NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher (NCAFF) invites the community to add a really cool item to their 2026 school list—a Back-to-School Beach Cleanup on Saturday, Aug. 22, 8-10 a.m. at Ocean Front Park in Kure Beach. The town offers free parking for the cleanup volunteers and the Aquarium provides reusable gloves, pickers and bags. The NC Aquariums are a division of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Topics Related to Environmental
It’s easy to run into a crab or a sandpiper in the coastal region of North Carolina – visitors and local folks are often witnesses to the marvels of nature that make up the state’s delicate ecosystems. Each organism from a frog to a fern is critical to the habitat and because of their importance, the North Carolina Aquariums are leading the Coastal North Carolina team in the NC Bioblitz—part of the City Nature Challenge (CNC) April 24-27. Science Across NC created the NC Bioblitz to encourage participation in the CNC in the state.
Making waves that have a ripple effect is at the heart of a new initiative to make the North Carolina Ferry System more sustainable, beginning with the Southport and Fort Fisher visitor centers. Riders will find only aluminum cans for water, soda and other drinks in the vending machines. Last year, the ferry system also added water refill stations—another measure to reduce single-use plastic.
The North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation, in collaboration with The Conservation Fund and 130 of Chatham, LLC, announced the completion of an acquisition that protects 238.14 acres of high-elevation land that has long been identified as critical acreage in Mount Mitchell State Park’s land protection plan.
The North Carolina Zoo expanded its lands for local wildlife conservation by adding 139 acres to Ridges Mountain Nature Preserve, increasing it to 423 acres. This addition was a gift from The Conservation Fund made possible by the North Carolina Land and Water Fund and private donors Fred, Alice, Brad and Shelli Stanback.