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