Balancing act: on North Carolina's coast, success is ensuring that economic prosperity and natural wonders coexist.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: FOCUS ON THE COAST

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Oak Island is nearly untouched by commercialism. Residents enjoy its quiet offseason, and visitors flock to its sandy beaches in summer. Jacci Hohnstein joins them. She and six others slowly ride four-wheelers from Yaupon Pier to the island's other end daily as the summer sun rises. They are searching for sea-turtle nests. As area co-coordinator for the island's Sea Turtle Protection Program, she investigates and marks each one with four stakes, string and a "do not disturb" sign. "We take one egg for DNA sampling and send it to the state, then cover the nest. The DNA can track the mother and see how many times she's laid [eggs] in past years. The same mother can lay up to seven nests in one year, but only every two or three years, and she may have been in South Carolina or Georgia or Florida."

Oak Island had 115 nests this summer, up from 101 in 2015. Loggerheads make most of them, and the eggs hatch in about 60 days. It's a federal offense to harass the tiny hatchlings, which follow the moon's glow or volunteer's flashlight to the surf. "We tell people they will follow the brightest light, even if it's a porch light," Hohnstein says. Residents know to keep lights low during hatching season. "Since we had so many nests, we released over 10,000 hatchlings this year. It's mind-boggling. But only one in a thousand makes it to adulthood." Reasons include construction, pollution, shoreline debris and predation. The mission here is the same as it is up and down North Carolina's 301 miles of coast: Balance the needs of nature and man so both prosper.

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State and national forests, seashores and monuments coexist with industries, including defense, tourism and manufacturing, along the state's coast. "What attracts a lot of people to the county initially is that it feels like that rural, natural area," says Peter Bishop, Currituck County's economic-development director. "Were going through a land-use review right now and making adjustments so we can accommodate new growth and maintain that balance with wildlife and protecting the coast. We want to do that, but also grow and provide new jobs for our residents. Traditionally, it's always been about agriculture and tourism up until about [2005], when we started to become a bedroom community for Hampton Roads. So the history of the county isn't like most places in North Carolina. We weren't a mill town. We didn't have aging manufacturing that's departed. It's not the same economic story."

Currituck is an extension of Hampton Roads, five Virginia counties that are home to deep-water ports, manufacturers, military bases and even NASA research. Nearly 70% of Currituck workers are employed there. Bishop says about 13% of Currituck residents retired from the military but retain the technical skills and entrepreneurial drive that they learned in the service. "We're always trying to bring those people to the area and help them...