantation wetlands support, partially
support and do not support their original uses, 3) what is the
extent of wetlands in the piedmont and mountains and what has
impacted them in those physiographic regions, and 4) what is the
ii
recent trend of wetland impact across the state?
Estuarine salt marsh wetlands have experienced less conver-
sion than freshwater wetlands in North Carolina. The success of
the North Carolina Coastal Area Management Act and the Division
of Coastal Management in controlling impact on salt marshes is
well documented. However, it is clear that impact on freshwater
wetlands continues in spite of the past 404 program as well as
recent enhanced federal (primarily Corps of Engineers and Swamp-
buster) and state (primarily Division of Environmental Manage-
ment) regulatory efforts. Also, great concern has been expressed
about costly, confusing, complex and piecemeal freshwater wet-
lands regulatory programs. Serious consideration should be given
by administrative and legislative leaders to enhancing and
streamlining freshwater wetland protection in North Carolina.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report by the Division of Environmental Management
relied heavily upon hydric soil information collected by Steve
Leonard, Wetland Specialist in the Division of Soil and Water
Conservation. The primary data source in this report was from a
M.S. project by Gordon Cashin at Duke University. His original
data were expanded upon and reanalyzed for this report.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive Summary ...............................................i
Acknowledgements ..............................................iii
Introduction ....................................................1
Previous Wetland Inventories in North Carolina ..............2
Wetland "Loss" Studies for North Carolina ...................3
Wetlands Values .............................................4
Methodology .....................................................7
Wetland Definition ..........................................7
Study Site Selection ........................................8
Hydric Soil Determinations ..................................8
Wetland Analysis ...........................................10
Results ........................................................12
Geographic Limitations .....................................12
Uncertainty and Statistical Limitations ....................12
Original Extent ............................................13
Status in Early 1980's .....................................13
Vegetation Types ......................................13
Use Support ...........................................13
Headwaters ............................................13
Isolated ..............................................17
Ownership .............................................17
Carteret County: A Case Study .........................17
Trends: European Settlement, Mid 1950's and Early 1980's...18
Conclusions and Recommendations ................................23
Literature Cited ...............................................25
iv
LIST OF TABLES
1. Wetland types and their associated functions ................6
2. Percent of land surface in hydric soils in coastal plain..14
3. Wetland types in the coastal plain in early 1980's.........15
4. Wetland statistics for North Carolina ....... ...............16
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Location of study sites .....................................9
2. Point of Marsh study site ..................................19
3. Hackney study site .........................................20
4. Vanceboro study site .......................................21
APPENDICES
1. Wetland inventories for North Carolina ....................29
2. Original wetland extent in North Carolina .................30
3. North Carolina precipitation from January to March 1983...31
4. Photo/map date and fieldchecking ..........................33
v
INTRODUCTION
Wetlands in recent years have become widely recognized as
natural resources of great value to society for the uses they
provide. These uses can include stormwater control, groundwater
recharge, and provision of wildlife habitat. The North Carolina
Legislative Study Commission on Wetlands Protection made several
informational requests to the North Carolina Department of Envi-
ronment, Health, and Natural Resources at their September 1990
meeting. The requests were as follows. The locations of answers
to these questions are listed in parentheses behind the question.
In addition, page 15 summarizes most of these answers.
1) How many wetlands did North Carolina originally have?
(page 12)
2) How were these wetlands distributed (by physiographic
region and county)? (page 12),
3) What is the present extent of wetlands in the State?
(Page 16) ,
4) What has caused the "loss" of wetlands? (page 16),
5) What is the trend of wetland "loss"? (pages 16-17),
6) What is the breakdown between privately vs publicly
owned wetlands? (page 16),
7) What per cent of wetlands are in 1-ieadwater locations?,
(page 16) ,
8) What per cent of wetlands are isolated and what is their
distri bution by size? (page 16),
9) How many acres of "disturbed" wetlands are present in
North Carolina? (pages 16-1?),
10) What is the impact of the 404 program on developable
land?
This report intends to answer the first nine questions. An
accurate answer for the last question (impact of wetland regula-
tions on developable land) is too comple:~ for this report. This
question cannot be answered without extensive data gathering for
a test locale (such as Carteret County) and data analysis by the
North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
(CGIA) Such a study is outlined in the recommendations section
of this report (pg. 21). For such a study, agreement is crucial
on the definition of "developable land" and what parameters
(floodplain, Coastal Management Act regulations, zoning, access
to major roads, etc.) should be considered in the study. Cer-
tainly, the 404 program has an economic cost as well as providing
economic benefits. Until a study plan is well designed and agreed
upon, the Department believes that any attempt to answer the
"developable impact" question is premature.
However, as a first attempt to begin to answer this last
question, data will be presented on the extent of wetlands in
Carteret County in terms of the extent of freshwater versus estu-
arine wetlands versus uplands with each category divided into
privately versus publicly owned land. However, each county is
probably unique. Therefore, the data on Carteret County can
probably only reflect that unique county and can only be extra-
1
polated beyond Carteret County with caution.
PREVIOUS WETLAND INVENTORIES IN NORTH CAROLINA
Over the years, a number of surveys and partial inventories
of N.C. wetlands have been produced for various purposes (Appen-
dix 1). Because of the restricted coverage of these historic
studies, they are of limited usefulness in establishing an his-
toric baseline estimate of wetland acreage in North Carolina.
Another problem is that these studies have often used varying
definitions of wetlands. Therefore, comparison between these
studies is usually inadvisable. Accurate inventories attempt to
answer the following questions - 1) the original extent of wet-
lands, 2) the present wetland extent, 3) the extent at various
past times and 4) causes for any observed changes.
Shaw and Fredine (1956) and Wilson (1962) are the two most
commonly cited wetland inventories for North Carolina. Both pri-
marily focused on large (greater than 40 acres) wetlands of
importance to wildlife. Neither study provides sufficient detail
for an accurate determination of wetlands status or trends.
Currently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is con-
ducting the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) in North Carolina.
This study identifies and classifies wetlands according to USFWS
criteria published in Cowardin, et al. (1979), and produces
detailed maps indicating wetland location. Photo interpretation
is based primarily on 1982-1983 aerial and satellite photography.
These photos were taken during an unusually wet year (Appendix
3). This fact would minimize any tendency for the NWI maps to
show marginal areas as wetlands.
Unfortunately at the time of this writing, the NWI is still
incomplete for North Carolina. Coverage includes most of the
North Carolina coastal plain, some of the piedmont, and limited
mountain areas (Leonard, 1989). Complete NWI information for the
state will probably not be available until the mid-1990's (Hef-
ner, 1990) .
For purposes of wetland determinations required by the Food
Security Act of 1985 (Swampbuster provision), the Soil Conserva-
tion Service (SCS) has prepared county maps based on soil surveys
and technical guides to wetlands. These wetland maps are not
available for distribution but can be inspected in SCS field
offices. However, any agency or citizen can make fairly accurate
wetland determination by using the technical guide in conjunction
with a modern soil survey.
The lack of a comprehensive historic or current inventory has
complicated attempts to assess the degree of wetland impact in
North Carolina. Nevertheless, several studies have been
attempted, most of which are limited to a specific wetland type.
