Agenda 03-19-24; 4-a - Eno-New Hope Landscape Conservation Plan Presentation

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1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: March 19, 2024 Action Agenda Item No. 4-a SUBJECT: Eno-New Hope Landscape Conservation Plan Presentation DEPARTMENT: Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: 1. Eno-New Hope Landscape David Stancil, DEAPR Director, 919-245- Conservation Plan Overview 2522 2. Eno-New Hope Landscape Christian Hirni, Land Conservation Conservation Group Strategic Action Manager, 919-245-2514 Plan 3. Conservation Plan Map (Data) PURPOSE: To receive a presentation of the Eno New Hope Landscape Conservation Group's "Strategic Action Plan" and updated spatial analysis results. BACKGROUND: Several years ago, a group of experts and staff within the conservation community from Orange and Durham counties, Duke University's Duke Forest Teaching and Research Laboratory, Eno River Association, Triangle Land Conservancy, NC Natural Heritage Program, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, NC Botanical Garden, and other practitioners/experts began meeting to discuss the need for collaborative conservation planning across jurisdictional lines for a four-county area (Orange, Durham, Chatham, and Wake counties). These counties share many of the same watersheds and wildlife corridors/open space networks, and all have conducted inventories of natural areas and spent significant time and resources documenting and working to protect conservation lands. In discussions, the concept of the multi-county plan was centered on the importance of connections between existing conserved lands for wildlife, natural communities/habitats, and ecosystem services. The collaborating group met on several occasions and agreed that the focus of the plan should be built around one of the most important shared areas, the connections of the New Hope Creek and Eno River conservation networks, and that this plan be made available to local counties and municipalities, public and private institutions, and nonprofit land conservancies in the four-county region for use in prioritizing conservation efforts inclusion into local policies and plans. The group determined the need for a spatial analysis and mapping effort to demonstrate the most vital connections between conserved and undeveloped areas for wildlife and the ecosystem types which support them.