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Draft Approach for Managing Forested Watershed Lands Background OWASA owns approximately 2,400 acres of forested lands to support our core mission of providing water, wastewater, and reclaimed water services for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community. These land holdings are mapped in Figure 1 and summarized in Table 1. These lands include watershed protection lands to protect Cane Creek Reservoir; the Cane Creek Mitigation Tract, which was purchased to mitigate the impacts to wildlife as part of the permit process to construct Cane Creek Reservoir; lands for our biosolids program; and land for a potential water treatment plant near Jordan Lake in Chatham County. In addition, OWASA has protected approximately 770 acres of land through conservation easements on private property in the Cane Creek Reservoir and University Lake watersheds. Table 1: Summary of OWASA-Owned Forested Land (Acres rounded to nearest tens) Purpose Acres Watershed protection 1,260 Wildlife mitigation (and watershed protection) 490 Biosolids program 530 Potential water treatment plant 110 Total 2,390 OWASA recognizes the benefit of forested land to protect its water supply reservoirs. However, some of the forests it owns are poor quality and are diseased, include storm damage areas, or were planted with pines that are too close together which provides little wildlife benefit. Some of these poor quality areas also pose a fire risk. OWASA would like to manage its forests to protect water quality, improve the forest quality, and reduce fire risk. OWASA implemented a forest management plan developed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission on the 491-acre Cane Creek Mitigation Tract to comply with state and federal permit requirements. To address the remaining 1,900 acres of forested land, OWASA hired True North Forest Management Services to develop plans to manage them. These Forest Stewardship Plans were presented to the public in late 2010 and subsequently put on hold following extensive public comments and concerns, and OWASA’s need to focus on higher priority strategic plan initiatives. OWASA made a promise to the public that it would conduct a public meeting before implementing any forest management on these 1,900 acres. In addition, the local government Boards (Town of Chapel Hill Council, Town of Carrboro Board of Aldermen, and Orange County Board of County Commissioners) requested a presentation on the draft Forest Management Plan before it is finalized.