The Why

T.S. Eliot said it best, “Home is where one starts from.” Home is not always a place, more of a feeling, a belonging, playing to the strings of your heart. North Carolina is this place for me. I departed when I was 19, traveling to 5 of the continents and everything in between. However, there has always a been that calling in the distance to return. After twenty years in the military, I can answer that call. As a child growing up, I spent most of my days “in the woods” or fishing with my uncles at the Jordan Dam.

At the time, I didn’t fully understand that feeling that was burning deep inside me, to my soul. After traveling and seeing so many amazing parts of the world, it allowed me to open that box deep within, to realize my true passion for nature and all its wonders. As I now fully understand that sense of wonder and peace that was with me as a child, it is my goal for others to feel that awe inspiring feeling. Where to better start than home?

North Carolina is the home for more than 40,000 miles or rivers with 17 major river basins, 11 of which finding their origin in the state but only 4 that contained entirely within its boundaries. The Cape Fear River Basin is one of those 4. Within this basin exists a slightly smaller, but equally important one, the Haw River Basin, the exact area that I spent my youth. It is the beginning of the mighty Cape Fear, leading all the way to the Atlantic. The Haw River Basin was in desperate peril in the 19^th and 20^th century following damming in Saxapahaw in the 1850s, shuttering in the textile industry. As much as that was needed at the time to breathe life back in the area, it is now our responsibility to breathe life back into the richness of this region’s biodiversity to include such critical species as the Cape Fear shiner. It exists nowhere else in the world except the Cape Fear River Basin. Unlike other minnows, it has the ability to digest plant material such as algae and bacteria, a crucial trait in maintaining water quality, e.g. algae blooms.

Home is where I started and home is where I return to actively utilize established connections within the community and beyond as a steward of its amazing biodiversity. Thank you.

Please see the attached Google Maps link.

https://www.google.com/maps/search/haw+river/@36.0687134,-79.4961293,11z

Regards,

WaterBoy1981