Shaken Creek

LOCATION:
Coastal Plain
Onslow Bight
Pender county

SIZE IN ACRES:
6,050

INVOLVEMENT IN ACRES:
6,050

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP:
Maple Hill SW

Topographical maps are available by contacting:
NC Geographical Survey.
1612 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1612.
(919) 715-9718
www.geology.enr.state.nc.us/

ACTIVITIES AND AMENITIES:
hiking, wildflowers

OWNERSHIP AND ACCESS:
The Nature Conservancy
North Carolina Chapter
4705 University Dr.
Suite 290                                                                                                                                      Durham, NC 27707
(919) 403-8558
www.nature.org/northcarolina    

SITE INFORMATION:
Few places in North Carolina remain truly natural, in a condition similar to that encountered by the first Europeans to press inland from the coast. The Shaken Creek Preserve is one of the best such natural areas existing today on the entire Atlantic seaboard, a unique home to many rare plants and animals. The landscape is crisscrossed by narrow blackwater creeks that naturally widen in spots to form flat, still lakes. Grassy openings, filled with pitcher plants, flytraps and orchids, are ringed by pine forests that provide habitat for red-cockaded woodpeckers and migrant songbirds. White-tailed deer and black bear flourish here.

While Shaken Creek Savanna is a treasure in its own right, its location is equally important, sitting as it does in the midst of one of The Nature Conservancy’s highest conservation priorities, the Onslow Bight landscape. Shaken Creek is situated between two vast protected areas: 100,000 acres at the Holly Shelter and Angola Bay Game Lands, which the Conservancy played a large part in preserving, and more than 150,000 acres at the Camp Lejeune Marine Base. Linking existing natural areas is critical to the Conservancy’s mission because it gives species mobility, provides a buffer for sensitive plant and animal communities and bolsters the long-term health of the landscape.

CONSERVATION HIGHLIGHTS:
The Conservancy reached a purchase agreement with the owners of the 11 tracts that make up this project in 2005-06. When the transaction is completed, the Conservancy will work with the State of North Carolina to restore, steward and monitor the preserve through efforts such as a prescribed burning regime, which this naturally fire-dependent landscape desperately needs to thrive.

DIRECTIONS:
NA