2
WETLAND "LOSS" STUDIES FOR NORTH CAROLINA
Many attempts have been made to assess the extent of wetland
losses throughout the nation. It has been estimated that by the
mid-1970's, only 46% of the original 215 million wetland acres
remained as wetlands in the conterminous United States (Tiner,
1984). A study sponsored by the USFWS estimated that some 11.4
million acres of wetlands were lost between the mid-1950's and
the mid-1970's (Office of Technology Assessment, 1984). This
represents a five percent loss of the nation's wetlands during
this twenty year period.
However, these figures represent national averages for wet-
land losses. Some areas of the country have experienced signifi-
cantly greater losses, especially in the southeast region. Hefner
and Brown (1985) reported that 84.0 of the nationwide losses
occurred in the USFWS's southeast region. They also identified
several areas in which the greatest losses occurred. Eastern
North Carolina is one such area; however, conversion of pocosins
to pine plantations were not counted as wetland "loss" in these
figures (Hefner, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, personal commu-
nication to Steve Leonard).
North Carolina ranks third in the southeast in wetland
acreage, containing some 5,690,000 acres in the mid-1970's
according to Hefner and Brown (1985). However, Hefner and Brown
(1985) used black and white photos without the benefit of NWI or
detailed soil maps which makes their numbers somewhat uncertain.
Also, North Carolina has the majority of the nation's pocosin
wetlands (Richardson, et al., 1981). The conclusion that North
Carolina has experienced major wetland losses has been mentioned
in numerous publications, such as Richardson, et al. (1981),
Tiner (1984) and Hefner and Brown (1985). Unfortunately, it is
difficult to determine whether these losses have occurred because
no complete inventory of original wetland resources exists for
the state. Similarly, the definition of "loss" varies consider-
ably from study to study with no consensus on a definition.
Several studies have been conducted to determine the loss of
coastal wetlands in North Carolina. Spinner (1968) used informa-
tion from Shaw and Fredine (1956) and his own surveys to estimate
that 7.1% of marsh acreage was destroyed between 1956 and 1968.
However, Burdick (1967) found that 22.2°~ of marsh acreage was
altered, based on Shaw and Fredine (1956) and Wilson (1962).
This discrepancy is probably explained by different meanings for
Spinner's term "destroyed" and Burdick's term "altered" (Chitter-
ling et al., 1983).
The major error in these wetland loss studies is that they
usually consider the alteration of a wetland from its natural
condition to be a "loss" of wetlands. However, many pine planta-
tions and indeed, some agricultural land are still wetlands sub-
ject to 404 permits. This fact tends to confuse the discussion
of wetland status and trends.
3
This report rejects the validity of the use of the word
"loss" with respect to wetlands since it is scientifically impre-
cise and too inaccurate for regulatory purposes. Rather, this
study examines the extent to which wetlands (with varying amounts
of disturbance) support intrinsic uses (values). Similarly,
Leslie and Clark (1990) in their review of wetland loss and
alteration for the National Wetlands Policy Forum concluded that
"...it would be more meaningful to measure loss of the functions
themselves than the amount of areal loss."
The Clean Water Act requires every state to produce a bien-
nial 305 (b) report on the status and trends of water quality,
including wetlands. Water and wetland quality are to be reported
as either supporting, partially supporting or not supporting
uses. EPA Guidance for these categories (U.S. EPA 1989) defines
1) supporting; uses fully attained with no evidence of modifica-
tion of the natural community, 2) partially supporting; uses par-
tially supported with some community modification, and 3) not
supporting; uses clearly not supported with definite community
modification. In order to be consistent with this federally man-
dated report, wetlands in this study will be discussed in terms
of use support. Three other states (Indiana, Iowa and Hawaii)
also evaluate their wetland resources in terms of use support
(Mayio, U.S. EPA - Washington, D.C., personal communication).
WETLAND VALUES (USES)
Discussion of wetlands often is confounded by confusion
between wetland functions versus values. Wetlands provide a wide
variety of functions such as carbon storage or groundwater
recharge. A subset of these functions are protected by various
laws. These are called values (or uses) such as water quality
control or endangered species habitat (Mitsch 1986). The essen-
tial difference between these categories is that values (uses)
are protected by various laws (especially the Clean Water and
Endangered Species Act). If a function is not protected by law
(such as carbon storage or oxygen production}, then that ability
of a wetland is not relevant ir, the regulatory realm. This report
discusses wetland values (uses) not functions.
Wetlands provide a wide variety of uses. Some of these
are:
1) wildlife habitat,
2) aquatic life habitat,
3) water storage,
4) sediment stabilization,
5) removal of sediment and to:~ic;ants,
6) removal or transformation of nutrients,
7) groundwater recharge'or discharge,
8) outdoor recreation/education,
9) commercial (esp. shellfishing or timber/value),
10) rare or endangered species habitat,
11) dispersal corridors, and
12} natural area buffers.
4
However, not all wetlands (irrespective of disturbance, size
or location) provide each of these uses. For instance, pocosins
usually have thick, dense, nearly impermeable clay layers beneath
them which may limit their groundwater recharge value. In con-
trast, mountain bogs are the only habitat for bog turtles (a rare
species). A simplified compilation of uses versus wetland type
is shown in Table 1 (N.C. Division of Environmental Management
1988). From this table, it is clear that some uses are unique to
particular wetlands (such as commercial fish in salt marshes)
while other uses are more ubiquitous (such as wildlife habitat).
Supporting wetlands are designated as those shown on NWI maps
as wetlands. These are wetlands which have had little distur-
bance and therefore have intact vegetation, soils and hydrology.
Based on field evaluations of these sites, these wetlands gener-
ally support the uses outlined earlier. Other states have made
the same conclusion about use support from NWI maps. For
instance, after a detailed, random study (O'Brien 1990), Vermont
concluded that 93~ of the NWI - mapped wetlands had significant
uses requiring protection through their 401 Certification pro-
gram.
Partially supporting wetlands are areas which have had natu-
ral cover and hydrology modified but still retained their wetland
status and most wetland uses. For instance, pine plantations
[although having altered hydrology (via ditches) and vegetation
(usually converted from pine - harc7:~,ood wet flat or poco~.in))
still retain some wildlife habita~ -slue, still retain some water
onsite for flood control, still recharge groundwater, still
remove some nutrients and the ditches still provide some aquatic
habitat. However, these uses are often impaired compared to
their natural condition. For instance, Lynch (1982) found lower
breeding bird densities and diversity in loblolly pine planta-
tions than. in natural loblolly-bay f,,,rests. However, it is clear
that pine plantations did provide so-e wildlife habitat. There-
fore, that use was not removed but rather was partially supported
(i.e., "some community modification" [U.S. EPA 1989]). Similarly,
Allen and Campbell (1988) reported shot-term impacts on water
quality effects from conversion of natural wetlands to p::°e plan-
tations. These impacts included increased nutrient rune and
soil erosion. Again, the uses of the wetland (i.e., nutrent
removal and sediment stabilization) were not removed but were
altered so as to be partially supported.
