Cape Fear River Watch

Cape Fear River Watch Our mission is to protect and improve the water quality of the Cape Fear River Basin for all people

06/06/2026

Swim Guide is back afloat!

After a hiatus, we are happy to once again be sampling our local recreational waters for bacteria through Swim Guide. This program helps us provide important and up-to-date water quality information with our community, so you can make informed decisions about when and where to swim, paddle, fish, and enjoy our waterways. If you’re hitting the water this weekend, check out the results for your closest site below.

For testing, we use the EPA’s recreational threshold of 235 MPN/100 mL to evaluate potential health risk. Based on these standards, the following sites:

PASS ✅
Kenansville Wildlife Access, Kenansville
Wayne’s Landing, Wallace
Riverside Park, Castle Hayne
Smith Creek Park, Wilmington
Archie Blue Park, Wilmington
Greenfield Lake Boathouse, Wilmington
River Road Park, Wilmington
Carolina Beach State Park

FAIL ❌
Chinquapin Wildlife Access, Beaulaville

Keep an eye out for updates on our social media, on the first and third Friday of each month!

Please join us in welcoming our summer intern crew! Next, let’s meet Laela Cash.Laela is pursuing a combined major in po...
06/04/2026

Please join us in welcoming our summer intern crew! Next, let’s meet Laela Cash.

Laela is pursuing a combined major in political science and human rights. She is from a small town in Western North Carolina, where she grew up backpacking and camping every summer. She says this background and the love of nature it fostered in her, as well as her interest in public policy, led her to CFRW.

Outside of school, Laela enjoys being outdoors, exploring new places, spending time with friends, and making art. She chose to intern at CFRW to learn more about the public policy surrounding environmental protection and how to improve water quality. On top of this, Leala is “excited to learn more about non-profits and meet volunteers and community members!”

Welcome aboard, Laela!

This , we’re giving a shoutout to the Scouts! As part of the international Trash the Trash Day initiative, which challe...
06/04/2026

This , we’re giving a shoutout to the Scouts! As part of the international Trash the Trash Day initiative, which challenges Scouts to pick up at least 1 lb. of trash on the final Saturday of May, BSA Troop 26 organized a litter cleanup at Greenfield Lake—and they certainly completed that challenge!

Troop 26 also attended our seminar in May—which was centered on coexisting with wildlife—as part of their wildlife merit badge. Thank you to these Scouts for being stewards of the Cape Fear River Basin!

Our Water Quality Programs Manager Rob Clark is an invaluable member of our team. If you’ve monitored a waterway, partic...
06/02/2026

Our Water Quality Programs Manager Rob Clark is an invaluable member of our team. If you’ve monitored a waterway, participated in a cleanup, maintained our passive litter collection devices, or worked on plastic reduction policy, you know how incredible Rob is. On top of this, Rob oversees our internship program, speaks to students and communities around the area about water quality, and documents and reports violations at factory farms. Today is his birthday, so please send him some well wishes in the comments below! We are celebrating Rob at the office today with one of his favorite past times: disc golf.

The best way to see Downtown Wilmington? 👀 From the water! Join us as we continue our exploration of our basin by boat a...
06/01/2026

The best way to see Downtown Wilmington? 👀 From the water!

Join us as we continue our exploration of our basin by boat as we paddle a 6-mile route that spans FOUR waterways, with downtown in view! Our trip will start us off back in Burnt Mill Creek, into the marshes of Smith Creek, under the Isabel Holmes Bridge on the Northeast Cape Fear River, passing by the riverwalk on the main stem of the Cape Fear River, before finishing off below the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

We will meet no later than 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 20th at Archie Blue Community Park and take out at Dram Tree Park, right across from our office. This route is intermediate in difficulty and the direction is tide-dependent, but we will update you if the put-in and take-out will be swapping!

We have a limited number of single kayaks from our fleet available for CFRW Members to borrow ($25 suggested donation per boat; includes PFD and paddle), or bring your own ($10 suggested donation). 🛶 Not a member yet? Consider joining us today—your membership makes these paddles possible.

Registration for this month’s trip is now OPEN—paddle on over tr.ee/cfrwpaddle to secure your spot!

