"A Struggle To Fight Back The Sea"

"Some of the nation's richest and most important ecosystems lie where the ocean meets the land. It's these same coastal areas that are going to disappear as sea level continues to rise as a result of climate change.

But in one wildlife refuge in North Carolina, conservationists are attempting what would seem to be impossible: fighting back the sea.

The Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge encompasses 154,000 acres of marshland and a rare type of lowland forest called pocosin. It's just about the only place on Earth where the endangered red wolf still roams, and a lot of it is at or near sea level, which means it's in big trouble as the sea rises.

But with the unbounded optimism of youth, a dozen or so college students arrived on one spring day to see what they could do."

Richard Harris reports for NPR's Morning Edition April 25, 2011.