![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/Flock_of_swans_at_Lake_Mattamuskeet_Allie-Stewart-USFWS-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThese are world-class natural resources,\u201d says Stan Riggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the early 1970s, North Carolina Sea Grant has supported numerous research initiatives Riggs has spearheaded, including his latest, the Night-Scape Resource Project. Riggs, now coastal and marine geologist with NC LOW (\u201cNorth Carolina Land of Water\u201d), is exploring the Outer Albemarle Peninsula after dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s truly a magic place,\u201d he says, \u201conce you get off the main highways.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Riggs first heard the \u201cYellowstone of the East\u201d description of the peninsula from Mike Dunn, a naturalist and science educator, who worked with Riggs on earlier research. Dunn has led tours for visitors from around the world primarily to two jaw-dropping regions \u2014 Costa Rica and Yellowstone Park \u2014 and also, at first blush, to seemingly much less exotic eastern North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMike was right,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cThere are plenty of reasons to compare Yellowstone with aspects of the OAP that require more introspection and contemplation. You just have to slow down and understand a little about the natural resources that we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riggs\u2019s enthusiasm is catching, especially when he begins cataloging why exactly the Outer Albemarle, like the iconic national park, possesses the potential for ecotourism. The biodiversity within OAP terrain rivals Yellowstone\u2019s, for instance, even among the large animals \u2014 black bears, red wolves, porpoises, and sharks versus the famous park\u2019s moose, elk, and grizzly bears \u2014 not to mention that the peninsula\u2019s panoramas can compete with any location\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the OAP\u2019s 780 square miles of national wildlife refuges, state parks and reserves, and vast swaths of public game land seem to unfurl endlessly because of an additional 2,900 square miles of publicly owned buffer enveloping it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Albemarle Sound to the north, Croatan and Pamlico sounds to the east and southeast, and Pamlico River Estuary to the south surround the OAP. Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout National Seashores further protect the peninsula to the east, as do the Pea Island and Cedar Island National Wildlife Refuges. To the west, broad stretches of agricultural fields sprawl across the lower Coastal Plain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you have a vast area of public wetlands surrounded by expansive estuarine bodies of water, with minimal human activity, the 360-degree vistas of the horizon provide a never-ending parade of night sky magic,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cThunderheads illuminate the stage with dramatic lightning, as spectacular cloud displays at day\u2019s end introduce a zenith of planets, constellations, and an astronomical wonderland that is becoming an endangered environment along our coast, because of increasing light pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because of the OAP\u2019s immense tracts of protected and unpopulated terrain, these night skies are some of the darkest on the U.S. Atlantic Coast between Boston and Miami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riggs recalls when he previously could view the Milky Way from his own back doorstep, a level of visibility astronomers consider necessary both for optimal stargazing with the unaided eye and for exploring the farther reaches of space with binoculars and telescopes. Today, he says, due to light pollution from nearby residential developments, \u201cI can\u2019t see either the Milky Way or the Little Dipper.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In large part, the conspicuous black sky over the OAP that appears on nighttime satellite maps of the Eastern Seaboard prompted Riggs to document this terrain. Naturalists and astronomers covet such conditions, which offer a paradise for both professional and amateur explorers alike \u2014 with significant implications for the future economic health of the whole region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To partner with astronomy experts, his NC LOW joined forces to form the Night-Scape Resource Project with another nonprofit, Greenville\u2019s \u201cA Time For Science.\u201d The project trained survey teams to journey across the peninsula to catalog night landscapes and soundscapes, as well as the viewscapes of those deep and spacious skies untouched by artificial light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The teams would visit sites on national wildlife refuges (Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes, Mattamuskeet, and Swanquarter), state parks and reserves (Pettigrew, Somerset Place, and Buckridge), and vast parcels of public game lands (NC Wildlife Resources Commission). But first, there was a caution for everyone who had volunteered for the assignment \u2014 scientists, educators, and students alike \u2014 about the remote ground they were about to cover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost of this land is low, wet, and wild,\u201d reads the project\u2019s instructional guide. \u201cDo not drive off any paved, graveled, or sand roadway. YOU WILL GET STUCK.