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This painting and many of my forest and coastal paintings were rendered while staying at the Trinity Center in Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina.  I love this place, and when I'm visiting it feels like I'm in a hidden sacred space.  There is marshland full of wildlife on the intracoastal side of the property and the ocean on the other side with rugged pathways through the forest in the middle.  It's a quiet refuge in the midst of the typical beach commerce.  In 1949 heirs of the Roosevelt family donated the 62 acres of maritime forest that comprise the Trinity Center to The Episcopal Church with the stipulation that it would be used for summer camps and a conference center for nonprofit groups and at the same time preserving the forest.  Final construction was completed in 1997.  Great care was taken to make the forest a priority.  The cottages have been built among and around the trees so there is little disturbance to the ecosystem of this forest.  What an amazing difference it would make if there was more consideration for this type of development instead of the typical bulldozing and disregard for the important unity of a forest.

Below are some examples of how the cottages were built around the trees. 

Were it not for the donation of the Roosevelt family and their request for preservation, this beautiful area would have become another strip center of shopping, fast food restaurants, condos and hotels.

Maritime forests are becoming increasingly rare but are especially important for the coastal ecosystems.  There are less than 25 coastal forest sites remaining in all of North Carolina that are larger than 20 acres.  We are at a critical juncture in the fate of these forests and until I began researching, I was unaware of this fragile state.  When forests become fragmented by development and land clearing, they lose their strength due to sudden increased exposure to salt spray, wind shear and altered drainage.  The patches of remaining forest are isolated from the original forest population and this causes rapid deterioration for many reasons that are too detailed for elaboration here, but if you are interested in learning more, just email me and I'll be glad to share additional information and point you to some interesting books on the topic.  

Nature is interconnected.  The loss of trees also means a critical loss to animal species that depend on the maintenance of the forest for their survival.  These maritime forests are important breeding and migration stopover points for many migratory birds and are key breeding areas for declining populations.  Eighty percent of bird species in North America are at least partially migratory and return to the same sites every year.  What happens as these forests decline?  Loss of habitat is a continuing threat at every stage of a bird's life not to mention many other species.  Without forests our oceans become more acidic and this will have a ripple effect throughout the marine food web.  It's a lot to think about and hopefully as the public becomes more aware, we can put pressure on politicians to make our environment a priority and at least preserve what we have left. 

I feel blessed to have the opportunity to visit and paint in this maritime forest most every year.   

Linda