Two coastal communities are in line for their share of the $8.7 million in grants for parks and recreation projects that the governor’s office announced Friday.
Holly Ridge is to receive $500,000 out of the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to expand a municipal park, and Wilmington is to receive $237,618 from the Accessible Parks Grant program to replace an existing playground.
Supporter Spotlight
“North Carolina has incredible natural beauty, and a strong parks system allows every North Carolinian to enjoy it for years to come,” Stein said. “These investments will strengthen local economies and improve people’s health and quality of life.”
The Parks and Recreation Authority selected the 21 projects out of 41 applications during the Aug. 22 meeting. A maximum of $500,000 can be awarded to a single project, and the awardees must match the grant funding.
Holly Ridge has invested the last few years in making plans to add new features to an existing municipal park. The first phase of improvements, estimated to cost $1.6 million, is to include a multi-use path, splash pad, an inclusive playground, restrooms, fitness stations and parking. New water and sewer services along with storm water detention facilities to support the additions, according to the town’s Municipal Park Master Plan.
“This is great progress for Holly Ridge,” Mayor Pete Parnian said in May when announcing the council’s decision to move ahead with the project. “The park plan reflects our commitment to building a vibrant, active, and connected community, and Phase 1 will lay the foundation for a space residents of all ages can enjoy for years to come.”
Wilmington officials said in early 2025 that the Parks and Recreation Department planned to apply for the grant to replace the existing playground at the Fit For Fun Center with one that is an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant structure, extend the playground surface, and install new fencing.
Supporter Spotlight
An indoor play space for children, the center’s outdoor playground was installed in 2002, “sees a comparatively high volume of use, and is not ADA accessible,” officials said at the time. The grant is to “help ensure that the playground is replaced within two years and potentially with a better structure than the City could provide without additional funding.”
For the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, or PARTF, the total recurring funding is distributed to state parks and DuPont State Recreational Forest, municipalities, counties, and public beach and coastal accesses. The funds can be used for land acquisition, new recreation facilities, or improvements to existing parks.
The Accessible Parks Grant program was authorized in the 2023 budget to provide matching grants for parks and recreation. The second and final round of nonrecurring funding considered 29 applicants requesting a total of $11.7 million. Awardees must match the grant with at least $1 of local funds for every $5 in grant funds.
Both PARTF and the nonrecurring Accessible Parks grant subset are managed by the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources through its Division of Parks and Recreation. A partnership with Recreation Resources Service at N.C. State University offers assistance from grant specialists to local applicants.
This week, Sept. 20-27, is National Estuaries Week, an annual opportunity to raise awareness and encourage protection of these natural resources,
Sponsoring organizations Restore America’s Estuaries, National Estuarine Research Reserve Association and the Association of National Estuary Programs are partnering with the National Environmental Education Foundation to highlight estuary conservation projects as a part of National Public Lands Day Saturday, Sept. 27.
Supporter Spotlight
National Public Lands Day is a single-day volunteer event for public lands on the fourth Saturday in September. Groups hosting a clean-up or restoration project may submit the project description via an online form to be featured in a 2025 National Estuaries Week Project Map.
National Estuaries Day was first observed in 1988 as a way to promote the importance of estuaries and the need to protect them.
“Estuaries — where salty seawater mixes with fresh water draining from the land — are one of many coastal habitats in which we work. Estuaries provide homes for fish and wildlife and support recreation, jobs, tourism, shipping, and more,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Estuaries are called “nurseries of the sea,” because numerous marine animals reproduce and spend the early part of their lives in estuaries, which include habitats like marshes, seagrass beds and oyster reefs.
“Most of the fish and shellfish we eat — including salmon, herring, crabs, and oysters — spend some or all of their life in estuaries. Estuaries provide habitat for nearly 70 percent of the United States’ commercial fish catch and 80 percent of recreational catch,” NOAA explains in a release highlighting National Estuaries Week.
Supporter Spotlight
These natural resources provide a home for species that help improve water quality. Oysters are filter feeders that trap and remove pollution from the water. A single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water per day.