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To be sure, venturing off the beaten path on the OAP could lead you into territory Edgar Allen Poe could have borrowed for a literary milieu. Undaunted, though, three adventurous teams fanned out across Tyrrell, Washington, mainland Dare, and mainland Hyde counties to map and develop profiles of optimal sites to experience the nightscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Armed with GPS devices, sky-quality light meters, sound meters, and weather instruments, the teams collected data for 11 months, across each season, timing their visits as closely as possible with new and full moons. By the end of the project, they had logged 250 visits to 83 sites, mostly on public land, compiling portraits of each location\u2019s darkness, ambient sound, light pollution, nearby environment, accessibility, and even available parking space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only did the project produce comprehensive site profiles, but its data on light pollution possibly could earn the OAP a regional designation as an \u201cInternational Dark Sky Reserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA majority of our survey sites on the OAP offer starry nights that the International Dark Sky Association\u2019s guidelines rate as gold or silver,\u201d Riggs says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dark sky designation, Riggs adds, along with the accompanying stamp of approval from the International Dark Sky Association, would enhance the peninsula\u2019s visibility, infusing the region\u2019s slowly growing ecotourism industry with instant marketability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jane Harrison, North Carolina Sea Grant\u2019s coastal economics specialist, says tourism on the coast is a key economic driver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor Dare County, one in four jobs is in tourism and recreation,\u201d she explains. \u201cHyde, Washington, and Tyrrell counties are looking to grow their tourism economies especially, and night sky ecotours would be a great addition to what they already offer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, Harrison says, tourism in Tyrrell County provided less than 2% of the jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Yellowstone of the East\u2019s appeal is significant and indelible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sites with a shoreline are the best,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cThe stage becomes much vaster. Incredible cloud patterns, distant thunderheads with flashing lightning spectacles. Out here, the sunsets and sunrises, and moonrises and moonsets, are among the biggest shows on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The OAP offers a majestic platform to watch lunar eclipses and rising planets, to unfold a chaise-lounge for shooting stars \u2014 especially the seasonal Perseid or Geminid meteor showers \u2014 or a place to plant your telescope to gaze at supernovas, Saturn\u2019s rings, or Jupiter\u2019s red spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, of course, out in the heart of all this darkness, our own Milky Way gleams for the naked eye. Most of us no longer can see it from our own back door, with or without a lens. But out on the OAP, that long band of stellar haze crosses the celestial sky faithfully \u2014 as faithfully each night as, well, Old Faithful \u2014 hinting, like the famous geyser, at the universe\u2019s hidden depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSweeping through the Milky Way with a telescope reveals a window deep into the center of our galaxy,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cInterstellar gas and dust constitute the spiral arm as it cuts through the starry \u2018cloud.\u2019 Within this cloud is a treasure trove of nebulas and star clusters \u2014 a stargazer\u2019s playground. Here, it\u2019s important to see not only with your eyes, but with your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, lifting our chins to the heavens was the original mind-altering experience. From ancient constellations made in the shape of mythological heroes to contemporary literature\u2019s marriage of setting and psychology, the night sky has always offered contemplation, inspiration, and awe. One of John Cheever\u2019s acclaimed stories, \u201cThe Swimmer,\u201d depicts a suburbanite\u2019s nighttime trek through town, full of youthful vigor as he plunges into his neighbors\u2019 pools, flutter-kicking and crawl-stroking his way across one backyard after the other, only to arrive home to find the constellations have changed. Summer\u2019s metaphorical skies have become fall\u2019s \u2014 and just as the seasons have passed, so, too, has much of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to nature\u2019s archetypal resonance within us, a record of research as wide as the OAP\u2019s dark expanses suggests the very act of beholding the natural world can help alleviate many ills that consume our psychological space \u2014 afflictions including stress, depression, and even attention deficit disorder. In fact, science over the past decade has shown that spending time in nature may be especially important for the well-being of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2018, researchers at NC State and Clemson found that even rural children, amid easily accessible natural settings, are spending more time in front of electronic screens than they spend outside. The study looked at middle school students, in particular, and determined that gaps between time spent on screens and time in the outdoors were widest for girls and African American students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the study was published, NC State\u2019s Lincoln Larson, co-author of the journal article, said that middle school could be a turning point for children as priorities shifted and their lives became more structured. \u201cThis often results in fewer opportunities for outdoor recreation,\u201d he explained. \u201cThis is a problem, because connection to nature plays a positive role in young people\u2019s physical health and psychological development.