The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (Commission) was awarded $25,000 to help in constructing their aquatic plant nursery. In 2014, the Commission decided to make establishing native aquatic vegetation in reservoirs a priority. Since that time, the Commission has planted over 20,000 plants in 11 waterbodies across North Carolina.

Initial revegetation efforts used plants transplanted from local waterbodies, purchased from commercial vendors, and/or grown in an unused fish hatchery raceway.

The construction of a larger facility will increase plant production capability as well as provide a better capability to overwinter plants and create sustainable on-sites sources of material. The capacity of the nursery will expand over time from 4,000 plants in 2022 to 6,000 plants in 2023 to 12,000 plants by 2024.