Manatees to Mountains

Protecting Our Lands

TNC and our partners have created a roadmap to protect, connect, manage and restore the lands most essential to nature and people in the face of climate and biodiversity challenges. Our highest priorities are those areas demonstrating the greatest propensity for resilience: the longleaf pine system, the Gulf and South Atlantic coastal lands, and the Appalachians.

In the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, for example, TNC is undertaking one of our largest-ever conservation efforts in the eastern United States: the Cumberland Forest Project. Both Shenandoah and Acadia national parks would fit inside Cumberland’s 253,000-acre footprint, with room to spare. This vast forested mosaic encompasses two parcels: the Highlands in Southwest Virginia and Ataya along the Kentucky-Tennessee line.

These lands hold deep cultural significance for the Cherokee, Shawnee and Yuchi Nations and peoples. And the communities scattered across this swath of Appalachia—some of which originated as coal company towns—are striving to diversify and revitalize their economies.

TNC’s conservation approach seeks to honor the land’s rich history and its importance to local communities. As we work to protect and restore vital forestland, we also generate benefits for community initiatives that embrace conservation.

Moreover, we are addressing climate issues through a three-pronged approach. Forest conservation here captures and contains millions of tons of carbon dioxide. We are also keeping intact a critical migratory corridor for plant and animal ranges to shift to more hospitable climates while also working with the solar energy sector to repurpose former minelands.

Healthy Ocean and Coasts

Because healthy, productive marine and coastal ecosystems feed our people, provide recreation, buffer us from storms and drive vital sectors of our economy, TNC is focused on scaling up estuary conservation and bolstering healthy fisheries.

For instance, since the Deepwater Horizon explosion 15 years ago catalyzed TNC’s Gulf program, we’ve made remarkable progress toward restoring this globally important ecosystem. These are just a few of the ways we’re making a real difference in the Gulf’s natural and human communities:

• Constructing oyster reefs in Apalachicola, Galveston, Matagorda, Pensacola and St. Louis bays, along with Calcasieu Lake and the Suwannee River estuary

• Strengthening coastal resources such as the Lightning Point project in Alabama and Texas

• Helping protect and restore critical habitats on Alabama’s Lower Perdido Islands so that natural resources and wildlife can thrive alongside human recreation

• Expanding access so residents and visitors alike can better appreciate and enjoy the Gulf

And, through our Ocean and Coasts program, we’re looking holistically not only at the Gulf, but also conserving interconnected coastal and offshore Atlantic Ocean systems stretching from the Florida Keys to our Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve.

A Hospitable Climate

With increases in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, heat waves, storms and flooding, people and nature are experiencing poor water quality, impaired health, and habitat degradation and loss, among other risks. TNC invests in natural climate solutions that capture and reduce carbon while also generating benefits for local communities.

The carbon-capturing benefits of forest restoration are well documented in places like the Cumberland Forest. But TNC is expanding scientific understanding of the lesser known but potentially more effective impacts of restoring seagrasses (AKA “blue carbon”) and, most recently, peatlands.

North Carolina is leading the way in peatlands conservation. The word peat may evoke images of Irish farmers burning bricks of sod for fuel or the flavors of a fine single-malt Scotch. But scientists look at peat soils and see a habitat that stores more than double the carbon contained within all the world’s forests despite covering a mere 3% of the Earth.

A significant share of that peat—about 700,000 acres—graces the coastal plains of North Carolina, but much of it has been ditched and drained and needs restoration. With support from a federal grant backing a four-state coalition that also includes Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina, TNC recently purchased more than 2,700 acres in Pamlico County to restore the property to its natural wetlands condition.

Ultimately, the site will be added to the state’s public lands, more than tripling the Light Ground Pocosin Game Land. And over the next few years, TNC expects to restore 33,000 acres of peatlands in all, as well as protect another 10,500 acres through conservation agreements or ownership.

Sightings and Insights from the Water’s Edge

Driving the wildlife loop at Merritt Island, I enjoy lovely views of mangroves, along with sightings of wading birds and sun-bathing alligators. My next planned stop—and my best and last chance to spot a manatee—is the refuge’s viewing deck along Haulover Canal, which connects the Indian River and Mosquito lagoons.

I reach the water’s edge, and immediately, almost unbelievably, a manatee partially surfaces directly below. A broad, whiskered snout. An audible huff of breath. Then a splash and it’s gone. These are brief but thrilling impressions.

Over the next 20 minutes, a half-dozen manatees will make brief appearances, including a barely submerged mother and calf. I track their torpedo shapes as they glide into a small freshwater spring feeding into the canal just beyond the walkway.

Though it’s not exactly crowded here, I’m in no danger of feeling lonely on this Friday morning at the end of manatee viewing season. (In the Crystal River area alone, on the opposite coast, local officials estimate that manatee tourism generates $20-30 million annually.) Tourism can be a double-edged sword, as boat collisions remain a top threat to these animals. The mother manatee I had just seen carried a foot-long propeller scar on her back.

As I watch the boats plying the canal, I can’t help but think of the classic video game Frogger. Not that this boat traffic is anywhere near as dense as the game’s bumper-to-bumper vehicles, but boats pass steadily enough to give me pause. Moreover, I know that manatees have struggled to find enough of the aquatic plants they need for food—plants that depend, in turn, on clean water.

As the South grows, will our people make room for manatees and our other iconic wildlife? Will we summon the wisdom and the resolve to ensure that our economic activities are compatible and sustainable?

These are knotty problems, to be sure. But as the manatee mother and calf gradually fade from sight, I’m reminded of the power of sticking together. The Nature Conservancy, a host of agencies and countless individuals work together every day to ensure that these gentle giants will never disappear forever.