Environmental importance of Sledge Forest discussed during meeting, with development still looming

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Over the past few months, WWAY has been following a proposed development in the Sledge Forest area of Castle Hayne.

On Monday night, members of Save Sledge Forest, an organization attempting to protect the forest, held a meeting about the forest’s unique ecosystem at UNCW’s Lumina Theater.

Dozens of people showed up for the meeting, where several presentations were given.

If you recall, in February, developer Copper Builders met with residents to discuss their plans for a 4,000-home development called Hilton Bluffs, covering more than 1,000 acres of land.

UNCW student Jason Rooker grew up close to Sledge Forest and said he understands why so many people have spoken out against the development.

“Castle Hayne as a community, I know how a lot of the people who live there feel about it and I feel like that’s a really important thing when it comes to community planning is, you don’t want to build a development right in the middle of a community that doesn’t want it there,” Rooker said.

Conservation biologist Andy Wood said southeastern North Carolina is the most bio-diverse region of the Atlantic Coast, north of Florida.

He said Sledge Forest is a big piece of that and provides protection not only for the animals living within it but the people living near it as well.

“The issue of flooding in adjacent neighborhoods is a concern to people who already live there,” Wood said. “The bulk of Sledge Forest is bottom land hardwood swamp adjacent to the Northeast Cape Fear River, which provides air and water filtration, stormwater storage and helps prevent flooding downstream.”

Rooker, who is studying coastal engineering, said this meeting and the process surrounding Sledge Forest has given him a front row seat in seeing how residents can be affected by policy.

“I think that being able to see this and see it in action is really important to see how policy affects people who actually live in these communities and then what it actually looks like to try and enact policy or to take the scientific research that we’ve done and make decisions on whether or not we should build something.”

Currently, the purchase of the land has not yet been finalized and the development is still in it’s proposal stage.