If people spent more time in nature—or at least appreciated its beauty, understood it better, and could see how humans benefit from it, would people make more of an effort to preserve it?
Roger Shew hopes the answer to that question is “yes”.
As a geologist and environmental scientist who teaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, he’s worked with a host of environmental advocacy groups, including Cape Fear River Watch and The Nature Conservancy, over the last two decades. Because of his years teaching, volunteering, and growing up in southeastern North Carolina, he has identified what he calls the Seven Natural Wonders of the southeastern coastal plain.
With the help of a documentary crew, he produced Shew’s Natural Treasures, a film about these Seven Wonders that also taps the knowledge of other local environmental experts.
On this edition of CoastLine, we explore some of what the film has to teach, what local leaders and citizens can do to preserve the local natural wonder, and what we stand to lose if no one does anything.
The Seven Wonders: Carolina Bays, Cape Fear River & Black River, old growth cypress trees, saltwater marshes, carnivorous plants, long leaf pine savannas, and barrier islands
Shew’s Natural Treasures premieres on April 30, 2023 at 4 PM at the Lumina Theater on the UNCW campus: 615 Hamilton Drive, Wilmington, NC 28403
Editor's Note: The host in this episode erroneously stated that undeveloped areas in Brunswick County are staked out for development. Leland Town Manager David Hollis made the statement to WECT that any vacant land in that municipality , not the county as a whole, will be developed.
