Another great day on the road, the people of Southeastern North Carolina are in love with their region...
We started the day doing some amazing interviews at local
fast food restaurants including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC all owned by
parent company Yum! Brand Foods in Louisville,
KY, one of the largest purchasers
of paper packaging originating from endangered Southern forests like this area.
The interviews were fantastic, the overwhelming message was that
Yum! should seek more environmentally friendly options and produce less
waste. You can view the videos here.
After talking to folks about fast food packaging, we headed
over to Riegelwood, NC
to take a gander at the IP packaging mill there that is sourcing from the Green Swamp. IP has ditched and drained this amazing swamp
into submission to create packaging that is used once and thrown away. Through billowing clouds of smoke, I set my
thoughts to all the potential that disappeared with the massive amount of
cutting done in this area – flood control, species lost like the venus fly trap
and pitcher plant, habitat lost like pocosins and upland long leaf pine
savannahs, and the impact on local people and culture who have lived in these
swamps for generations.
We then headed over to Lake
Waccamaw State
Park to check out this impressive Carolina Bay
and talk to the rangers about all of the things that make this site so special
including a number of species of fish and mussels that are found nowhere else
on the planet. After a short walk on the
shoreline, we met our friend Steve from the Friends of the Green Swamp
who took us out on the water in his boat and took us to one of the greatest
fish fries on Earth at John McNeil’s pier.
The food was amazing, the people were so friendly and John was full of
some of the best stories I have ever heard giving us a great slice of what life
was like on the lake over the last few generations. We then meandered back across the lake in the
moonlit night and called it a day.
What an amazing day and what incredible people. We look forward to helping reduce the impact
of paper packaging on this special place.
See you tomorrow!
From the Swamp…
Scot
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