There are pine plantations on hydric soil that are no longer
defined as Section 404 wetlands. Sites known to DEM and COE
staff include locations in Beaufort, Craven and Pamlico Counties
on hydric soils such as Leaf and Bayboro. In these cases, the
hydrology had been permanently altered so as to remove large
areas from 404 permit jurisdiction. What caused the removal of
hydrology is not always clear and probably varies from site to
site. Most likely causes include .previous agricultural use, for-
estry ditches and evapotranspiration from the large, densely
planted pine trees. These is no clear evidence that pine planta-
5
Table 1. Wetland types and associated functions
Wetland Function
---------------
Habitat
--------------- -----
WH
----- -----------------
FH SA FCS~ FDS
----------------- -----------
NRR GWR
----------- -------------
GWD ST RE
------------- --------
ES DR
--------
1. FW marsh *
2. Bottomlands *
3. Salt marsh
4. Bogs
5. Savannahs
6. NA forests
---------------------------------------------------------------------
FW = freshwater
NA = nonalluvial
WH =wildlife habitat
FH = fishery habitat
SA = shoreline anchoring
FCS = food chain support
FDS = flood dissipation and storage
NRR = nutrient retention and removal
GwR = groundwater recharge
GWD = groundwater discharge
ST = sediment trapping
RE = recreation
ES = endangered species
DR = plant and animal diversity
6
tions are being planted on wetlands for the purpose of eventual
urban development. Finally, in many of these developments, there
are locations in the pine plantation that retained hydrology and
were still subject to 404 permits. These are often shown as wet-
lands on NWI maps.
Unfortunately, the percentages of non-404 and existing 404
areas in pine plantations on hydric soils are unknown (Franklin,
U.S. Corps of Engineers - Wilmington, personal communication).
Until additional research is conducted (see Conclusions and Rec-
ommendations section), it seems reasonable to conclude that pine
plantations on hydric soils generally partially support the orig-
inal uses of the wetland. Similarly, it is estimated that more
than 60% of the 1.1 million acres of pine plantations established
on hydric soils still exhibit wetland vegetation and hydrology as
they are currently defined (White, N.C. Forest Service, personal
communication).
The remaining category is that of nonsupportina wetlands. Two
major causes of wetland impact are agriculture and urban develop-
ment. This study considers wetlands converted to either of these
two land uses as not supporting original wetland uses. In both
cases (but especially for urban development), disturbance has
been so severe that even if they are still 404 wetlands, all or
some of the uses once provided are entirely removed. For
instance, a parking lot removes wildlife riabitat, groundwater
recharge and nutrient removal uses. Similarly, although agricul-
tural conversion probably does not alter groundwater recharge
significantly, it does remove aquatic life and nutrient removal
uses. Therefore, agricultural and urban development were consid-
ered to convert wetlands into the nonsupporting category. How-
ever, if aquaculture or rice cultivation were widespread in N.C.,
then these agricultural activities might be partially supporting
since wildlife and aquatic life uses are common in these types of
agriculture.
METHODOLOGY
The following section describes the methods (and limitations
of those methods) which were used to determine wetland status and
trends. This work is largely a modification and expansion of
work done by Cashin (1990).
WETLAND DEFINITION
The problem of how to define and classify wetlands is a seri-
ous complication when studying these areas. This study primarily
utilized the definition outlined by the Corps of Engineers and
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for administration of
Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.
According to this definition:
Wetlands are areas which are inundated or saturated by sur-
face water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient
7
to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a
prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated
soil conditions (FICWD, 1989).
Wetlands examined in this work were classified according to
the scheme outlined by Cowardin, et al. (1979) for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. It should be emphasized that this defini-
tion is changed frequently in its operational implementation.
For instance, the Corps recently decided that prior converted
farmland did not meet the "under normal circumstances" provision
in the wetland definition. Therefore, the operational definition
of wetlands often changes and this report should be considered
accurate as of its date (October 1990).
For this report, primary emphasis for wetland mapping was
given to hydrophytic vegetation and hydric soils. Presence of
these characteristics was determined using soil surveys, NWI
maps, aerial photographs, and field surveys. Essentially, areas
were mapped as wetlands if they had wetland vegetation (usually
wooded) and hydric soils without visible artificial drainage.
These areas were determined to be wetlands that supported intrin-
sic uses. Wetlands were considered impacted (partially or nonsup-
porting} on sites where a natural vegetative community existed on
hydric soil in the 1950's, but the areas' vegetation or hydrology
were altered by the early 1980's. Wetland areas identified in
this study do not represent the extent. of 404 permit jurisdic-
tional wetlands since many agricultural fields and pine planta-
tions are still subject to the 404 permit process.
STUDY SITE SELECTION
Twenty-seven sites were selected in the North Carolina
coastal plain (Figure 1) Study sites were based on 7.5 minute
topographic quadrangles. These quadrangles were selected ran-
domly using a map index and a random number table. From each
quadrangle, one quarter was then randomly selected as a study
site. Consequently, each study site comprised one-fourth of a
7.5 minute topographic quad; approximately 9,943 acres. The
topographic maps for these sections were at a scale of 1:24,000,
and this scale was adopted for the study.
HYDRIC SOIL DETERMINATIONS
For each study site, areas of hydric soil were determined
using information from published soil surveys or from the county
Soil Conservation Service office. A list of hydric soils in
North Carolina was used to identify those mapped soil series con-
sidered hydric (USDA, 1989). These areas were drawn onto a base
map by overlaying or by using a zoom transfer stereoscope when
resealing was required. Hydric soil acreage was determined for
each map by planimetering each area at least twice and calculat-
ing the average value. In addition, some soil series contained
up to 10% inclusions of hydric soils. These were not accounted
for. Therefore, the original wetland extent in these study areas
may be slightly underrepresented.
8
Figure 1. Location of Study Sites
------ - --r--7-------r-~- ~~
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Study Site
Quadrangle Name
Quarter Selected
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Beulaville
Bonnetsville
Burgaw
Carolina Beach
Center Hill
Chadbourn NE
Comfort
Great Island
Greenville NW
Grifton
Hackney
Little Kinnakeet
Long Shoal Point
Mann's Harbor
Pembroke
Pinetops
Point of Marsh
Rivermont
Roper South
Spicer Bay
Stella
Tomahawk
Union
Vanceboro
Wagram
Wilmington
Woodard
9
Southwest (SW)
Northwest (NW)
Northeast (NE)
SW
NE
NE
SE
NE
SW
SE
NE
NE
NE
NW
SE
SW
SW
NW
SE
NW
NE
NW
SW
SE
NW
NE
NE
Hydric soil acreage was used as a baseline figure reflecting
wetland acreage prior to development. Scott, et al. (1989) and
Moorhead (1990) found a good correlation between the presence of
hydric soils and wetland vegetation. Consequently, it was
decided that using hydric soil information was the best means of
estimating historic wetland acreage in the absence of a compre-
hensive historic inventory such as the General Land Survey in the
midwestern and western U.S.
