Environmentally Speaking

DWR employees working on the Walnut Creek Watershed Action Team received a letter of recognition from U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-2nd, on May 15. This recognition was to congratulate the team on winning the 2024 Raleigh Environmental Stewardship Award on April 19 from the City of Raleigh’s Environmental Awards.
Interns in our Northern Sites and Southern Sites offices completed their internship in August. We asked them to reflect on this summer’s experiences. Keep reading to hear how their internship experiences shaped them, they've got some great stories to share!

Seabeach amaranth is a federally threatened plant species that is native to the North Carolina coast.  This important species contributes to the natural building of dune systems and acts as an indicator of healthy beach ecosystems along the U.S. Atlantic coast.

Nine educators were the first cohort of a new virtual education program by NC Stream Watch, an outreach and education program of the Division of Water Resources (DWR). The program offers information on water resource management. In addition, at the completion of the program, participating educators get access to a North Carolina science standards-aligned curriculum for teaching about water quality, quantity and the importance of conservation.
The DWR Ambient Monitoring System and Random Ambient Monitoring System programs provide data that keep track of water quality measures across North Carolina’s river basins.
DWR’s Aquatic Weed Control Program received permits from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (WRC) to stock sterile grass carp in certain lakes this spring in central and western North Carolina to control hydrilla, an invasive aquatic plant.
This summer, the Rachel Carson Reserve had three outstanding interns. They contributed to our mission and learned a lot along the way. Below they each share a bit of advice or memories from their experience.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality (DAQ) celebrated the best student projects from the 2023 -2024 AQ-IQ Contest on Saturday, July 13, 2024, at the 

The N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), a program of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Coastal Management, hosted its third stop on the “Discover the N.C. Coastal Reserve” Tour on May 17 at the Rachel Carson Reserve in Beaufort, NC. The tour began with brief remarks by staff, local and state officials at the chapel at the Beaufort Hotel, followed by a guided boat tour, with a stop at the Carrot Island boardwalk.
The DWR Water Resources Development Grant Program provides funding for water restoration projects and to boost access to water-based recreation resources across North Carolina.

So, you want to be a scientist? What if I said you can, and that it’s easy?! I’m talking about participating in community science, regardless of age, background, or experience. Anyone, including you, can be a community scientist. 

The DWR Algae Lab has compiled a database containing more than two decades of information on phytoplankton in North Carolina.
Kara Guthrie paid more interest than usual when she saw the email pop up in her inbox with subject: “Coastal STEM Career Fair” last year. When she opened it and learned the event was “geared toward Middle & High School students from … Teen Centers through Boys & Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain…”, she knew she had to get involved.
The N.C. Wetlands Passport is a printable map and list of 240 wetlands on public lands or publicly accessible property in North Carolina – including wetlands in local, state or national parks or forests, and on state game lands. The passport, which was created by the DEQ Division of Water Resources Ecosystem Branch, is available in both English and Spanish.
The DWR Biological Assessment Branch benthic biologists have discovered new species of macroinvertebrates through their work of collecting samples of small aquatic animals that live on the bottom of streams, rivers and swamps. The biologists sample for these critters because their presence – or lack of it – is an indicator of the health and cleanliness of the water they live in.