The Angola Bay Restoration project proposes to establish globally threatened peatland Atlantic white cedar (AWC) forest as well as complementary peatland-adapted tree/shrub species including bald cypress and button bush across 1,383 acres on 14 distinct, recently harvested pine plantation stands. Planting sites are within a broader 7500-acre pocosin peatland hydrologic restoration project area on Angola Bay Game Land where Phase 1 of hydrologic restoration is currently being implemented. This project area was identified as an ideal candidate for supplemental AWC planting on the North Carolina coastal plain and possesses ideal organic soil types for its establishment.

The project’s overarching outcome is to re-establish optimal ecological function on 7500 acres of intensively ditched and drained pocosin peatlands at Angola Bay Game Land, while also expanding public access within one of the most important natural complexes on the Atlantic Coast known as the Camp Lejeune/Holly Shelter Megasite.