Site Description: The site has gently rolling topography with extensive forested habitats including pine savannahs, pocosin, and cypress swamp.  Most of the site is part of the State-owned Game Lands system managed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.  The site has one of the state's most important long-leaf pine communities and is one of the state's best examples of pocosin.  The site is managed primarily to provide wildlife habitat and provide recreational opportunities for the public (primarily hunting).  Much of the site is remote and inaccessible, but a series of roads are open to the public during fall and winter seasons.

Habitats: coniferous forest, deciduous forest, shrub/scrub, non-tidal wetland, swamp forest, river

Land Use: wildlife conservation, hunting, forestry

Primary Threats: residential/commercial development, 

Protection Status: protected and managed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.

Conservation Issues: Surrounding residential and commercial development isolates the game land from other habitat units.  Area is subject to encroachments, due to many surrounding landowners and amount of boundary.

Birds: The site supports at least 25 breeding groups of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, plus three additional birds.  Additional groups are suspected to exist within inaccessible pocosin habitats. The red-cockaded woodpeckers found within the boundaries of Holly Shelter Game Land presently comprise more than 10% of the NC Southern Coastal Plain population. The swamp forest along the Northeast Cape Fear River is significant for nesting songbirds, wood ducks and barred owls.  Much of the area is comprised of pocosin habitat and support bird species associated with this habitat type (Criteria 3).  In addition, the site supports a significant concentration of migratory land birds (Criteria 4g).

Key Bird Species

B=Breeding    FM=Fall Migration     SM=Spring Migration     W=Winter

Sources:

Brent Wilson, NC Wildlife Resources Commission
NC Natural Heritage Program
Fussell, J. O., III.  1994.  A birder's guide to coastal North Carolina.  University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.