In order to estimate the original extent of wetlands state-
wide, soil surveys were utilized. Soil surveys are available for
most coastal plain counties. In these counties, the acreage of
hydric soils was determined and compared to total county acreage
(Appendix 2). However, only a few mountain and piedmont counties
have had their soils mapped. For these areas, the extent of hyd-
ric soil in mapped counties was determined and extrapolated to
the remainder of the region.
WETLAND ANALYSIS
National Wetland inventory maps were obtained for the 25
sites that had been mapped. Two sites were mapped by a Wetland
Specialist with the Division of Soil and Water Conservation,
North Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural
Resources. These maps were overlain c>nto hydric soil maps, and NWI
wetlands lying on hydric soil were identified as wetlands in the
early 1980's. Wetlands shown on the NWI maps are based on photo-
interpretation of false color aerial ~>hotos taken in the winters
of 1981 to 1983.
Black and white photographs were used for the analyses of
1950's wetlands. Aerial photographs were borrowed or purchased
from the U.S. Soil Conservation Service for the period
1951-1956. Orthophotoquads dating from 1979-1983 were borrowed
from the U.S. Geological Survey. These photographs were inter-
preted for the cause and extent of wetland development during
this period. The causes of wetland impact were determined by
examining the land use that replaced the wetland. For example,
wetland impact due to forestry occurred when the site was
ditched, drained, and converted to pine plantation.
Photographs from the 1950's were not available for Dare or
Hyde counties, which include four study sites. Fortunately,
these sites (Great Island, Little Kinnakeet, Long Shoal Point,
and Mann's Harbor) have not been greatly impacted by man. In
fact, three of them are either mostly or entirely under federal
protection: Great Island as part of Swan Quarter National Wild-
life Refuge, Little Kinnakeet as part of the Cape Hatteras
National Seashore and Mann's Harbor as part of the Alligator
River National Wildlife Refuge. Wetland development for these
sites was analyzed using photorevised topographic maps and
fieldchecking.
Sixteen of the sites were field checked by Division of Envi-
10
ronmental Management staff. These sites were examined to verify
the effectiveness of wetland drainage and the type of development
that caused the impact. Appendix 3 is a summary of photograph and
NWI dates, and fieldchecking conducted for each site.
Maps were produced for
wetlands. These maps also
cause of any impacts since
areas was determined using
area was planimetered at l
mined.
each site showing 1980's and 1950's
identified the type of wetland and the
the 1950's. The acreage of these
a Lasico model 30 planimeter. Each
east twice and the average value deter-
The extent of headwaters or isolated wetlands was also stu-
died. Headwaters wetlands were defined as those wetlands in wat-
ersheds above the 5 cfs average flow location. These locations
were taken from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headwaters maps
in Wilmington, North Carolina. These areas are eligible for
Nationwide Permit No. 26 if fill is less than 10 acres. Isolated
wetlands with less than 10 acres of fill are also covered by
Nationwide Permit No. 26. However, this later determination is
difficult and usually requires a site visit by a Corps represen-
tative (Franklin, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, personal communi-
cation). For this study, an isolated wetland was determined to
be an NWI wetland that had no permanent or intermittent stream
connection on the appropriate 1:24,000 U.S.G.S. topographic map.
These areas probably correspond fairly accurately to isolated
wetlands for Permit 26 (Franklin, personal communication). How-
ever, there are many areas below tree minimum mappable unit (appx.
1 acre) on the NWI maps that would be isolated. Therefore, there
are undoubtedly many more small (<1 acre) isolated wetlands than
shown by this analysis.
Public or private ownership was also studied. Public land
ownership such as state parks or forests, National Wildlife
Refuges or Seashores and military bases were taken from 1988 maps
(ADC 1988). These maps were enlarged to 1:24,000 and boundaries
drawn on the respective study site. Areas of wetlands in these
ownership types were then calculated.
Data from the Forest Inventory and Analysis Section of the
S.E. Forest Experimental Station was gathered for the 44 contigu-
ous counties in the coastal plain and sandhills regions of North
Carolina. These data were used to indicate forested wetland type
and the percent of those types in plantations.
Carteret County was chosen as a case study because of its
coastal location, relatively large extent of urban development
and original great extent of wetlands. Ownership was taken from
ADC (1988) as above. National Wetlands Inventory maps were used
to determine the extent of early 1980's wetlands which supported
their uses. Upland, estuarine wetlands and freshwater wetlands
were separately analyzed. Upland areas were also separated into
areas which were undeveloped (no buildings), developed (greater
than about one house per acre) and somewhat developed (approxi-
mately more than one house per five acres). These distinctions
11
were made from the extent of development shown on the NWI maps
which correspond to development shown on the (underlying) USGS
topographic map. The total area calculated from the NWI maps
(upland and wetland) was within 60 of the land area according to
the N.C. Statistical Abstracts (N.C. Office of State Budget and
Management. 1991). Therefore, it is believed that this method
(with appropriate qualifications about the accuracy of NWI maps)
is sufficiently accurate for this study.
RESULTS
GEOGRAPHIC LIMITATIONS
Other than the original extent (based on SCS hydric soils),
very little is known about status, trends or geographic extent of
wetlands in the piedmont or the mountains. These areas have
probably experienced different types and intensities of develop-
ment pressures than coastal plain wetlands. For instance, large
scale agriculture or silviculture is common only in the coastal
plain. However in the mountains, many wetlands are associated
with river valleys which are also corridors for urban develop-
ment, transportation routes and land clearing. Similarly, some
of the most fertile piedmont soils are along floodplains of
larger streams and rivers and therefore subject to clearing for
agricultural development. Finally, water supply reservoirs are
common in the piedmont and their creation often results in the
flooding of large acreages of bottomland hardwood forests. There-
fore, it is likely that each physiographic region has had unique
patterns of wetland impact. However at: this time, information is
only available to discuss the extent of wetlands in the coastal
plain of North Carolina.
UNCERTAINTY AND STATISTICAL IMPLICATIONS
There is a considerable amount of uncertainty associated with
reports on wetland status and trends. Much of this uncertainty
results from the fact that no accurate historical database exists
for original extent of wetlands. To compound this situation, the
definition of wetlands often changes. For instance, the whether
an individual soil series is included in the definition of hydric
soil changes. Similarly, whether agricultural fields are
404-wetlands is subject to changing regulatory interpretation.
Therefore, the definitions and conclusions in this report can
only be approximate and current only to October, 1990.
The twenty seven study sites represent a small fraction of
the entire coastal plain of North Carolina. Since the sites were
selected randomly, they should represent the coastal plain to
within some degree of statistical accuracy. Cashin's (1990) esti-
mates (using these study sites) of the percent of wetlands
impacted by development was 51.2° with a 95= confidence interval
of plus or minus 12.70. Certainly a larger sample size would nar-
row this confidence interval. However, twenty seven samples was
selected as a manageable number of samples for the work required.
12
Until a larger sample is analyzed (see Conclusions and Recommen-
dations), the numbers in this report should be considered to be
approximate.
ORIGINAL EXTENT
The state originally had about 7.8 million acres of hydric
soils (23% of the land area of North Carolina} (Appendix 2).
These hydric soils approximate the original extent of wetlands in
the state. The vast majority of this soil was located in the
coastal plain (950) with much smaller amounts in the piedmont
(2 °s) and mountains (3%). However, these figures should be consid-
ered approximate since many counties in the piedmont and moun-
tains do not have detailed soils maps.
