<b>Harbor Island rookery </b><b>needs help rebuilding</b>

Harbor Island, which has one of coastal Carolina’s most important rookeries that provides nesting and roosting habitat for thousands of wading birds, was severely damaged during Hurricane Matthew and needs help with recovery.

Of particular importance is a fresh water pond on Kelp Court that has been completely breeched by the storm surge. This breech caused the pond to be completely drained and controlled by tidal flow; the pond has changed from a freshwater pond to a tidal creek due to the loss of a section of the pond berm.

The repairs are being financed by a small group of the residents. They estimated $10,000 for the repairs, but final costs are closer to $14,000, and to date they have crowd-sourced approximately $6,000.

To help, visit worthwild.herokuapp.com/initiatives/61.

The site will be active until midnight Tuesday, Jan. 17.

<b>Final pass for debris pickup underway for most of county</b>

The third and final pass for debris removal in Beaufort County began recently.

The final pass is expected to be complete by the end of February. Marine debris operations are expected to take longer.

In areas of the county where the county’s contractor has not yet completed the second pass, Ceres will continue to collect debris and will return later for a third and final pass. Any remaining hurricane-generated debris should be placed at the right-of-way.

Ceres has removed more than 1.5 million cubic yards of debris from public and private roads and rights-of-way throughout the county. At this time, it is expected that debris removal operations from rights-of-way should be complete by the end of February. Marine debris removal operations are expected to take longer.

Residents are encouraged to visit the Beaufort County disaster recovery website at beaufortcountydisasterrecovery.net.