.An unpaid ad hoc position - Dogwood coastal outreach. IÕll be dealing with the coast in NC anyway. Retreat to the coast. ------------------------------------ NEWS ABOUT YOUR COASTAL WATERS COASTAL WATERS PROJECT NORTH CAROLINA MAINE Ron Huber Herb Hoche (828) 253-4665 (207)594-9851 . chipwatch@justicemail.com coastwatch@acadia.net FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 1/26/98 State woodchip industry study going coastal. RALEIGH. Leaders of the North Carolina Woodchip Study Team told Tuesday's meeting of the study's scientists and public advisory panel that one or more of the study's upcoming public meetings across the state in March and April will be held at locations along the North Carolina coast. Sites in Wilmington and Morehead City are being considered. Ten researchers from Duke and North Carolina State University were tapped to carry out the two year, quarter-million dollar study, which Governor Jim Hunt last year ordered carried out. At open forums across the state this spring, the researchers will explain their progress to date in examining and predicting the impacts of the exploding North Carolina woodchip industry on forestry, fisheries, recreation and other natural resource-related jobs from the present to the year 2040. The investigators are studying everything from the effects of chipmill operation on neighboring communities, to the effects of chip-directed forest clearing and road building on forest soils retention, to the impacts of exotic biopollution from Asian woodchip ships docking at state ports in Morehead City and Wilmington to pick up their cargoes of woodchips. -MORE- 'This is very good news," said Ron Huber, director of the Coastal Waters Project, a public interest group involved in protecting and restoring Atlantic coastal environments. "Without intending to, woodchip exporters are putting North Carolina's blue crab, shrimp and other fisheries at risk. Governor Hunt is wise to have this looked into now, before the woodchip export industry grows any bigger. " Huber said that scientists from both the federal government and academia have asked North Carolina to take a look at what happens when incoming foreign woodchip ships dump their biologically-lively ballast water from Japanese ports into the harbor at the state port in Morehead City, site of the largest woodchip export terminal on the USA's east coast. ---More----- NC CHIPSTUDY RELEASE PAGE 2 Empty woodchip ships fill their holds with water for stability and trim before leaving Japanese ports. A single woodchip ship will take on more than ten million gallons of water ballast in Japan before embarking on the 40 day voyage to Morehead City. Once there the ship will discharge the water before taking on its load of woodchips from North Carolina chipmills. Duke's marine lab researchers have found more than one hundred different foreign plant, animal and microbe species living in the ballast water of ships arriving at Morehead City from Japan. "There's money to be made exporting woodchips," Huber said, "but the coastal marine ecology here could end up looking more like Nagoya, Japan' s than Carteret County's if we don't step lively on this issue," Huber said. "Exotic marine life is an import we don't need. The Coastal Waters Project is a citizens' association dedicated to protecting and restoring our Atlantic coast marine ecosystems. * * * * * * * LINKS TO CHIPMILL/EXOTIC SPECIES RELATED INFORMATION: *For information about exotic marine species and ballast water, check out the website of the US Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force: www.anstaskforce.gov * The website of the Southern Center For Sustainable Forestry has a special section devoted to the North Carolina Woodchip Study. Visit the SCSF's web page at www.env.duke.edu/scsf * The Dogwood Alliance is a coalition of forestry, conservation and environmental activist groups opposing the expansion of chipmills in the Southeast. Visit their website at www.dogwoodalliance.org.