WakeNature Partnership Presentation to the Municipal Park Directors of Wake County 2008 October 2

Open Space & Parks in Wake [ map 1 showing all public open space in Wake, including Army Corps,State Parks, etc plus major rivers and lakes ]

Municipal & County Owned [ map 2 showing all public open space in Wake owned by Wake County or a municipality, plus major rivers and lakes - on other words, remove the Army Corp, State Parks, etc lands ]

Natural Heritage Sites [ map 3 showing SNHAs and one dot for each EO, plus major rivers and lakes ]

WakeNature Partnership [ map 4, which is created by overlaying map 3 on map 2 and REMOVING any of the map 2 elements not intersected by the map 3 elements ]

Our Mission WakeNature Partnership will organize and provide resources to identify ecologically valuable, protected open spaces within Wake County and to build capacity for appropriate, long-term stewardship of those areas.

Who are we? NC Museum of Natural Sciences NC Natural Heritage Program NC State University NC Wildlife Resources Commission Triangle Land Conservancy Wake Audubon Wake County Environmental Services Wake County Parks, Recreation, & Open Space

Why are we doing this? People who use ecologically valuable areas in parks and open spaces would like them conserved. County and municipalities have invested in these areas, but funding for stewardship is limited. We’d like to help leverage the substantial, untapped resources we have in this region.

Our vision: best practice conservation management Natural resources inventories Management plans Active stewardship

Other Places Doing This Charlotte / Mecklenburg, NC Chicago Wilderness Consortium, IL Cleveland Metro Parks, OH East Bay Regional Parks, Oakland, CA Fairfax County Parks, VA Marin County Parks, CA

What have we been doing? Beginning to identify ecologically valuable areas. Piloting our ideas by partnering with Wake County. Planning database for all Wake County open space. Developing service-learning connections with NCSU. Seeking additional partners and volunteers.

Identifying Ecologically Valuable Areas Natural Heritage Program NC Wildlife Action Plan Priority Species Habitat On-site inventory

Natural Heritage Sites Jurisdiction# SitesJurisdiction# Sites Cary4Rolesville1 Garner1Wake County19 Holly Springs1Wake Forest8 Knightdale1Wendell2 Raleigh51Zebulon2

Demonstration Project: Marks Creek Establish an example process for later efforts to emulate or learn from. Started inventory in February, Goal is a draft management plan in early Chris Snow will talk about this.

Willing partners we’d like to involve You and your staffs. Volunteers and interns. NCSU students and faculty.

What are we asking of you? Open a conversation. How can we work together? Can we modify partnership to work better for you? What would you like to see or do next?

Contact Information George Hess :: NC State University :: Gary Blank :: NC State University :: Chris Snow :: Wake County Parks, Recreation, & Open Space :: Jamie Ramsey :: Wake Open Space & Parks Advisory Committee ::