Bird Island shows nature does fine all by itself

SUNSET BEACH, N.C. -- Bird Island is a testament to what individuals can do to protect treasured coastal places from development, the N.C. Coastal Federation says in its 2010 State of the Coast Report, released Thursday in Sunset Beach.

The report, which this year calls itself a travel guide with a conscience, also cites the Lockwood Folly River in the central part of Brunswick County and the Brunswick Nature Park near the Cape Fear River as the types of places that should be celebrated.

Straddling the S.C.-N.C. border at the Little River Inlet, Bird island was thefocus of a 10-year battle for preservation after the family that owned it announced in the early 1990s that it planned to build a bridge and causeway to the island. It was to be subdivided into 15 lots and have a fishing pier.

But after work by such groups as the Federation and the locally-formed Bird Island Preservation Society, the state refused construction permits for the bridge, and the N.C. Division of Coastal Management bought the property in 2002 for $4.2 million, making it part of the N.C. Coastal Reserve.

Originally separated from Sunset Beach by a shallow, meandering inlet, the island today is permanently attached to the southwestern tip of Sunset, and its two-mile stretch of undeveloped oceanfront is a favorite walking area for residents and visitors to Brunswick County. It got its name from the profusion of birds that nest in the marshlands and dunes on the Intracoastal Waterway side of the island.

The South Carolina portion of the island is the land anchor for the Little River Inlet jetty and is publicly owned, meaning it also won't be developed, said Hope Sutton of the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. The only land link to the island is from North Carolina.

Coastal Federation and Brunswick County formed a citizens group that worked for two years to develop a management plan for the 150-square-mile Lockwood Folly watershed that encourages green development and alternative ways of keeping stormwater from reaching the river.

The Brunswick Nature Park became a reality after the N.C. Coastal Land Trust donated 900 acres to the county with the stipulation that its development include an environmental education center. The park opened earlier this year, and the center is slated for construction in the future.

Individuals played key roles in each becoming a reality, the report says, writing letters, attending meetings and lobbying the state legislature.

Frank Nesmith, a permanent Sunset Beach resident since 1969 and one of the original members of the Bird Island Preservation Society, said an individual can make a big difference "only if he can get a big enough group of people behind him." Nesmith's part in gathering the big enough group was to take people on summer walking tours of Bird Island, pointing out the natural features and habitat that make it such a special place. Some credit those tours as key in individuals from across the U.S. writing state and federal officials for the island's preservation.

Nesmith, 83, was the person who sunk the well-known Kindred Spirits mailbox in the dunes above the Bird Island beach in the 1960s. He said Thursday that the Coastal Federation really played the critical role in saving Bird Island.

Sutton, stewardship coordinator for five Coastal Reserve sites in southeastern North Carolina, said Bird Island is one of three places in Brunswick County that are part of the 10 reserve sites network along the North Carolina coast. The others are Bald Head Woods on Bald Head Island and Zeke's Island, a Cape Fear River site that is mostly in New Hanover County.

The report, though, doesn't dwell on the need for pristine sites such as Bird Island and Zeke's Island. Rather, it says, the places it highlights in the report are coastal places to be used and enjoyed.

"We want [people] to paddle down a quiet river, boat out to offshore fishing grounds or hike through a stately longleaf pine forest, looking for birds or, yes, even a deer or bear to shoot," the report says. "We also want people to make their livings off our coast.

"But we hope that they will do all that responsibly, in ways that don't threaten our coast's natural health and productivity."