Do NOT click the "Take the Next Step" button that appears when you sign the petition if you want to donate to Save Sledge Forest!!!

 DONATE HERE ​ TO CONTRIBUTE TO SAVE SLEDGE FOREST. (Clicking the “Take the Next Step” button sends all donations to change.org NOT our cause!)

Please use the link above to donate to our cause!!    

Sledge Forest in Castle Hayne is the last, large expanse of old growth forest in New Hanover County. It is more than 4000 acres and is slated for “by-right” development, which allows for NO public input (even from those most affected) and requires NO review and/or approval by our County Commission and Planning Board.

Please visit www.savesledgeforest.org to learn more.  

This massive residential development: 

• Will destroy hundreds of acres of forest to build a massive residential development, while the required infrastructure could cause disturbance, disruption, and potential destruction of over 3000+ acres of irreplaceable wetlands.
• It will inundate Castle Hayne Rd, an already congested, F-rated road, with thousands of  addittional car trips per day. 
• This area is surrounded by a floodplain and we know that the catastrophic impacts caused by flooding is often due to clear-cutting and overdevelopment. 
• The area’s schools, hospital, emergency services and roads cannot handle such a large influx of populationwithout the proper infrastructure in place first.
• There is an EPA Hazardous Waste site that is being monitored on the adjacent property.  This toxicplume has alredy migrated on to the Sledge property. Could it be a potential threat to our aquifer and drinking water if disturbed?
• Should a “By-Right” development be allowed to supersede the rights, health & safety, and well-being of the existing community?  

We believe the 4,000+ acres that make up Sledge Forest in northern New Hanover County is a local, natural treasure. The NC Heritage Program considers it of National Significance and it should be protected. Remaining mostly untouched through 6000 years of habitat evolution, it is recognized as harboring some of the last best examples of the region’s worldwide significant habitats and biodiversity. It is a community of plants & animals containing 350 year old pine trees more than 60’ tall, and cypress trees dated more than 500 years, with a vast array of rare and imperiled wildlife that needs Sledge Forest as their home.  

Does the destruction of our county’s last, large expanse of old growth forest by this proposed development seem ill-conceived and unacceptable to you?

Find out more at sledgeforest.org

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DONATE HERE to Save Sledge Forest - do not click the "Take the Next Step" button (that donation goes to change.org NOT Save Sledge Forest!