About 52% of the total land in the coastal plain was hydric
soil (wetlands). The percent of hydric soils varied greatly
among counties in the coastal plain (Table 2). For instance,
Hyde, Tyrrell, Dare, Camden, Washington, Currituck and Pasquotank
Counties had greater than 85% hydric soils. In contrast, Rich-
mond, Hoke and Harnett Counties had less than 20~ hydric soils.
STATUS IN EARLY 1980'S
Vegetation Tyges
The twenty-seven study areas identified 55,328 acres of sup-
porting wetlands in the early 1980's from the NWI maps (Table 3).
Most of these (690) were palustrine forested (mostly hardwood
forest). Other common types were estuarine intertidal emergent
(salt marsh - 23~) and palustrine shrub-scrub (pocosin - 4J~.).
Other types were uncommon. The salt marsh number may be somewhat
high since Alexander, et al. (1986) found only 158,000 acres of
salt marsh in N.C. According to the S.E. Forest Experimental
Station, the most common forested wetland types were flatwoods
and dry pocosins (63% of the total} and wet pocosins (120).
About 180 of the forested wetlands were pine plantations. Planta-
tions made up about 27% of the flatwoods and dry pocosins. This
again reinforces the previous observation that the wetland num-
bers in this report should be considered approximate.
Use Support
About 24% of the coastal plain wetlands do not support origi-
nal uses (Table 4) Of the remaining 760, about 2/3 support and
1/3 partially support their uses. Supporting wetlands are pri-
marily NWI-identified wetlands while partially supporting wet-
lands are primarily pine plantations. As discussed earlier, these
designations should be considered approximate subject to more
intensive field survey and wetland delineation.
Headwaters
A total of 36°~ of early 1980's coastal plain wetlands are
headwaters wetlands (located in watersheds above the 5 cfs aver-
13
Table 2
PERCENTAGE OF LAND SURFACE AREA IN HYDRIC SOILS
COASTAL NORTH CAROLINA COUNTIES
County
Hyde
Tyrrell
Dare
Camden
Washington
Currituck
Pasquotank
Perquimans
Carteret
Pamlico
Beaufort
Pender
Jones
Craven
Gates
Brunswick
Columbus
Chowan
Bladen
Martin
Bertie
Hydric Soils
97.3$
95.5%
89.7%
89.6%
85.6%
85.4%
85.0%
83.4%
83.0%
80.2%
71.4%
68.5%
68.2%
66.8%
63.4%
58.3%
57.7°s
54.8%
54.1%
53.4%
51.1%
County
New Hanover
Onslow
Robeson
Pitt
Duplin
Hertford
Lenoir
Wilson
Sampson
Edgecombe
Cumberland
Wayne
Halifax
Nash
Northampton
Scotland
Greene
Johnston
Richmond
Hoke
Harnett
Hydric Soils
50.60
48.5%
47.0%
46.7%
45.0%
40.2%
40.0%
38.3%
37.5%
34.8%
33.7%
32.2%
30.0%
29.5%
27.5%
26.7 %
26.1°s
25.1%
18.0%
18.0%
15.5%
14
Table 3. Vegetation Types of Supporting Wetlands by
Category: Study Sites within North Carolina
Coastal Plain.
Wetland Category*
---------------------------- Examples
------------------------ Percent (o)
-------------
----------------------------
' Palustrine Forested ------------------------
Bottomland hardwood -------------
69.4
forest
Palustrine Scrub-shrub Pocosin 3.8
Palustrine Emergent Freshwater marsh 0.6
Palustrine Unconsolidated Farm pond 0.6
Bottom
Estuarine Intertidal Salt marsh 22.9
Emergent
Estuarine Intertidal Salt scrub-shrub 2.2
Scrub-shrub
Estuarine Subtidal Estuarine pond 0.2
Unconsolidated Bottom
Estuarine Subtidal Estuarine tidal flat 0,3
Open Water
----------------------------
----------------------------
------------------------
------------------------
-------------
-------------
* Wetland categories taken from Cowardin et al. (1979)
15
TABLE 4
WETLAND STATISTICS FOR NORTH CAROLINA
I. Original extent based on hydric soils (original wetlands)
Original size - 7.8 million acres
Percent located in mountains - 30
Percent located in piedmont - 20
Percent located in coastal plain - 950
II. Percent of land in hydric soils (original wetlands)
Entire coastal plain - 52 $
Selected counties
Coastal plain
Hyde - 97 0
Dare - 900
Carteret - 830
Chowan - 550
Duplin - 450
Nash - 300
Harnett - 160
Transylvania - 30
Piedmont
Cabarrus - 2%
Forsyth - 30
Lee - 5%
Mountains
Ashe - 3 0
Henderson - 3%
III. Present (early 1980's) Wetland Use Support (coastal
plain only)
Not supporting - 240
Of the remaining 760,
2/3 support and
1/3 partially support uses.
IV. Vegetation types (coastal plain, supporting uses only)
Forested swamps - 690
Estuarine marsh - 230
Pocosins - 40
V. Headwaters or isolated (coastal plain only)
Headwaters
Percent of all coastal plain wetlands - 36%
Percent of coastal plain freshwater wetlands - 590
Isolated
Percent of all coastal plain wetlands - 80
Percent of coastal plain freshwater wetlands - llo
VI. Ownership (coastal plain only).
Publicly owned - 32%
16
age flow mark) (Table 4). Since estuarine wetlands are nonhe::i-
waters wetlands, the percent of freshwater wetlands which are
headwaters is much higher - 59%. Headwaters {and isolated) wet-
lands are provided only a bare modicum of protection by the Clean
Water Act since Nationwide Permit 26 allows fill of up to 10
acres (3 acres operationally by the Wilmington, North Carolina
Corps of Engineers) without extensive permit review. Only the
North Carolina Division of Environmental Management (through its
401 Certification) can routinely review the filling of these wet-
lands.
Isolated
About 80 of the total (or 11% of the freshwater) wetlands are
hydrologically isolated (Table 4). As discussed earlier, numer-
ous small (<1 acre), isolated wetlands are not represented by
these figures. If this fact is ignored, then of the isolated
wetlands about 1$ are less than or equal to 5 acres in size. How-
ever, isolated wetlands less than or equal to five acres in size
consist of about one-half of the total number of isolated wet-
lands. Again, these wetlands are subject to fill with Nationwide
Permit 26.
Ownership
About 32% of the wetlands are publicly owned (Table 4). Most
of this ownership is federally owned land in National Wildlife
Refuges, National Seashores, National Forests and military facil-
ities.
Carteret County: A Case Stud
Originally about 830 of the land area of Carteret County was
wetlands. By the early 1980's (based on NwI maps), about 520 of
the county was wetlands which supported their original uses. In
the early 1980's, about 320 of the county's land mass was occu-
pied by freshwater wetlands. About 650 of the county was
privately owned. Of this 650, 9o was estuarine wetland, 17$ was
freshwater wetland, 36% was undeveloped and 3o was developed
upland. About 350 of the land of the county was publicly owned
which reflects large areas occupied by the Croatan National For-
est, Cape Lookout National Seashore, and various N.C. Wildlife
Resources Commission Gamelands. Only about 1.60 of the county
was heavily developed while another 1.8o had a moderate amount of
urban development.
