Brochures

The Lumber River Basin is a rich ecological expanse of flat land, gently rolling hills and swamp waters. Part Sandhills but mostly Coastal Plain, the basin is a flatwater paddler’s dream and a naturalist’s wonderland.

Stretching 248 miles from the Falls Lake Reservoir Dam in the Piedmont to its mouth at Pamlico Sound, the Neuse River is the longest river in North Carolina. At its mouth, it is the widest river in America—six miles across.

The New River is thought to be one of the oldest rivers in the world. Some geologists estimate its age at 300 million years old. This clean, clear river begins as two streams on the western side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Watauga County.

What North Carolina river basin is 41 percent water, contains more national wildlife refuges than any other and has the fewest people? If you guessed the Pasquotank River Basin, you’re right.

It was known as the “river of death” to Native Americans and early settlers because its spring floods claimed so many lives, but the mighty Roanoke River has also been a giver of life.

Numerous and spectacular waterfalls give the state’s smallest river basin a gigantic presence. In the Savannah River Basin, wilderness abounds and diversity astounds. The upper basin receives the highest amount of rainfall in the eastern United States— between 80 and 100 inches per year.

The Tar River and Pamlico River are actually two ecologically distinct pieces of the same river. The 180-mile river rises as a freshwater stream (the Tar) in the Piedmont near Roxboro and changes to brackish water (the Pamlico) as it travels from Washington to the Pamlico Sound.

Towering peaks, snowskiing, flyfishing, clear mountain streams and year-round scenery are the hallmarks of the Watauga River Basin. The North Carolina portion of the Watauga River Basin includes the headwaters and trib utaries of the Elk and Watauga rivers.

Tucked between the eastern portions of the Neuse and Cape Fear river basins, the White Oak River Basin abounds with coastal and freshwater wetlands. The basin includes four river systems, or subbasins, that feed into highly productive estuaries of Back, Core and Bogue sounds.

The Yadkin-Pee Dee River Basin is the cradle of civilization in the Carolinas. Here, evidence of 12,000 years of activity documents the history of Native Americans in the Southeast.