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To read more stories about what's happening with TNC in North Carolina, check out our Afield magazines in our Publications section.
Great Places June
Phoenix Mountain: 30 Years in the making
No one knows how Phoenix Mountain got its name, but it lived up to that moniker this spring. “I liken it to the Phoenix bird rising from the ashes,” explains the Conservancy’s Merrill Lynch. Read more
Special Earth Day Feature
Picnic for the Planet: local chefs and local foods.
Chefs around NC celebrate local food this Earth Day by sharing their favorite picnic recipes. Read more.
Great Places May
NYC Boy Gets Valuable Lesson from Climate Change Project
Noah Berman found his Bar Mitzvah project while listening to the radio as his dad drove him to school in Manhattan last spring. NPR’s story on the Conservancy’s Albemarle Climate Change Adaptation Project caught his attention. Read more.
Forest Collaboration Proves Successful
When David Ray joined the Conservancy five years ago, one of his first meetings was with Fire Manager Margit Bucher. “Margit asked me one question,” he recalls. “Were we going to proceed with the Southern Blue Ridge Fire Learning Network?” Read more.
Great Places April
Venus Flytraps
Learn about this rare plant, native to North Carolina, find out where to see it and what threatens its habitat. Read more.
Earth Day Picnic for the Planet
We're celebrating local food this Earth Day with the help of four well known chefs across North Carolina. Read more.
Great Places March
Lydia and Charlie Williams: A Passion for Michaux
Charlie and Lydia Williams were a little taken aback when Assistant Director of Philanthropy Ralph Phillips showed up on their doorstep this fall to thank them for more than 30 years of support for The Nature Conservancy. Read more.
Great Places February
Green Swamp Preserve on the Grow
The Conservancy’s Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County is the same age as the North Carolina Chapter, created in 1977. Today, conservation continues with the addition of a 463-acre tract on the east side of the Green Swamp. Read more.
TNC Protects 98 Acres in Hoke County
The Nature Conservancy has acquired the 98-acre L.F. Bass Jr. Tract in the Quewhiffle Township of Hoke County. The Conservancy will begin work this spring to plant longleaf pine and native grasses on the property. Read more.
Great Places January
Elisabeth Feil, 30-year Donor
When Elisabeth Feil went looking for an environmental group to support, the Conservancy was a good fit. “You work behind the scenes and don’t make a big ado about things. It suited my personality,” she explains. Three decades later, she is still pleased with her decision. Read more.
Students Assist on Roanoke River
Erica Patterson pretty much thought that she had already seen the most rural places that Halifax County has to offer. But, the 16-year old changed her mind after volunteering with The Nature Conservancy. “I thought Tillery was the boonies,” she said. “But, I was wrong.” Read more.
Great Places December
Morrison Foundation: An Apartment Building in Charlotte Becomes a Plant Conservation Project in Western North Carolina
At first glance, an apartment building in downtown Charlotte and plant conservation in the North Carolina mountains would appear to have nothing in common. But, thanks to the Robert Haywood Morrison Foundation, the two are very closely connected.
The Foundation gave the Conservancy the building, which was sold to generate money to fund the Robert Haywood Morrison Plant Conservation Initiative. Read more.
Skip Pudney: Telling the Conservancy’s Story
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Skip Pudney’s work for the Conservancy is worth at least a 100,000 words and growing.
Pudney, a Philadelphia native now living in Leland where he is a supervisor at a chemical plant, has been taking pictures for three decades, with his photography work becoming more serious in the last ten years. Read more.
Great Places November
Visiting the Ancient Bald Cypress Trees on the Black River
The oldest baldcypress trees ever found are located on the Black River in Pender and Bladen Counties. Tree-ring dating, or dendrochronology, has been used to prove that some of those old baldcypress are over 1,500 years old. A few may be over 2,000 years old, but this will be difficult to prove because many of the oldest trees suffer some degree of heart rot. Nevertheless, only a handful of tree species worldwide have been proven to live for more than 1,500 years. Read more.
Military Driving Sandhills Conservation Success
It has been a good summer for conservation in the Sandhills. At a time when a flagging economy has reduced public and private dollars for acquisition, Sandhills Project Director Ryan Elting successfully closed on two large tracts of property – 390 acres in Cumberland County that will become part of Carvers Creek State Park and 543 acres in Scotland County that will be added to the Sandhills Game Lands. Read more.
Great Places October
Little Yellow Mountain Summit Protection Complete
Jay Leutze was one of many visitors testing out the observation deck at Roan Mountain when it reopened this summer after a facelift.
“You stand on the deck and you see the west face of Little Yellow Mountain – you are looking right at Hawk Mountain Farm,” Leutze explains. “It is a really gratifying experience.”
It is gratifying because the 210-acre Hawk Mountain Farm is now protected along with the entire summit of Little Yellow Mountain. Leutze serves on the board of the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), which partnered with TNC to acquire the last unprotected tract atop the 5,504-foot mountain. Read more.
Networking for Ecosystem Health
A decade ago, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Forest Service and other land management partners created the U.S. Fire Learning Network (FLN), to improve ecological fire restoration across the country.
Today, there are eight regional networks. One of those is focused on the Southern Blue Ridge. Within that landscape, a group of partners is working on the central escarpment of the Blue Ridge. Read more
Great Places September
Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge Grows
Scott Lanier remembers the first time he visited the Albemarle Sound. As a child, visiting the beach for the Lincolnton native, meant going to Myrtle Beach. “But, one year my uncle and my dad took us to the Outer Banks,” he says. “We hit Pea Island and I saw those blue goose signs (the logo for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a blue goose). My uncle explained that this was a special place set aside for wildlife. Man alive, I thought this is something else. I always wanted to get back here.” Today, he is back in the area serving as deputy manager of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Read more
NC Coastal Plain Forests Could be Dramatically Altered by Newly Discovered Pest
Joni Mitchell once wrote, “You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” People who are familiar with the coastal plain forests of North Carolina may soon find out how true that is – thanks to laurel wilt, which just reached the state and is likely to wipe out a substantial part of the forest midstory. Read more
Debbie Crane
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We need to act now, before it's too late. Watch the Video, Take Action
We're addressing Latin America's most pressing conservation issues. Read the Story
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