First Posted: 5/12/2010

Its time to stuff the ballot box.
Our own Lumber River is among 25 natural wonders of North Carolina that have been nominated in an effort to identify the top 10 in the state. Managing Editor John Charles Robbins has more of the details in a Page 1A story today, but here we will try to persuade you to visit the website http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6C35LC8 and find the drop-down menu where the nominees can be found in alphabetical order.
You can vote as many as five times, and all the votes can be for the same natural wonder or as many as five different ones. In other words, just to pull an example out of the air, all five of your votes could be for the Lumber River, which is the only nominee from Southeastern North Carolina.
The contest is being sponsored by Land for Tomorrow, which bills itself as a statewide partnership of concerned citizens, businesses, interest groups and local governments urging the General Assembly to fully fund the states conservation trust funds.
Land for Tomorrow figures that being able to demonstrate to lawmakers that certain landmarks, rivers, mountains and gorges in North Carolina are valued by this states residents is a giant leap toward earning them protection.
The voting ends at noon on Tuesday and you can check Land for Tomorrows Facebook page at facebook.com/L4TNC to see how the voting is going.
The Lumber River is emblematic of what Land for Tomorrow is attempting to achieve. It wasnt all that long ago that raw sewage was dumped into the river, but now it is pretty close to pristine.
While the contest is good fun, theres a serious side for Robeson County and Lumberton, both of which depend heavily on the tourism industry to generate local jobs. Any positive publicity concerning the Lumber River will only make easier efforts to market the city and the county, not only to travelers, but to retirees.
So go do your part. The Lumber River, which has for so long provided sustenance to those of us who have huddled on its banks, deserves our support.