05/31/2026

We know not everyone will agree, but we think one of best things about Greenfield Lake is the abundance of American Alligators who live within it! While spotting an alligator in the lake can be a treat, please remember that doing anything other than observing it from a safe distance (at least 60 ft.) is dangerous, for both you and the alligator.

Feeding or harassing alligators is illegal in North Carolina, and for good reason. When alligators are fed, they lose their fear of people and instead associate us with easy food (called habituation), which is especially risky at a public park where children are playing. Even if someone is not intentionally feeding alligators but feeds fish, turtles, or waterfowl (their natural prey), it can attract alligators closer to humans.

Alligators are naturally shy and secretive, and most who live in the lake will swim away or submerge themselves when boats approach. Alligators are ambush, or sit-and-wait, predators who prefer to conserve energy and avoid conflict. It is incredibly rare for them to chase people, and alligators give plenty of warning signals first, such as hissing, slapping the water, growling, or doing a “bluff” lunge.

This is, unfortunately, recent footage of an alligator coming within a few feet of our staff at the boathouse, swimming not towards the turtles and fish around the dock, but towards us. As you can see, this behavior is the complete opposite of what we just described. This is what a habituated alligator looks like.

Please, admire these spectacular predators from afar. If you witness someone intentionally feeding alligators at Greenfield Lake, or around the basin, please report it to N.C. Wildlife through their helpline: 866-318-2401.

We really needed the rain... but not the litter that comes with it. Luckily, our floating litter collection devices—whic...
05/29/2026

We really needed the rain... but not the litter that comes with it. Luckily, our floating litter collection devices—which collect litter round-the-clock in our creeks—were able to catch some of what washed away in the stormwater runoff. Our new summer interns, Maya, Laela, and Olivia dove right in to empty out four of our devices that, as you can see, worked overtime through the weather.

Per usual, our main culprits were plastic water bottles and styrofoam. 👎 Our interns collected more than 1,000 individual pieces of litter across these four sites, with 488 being hard plastics, 383 styrofoam, 104 plastic film, 43 metal, 4 glass, and 18 other materials. We log each piece of litter into the Waterkeepers Carolina database (linked below), which plays a key role in advocating for source reduction policies, like a statewide bottle deposit program.

Please join us in welcoming our summer intern crew! First, let’s meet Jack Lupinek. Jack is a rising senior at NC State ...
05/28/2026

Please join us in welcoming our summer intern crew! First, let’s meet Jack Lupinek.

Jack is a rising senior at NC State studying natural resources with a concentration in policy and administration. He enjoys research and is extremely passionate about environmental policy and education. Jack first gained experience in investigating urban streams through ecology and oceanography labs in Raleigh, and in youth education and advocacy through working with and volunteering at the non-profits Reading Assist and the Healthy Kids Running Series in high school. Outside of school, Jack enjoys going camping, baking desserts, and playing trivia games.

Jack is thrilled to have the opportunity to spend so much time working in nature this summer. “I’m particularly interested in the history of pollution and regulation in the Cape Fear River Basin,” he shares. “As an intern, I hope to develop my skills in research and education to learn how to make the world a healthier, more sustainable place!”

Welcome aboard, Jack!

Did you know one of the stops on our Burnt Mill Creek ecotour is the Wilmington National Cemetery? During this morning’s...
05/25/2026

Did you know one of the stops on our Burnt Mill Creek ecotour is the Wilmington National Cemetery? During this morning’s walk, we took a moment to thank all who have sacrificed so we can freely enjoy our river basin and country.

Situated overlooking the creek, the cemetery contains more than 6,000 burials, most of Union soldiers. Wilmington was the last port city still under Confederate control to fall in January of 1865. In the northwest corner, graves marked with “U.S.C.T.” recognize more than 500 U.S. Colored Troop soldiers who fought in the Civil War. In sections 8 & 9, you can also find graves marked with “Employee USA” in recognition of 28 Puerto Ricans who were aboard the 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘢𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘢𝘩 to aid construction of Fort Bragg, but lost their lives in the 1918 influenza outbreak.

Address

617 Surry Street
Wilmington, NC
28401

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

(910)7625606

Website

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