UNCW Will Inventory Its Forest

By Catherine M. Welch

Wilmington, NC – University of North Carolina, Wilmington has announced that it will take inventory of the 140-acre forest on campus.

UNCW Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo says the move is in response to outrage that UNCW is planning to build dorms on 13 acres of long leaf pine forest currently used for research.

Student Emily Fullerton helped organize opposition to the Phase 3 dormitory project. She says while she's not completely satisfied with the university's response, she's still pleased something's being done.

"To have documented surveys done on all of our ecosystems in our forest that is a highlight, so I guess it is a positive move, a step forward."

DePaolo has charged the special subcommittee to produce an inventory and guidelines by May 1st. She says UNCW is in need of a detailed report of its forest.

"And so what they're going to do is look at it all and say okay there is this area here that perhaps is of such importance, and such value that we need to comit to serving that. Perhaps another area is not' and that will take us into the future."

DePaolo says the next four academic buildings are going to be built on existing parking lots.

And she says Phase 3 dorm construction will be on hold until mid-May, to allow time for hatchlings to mature and the relocation of flora and fauna.