WNC gets first national wildlife refuge

ASHEVILLE – It only took a little more than a century, but Western North Carolina finally has its first national wildlife refuge, an area that will forever protect the rare and fragile plants and animals who make it their home.

The Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge was officially established Wednesday on a 39-acre parcel in the Ashe County town of West Jefferson. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave it the designation, giving the state of North Carolina 11 national wildlife refuge areas in all, mostly on the coast.

The first National Wildlife Refuge was created in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect the brown pelican breeding grounds in Florida. With the creation of Mountain Bogs, the system has 563 refuges, protecting more than 150 million acres nationwide.

Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge, which will be devoted to the conservation of Southern Appalachian mountain bogs, one of the rarest and most imperiled habitats in the United States, is the first North Carolina refuge west of Charlotte.

"The establishment of Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge marks a turning point in the efforts of a number of dedicated partners in preserving this unique and threatened habitat," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Deputy Director Jim Kurth, who visited the new site Wednesday.

"It will provide a focal point for mountain bog conservation in the area, and highlights the importance of our National Wildlife Refuge system in preserving our nation's spectacular biodiversity for future generations of Americans," he said.

While North Carolina is brimming with public lands in national parks such as the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains, managed for activities such as public recreation and cultural resources, and national forests such as the Pisgah and Nantahala, managed for timber and other uses, WNC has never had its own National Wildlife Refuge.

"National Wildlife Refuges are public federal lands like national forests and national parks but with a couple of differences," said Gary Peeples, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Asheville Field Office. "The great distinction on National Wildlife Refuges is that wildlife comes first. They are managed and conserved for the well-being of plants and animals on site. They are all about wildlife conservation."

The idea for a refuge to protect mountain bogs had been in the works for decades, Peeples said. It finally came to fruition with help from The Nature Conservancy, which donated the easement to the land.

The land trust acquired the land, which was once a gravel mine, in the early 2000s, said Adam Warwick, stewardship for the Nature Conservancy.

"A Nature Conservancy employee at the time stumbled across that site and made the discovery of the mountain bog turtle, a federally threatened species," he said. "We quickly worked to acquire that property. We've discovered close to 80 bog turtles. It's a really superb habitat. Over years we've had problems with non-native invasive species, but we've managed it with goat grazing and herbicides and manual removal as well."

Mountain bogs are typically small and widely scattered across the landscape, often isolated from other wetlands. They are important to wildlife and plants, as well as to humans. They have a natural capacity for regulating water flow, holding floodwaters like giant sponges and slowly releasing water to nearby streams decreasing the impacts of floods and droughts.

"One of the key motivators for us in creating the Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge is to help the conservation of a handful of species that depend on this type of habitat," Peeples said.

Mountain Bogs NWR is home to five endangered species — bog turtles, mountain sweet pitcher plant, green pitcher plant, Swamp pink (a lily) and bunched arrowhead. Bogs are breeding habitat for many species of amphibians, especially salamanders, of which the Southern Appalachians have the greatest diversity in the nation. They also provide habitat for migratory birds and game animals, including mink, woodcock, ruffed grouse, turkey and wood duck.

The refuge is authorized to grow up to 23,000 acres, Peeples said, depending on the availability of lands, and funds to purchase those lands. The Fish and Wildlife Service has identified 30 sites, or Conservation Partnership Areas, containing bogs and surrounding lands scattered across Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Clay, Graham, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Transylvania, Wilkes and Watauga counties in North Carolina, and Carter and Johnson counties in Tennessee. Unlike a large national park or national forest, the national wildlife refuge would comprise smaller, non-adjacent properties.

"Southern Appalachian bogs are biodiversity hotspots," said Kieran Roe, executive director at Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, which has been active in helping to establishing the new refuge. "But they are disappearing from our region at a rapid rate. Less than 20 percent of the mountain bogs that once existed still remain, so their protection is critical."

There are clusters of mountain bogs around Western North Carolina, many in Henderson and Transylvania counties, the region just south of Asheville, blessed with the French Broad River moving through it at a slower pace and on a flatter course than the river north of Asheville. That makes it more conducive for bogs, Roe said.

"Most of our mountain rivers and streams are high-gradient, but the French Broad upstream of Buck Shoals is fairly slow-moving and flat and has floodplain areas. A lot of the bogs are found in those areas," he said.

The conservancy worked to protect the Oklawaha Bog, a 30-acre area near Flat Rock, by restoring the area that was dredged and drained for residential use and now is a mountain bog, home to the endangered bunched arrowhead, which Roe said is found only in Henderson County and in Greenville County, S.C., and 10 other sites in the world.

The Mountain Bogs refuge is about a 2 1/2-hour drive from the Asheville area. Roe said many partners are working with wildlife officials and landowners to include more WNC properties int the Mountain Bogs NWR.

Peeples said the new refuge is being managed by Fish and Wildlife staff in Georgia, with help from the endangered species biologist from the Asheville Field Office. As the refuge grows, he said, the agency will look at dedicating more staff.

Right now, there is no public access to Mountain Bogs.

"We are hopeful we will eventually be able to provide public recreation opportunities. Wildlife-based recreation comes first," he said.

While parts of the refuge are most likely too sensitive for public recreation, the wildlife-related type of recreation that might be allowed are hunting, fishing, wildlife photography, wildlife watching, environmental education and interpretation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is looking at the areas within these Conservation Partnership Areas to acquire land and/or easements, and will work to support private landowners in conserving their land. Funding to acquire land and easements likely would come from the Land and Water Conservation Fund, funded by offshore oil and gas drilling leases.

"Our ultimate goal is conserving mountain bogs," Peeples said. "The Mountain Bogs National Wildlife Refuge is just the newest tool we have to reach that goal. Whether these bogs become part of the National Wildlife Refuge or are conserved by private landowners, we are happy either way."

"To me, creating a new national wildlife refuge is a pretty big deal," Roe said.

"Most people are familiar with refuges on coastal areas (such as Alligator River National WIldlife Refuge), which are often areas for breeding and habitat for migratory waterfowl," Roe said. "It's much rarer to have those refuges in these upland mountain areas.

"Mountain bogs are very threatened, very endangered habitat for our part of the world. Having resources from the federal government to be a part of this now I hope will be a turnaround for mountain bogs, and we'll see more or them saved."

LEARN MORE

For more information, visit www.fws.gov/mountainbogs.