Topics Related to Environmentally Speaking

Weatherization is a cost-effective way to increase household energy efficiency, potentially saving households hundreds of dollars per year. But it’s more than just saving money. Weatherization improves indoor air quality, reduces health risks, decreases greenhouse gas emissions, makes homes more resilient and strengthens communities by creating local jobs and supporting energy equity.

Interns in our Northern, Central, and Southern offices completed their internships this month. We asked them to reflect on their summer experiences. Keep reading to hear how their internship experiences shaped them, they've got some great stories to share!

In certain waterways in North Carolina, the state requires residents and landowners to maintain riparian buffers or areas of vegetation. Specifically, there are six distinct areas with buffer protections in North Carolina: alongside the Catawba River and its mainstem lakes, in the Goose Creek watershed, in the Jordan Lake and Randleman Lake watersheds, and in the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River basins. 

The afternoon on the second day of our Teachers on the Estuary workshop involved games and candy money. Our Training Coordinator, Whitney Jenkins, brought out her favorite game to teach folks about watershed management.  

Read part 1 here.Mina Surprenant is the N.C. Coastal Reserve and National Estuarine Research Reserve’s 2024-2026 Margaret A. Davidson fellow. This two-year fellowship funds a graduate student's research that addresses a key reserve management need, helping scientists and communities understand coastal challenges. Mina, a PhD student in the University of North Carolina - Wilmington’s Wetland Ecology Lab, is studying the effects of sea-level rise on our tidal marshes using drones to visualize change. 

Playing games? Learning about science? And receiving a stipend for it? That’s what 13 North Carolina teachers got to do for two days in June at the Rachel Carson Reserve in Beaufort, N.C.  

A report by North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality scientists and partners tracked changes in the types of plants growing in wetlands in the outer Coastal Plain of eastern North Carolina, finding gains in salt-tolerant species and losses of shrub and tree cover.

A new mapping tool will help display water quality sampling findings collected through the Western N.C. Recreational Monitoring Program to help the public identify locations where E. coli levels are above and below recreational guidance values before swimming or boating.

Each year, North Carolina Sea Grant and the North Carolina Coastal Reserve & National Estuarine Research Reserve team up to award an NC graduate student the Coastal Research Fellowship. Grace Loonam, a Masters student with Drs. April Blakeslee and Rachel Gittman at East Carolina University, wrapped up her fellowship in May 2025 and shared her research and experience with us.

North Carolina has wetlands across the state – along the coast, in the mountains and in the Piedmont. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources has an interactive map showcasing 240 different publicly accessible wetlands across the state. Along with the online map, DWR has launched a printable Wetlands Passport to help the public locate those wetlands and learn more about them.