Sometimes the most important coastal stories begin with a contradiction.
In the heart of Wilmington, Hewletts Creek and neighboring Bradley Creek are among the city’s most valuable natural resources. Both are designated by the state as High Quality Waters and Primary Nursery Areas, providing essential habitat for juvenile fish, blue crabs, shrimp, oysters, and countless other species. Yet for more than fifty years, both creeks have remained closed to shellfish harvest due to chronically elevated fecal coliform levels.
At first glance, those designations seem impossible to reconcile. How can waters important enough to nurture the next generation of marine life also remain impaired for decades?
Part of the answer lies in understanding that healthy estuaries are more than bodies of water. They are living systems that depend on tides, wetlands, oyster reefs, marshes, and other forms of living infrastructure quietly working every day to help regulate water quality. As Wilmington has grown, those systems have come under increasing strain. Stormwater, altered shorelines, changing hydrology, and other pressures have gradually reduced the creeks’ natural ability to flush themselves and maintain the conditions that once allowed them to thrive.
The City of Wilmington, New Hanover County, and a host of conservation partners have invested significant effort to monitor water quality and reduce pollution entering these watersheds. Those efforts matter and continue today. At the same time, an important question remains. After decades of monitoring and meaningful investment, why have these creeks struggled to recover?
For our Foundation, that question has shaped several years of quiet work behind the scenes. We’ve worked alongside waterfront property owners, engineers, scientists, and local stakeholders to better understand the history of these creeks and the factors that continue to limit their recovery. Generous donors believed in tackling this challenge, and their confidence, combined with the commitment of local stakeholders, has made this next step possible.
Today, we are excited to announce a new partnership with Dr. Michael Piehler, Director of the UNC Institute for the Environment at UNC Chapel Hill, and Dr. Anne Smiley, whose research focuses on watershed science and coastal resilience. Working with our Foundation, they’ll lead the first research phase of the Wilmington Tidal Creeks Restoration Initiative. Together, they bring expertise in hydrology, water quality, and ecosystem function, exactly what’s needed to understand why these remarkable creeks have lost some of their natural ability to recover.
Rather than only asking where pollution originates, we’ll begin asking a deeper question: Why did these creeks stop working the way nature intended? Finding that answer won’t happen overnight, but it has the potential to reshape how Wilmington and other coastal communities approach restoration for decades to come. Below, we’ll explore how science can help answer that question and why understanding the system is the first step toward restoring it.
What It Takes to Make a Creek Work Again
One phrase has become central to this initiative: restoring system function, not just treating symptoms.
For years, efforts to improve water quality have understandably focused on reducing pollution entering the watershed. Our partnership with UNC complements those efforts by looking beneath the surface to understand how the entire watershed functions. Instead of viewing individual projects in isolation, researchers will examine how land use, stormwater infrastructure, wetlands, oyster reefs, tidal exchange, and other natural processes interact across the landscape to influence water quality over time.
Over the coming months, researchers will bring together decades of environmental data to create an unprecedented picture of how Hewletts Creek and Bradley Creek function as living systems. The resulting model won’t simply show where pollution exists; it will help identify where the landscape is working and where it needs help.
Understanding the system is only the beginning. Phase 2 of the initiative, planned to begin next spring, will build on those findings to identify targeted opportunities for restoring natural function. The UNC research team will evaluate where carefully designed interventions in both creeks could improve tidal exchange, strengthen natural flushing, enhance habitat diversity, and support healthier water quality long-term. Rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions, future restoration efforts will be guided by a detailed understanding of how each part of the watershed works together.
If successful, the benefits will extend far beyond these two creeks. Many coastal communities face similar challenges as growing populations place increasing demands on natural resources. By bringing together university research, applied engineering, and long-term local collaboration, this initiative has the potential to become a model for restoring urban tidal creeks throughout North Carolina.
Healthy estuaries don’t remain healthy by accident. They depend on natural systems that have evolved over thousands of years, quietly performing work that often goes unnoticed until those systems begin to falter. Our vision is that one day Hewletts Creek and Bradley Creek will no longer be known for appearing on two very different lists. Instead, they’ll remind us that when we understand why a coastal ecosystem stopped working, we can begin to restore the natural processes that allow it to thrive.
The Creeks Up Close
This map shows where Hewletts Creek and Bradley Creek fit within Wilmington’s larger watershed system, draining directly to the Intracoastal Waterway and Atlantic Ocean. Understanding this connectivity is central to the research now underway.
These shellfish harvest closures aren’t new. Generations of Wilmington families have grown up alongside water they couldn’t harvest from or truly enjoy. That’s the reality this initiative is working to change.
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