In addition to being a home for marine life, nearly 40% of Americans live on or near a major estuary, which also serve an economic role. An analysis by Restore America’s Estuaries found 39% of jobs are connected to estuaries and support 47% of economic output.
Another benefit to estuaries is that “habitat like salt marshes and seagrass beds serve as natural infrastructure. They protect communities from flooding and erosion by soaking up water and dissipating storm energy,” NOAA said.
To stimulate discussion and debate, Coastal Review welcomes differing viewpoints on topical coastal issues.
Supporter Spotlight
When most people think about fighting climate change, they think about cutting tailpipe emissions, swapping coal plants for solar panels, or driving electric cars. But there’s another powerful tool right in front of us: coastal habitats like salt marshes and submerged seagrass meadows. These living ecosystems are not just fish nurseries, wildlife havens and storm buffers — they are also massive storehouses for carbon, helping slow the pace of global warming.
Nature’s Carbon Vaults
Every blade of marsh grass and every seagrass frond pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and water through photosynthesis. Some of that carbon goes back into the atmosphere when plants die and decay — but much of it gets buried in the wet, oxygen-poor soils beneath. Think of these habitats as nature’s deep freezers: once carbon is locked in the muck, it can stay there for hundreds or even thousands of years.
This storage is so effective that acre-for-acre, coastal wetland ecosystems can hold several times more carbon than forests on land. That’s why scientists call this “blue carbon.”
Beyond Storage: The New Science of Carbon Flux
For years, we assumed the carbon benefits of these habitats came mostly from how much carbon they locked underground. But new research — including work my colleagues and I have been doing — shows that the story is bigger.
Wetlands and seagrass beds aren’t closed systems. They interact constantly with surrounding waters, exchanging organic matter and nutrients in what scientists call lateral flux. In plain English: tides, currents, and groundwater move carbon in and out of these habitats.
Supporter Spotlight
Here’s the exciting part: the more we study this flux, the more we see that coastal habitats are exporting “good carbon”— forms that stimulate carbon storage in seawater or reduce greenhouse gases in the water column. In other words, their climate benefit isn’t just what they store in their soils, but also how they influence the chemistry of surrounding waters.
Early estimates suggest this added benefit may be as large, or even larger, than the carbon stored directly in the soil. That means we’ve been dramatically underestimating how valuable these habitats are for slowing climate change.
Research Coming to North Carolina
This fall, I’ll be bringing this research to North Carolina, where salt marshes play a defining role in both the coastal landscape and economy. With support from the North Carolina Coastal Federation, my team and I will be monitoring marshes in the state to measure their carbon values. These field studies will help determine just how much carbon is being stored and exported — and how that compares with other places along the East Coast and nationwide.
By putting real numbers on the carbon services provided by North Carolina’s salt marshes, we can give policymakers, landowners, and communities the science they need to make smart investments in protecting and restoring them.
Of course, carbon storage is only one of many economic and ecological gifts coastal wetlands and seagrasses provide. They buffer shorelines from storms, filter pollutants, support fisheries, and provide nurseries for countless species. Protecting and restoring them is not just smart climate policy — it’s smart coastal policy, period.
A Call to Action
We’re still learning just how much carbon benefit these habitats provide, but one thing is clear: Every acre we lose is a lost opportunity to fight climate change and protect coastal communities. Protecting and restoring degraded marshes and seagrass meadows is one of the rare win-win strategies that helps people, wildlife, and the planet’s climate at the same time.
As new science on lateral flux continues to emerge — and as fresh fieldwork in North Carolina fills in key data gaps — we’ll have an even stronger case for investing in these natural climate powerhouses. Protecting coastal habitats isn’t just about saving pretty places — it’s about giving our coastal communities and working lands a fighting chance against rising seas and extreme storms.
Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of Coastal Review or our publisher, the North Carolina Coastal Federation.
Contact Us Now!
Call Now
We'll come to your home to talk
more about your vision and how we can make it come to life. This helps our team understand the space
you're looking to renovate. Whether it's a simple remove and replace or a full remodel with moving walls,
we can help.
