For decades, residents and visitors have pushed to protect the southern point of Topsail Island from development. The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust is steadily reaching their funding goal to purchase and permanently protect the South End property.
Topsail is one of many barrier islands along North Carolina’s coastline. Most of the island has been developed, but an 150-acre plot on the southernmost point of the island remains untouched, it’s fondly called “Serenity Point."
Eric Vreeland, Director of Advancement at the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, said the community shares a deep love for this land.
“For the people who get to come out and do what you and I are doing right now and walk out here, take in this view, this sense of peace and joy, and really truly experience the beauty that is most representative of coastal North Carolina.”
The South End is used as public land, but it remains in private ownership, which means it’s at risk of joining the rest of the area and being developed.
“We’re walking here on the sound-side and looking across the water, or just back behind us, there are coastal developments happening all the time, and that was really front and center, highly visible here on Topsail just a year ago.”
The family who owns the South End property put the land on the market in 2005, and the Coastal Land Trust first initiated its vision to purchase the land for conservation in 2006. After the market crash in the early 2000s, nothing came to fruition until over a year ago, when the property returned to the market and faced development risks again. Vreeland said that’s when the Coastal Land Trust returned to its campaign to purchase the property.
“Protecting this property is something we’ve had our eye on and there’s been efforts over the past 20 years to do so. So, we’re kind of in our goldilocks moment, where we have our shot, our big opportunity to get it done, and we’re really not going to let anything stand in our way and I think that’s the attitude of the community as well.”
The Coastal Land Trust launched their campaign “Save the South End” in March this year. Now, they have a little less than a year to reach their lofty fundraising goal of $8 million to close on the land before March 31, 2025. Vreeland said this campaign has more community support than they could have imagined.
“And what we’ve seen over the past 6 months, is this absolute outpouring of community support. You know, saving this place, keeping it as it is right now, forever, it’s a labor of love, it’s a passion project for everyone involved, including the Coastal Land Trust.”
Vreeland said the collaborative campaign has one goal in mind: conservation.
“So, if successful with our campaign in purchasing this property, we’re looking to have it remain as it is for the people who come to visit, for the animals who call it home. Keeping all those coastal values intact.”
Roy Costa is the President of the community-led nonprofit, Conserve the Point. Costa said he and his wife started coming to Topsail Island in the 90s and soon bought a house near the South End in 2002. Costa said they had fallen in love with the wild beauty of Serenity Point.
“We walk down there practically everyday and to just see the wildlife there, to see the birds, the migratory birds. We’re starting to have turtle nests, actually start to nest down that way. So, it’s just a refuge very close to home.”
Costa said since the property has always been privately owned, the community has always been concerned the land would be developed, which is why the Conserve The Point nonprofit was formed over 20 years ago.
“It’s something that’s deep in a lot of people’s hearts, and the fragile nature of that property, developing it would be a terrible mistake in a lot of people’s minds, including my own.”
Residents and visitors notice how the South End changes and responds to tides, storms, and environmental impacts. Costa said this ever-shifting barrier island environment can be dangerous to develop.
“Everybody recognizes that really is a very vulnerable area, and as we walk along the beach down there, you can see on if not a yearly basis, month to month, sometimes a weekly basis, how it changes.”
The Coastal Land Trust is aiming to get $1.5 to $2 million in private support for their Save the South End campaign, and Costa said now they are halfway through that goal with six months left to close on the South End property.
“So, we’re very confident that this will happen, so the community has really rallied around it and the sentiment is very strong, that we really want to keep this like it is.”
As you walk to the southernmost point of the South End, you can see Lea-Hutaff Island, which was the last privately-owned undeveloped barrier island in North Carolina until 2021 when Coastal Land Trust purchased the Hutaff part of the island. Vreeland said conserving the North Carolina coastline is a collaborative effort that happens acre by acre in projects just like Save the South End.
“And so each additional piece of conservation we do in this coastal corridor amplifies the impact of every one we’ve done before. But knowing that this adds to the value of the work we did there, which adds to the work of the value we did on Masonboro Island, which adds to the value of what we did on Bird Island, which adds to the value of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), it’s just one long connected flyway.”
Vreeland said protecting the South End of Topsail is another piece in the puzzle of North Carolina’s conservation efforts, and he is eager to put Serenity Point into the hands of the public forever.
“And the South End to each and every one of them, is that same spot. It’s the memories that they made, the memories that they’re making, and the memories they want their children and grandchildren to make for generations to come.”