Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
21 <br /> The goal of this project is to provide an actionable plan for ensuring wildlife habitat connectivity across <br /> the landscape of the Eno River and New Hope Creek-Jordan Lake watersheds in North Carolina. Toward <br /> this aim,the project addresses three related objectives: <br /> • to identify and map priority wildlife habitat and corridors connecting a network of natural <br /> communities and species populations,within and between the two watersheds(landscape corridor <br /> analysis) <br /> • to review existing land protection priorities,policies,and ordinances related to wildlife habitat <br /> and corridor conservation(planning review),and <br /> • to develop recommendations to drive land protection, land-use, and transportation decision- <br /> making across the project area. <br /> This project focuses on the habitat and movement needs of development-sensitive terrestrial wildlife <br /> species that occur in the project area and are indicators of landscape habitat integrity(Hall 2008). <br /> Landscape habitat integrity is defined by Hall(2008) as simply the inverse of the degree of landscape <br /> fragmentation and is part of the broader concept of ecological integrity(ELI 2003,Parrish et al. 2003). <br /> The project species list was derived from: <br /> • species identified in NCNHP's List of Rare Animal Species in North Carolina(NCNHP 2018), <br /> which includes species designated as rare,threatened, endangered, or on NCNHP's watch list, <br /> and <br /> • Species of Greatest Conservation Need(SGCN),as identified by NCWRC in the North Carolina <br /> Wildlife Action Plan(NCWRC 2015),which includes species that are rare or at risk of extinction <br /> as well as species for which there are knowledge gaps and species which have received <br /> inadequate conservation attention in the past. <br /> Planning to ensure landscape habitat connectivity and minimize the impacts of changing land uses is <br /> essential.NCWRC provides scientific guidance for conserving wildlife habitat(NCWRC 2012)and, <br /> through its Green Growth Program, offers strategies for local governance and development to enable <br /> landscape habitat conservation and connectivity. The recommendations in this plan were developed from <br /> strategies in NCWRC's Green Growth Toolbox(NCWRC 2013)and other science-based resources on <br /> best practices for ensuring landscape habitat connectivity for wildlife, and the recommendations were <br /> tailored to the project area and its jurisdictions based on the results of the corridor analysis and planning <br /> review. <br /> 8 A Landscape Plan for Wildlife Habitat Connectivity <br />