Habitat Restoration in North Carolina

Who hasn’t seen plastic litter, styrofoam and other garbage accumulated on the shores of beaches, lakes and streams? Or scattered in your neighborhood, along the streets and in parking lots? Or watched viral videos of people removing a straw from a sea turtle’s nostril or cutting a fishing line strangling a pelican’s beak?

Litter in the environment hurts both terrestrial and marine species through entanglement, suffocation, consumption and poisoning. It also leaches toxic chemicals into waterways and drinking water. Litter along roadsides attracts wildlife, including the prey of predator species such as owls and wolves, creating a vicious cycle that increases wildlife injuries or death due to vehicular collisions. The number one cause of injury for birds or prey brought to the Carolina Raptor Center is raptors struck by vehicles.

NCWF has been tackling the litter crisis head-on by hosting river and lake cleanups and participating in thousands of habitat restoration projects.

• In the 1970s, NCWF held fishing tournaments where each boat’s entry and participation “fee” was a filled bag of garbage collected.
• In the early 1990s, we focussed garbage efforts on getting recycling legislation adopted to curb refuse in the environment.
• NCWF was an original sponsor of Big Sweep, a one-day statewide event where volunteers cleaned refuse from beaches, parks, lakes and streams.
• For the last 20 years, we’ve partnered with Duke Energy, owner of 100-plus islands in the Catawba River reservoirs. Through our Island Adoption program, we match families and groups to clean litter and restore shoreline habitat on the islands.