It appears that there was about twice as much privately owned
upland as privately owned freshwater wetland. The distinction
between estuarine and freshwater wetland is important to make
since estuarine wetlands are thoroughly protected by the N.C.
Coastal Areas Management Act (CAMA) while freshwater wetlands are
protected by the relatively weaker Section 404 permit program.
However, all of the privately owned upland (and freshwater wet-
land) was probably not "developa>~~_e" since it may have lacked
road and sewer access, not suit a .e for septic tanks, been land
17
locked by publicly owned property and for various other reasons.
Therefore, no conclusions can be drawn about the impact of the
Section 404 (or CAMA) program on the extent of developable land
in the county. Definitive statements on this issue await further
research.
TRENDS: EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT, MID 1950's AND EARLY 1980's
Since European settlement, North Carolina wetlands have been
subject to a variety of development forces - notably filling for
development, clearing and draining for agriculture, and logging
or type conversion for forestry. As discussed earlier, these
activities impact wetland values to differing extents.
By the 1950's, about 16$ of North Carolina wetlands had been
converted to partially or nonsupporting categories. About lOs of
the tidal and 180 of the non-tidal (freshwater) wetlands fell
into these use categories. By the early 1980's, an additional
35% of the wetlands (for a total of 510) had been converted to
partially or nonsupporting categories. Only 20 of the tidal wet-
lands experienced use impact from the 1950's to 1980's.
Forestry was determined to be responsible for about 530 of
these .changes from the 1950's to the 1980's while agriculture was
responsible for 420. Urban development (2%), military develop-
ment (1$) and other activities (2$) were less important. As dis-
cussed earlier, forestry impacts resulted in partially supporting
wetlands while other development generally resulted in non-
supporting wetlands.
Stockton and Richardson (1987) examined tidal wetland losses
between 1970 and 1984 caused by permitted activities. They found
a significant decrease in the acreage of annual losses after the
state became the lead agency in the permitting process. In each
of the years 1970, 1971, and 1973, over 988 acres were permitted
for development. In 1978, the area approved for alteration did
not exceed 124 acres for any year in the study period. The dif-
ference in wetland losses before and after CAMA is significant
even after discounting several large projects in the early
1970's.
Wetland changes varied considerably among study sites with
some sites showing negligible change while other showed severe
alterations (Figs 2 to 4). For instance, the site in Point of
Marsh quadrangle, in Carteret County, gives an example of a
coastal area where only small changes have occurred (Figure 2).
This site comprised 6,169 acres of land surface, all of which was
hydric soil. This site was still unaltered during the early
1950's, mostly emergent marsh areas with 51 acres of pine trees
and shrubs. Between the 1950's and 1980's, a military landing
strip was built on this site with accompanying roads and ditches.
Building occurred in both emergent marsh areas and part of the
scrub-shrub area. Thereafter, the scrub-shrub area has entirely
disappeared, and the portion not occupied by the landing strip
18
Figure 2. Point of Marsh Study Site
Wetlands Trends (presettlement -early 1980's)
0 .5 1
Wetlands altered between early 1950's and early 1980's miles
® Wetlands developed between early 1950's and early 1980's
.••.
~.• Early 1980's wetlands
19
Figure 3. Hackney Study Site
Wetland Trends (presettlement -early 1980's)
~ `~'
~ ~,~~
~Q
1 ~~ 1-.
t
~` : ~
~~
~::.
~:
.:._„
~~
Ir_
~\
t'!ii
^ 0 .5 1
~ ~ ~
Wetlands developed before 1950's miles
® Wetlands developed between early 1950's and 1980's
Early 1980's Wetlands
Non hydric soil (non wetlands)
~c
Figure 4. Vanceboro Study Site
Wetlands Trends (presettlement -early 1980's)
J/' .
- •i~~. "
I
~1"~ Vance~oro
~~~ ' ~~ :~
'~ ~'. ~~ l
1111 ' /. J
.tf.
_ :~ ~~ 1
~'~
\_ -
. _ ~ ~.'.
~~
• ~.
.. '~
~.
'~. ~~~:-
\\. .
'~i
._ _
_ ~ . ~~ . .
•~ ~
~~' ,;.
^ 0 .5 1
Wetlands developed before 1950's ` miles
® Wetlands developed between early 1950's and 1980's
Early 1980's Wetlands
^ Non hydric soil (non wetlands)
21
had been replaced by emergent marsh. The actual area of wetland
impacted totals 46 acres which represents about 1$ of the site.
The second example lies in the Hackney quadrangle in Beaufort
County, and shows the result of combined pressure from agricul-
ture and forestry (Figure 3). This site once contained about
6,020 acres of wetlands (72% of the land surface). By the early
1950's and 1980's, 490 of the original wetlands were impacted,
leaving only 51% of the original wetlands intact.,These impacts
included 284 acres developed for agriculture and 2,660 acres con-
verted for forestry purposes. An additional 32.5 acres were con-
verted to residential development. Residential development on
this site removed nearly all the original tidal wetlands. The
small peninsula in Figure 3 originally contained 8.4 acres of
estuarine scrub-shrub, which was either developed for residential
purposes or converted to a tidally influenced pond.
Finally, the study site in the Vanceboro quadrangle, in
Craven County shows a moderate level of development (Figure
5). This site contained 57o hydric soil, indicating about 5,640
acres of historic wetlands. By the early 1950's, 41% of these
wetlands had been impacted. However, since then only 134 more
acres have been developed for agriculture, which represents an
additional 20 impact. Consequently, 570 of the original wetlands
are still supporting original uses.
22
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
North Carolina originally had about 7.8 million acres of
wetlands which occupied about 23% of the state. Most of these
(95%) were in the coastal plain. Also, originally the state's
coastal plain was covered with about 52% wetlands (excluding
areas of open water).
These wetlands have been subject to a wide variety of devel-
opment pressures since European settlement. Data on wetland sta-
tus, trends and geographic extent are available only for the
coastal plain. In the coastal plain by the early 1980's, about
24% of the original wetlands did not support intrinsic uses. Of
the remaining 76%, about 2/3 support and 1/3 partially support
their uses. Most of impacted wetlands were affected since the
1950's. The three most common wetland types in coastal North
Carolina are hardwood forests (69% of the total), pine planta-
tions and salt marsh.
Most (59%) of the fresh water wetlands in the coastal plain
are headwaters. Isolated wetlands in the coastal plain make up a
smaller portion (10%) of the freshwater wetlands. Most coastal
plain wetlands (68%) are privately owned. Saltwater wetlands are
essentially not headwaters or isolated wetlands. Nationwide Per-
mit 26 applies to isolated or headwaters wetlands. Only a small
amount of protection is provided by the Corps of Engineers for
these wetlands.
Data which have been collected on North Carolina coastal
plain wetlands should be digitized and stored in the North Caro-
lina (Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (CGIA).
