History

CFRW was founded in 1993 and began as a vision for Bouton Baldridge (Bouty) and Bruce Watkins. It was a vision of a permanent nonprofit organization, open to everyone, dedicated to the improvement and preservation of the health, beauty, cleanliness, and heritage of the Cape Fear River basin.

Our mission is to protect and improve the water quality of the Lower Cape Fear River Basin through education, advocacy and action.

We organize environmental seminars for the public that cover a variety of topics and issues that are pertinent to the areas encompassing the Lower Cape Fear River Basin. We offer internships for students, especially for those who have an interest in environmental science. At Greenfield Lake, we offer Environmental Education classes for school aged groups and other organizations, in addition, we host ongoing Eco Tours and Bird-Watching Tours at the lake. The CFRW offers water quality education programs to civic groups, schools, developers, home-owner associations, trade associations and other organizations and provides storm water management training for local government staff.

The Advocacy Committee works on water quality-related issues such as environmentally sustainable development, hog lagoon regulations, wetland preservation and restoration, vegetative wetland retention, oyster reseeding, and recycling. We support LAND FOR TOMORROW, a coalition advocating setting aside public money to protect our state’s unique natural habitats. In 2005, CFRW joined an alliance of conservation groups created in response to concerns about C-8 discharges from a DuPont plant located on the Cape Fear River near Fayetteville. We are working to restore the Cape Fear RIVERKEEPER program including river monitoring in the Lower Cape Fear Basin.

CFRW organizes clean-ups at Greenfield Lake, Burnt Mill Creek and other local watersheds. Furthermore, we conduct maintenance, monitoring, and research at the Kerr Avenue wetland site. We encourage and train members to “adopt” rivers, streams, and tributaries as Creek Monitors. CFRW is an active member of the Earth Day Alliance, which organizes the Celebration of Earth Day. In an exciting new initiative, CFRW recently agreed to become land preservation stewards for smaller natural areas in the Cape Fear River Basin.

The Water Keeper Alliance is the umbrella organization for 58 Keeper programs, including CFRW, located throughout North and Central America and Europe. This Keeper movement is an environmental “neighborhood watch,” program that is designed to protect communities and the waters on which they depend. The Alliance facilitated the formation of CFRW, licensed the use of the name “Cape Fear River Watch, ”, provided assistance in getting the program started, continues to work on national issues that all the Keeper programs hold in common, and serves as a clearinghouse for each Keeper to exchange information, strategy, and know-how.