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Executive Summary. The purpose of the Commission for the Environment Progress Report for 2001 is to state updated information, progress , and plans from the Orange County Commission for the Environment (CFE) based on the goals and objectives in the I " Annual State of the Environment Report ( SOE) , dated February 18 , 2000 . The Commission for the Environment ' s (CFE) four committees . Air Quality, Biological Resources , Environmental Indicators and Education, and the newly formed Water Resources Committee have achieved significant success since the publication of the SOE . The Progress Report explains the refined objectives and current status of each of the committee ' s work. This Executive Summary briefly highlights the objectives , progress , and plans for the work of the Committees that are described in more detail in the report that follows . Biological Resources Obiectives: • An improved inventory of biological resources in the northern half of the County • A methodological approach to assess change in forest cover annually, or at least every five to ten years • Greater watershed protection by Orange County in the Little River Basin • Development of strong incentives for developers of private lands to respect and to contribute to the protection of the County' s inventoried natural areas • The development of a list of current County policies with a side -by- side listing of available remedies • Amend the County's Environmental Impact Ordinance (adopted in 1992) to improve the protection of the County' s most significant biological resources • Establish a balance between private property owners ' rights to harvest timber and the negative effects of forest clear-cutting • Improved coordination of Orange County' s protection efforts with those of the surrounding counties . Progress and Plans • The ERCD requested and received a $ 5 , 000 matching grant for an update to its 1988 inventory of natural areas and wildlife habitat; the update got underway in May 2001 and is expected to be completed by Summer 2002 • The Committee is working with the ERCD staff and the NC Natural Heritage Program to develop a procedure for updating the biological resources inventory on a more frequent basis • The ERCD intern Amy Bleckinger worked with the ERCD staff on updating GIS layers to display different forest cover types and to document changes from 1988 to 1998 . The new ERCD intern, Bradley Decker, will resume this effort and complete the 10 -year assessment in 2002 • Orange County and Durham County purchased a 391 -acre tract adjacent to the North Fork of the Little River for the Little River Regional Park and Natural Area • The ERCD and the CFE ' s Biological Resources Committee began work on developing a new Natural Areas Element of the Comprehensive Plan • CFE/BRC and ERCD participated heavily in the development of a Triangle Greenprint