Chapter 4 Habitats
Priority Conservation Action, Examples of Focal Species or Focal Habitats • Where sand supply is abundant and substrate is appropriate, restore overwash processes that carry sand from the seaward to the landward side of an island and may allow landward migration and improve prospects for survival. • Collect seeds of the rarest plant species associated with maritime grasslands (especially annual species) to protect genetic diversity and maintain a source of local material that can be used to reestablish populations if species are extirpated or severely impacted within North Carolina.
• Control predators (not limited to exotic species) through education efforts, trapping, or other means to increase sea turtle and beach-nesting bird reproductive success.
• Make efforts to address beach lighting, sand fencing, sand pushing, and beach stabilization issues so that sea turtles have a better chance for nesting success.
• Continue the use of bird decoys and sound broadcasts to attract colonial nesting birds to better nesting sites.
• Continue coordination to influence where dredged material is placed to be most beneficial/least detrimental to beach-nesting birds, foraging shorebirds, and sea turtles.
• Reduce disturbance from off-road vehicles, people, and their pets on coastal beach and dune systems. Continued support for and enhanced coordination among coastal management agencies regarding existing restrictions and programs aimed at regulating beach activities is also critical.
• Continue and expand the use of living shorelines as the preferred shoreline stabilization method to protect and restore salt marsh, especially in lieu of bulk heads where appropriate.
• Obtain funding for the implementation of projects that focus agricultural farmland easements within marsh migration areas to avoid urbanization of those zones.
• Inventory and prioritize coastal marsh migration areas based on specific strategies (i.e., acquisition, conservation based on inevitable natural processes and existing land uses, most vulnerable to sea level rise, management for marsh movement on conservation lands purchased with public funds).
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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