At least two human activities contributed to the creation and evolution of New River. One was the building of drainage ditches from the inland marshland to the deflation plain to create dryer upland pasture. This increased runoff into what has become New River, now a nine mile extension of Floras Creek. Another was the introduction of European beachgrass . European beachgrass, with its long tenacious root system, stabilizes moving sand more effectively than the native American beachgrass and has made the foredune a formidable barrier to water passage.
New River continues to push northward along the deflation plain.
Its present mouth is about one mile north of Four Mile Creek. The New River area remains an important ecosystem as well as a curiosity. The river runs through an area of rich biological diversity. The combination of wetland, dune, riparian, and estuarine habitats on this low coastal terrace provides a productive base for a dense population of plants and animals, some of which are special status species. Scarce and globally significant plant communities are found at New River.