NC peatland emitting 130K tons CO2/yr faces restoration race

For climate professionals, this is a direct case study in avoided emissions and nature-based carbon storage. One drained North Carolina peatland is now a measurable source of 130,000 tons of CO2 annually, and the race to rewet it will test whether targeted hydrologic restoration can quickly halt that loss and protect a carbon reservoir denser than forests.

In the Inner Banks of North Carolina near Belhaven, a 23-square-mile (60-square-kilometer) tract of deep peat has become the focus of an urgent restoration race. Scientists and the Colorado-based company Pantheon Regeneration are working to re-wet land that currently emits an estimated 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year. The peat, up to 15 feet (5 meters) deep, accumulated over thousands of years, but roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) of ditches dug decades ago for an abandoned farming venture drained the site and left it vulnerable to drought, wildfire, and habitat loss. What was once a stable carbon sink now behaves like a slow-release greenhouse gas source, and the people involved say the window to reverse that trajectory is closing.

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Scientists and the Colorado-based company Pantheon Regeneration are working to re-wet land that currently emits an estimated 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

The ecological value of the site is apparent above ground, where biologist and ecologist Steve Apfelbaum conducted a May 5 survey amid calling warblers, flycatchers, sparrows and towhees, while deer browsed and black bears foraged. But the larger climate relevance lies below the surface. Peatlands cover only 3% of the global land surface, yet they store one-third of Earth's carbon dioxide, more than all forests combined. When drained, burned, or converted, those systems flip from carbon storage to carbon release. Globally, degraded peatlands contribute about 6% of annual greenhouse gas emissions from all sources. The Belhaven site is a concentrated, measurable example of that dynamic: after decades of artificial drainage, it now emits 130,000 tons of CO2 per year.

Pantheon Regeneration CEO Tripp Wall describes the project as an effort to conserve these lands "for perpetuity" so they cannot become oil and gas fields, phosphorus mines, parking lots, or shopping centers. He notes that these systems were climatologically resilient for 10,000 to 15,000 years until drainage "screwed them up." That framing signals a shift in how such landscapes are valued. The involvement of investors alongside scientists suggests private capital is beginning to price avoided emissions, carbon storage, and ecosystem resilience. A successful restoration would not only stop a measurable source of climate pollution but also secure habitat for migratory birds and reduce the risk of wildfire that could release stored carbon much faster.