Agenda - 09-16-2003-5b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Brown Conservation Easement Draft 8/28/03 8 Natural Heritage Program in December 1988. The native plants and animals include Catawba rhododendron, galax, beech, white oak, red oak, mountain holly, red-shouldered hawk, green- backed heron, green snake, pickerel frog and the dwarf waterdog. The Easement Area provides land area for outdoor recreation by, or the education of, the general public, specifically the trail corridor along New Hope Creek, which receives heavy recreational use by the citizens of both Orange and Durham counties. The Easement Area includes land within the New Hope Creek riparian corridor, which has been recognized by Orange County as having significance as a wildlife corridor and is identified on Pages 2.2-41 of the Land Use Element of the Orange County Comprehensive Plan as the Korstian Division/Duke Forest section of the New Hope Creek Refuge System. It is a primary purpose of this Easement to protect the undeveloped nature of the Grantor' Property and, in doing so, helping to protect the natural area and wildlife habitat associated with this area. The conservation purposes of this easement, notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, are also recognized by, and this Conservation Easement will also serve, the following clearly delineated governmental conservation policies: (1) the Orange County Board of Commissioners' goal (adopted June 21, 1999) to identify and coordinate the preservation of the County's most significant natural areas; and (2) the Land Use Element of the Orange County Comprehensive Plan (adopted September 2, 1981 as amended) with its goal of conserving and protecting Orange County's significant "Resource Protection Areas" from adverse development impacts, including county Natural Areas, wildlife corridors and lands placed by individual property owners into conservation easements; and (3) the New Hope Corridor Open Space Master Plan, which was adopted by Orange County in the spring of 1989, and which recognizes the need to preserve recommended wildlife corridors along the upstream areas of New Hope Creek; and (4) the protection of similar Orange County properties designed to protect conservation and open space values through conservation easements granted to the Grantee and others in the vicinity of the Grantor's Property; and (5) Article 17 of the North Carolina General Statutes NCGS 113A-24, entitled Conservation, Farmland and Open Space Protection and Coordination, otherwise known as the "Million Acre Initiative," which provides that the State of North Carolina shall encourage, facilitate, plan, coordinate, and support appropriate federal, State, local, and private land protection efforts so that an additional one million acres of farmland, open space and conservation lands in the State are permanently protected by December 31, 2009; and