Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative
Project Description
The Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative (UNCWI) was formed as a collaboration of organizations in 2005 to ensure the long-term health of the drinking water supplies in river basin through land management and protection. In early 2010, the initiative received funding to carry out a project on working forests for watershed protection, and is still in its early stages of development.
Participants: Private landowners, which characterize 65% of the forested land in North Carolina, are targeted to participate. Landowners are targeted using a GIS system to prioritize parcels.
Other Stakehol...
Project Map
County: Durham County, NC; Franklin County, NC; Mecklenburg County, NC; Wake County, NC
Project Sites
- Conservation Trust of North Carolina
- Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association
- Eno River Association
- Tar River Land Conservancy
- Triangle Greenways Council
- Triangle Land Conservancy
- Trust for the Public Land
Goals and Targets
Primary Motivations:
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Conservation Mission
To preserve and enhance water quality through incentive mechanisms.
Primary Goals:
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To provide incentive for landowners to protect the services that watersheds provide. The services that are targeted consist of water quantity (base flow and flood mitigation) and water quality (nutrient loads, sedimentation, and biological contaminant).
Progress: Please refer to the primary contact, supplementary materials, or the project website.
Targeted Habitats:
- Forests and Woodlands
- Human Habitats
- Wetlands and Riparian Habitats
Targeted Species:
No targeted species were identified for this project.
Conservation Actions
| Action | Status | Start Year | End Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create or maintain aquatic habitat buffers | Ongoing Management | 2005 | -- |
| Conservation easement | Ongoing Management | 2005 | -- |
| Other - Conservation plans and agreements: Forest Stewardship Plan | Ongoing Management | 2005 | -- |
| Avoid crop or timber harvest in sensitive habitats | Ongoing Management | 2005 | -- |
Outcomes
Is the success of this project's actions being monitored? No/UnknownLessons Learned and/or Suggestions for Similar Activities
Benefits: UNCWI has already protected 46 miles of stream buffers over 4,475 acres. This new approach will also provide incentives for more landowners to participate in conservation. Challenges: limited funding and manpower hinders progress. More critical, the infrastructure of land trusts is not in place to deal with payments over 20 or more years. Other programs exist, and are possibilities for the future. Changing the culture of a traditional land trust operation to focus more on working lands is an additional barrier to overcome.