. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. granddaddy died several years before I was born near the floodplains of the Black River. Yet he left me a gift that could only have been more precious had I taken it from his hands. A month before his death, he bought 210 acres of Sampson County farmland between the old North Carolina railroad towns of Kerr Station and Ivanhoe. It was there in the shadow of the Black's cypress, gum, live oak and loblolly pine that I spent my childhood in awe of his legacy. family lived a half- mile from the banks of t
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. granddaddy died several years before I was born near the floodplains of the Black River. Yet he left me a gift that could only have been more precious had I taken it from his hands. A month before his death, he bought 210 acres of Sampson County farmland between the old North Carolina railroad towns of Kerr Station and Ivanhoe. It was there in the shadow of the Black's cypress, gum, live oak and loblolly pine that I spent my childhood in awe of his legacy. family lived a half- mile from the banks of this blackwater river in a two-story antebellum house cluttered with antiques. Window screens were our air-conditioning; the songs of owls and whippoorwills in the swamp, our vespers. The river was ever present in our lives. At our berth on the Black — Jackie Landing — local fishermen would net the bounty from the spring runs of herring, frying the bony fish to a crisp in cast-iron cookers and scrambling the roe with eggs. These evenings were dark and smoky and deli- cious. In the swamp, I was an honorary Boy Scout, playing Capture the Flag, building rope bridges and going on fruitless "snipe hunts" with my brothers. My stewardship efforts along the Black began early with a concern for bear, deer, bobcat and other animals. At 9,1 nailed to a tree a piece of cardboard on which I wrote in magic marker: "Wildlife Pre- serve: No Hunting. No Loud ; The soggy sign was my dec- laration to the world that this was a hallowed place. Now, almost 20 years later, the world is awakening to this slow-winding tributary of the Cape Fear River. I expanded my own appreciation of the Black River on a canoe trip in January, gorging on a sensory feast and rekindling my love for a river that has flowed through my life. Formed by the confluence of Great Coharie and Six Runs creeks in the belly of Sampson County, this 66-mile stream siphons the South River, then winds thr
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
