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Conservation groups urge Wake Forest to fund natural areas program, accept bluff donation
Summary
The Wake Forest Conservation Alliance and other groups urged the Board of Commissioners to designate CIP funds for a natural areas program and asked the town to accept a donated bluff and place it under conservation easement.
Members of Wake Forest conservation groups urged the Board of Commissioners to add natural-area preservation to the town’s capital improvements planning and to accept donated conservation land that local groups say would protect watershed and habitat values.
Angela DePaolo, representing Wake Forest Conservation Alliance, told the board during a capital-improvements public hearing that most of Wake Forest’s original forest cover has been lost to development since the 1990s and that remaining mature forest patches and steep riparian slopes should be preserved before they are developed. DePaolo proposed the town establish a natural areas preservation division or staff position—either inside the Parks and Recreation Department or as a separate program—and requested that a portion of the five‑year CIP be set aside for land acquisition and legal costs.
DePaolo highlighted a 12‑acre parcel with frontage on Oak Grove Church Road that borders the southern tip of the Wake Forest Reservoir and the Smith Creek main channel; she said the owning family is interested in preservation and described the parcel as a high-priority site. Pat Hammocks, president of the Neuse River Hawks Conservationists, asked the town to accept a donation of more than 25 acres on the Harris Pate property (the “bluff”) and said the Triangle Land Conservancy had offered to hold a conservation easement and provide annual monitoring and insurance for that easement.
Speakers said costs and maintenance for conservation property are modest when land is left largely undisturbed, and suggested phased public access or limited access depending on landowner preferences. DePaolo and others offered volunteer expertise—wetlands specialists, biologists and environmental scientists—to assist town staff in site evaluations, outreach to landowners, and conservation planning.
Town staff did not make funding commitments during the hearing. The public input was recorded for inclusion in the town’s five‑year improvements plan update; no formal vote to create a natural areas program or to accept donated property was taken at the meeting.
