Overwhelmingly muddy and often littered with debris that’s been washed into it, the Cape Fear River isn’t likely to win any beauty contests as one of the most photogenic waterways in the state or country.
But that doesn’t mean the river isn’t an important environmental and economic lifeline for the communities and ecosystems that line its nearly 200-mile-long journey from the Piedmont and Sandhills to Wilmington and eventually the Atlantic Ocean…