Once these data have been entered into this system, more sophis-
ticated analyses can be conducted. An example might be to deter-
mine what percent of wetlands are located in 100 - or 10-year
floodplains and thereby protected (to varying extents) from urban
development. Only when these data are entered into the CGIA sys-
tem can they be readily accessed, updated and analyzed.
One very important question that has been raised by the Leg-
islative Study Commission is the extent of impact of the Section
404 wetland program on developable land. As discussed earlier,
this is an extremely complex issue which needs a well thought out
study design. A geographic information system approach (like the
one used by CGIA) is the only rational way to evaluate this ques-
tion. Factors to consider in this study would include 1) other
regulations which also coincide with wetland areas such as zon-
ing, septic tank suitability, floodplain regulations (both flood-
way and flood fringe), Coastal Area Management Act, and Endan-
gered Species Act, 2) land ownership, 3) distances from major
roads or sewer system service areas, and 4) availability of non-
wetland areas for nearby development. If the Legislative Study
Commission would like an answer to this very complex question,
the Department can prepare a cost estimate for a proposed study
area (such as Carteret County).
23
Another important question is what proportion of pine planta-
tion wetlands support, partially support or do not support their
original uses. A combined approach of 1) field evaluations of
the values of a random sample of pine plantations, and 2) ground-
water and surface water modeling of pine plantations is probably
needed to answer the important question of the extent of use
impact from pine plantations. Results of this work should point
out measures to ameliorate these impacts.
Clearly research is needed in the piedmont and mountain
regions of the state to determine wetland status, trends, and
geographic extent. Only when these data have been collected can
a complete picture of wetlands in North Carolina emerge. Such a
study should receive high priority. However, the paucity of SCS
soil maps and basic nonexistence of NWI maps would make this
study difficult and expensive.
The sample of 27 study sites in the North Carolina coastal
plain should be expanded to reduce statistical uncertainty. How-
ever, analysis of a late 1980's date is of greater importance.
This information may allow administrative and legislative policy
makers to decide the extent of protection offered by existing
federal and state programs (especially Swampbuster and enhanced
404/401 permit activities) and whether this level of protection
is adequate.
However, the evidence of impacts on coastal plain freshwater
wetlands and their vulnerability to fragmented federal and state
protection programs is clear. It is also clear that saltwater
wetlands have been adequately protected by the North Carolina
Coastal Areas Management Act and the Division of Coastal Manage-
ment. Vigorous enforcement and funding of this work must con-
tinue. It is apparent that both administrative and legislative
actions are needed to organize and enhance freshwater wetland
protection measures in North Carolina.
24
LITERATURE CITED
ADC. 1987. Saltwater Sport Fishing and Boating in North
Carolina. 6440 General Green Way, Alexandria, VA.
Alexander, Charles E., Marlene A. Broutman, and Don W. Field.
1986. An Inventory of Coastal Wetlands of the USA. National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Washington, D.C.
Allen, H. L. and R. G. Campbell. 1988. Wetsite pine manage-
ment in the southeastern United States. pgs 173-184 in D. D.
Hook, et al., (eds). "The Ecology and Management of Wetlands."
Volume 2: Management Use and Value of Wetlands. Timber Press,
Portland, OR.
Burdick, George E. 1967. An Investigation of the Alteration
of Coastal Marshes in North Carolina. N.C. Wildlife Resources
Commission, Division of Game. Raleigh, N.C.
Cashin, Gordon E. 1990. Wetland Development in the North
Carolina Coastal Plain. M.S. Thesis. Duke University.
Chitterling, Carin, Charlotte Clark, John Lohnes, and Heather
Nixon. 1983. Wetland Trends and Policies in North Carolina and
South Carolina. Master's Project. School of Forestry and Envi-
ronmental Studies, Duke University. Durham, N. C.
Cowardin, Lewis H., Virginia Carter, Francis G. Golet, and
Edward T. Laroe. 1979. Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater
Habitats of the United States. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Office of Biological Services, U.S. Department of the Interior.
FWS/OBS-79-31. Washington, D.C.
Dorney, John R. 1990. Personal Communication. Water
Quality Planner. Division of Environmental Management, North
Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural
Resources. Raleigh, N.C.
Doucette, W. H. and J. A. Phillips. 1978. Overview: A.ri-
culture and Forest Land Drainage in North Carolina's Coastal
Zone. Center for Rural Resource Development, Report No. 8.
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C.
Emmons, Ebenezer. 1860. The Swamp Lands of North Carolina.
W. W. Holden, Printer to the state. Raleigh, N.C.
Federal Interagency Committee for Wetland Delineation
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Franklin, David. 1990. Personal Communication. Special
25
Projects, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington, N.C.
Gray, C.C., D. E. Baker, F. J. Marschner, B.O. Weitz, W.R.
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Hefner, John M. 1990. Personal Communication. United
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Hefner, John M., and James D. Brown. 1985. Wetland trends
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Kerr, W.C. 1883. Report on the swamplands. Scarborough,
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Knight, Herbert A. and Joe P. McClure. 1975. North Caro-
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Leonard, Steve. 1990. Personal communication. wetland Spe-
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Leslie, M. and E. H. Clark, III. 1990. Perspectives on wet-
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26
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Water Quality Progress in North Carolina - 1986-1987 305 (B)
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Stockton, Margie B., and Curtis J. Richardson. 1987. Wet-
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Commission. Federal Aid in Wildlife in Restoration Project
W-6-R. Raleigh, N.C.
28
Year Appendix 1. Wetland Inventories for North Carolina
Author Type of Wetland
1860 Emmons swamplands owned by state
swamplands in NC
1867 NC Literary Board swamplands
1883 Kerr principle tracts claimed
by the Board of Education
1889 Shaler fresh water morasses
1916 Pratt swamp overflowed lands
1923 Gray et al. land mostly too rough...
*1949
1956 Wooten and Purcell
Shaw and Fredine land i~easible to drain
20 wet..and types
1962 Wilson wetlands in 41 coastal
counties
1967 Burdick marshlands
19.68 Spinner marshlands
1974 Knight and McClure swamps and bottomlands
*1982 USFWS Yadkin-Pee Dee Basin
1981 Richardson et al. Pocosins in 41 counties
1982 East Carolina
University Atlas Project-
Albemarle- Pamlico
1982 National Wetlands
Inventory All wetland types
* Adapted from Chitterling et al., 1983.
No citation given in Chitterling et al.
