Visitors to the north end of Wrightsville Beach will see sturdier posts and thicker rope in place of stakes and string that previously marked the borders of the Mason Inlet Waterbird Management Area.
Dominic Iannucci, Hoggard High School freshman and prospective Eagle Scout from Boy Scout Troop 13, began planning the service project during the summer. A group of six scouts and five adults met Iannucci on-site Nov. 29 to dig holes and plant posts around the perimeter of the bird management area, connecting each post with two lines of rope and affixing signs to posts denoting the area’s significance.
Iannucci said the new posting should better protect birds using the area.
“It’s a lot more visible and it’s a clearer boundary,” Iannucci said. “Before, it was a seasonal thing. They moved the stakes back and forth, whether it was nesting season or not, and now it’s permanent around the entire area, so nests won’t be disturbed.”
While visiting the waterbird management area with county shore protection coordinator Layton Bedsole during the 2014 nesting season, Iannucci said he learned why it is important to protect the habitat from disturbance.
“Their nests are just little holes with some straw in them, so they’re kind of hard to see. If you’re walking in there and you don’t think you’re going to be affecting them, you probably already are,” Iannucci said.
After an estimated 11 hours of planning and 11 hours of work, Iannucci still has to submit a final report on the project and undergo a board review to officially earn the rank of Eagle Scout. Iannucci plans to complete both steps by early 2015.
Iannucci is the son of county engineering department director Jim Iannucci, who maintained the posting around the bird management area with Bedsole since the end of the 2013 nesting season, when the county’s contract with Audubon North Carolina ended. The county is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to modify some requirements outlined in the waterbird habitat management plan and the 2002 Masons Inlet relocation project permit. That process is ongoing, but Jim Iannucci said he plans to continue partnering with local organizations and businesses to maintain and monitor the area.
“There is going to be a big volunteer component,” Jim Iannucci said. “Shell Island has a lot of interest in doing either eco tours or walks, just being involved out here.” Masons Inlet Preservation Group, which supported the Eagle Scout project by paying for materials, has also expressed interest in monitoring or managing the area.
Dominic Iannucci also plans to update the informational kiosk beside the North Lumina Avenue cul-de-sac in front of Shell Island Resort with information about his project and the waterbird management area.
Shorebird nesting season begins April 1 and runs through the end of August.
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