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Riggs, the nightscape offers a natural remedy, a valuable alternative for families zigzagging through life with their eyes locked on screens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe whole concept is to get people in tune with these hidden resources,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I take people out on North Carolina\u2019s large estuarine water bodies and away from the large urban centers, I tell them to count the number of boats they see. It\u2019s rare to see more than a fisherman or two on any given day on most of North Carolina\u2019s underutilized estuarine waters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Accordingly, a large part of the Night-Scape Resource Project\u2019s charge is to educate \u2014 in effect, to take the sky into the classroom and to draw students into the environment. Riggs and his team have held a series of science teacher education workshops and fieldtrips, and A Time For Science\u2019s Brian Baker has taken his portable planetarium into many coastal N.C. schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project also has collaborated with the Coastal Studies Institute to host \u201cStar Parties\u201d at Jennette\u2019s Pier in Nags Head and the Windsor Middle School in Bertie County. Hundreds of eager participants typically attend these events, which include a series of large outdoor telescopes and where \u201csky time\u201d eclipses \u201cscreen time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOpportunities for building programs around the nocturnal environment and night sky are unlimited,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cEducating the youth, public, and leadership of the Roanoke-Albemarle region is critical for the protection and management of this dark-sky natural resource, but also to capitalize on the potential for developing a sustainable ecotourism for the region\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riggs adds that this ecotourism doesn\u2019t depend on clear skies. While spellbinding, the region\u2019s unpolluted gateway to the celestial is only part of its hidden magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe best part of stargazing on the OAP often is the environment around you,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cHearing the owls talk to each other, as otters splash in the water. Wolves howl in the distance. And the cacophony of summer amphibians and winter swans and geese. The awesome wind blows through the marsh grasses and causes the waves to lap onshore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The skies, wildlife, possibilities for photography and kayaking, the potential for an astonishing trail system, even simply the sheer breadth of the terrain to explore \u2014 the more you contemplate all that the Outer Albemarle Peninsula offers, the more apt \u201cThe Yellowstone of the East\u201d begins to sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the OAP also defies comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived and worked all over the world,\u201d Riggs says. \u201cThis region is unique. We\u2019ve got blackwater streams and swamp forests. The estuaries are drowned river valleys that are bounded by the beaches and capes of the outer barrier islands. And it\u2019s all dynamic, subject to high-energy storms that cause ongoing changes to the coastal system. It\u2019s far more than just a place where astronomers go wow. And it\u2019s ours. It belongs to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n North Carolina Sea Grant funded the Night-Scape Resource Project <\/em>through a Community Collaborative Research Grant, in partnership with <\/em>NC State\u2019s Kenan Institute of Engineering, Technology, and Science. North <\/em>Carolina Space Grant, East Carolina University\u2019s Department of Geological <\/em>Sciences, and ECU\u2019s Coastal Studies Institute also provided key support.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The project includes: Stanley Riggs, coastal and marine geologist at North <\/em>Carolina Land of Water and project lead investigator; Karen Clough, NC <\/em>LOW\u2019s community outreach coordinator; Emily Jarvis, executive director of <\/em>A Time For Science; and Brian Baker, director of astronomy with ATFS. The <\/em>project has a working partnership with Reide Corbett, oceanographer and <\/em>executive director of the ECU Coastal Studies Institute, as well as three groups <\/em>of local volunteers who constituted the field-mapping teams. The project also <\/em>has developed working partnerships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service <\/em>(Alligator River, Pocosin Lakes, Mattamuskeet, and Swanquarter National <\/em>Wildlife Refuges), Pettigrew State Park, and the N.C. Wildlife Resources <\/em>Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE: This article heavily relies on Stan Riggs\u2019s report, Night-Scape Resources: Northeastern North Carolina Coastal System, as well as interviews with and presentations by Stan Riggs. NC State News, Jane Harrison, and other sources also provided information.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lead photo: The buffer around the Outer Albemarle Peninsula\u2019s amazing nightscapes includes Ocracoke Island. Courtesy of Meredith Ross\/VisitNC.com.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n<\/a>INTO THE DARK<\/h2>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a>THE STARGAZER\u2019S PLAYGROUND<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>NATURE\u2019S REMEDY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
This project defined nightscape resources within northeastern North <\/em>Carolina\u2019s coastal system, but local, county, state, and\/or federal agencies, <\/em>with specific rules and regulations pertaining to night visitation, manage <\/em>these sites. Contact the appropriate office for permission to access specific <\/em>sites for nightscape viewing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n