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

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23 BACKGROUND THE EVOLUTION OF LANDSCAPE CORRIDOR PLANNING IN THE PROJECT AREA Conservation of natural areas along the two major river corridors in the project area,the Eno River and New Hope River(now Jordan Lake), originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Eno River State Park was formed in 1973 with an initial purchase of 300 acres, and the Eno River Association has helped protect nearly 6000 acres along the Eno River corridor since that time (Eno River Association 2019),with ongoing efforts to complete protection of the entire river corridor. The Jordan Lake Dam on the New Hope River was completed in 1974, and Jordan Lake was filled by 1982. Greater than 32,000 acres surrounding Jordan Lake were protected from development when the lake was formed(LeGrand 1999), with protected lands now totaling more than 40,000 acres(NCWRC 2019); these lands are owned by the Federal government, administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers(USACE), and managed by various state agencies for recreation,wildlife-related activities,natural resource conservation, and education. NATURAL AREAS INVENTORIES From the late 1980s onward,natural areas inventories conducted and updated by NCNHP for Durham, Wake, Orange, and Chatham Counties have provided the foundation for conservation planning in the project area(Table 1). In addition,NCNHP completed an inventory of Jordan Lake (USACE land and the lake itself)in 1999 (LeGrand 1999),which includes portions of all four counties. The NCNHP inventories focus on identifying and surveying natural communities,wildlife habitat, and rare plant and animal populations throughout each county.NHNAs (formerly called Significant Natural Heritage Areas) (NCNHP 2019d) are then designed and mapped around these elements and evaluated for their biological significance based on these comprehensive biological surveys. Table 1.Natural areas inventories completed by NCNHP for counties in the project area and Jordan Lake lands. Natural Areas Inventory Author,Year completed Update Author,Year Durham County Sutter 1987 Hall and Sutter 1999 Wake County LeGrand 1987 LeGrand 2003 Orange County Sather and Hall 1988 Sorrie, Shaw, Sather,Hall 2004 Chatham County Hall and Boyer 1992 n/a Jordan Lake LeGrand 1999 n/a Each county inventory report in the project area acknowledges the importance of landscape connectivity for natural areas and wildlife habitat. The reports highlight important riparian corridors within the county, and NHNAs can be defined in part by their function as important wildlife corridors. The Durham and Orange County inventories include a broader focus on landscape-wide connectivity. The 1987 Durham County inventory(Sutter 1987)is organized"around a network structure of core refuge areas and linking movement corridors", and the 1999 update to this inventory(Hall and Sutter 1999)incorporates a more comprehensive zoological survey and assessment of wildlife movement corridors (Hall 1995). The 1999 update organizes the county into eight major riparian core refuge-corridor complexes and provides mapped corridors between these complexes,in addition to noting connectivity between core areas within each complex. The 1988 Orange County inventory(Sather and Hall 1988)provides a map showing a suggested wildlife corridor system for the entire county,organized around five riparian refuge systems and connected by four upland areas identified in the inventory. The 2004 update to the Orange County inventory(Sorrie, Shaw, Sather, and Hall 2004) organizes the landscape into macrosites (a concept used 10 A Landscape Plan for Wildlife Habitat Connectivity