On Thursday February 1st the CNC hosted the NC Coastal Federation at the Trent River Coffee Company.
Rachel Besesi and Kristen Gibson traveled to New Bern and presented “Working Together for a Healthy Coast – An Introduction to the NC Coastal Federation”.
The mission of the Coastal Federation is: “To empower coastal residents & visitors from all walks of life to protect and restore the water quality and critically important natural habitats of the NC coast”. They spoke about the origins of the Coastal Federation (1982) and their approach – Advocate; Educate; Restore and Protect.
Rachel and Kristen teamed up on the presentation. Rachel, the education coordinator, gave an overview of the organization and spoke about several of the current projects. The NCCF has installed 47 “living shorelines” which control storm water run-off and help to prevent pollutants from entering the waterways. Rachel pointed out that there are many volunteers that make this possible but in addition, these projects provide coast-wide jobs. This was just one example of their projects.
Kristen is an AmeriCorps service intern. She focuses on educating young persons. She is a regular at area Boys & Girls Clubs and K-12 schools. The NCCF uses hands-on examples to explain the importance of clean water and how we all benefit. For example, they collaborate with the students to build storm water retention gardens which demonstrate how this relates to clean water. They also provide resources for the educators.
After the presentation Rachel and Kristen fielded questions from the audience. Many questions were focused on the potential of off-shore oil drilling and the seismic blasting which is done to search for oil deposits. They explained that the NCCF is vigorously opposed to the prospect of drilling and is actively involved in opposition.
The NCCF is sponsoring a bus to Raleigh on February 26, 2018 to take part in a rally to voice our concerns to the legislature.
The presentation was well received and many were introduced to the great work that the NCCF is doing.
Visit The Coastal Review Online: A Daily News Service covering NC Coast:
Visit the North Carolina Coastal Federation website: CLICK HERE