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Angola Creek Flatwoods Preserve

Angola Creek Map

LOCATION:
Coastal Plain
Pender County

SIZE IN ACRES:
250

INVOLVEMENT IN ACRES:
NA


Pine Flatwoods
Pine flatwoods, Angola Creek Preserve
(© Harold Malde)
Longleaf Pine
Longleaf pines (© TNC)

TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP:
Maple Hill

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 & AMENITIES:
Birding / Wildflowers

OWNERSHIP & ACCESS:
This Nature Conservancy preserve is only accessible through the North Carolina Chapter’s field trip program.

SITE INFORMATION:
Angola Creek Preserve contains a good example of a high quality longleaf pine flatwood community. A visitor to Angola Creek will enjoy walking through the open forest of longleaf pines that towers over a dense layer of wiregrass and flowering herbs. There are 239 rare plant and 31 rare animal species associated with longleaf pine communities in North Carolina, by far the highest number of rare species associated with an ecosystem type in the state.

Longleaf pine communities once ranged over 90 million acres in the Southeast, but approximately 97 percent of this acreage has been lost to logging, clearing for agriculture and development, and fire suppression. Once covering one-third of North Carolina, longleaf pine communities now span a mere seven percent of their original acreage. An active colony of the federally listed endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, which nests almost exclusively in old-growth longleaf pines with red heart disease, once inhabited Angola Creek.

CONSERVATION HIGHLIGHTS:
This preserve was created in the mid-1980s when the Conservancy purchased land and received partial gifts. To restore this preserve to its original condition and encourage the return of the red-cockaded woodpecker, Conservancy stewards conduct prescribed burns in the preserve. Like the natural fires that once swept through the Coastal Plain after lightning strikes, these controlled burns maintain the fire-dependent longleaf pines and associated plant and animal species by releasing nutrients into the soil and killing competing woody plants. Conservancy stewards burn Angola Creek every two to five years, enabling visitors to the preserve to see how plants flourish after a fire.

DIRECTIONS:
Not available