File:Coast watch (1979) (20660195365).jpg

Title: Coast watch
Identifier: coastwatch00uncs_13 (find matches)
Year: 1979 (1970s)
Authors: UNC Sea Grant College Program
Subjects: Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology
Publisher: (Raleigh, N. C. : UNC Sea Grant College Program)
Contributing Library: State Library of North Carolina
Digitizing Sponsor: North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
process for a proposed ACOE project. Such projects usually take about 10 years from application to implemen- tation, and parallel CAMA's stringent permit regulations. In the meantime, the county will move forward with a smaller project to pump sand from the Brandt Island sand disposal site onto Indian Beach. A portion of the county's hotel tax will fund the project. Cole says, "I don't think the county vote was against renourish- ment. Rather, it was more about the way this proposal was structured. I think that all citizens of Carteret County understand that this is a critical economic issue for the county." Retreat is Still an Option Time was, that North Carolinians simply retreated in the face of the often powerful combination of nature: storms and the shifting islands, says Carmine Prioli, North Carolina State University English professor. Prioli is the author of Hope for a Good Season: The C'ae Bankers ofHarkers Island. After the storm of 1899, residents of Shackleford Banks picked up and moved to the mainland, leaving the island forever. Now a wilderness area in the Cape Lookout National Seashore, the island is known for its wild horses and breathtaking maritime forest. Other communities along the Outer Banks dealt with advancing seas and erosion in less drastic ways, Prioli says. They simply retreated up the shoreline out of harm's way. A cottage industry of
Text Appearing After Image:
The 1999 hurricane season wrecked havoc on Oak Island - and roads. house movers actually grew out of the retreat policy. In more recent memory, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse became an icon of the retreat policy, Prioli notes. The nation held its collective breath in March 1999, as the 100-year-old landmark was moved 3,000 feet away from the reach of the sea. Relocation of buildings still is an effective option for some beach property owners. Between 1989 and 1995, about 250 buildings along the coast were moved landward either on the same lot, or to other lots. "Retreat served us well as a policy for generations," says Nags Head Town Manager J. Webb Fuller. It was a policy that most could live with — as long as the population remained low, and home sites were deep enough to accommodate the ebb and flow of the shoreline. Much of the Outer Banks' mush- rooming growth took place between 1975 and 1995, decades of low storm activity. Now, building lots are smaller, houses larger and both are more costly. For many, there may be nowhere to move. "We are constantly juggling erosion, washing away beaches, dunes, homes both chronic and catastrophic," Fuller says. "As a community, we now are looking at beach nourishment as a policy that better fits the economic reality of today." He adds, "Sea walls or bulkheads are just not an option here. The beach is public domain. Once you harden the shorefront, you eliminate the public beach. We have, and the state has, always championed public access." Like his colleagues in the beach and shore association, Fuller would like a dedicated funding source at the state level as leverage for long-term management programs that have the greatest economic and environmental return for citizens and visitors. "The state has a responsibility to its citizens to maintain its infrastructure," Fuller says. "That includes roads, water systems and other assets. And in the case of beach towns, the most valuable asset we have is our beach. We can choose to ignore its maintenance needs, or to maintain it. If we ignore it, it will go away. So it makes sense to look at the quality of all our public resources." □ COASTWATCH 21

Note About Images