WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – The Nature Conservancy’s North Carolina Chapter will get $67.8 million towards efforts to conserve and restore peatlands that trap carbon dioxide emissions.

The funds are a part of a $421 million grant award from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants program. Peatlands are wetlands where plant matter does not fully decompose, resulting in a layer of peat building up. Local peatlands include the Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County and the Angola Bay Game Land in Pender County.

“This is a game changer in our work to reduce carbon emissions. Restored peatlands also have other benefits including absorbing floodwaters, which is particularly important on our hurricane-prone coast. And, of course, restored peatlands provide habitat for a myriad of animals, which boosts our economy through hunting and wildlife-watching,” said Katherine Skinner, Executive Director of TNC’s North Carolina Chapter.

The grant will let TNC expand its peatland work that started at the Pocosin Lakes and Alligator River National Wildlife refuges. TNC plans to restore 33,000 acres of peatlands and protect 10,500 acres of peatlands in NC and Virginia with the funding. The minimum estimated annual reduction may be anywhere from equivalent to the emissions produced by 57,120 to 2.1 million cars yearly.

“The organic soils that characterize peatlands are about fifty percent carbon,” said Chuck Peoples, Deputy State Director of TNC’s North Carolina Chapter. “Over the past decade, we’ve learned through research with agency and academic partners that our approach to peatland restoration through rewetting previously drained soils is successful in achieving significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions.”

For comparison, ten acres of drained peatlands emit equivalent carbon dioxide to about 21.5 passenger vehicles every year. Restored peatlands absorb the equivalent emotions of those produced by 3.25 passenger vehicles each year. Drained peatlands can also be prone to wildfire, such as the Evans Road Fire in 2008 that burned for seven months and emitted 9.47 metric tons of carbon from the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

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