NC Coastal Management

Move over Teapot Museum, there's a new contender stepping up:

But just how much is there to gain by allowing the low-profile barriers, aside from the impact on individual property owners? The News & Observer of Raleigh, quoting a Western Carolina University study, reported Sunday that terminal groins at all 10 erosion-affected inlets would save $18 million in property tax revenue over 30 years. That's about $600,000 a year. But it could cost three times that over the same timeframe to build and maintain even one.

Math has never been my strong suit, but that appears to break down to spending $1.8 million to save $60,000.

An important conversation took place tonight at the NC Botanical Gardens in Chapel Hill. Good people coming together to do good work to preserve one of the world’s most cherished resources: North Carolina’s 5000 miles of beach front and estuarine shoreline.

In case you haven't been paying attention, the coast of North Carolina is a big deal. According to Stanley Riggs, the international expert in coastal management in the Geology Department at ECU, roughly $2.25 billion in direct dollars related coastal tourism flow into our state every year. That money - and our beaches themselves - are at risk.