29
North Carolina Precipitation
January-March 1983
I ,e.ee
e.ee
H
E e.oo
S
~.oo
O
F
e.oo
P
R e.oo
E
C
I 4.00
P
3.00
q
s.oo
T
w
0 1 ~.oo
0
N
o.oo
i
i
W B N F R E G P G
i E E A O L O L R
L L W Y C 1 L Y E
M H E K Z D M E
I A B T Y A S O N
N V E T B B U V
G E R E M E O T I
T N N V O T R H L
O I U H O L
N L N E
L T C
E I
T
Y
JANUARY 4.90 4.00 3.61 2.44 2.50 2.86 3.46 3.27 3.19
FEBRUARY 8.74 6.26 9.39 6.60 6.47 7.05 7.19 7.63 4.11
MARCH 8.09 7.69 9.17 8.87 6.37 7.77 7.95 9.31 6.46
NORMAL AVERAGE 3.71 3.81 3.87 3.88 3.89 3.98 3.98 4.11 4.25
JANUARY ®FEBRUARY MARCH 'NORMAL AVERAGE
(D
a
r•
k
N
Appendix 3
Oriyinal North Carolina Wetland Extent from Soil Surveys
:ountq Region Total Wetland Water Percent of County Percent of County
acres soil acres acres As wetlands and crater As wetlands
Alleyhanp Mountains 150,093 8,534 0 5.7 5.7
Ashe Mountains 272,742 7,876 1,213 ~.3 2.9
Henderson Mountains 239,936 6,391 326 2.8 2.7
Transylvania Mountains 243,283 6,640 1,184 3.2 2.7
Sample totals Mountains- 906,054 29,441 2,723 3.5 3.3
18 counties Mountains 4,455,282 143,914 14,244 3.5 3.2
Cabarrus Piedmont 233,312 4,475 301 2.0 1.9
Caldwell Piedmont 303,661 5,378 2,125 2.5 1.8
Catawba Piedmont 264,422 2,731 11,200 `_..3 1.1
Forsyth Piedmont 264,909 6,861 ~ 922 l.9 2.6
Guilford Piedmont 420,698 7,041 5,213 2.9 1.7
Lee Piedmont 16b,099 8,097 565 `~.2 4.9
Stanly Piedmont 259,187 1,051 5,888 2.7 0.4
Sample totals Piedmont 1,912,288 35,634 26,214 3.2 1.9
40 counties Piedmont 12,500,906 232,944 171,365 ~•2 1.9
Beaufort Coastal Plain 612,979 377,759 84,275 75.4 71.4
Bertie Coastal Plain 471,379 229,338 22,784 53.5 51.1
Bladen Coastal Plain 568,205 304,367 5,6% 54.6 54.1
Brunsxick Coastal Plain 571,514 320,930 20,800 59.8 58.3
Camden Coastal Plain 203,770 137,994 49,856 92.2 '89.7
Carteret Coastal Plain 673,626 279,367 337,261 91.5 83.1
Chowan Coastal Plain 154,784 63,737 38,592 66.1 54.9
Columbus Coastal Plain 609,882 346,604 9,280 58.4 57.7
Craven Coastal Plain 487,213 300,017 38,272 69.4 66.8
Cumberland Coastal Plain 421,414 141,972 768 33.9 33.8
Currituck Coastal Plain 281,082 139,752 117,504 9i.5 85.4
Dare Coastal Plain 800,602 224,422 550,496 96.8 89.7
Duplin Coastal Plain 524,429 235,480 1,019 45.1 45.0
Edgecombe Coastal Plain 323,642 112,205 1,355 X5.1 34.8
Gates Coastal Plain 221,088 135,625 7,223 G4.6 63.4
Greene Coastal Plain 170,579 44,178 1,550 X6.8 lti.l
Halifax Coastal Plain 468,026 135,544 4,864 30.0 29.3
Harnett Coastal Plain 384,966 59,177 3,770 16.4 15.5
Hertford Coastal Plain ?31,738 91,406 4,400 41.3 4U.2
Hoke Coastal Plain 251,238 45,062 8% 18.3 18.0
Hyde Coastal Plain 871,136 389,000 471,635
98.8
97.4
Johnston Coastal Plain 519,138 129,902 1,075 25.2 25.1
Jones Coastal Plain 301,190 199,992 7,813 69.0 68.2
Lenoir Coastal Plain 257,549 102,970 64 40.0 40.0
Martin Coastal Plain 299,686 152,770 13,594 55.5 53.4
Nash Coastal Plain 347,162 99,942 7,936 31.i 19.5
New Hanover Coastal Plain 140,973 58,477 25,344 59.5 50.6
Northhampton Coastal Plain 351,757 94,853 7,232 2`~.U Z7.5
Onslow Coastal Plain 524,934 236,782 36,864 X2.1 48.5
Pamlico Coastal Plain 368,186 174,838 150,118 b8.3 80.2
31
Uriginai North Carolina Wetland Extent from Soil Surveys
County Region Total Wetland Water Percent of County Percent of County
acres soil acres acres As wetlands and water As wetlancLs
Pasquotank Coastal Plain 185,203 124,002 39,283 88.2 85.0
Pender Coastal Plain 562,381 383,828 2,4% 68.7 68.b
Pe*~+>;~n~ Coastal Plain 208,845 131,562 51,149 87.5 83.4
Pitt Coastal Plain 420,173 1%,127 0 46.7 46.7
Richoond Coastal Plain 306,938 53,713 1,536 18.0 17.6
Robeson Coastal Plain 608,378 284,259 3,278 47.3 47,0
Sampson Coastal Plain 606,304 226,081 2,997 37.8 37.5
Scotland Coastal Plain 205,331 54,523 960 27.0 26.7
Tyrrell Coastal Plain 383,142 248,714 122,778 97.0 95.5
Washington Coastal Plain 264,4$6 181,582 52,243 88.4 85.6
Wayne Coastal Plain 355,661 114,243 1,293 32.5 32.3
Wilson Coastal Plain 240,333 91,173 2,225 38.9 38.3
Sample total Coastal Plain 16;761,042 7,454,319 2,302,574 58.2 51.6
SU[RiARY Statewide 33,717,230 7,831,177 2,488,183 30.6 23.2
32
Appendix 4: Photo / Map Dates and Fieldchecking
1950's 1980's
Study Site photos NWI orthophotos Fieldchecked~
Beulaville 1955 1983 1983 No
Bonnetsville 1951 1983 1980 No
Burgaw 1956 1982 1983 Yes
Carolina Beach 1956 1982 1980 Yes
Center Hill 1955 1982 1982 No
Chadbourn NE 1951 1983 1979 No
Comfort 1955 1982 1982 No
Great Island * 1983 1983 No
Greenville NW 1954 1982 1982 Yes
Grifton 1954 1982 1982 No
Hackney 1954 1982 1982 Yes
Little Kinnakeet * 1983 1975 Yes
Long Shoal Point * 1982 1975 Yes
Mann's Harbor * 1982 1982 Yes
Pembroke 1951 - 1981 Yes
Pinetops 1954 1982 1982 Yes
Point of Marsh 1958 1982 1982 No
Rivermont 1951 1982 1982 No
Roper South 1955 1982 1982 Yes
Stella 1955 1983 1983 Yes
Spicer Bay 1955 1982 1980 Yes
Tomahawk 1951 1983 1982 No
Union 1955 1982 1982 Yes
Vanceboro 1954 1981 1982 No
Wagram 1956 - 1981 Yes
Wilmington 1956 1982 1982 Yes
Woodard 1954 1982 1982 Yes
* Great Island was examined using a 1951 topographic map.
No changes have occurred.
Little Kinnakeet was examined using a 1948 topographic
map photorevised to 1983.
Long Shoal Point was examined using a 1951 topographic
map. No changes have occurred.
Mann's Harbor was examined using a 1953 topographic map
photorevised to 1974.
33