Watershed Protection Benefits in the Upper Neuse River Basin
An interactive analysis of land conservation climate benefits made possible by the Triangle's most innovative watershed protection program
The Watershed Protection Program for the Upper Neuse River Basin
Where is the Upper Neuse River Basin?
The Upper Neuse River Basin is a 770-square-mile area draining to the Falls Lake Reservoir. This important resource provides drinking water to nearly a half million customers in the city of Raleigh as well as recreational opportunities and economic infrastructure for the basin's 190,000 residents. The watershed itself spans six counties and eight municipalities in the Research Triangle region of North Carolina and contains nine total public drinking water sources.
These populations all depend on the long-term safety and stability of the Upper Neuse River Basin and Falls Lake.
Zoom in and scroll down to explore the boundaries of the basin on the map.
Conserving Land in the Basin
Conserving land in watersheds is one of the most cost-efficient methods of protecting water quality ( UNCWI plan ). Forests help anchor soil, slow storm runoff, and filter water of pollutants and harmful nutrients. In 2024, we estimated that just over 75,000 acres of land in the Upper Neuse River Basin are actively managed open space, excluding the footprint of the Falls Lake Reservoir. This is around 15% of the total land in the basin!
Over 25 different organizations contribute to the long-term management of these lands including NC State Parks and Wildlife Resources Commission, the US Army Corps of Engineers, local city and county governments, Triangle Land Conservancy, and numerous other land trusts and non-profit partners.
What is the Watershed Protection Program for the Upper Neuse?
In 2003, stakeholders developed a long-term strategy to support land conversation within the Upper Neuse River Basin. The partnership between landowners, conservation organizations, and local and state government programs, formerly known as the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative (UNCWI), developed a watershed protection program to ensure the long-term health of Falls Lake. UNCWI currently consists of the Raleigh Watershed Protection Program and the Durham Source Water Protection Program and is now referred to as the Watershed Protection Program (WPP).
This program supports conservation projects within the basin using an innovative funding approach. A small volumetric water usage fee assessed on downstream consumers is reinvested into upstream conservation projects with a 7-to-1 leverage rate. This means that for every 1,000 gallons of water consumed, 15 cents will be reinvested back upstream and used to secure other funding. All together this adds up to over $2.25 million dollars for watershed protection projects each year!
Since 2003, the program's partners have managed to help conserve over 15,000 acres of land within the basin, shown in bright green on the map to the right.
WPP Partners
Central Pines Regional Council ♢ City of Durham ♢ City of Raleigh ♢ Durham County ♢ Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association ♢ Eno River Association ♢ Tar River Land Conservancy ♢ The Conservation Fund ♢ Triangle Greenways Council ♢ Triangle Land Conservancy ♢ Wake County
Protecting land in the Upper Neuse River Basin has benefits that extend beyond drinking water protection. Conserved land also helps clean our air, connect important habitat corridors, reduce extreme heat, and prevent some of the negative impact of strong storms.
Clean Air: Carbon Sequestration
As trees grow, they convert carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the atmosphere into biomass. This carbon is stored in the leaves, trunks, and roots of trees and their soil. The process is known as "carbon sequestration" and it describes the way forests reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the air. If forests are allowed to grow and mature, they can be sponges for carbon.
By keeping forests intact, we give them the ability to keep doing what they do best. The Watershed Protection Program has helped support the conservation of over 12,000 of the 50,000 acres of managed forest in the watershed.
Carbon Sequestration in Upper Neuse Forests
Not all forests hold the same amount of carbon. This map shows the estimated amount of carbon being stored throughout the entire Upper Neuse River Basin as of 2010. The darkest green colors represents the highest concentration of standing forest carbon in the region. Lighter colors show regions where stored carbon concentrations are lowest. Many of these lands have potential to pull more carbon out of the atmosphere as their forests grow and mature.
Carbon sequestration data was provided by The Nature Conservancy .
Click the button below to see areas of the Upper Neuse River Basin that have potential to sequester the most carbon by 2050 if allowed to grow (darkest red). These represent places where focused land conservation efforts can have the biggest impact in the future.
Carbon Sequestered by Managed Lands
Forests continue to clean our air and return climate benefits for years after they are protected! The area highlighted shows the carbon storage on all of the managed land in the basin.
There are nearly 5.5 million metric tons of carbon being sequestered by forests on managed lands in the Upper Neuse. This is equivalent to the carbon emissions released by 4.8 million passenger vehicles driving for one year. The Watershed Protection Program has supported projects responsible for nearly 25% of this carbon sequestration since the program started.
These forests, if given the time to mature and grow undisturbed by development, have the potential to sequester 900,000 more metric tons of carbon by 2050. That is equivalent to the carbon emissions of nearly 40,000 additional passenger vehicles driving around the Triangle for the next 25 years.
Connecting Habitat Corridors
Conserving land gives flora and fauna the space they need to survive and thrive in changing conditions. Some habitats can become refuges in hostile environments. Others act like highways, transporting species to better habitats in the future.
Regional flow and biological diversity are necessary for the survival of many species (including us). However, not all land is easy for species to populate and traverse.
The Nature Conservancy has identified the most climate-resilient sites across the United State based on their capacity to support biological diversity and migration. These places are likely to sustain native plants, animals, and habitats into the future, and are therefore the most urgent to protect.
Click here to learn more about The Nature Conservancy's Resilient and Connected Landscapes data development.
Connecting Habitats in the Upper Neuse River Basin
The topography, elevation range, wetland density, and soil variety of these places create microclimates and preserve habitat variety. Microclimates are hyper-local sets of habitat conditions that differ from the surrounding areas. These places offer refuge to species stressed by the negative impacts of climate change in our region (drought stress, extreme heat, more intense storms, etc).
Fragmenting these parcels with roads, dams, and development, prevents animal populations from taking full advantage of potential habitats. In the Upper Neuse River Basin, the network of resilient lands relies heavily on connections to Falls Lake, Eno River State Park, Lake Butner, and Lake Michie. It contains over 125,000 acres of important land.
Connecting Corridors on Managed Lands in the Upper Neuse
Currently, managed lands within the Upper Neuse River Basin contain over 50,000 acres of The Nature Conservancy's resilient and connected network. Projects funded by the Watershed Protection Program have helped conserve over 7,750 of those acres (shown on the map to the right).
Use the button below to toggle projects that highlight biodiversity and connectivity in the basin. Click on the points in the map to learn more about each project
Unprotected sites in the resilient network should be a priority for future land conservation efforts. Keeping these crucial connections undeveloped will help ensure future species survival and dispersal in our region. Currently, 53% of all resilient land in the Upper Neuse Riven Basin remains vulnerable.
Temperature Reduction
Conserving land keeps temperatures cooler. When imperious surfaces (concrete, blacktop, roofs, pavement, etc) absorb heat from the sun, they slowly release it back into the environment throughout the day and night. Natural land covers like water bodies and forests do not behave the same way. This is why cities are often much hotter than the undeveloped lands that surround them. The phenomenon is known as the "urban heat island effect".
The Southeast is only anticipated to have more extreme temperatures as climate impacts worsen ( IPCC ). This makes preserving natural spaces increasingly important for human and other species' health.
Extreme heat is the number-one weather-related cause of death in the US, and it kills more people most years than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined
Surface Temperatures in the Upper Neuse River Basin
Differences in land surface temperature can be quite stark just a few miles apart! The heat map shown here was captured by a satellite on a summer day (August 6, 2023) in the Triangle and shows the dramatic differences between impervious surfaces and natural lands. When rainfall runs off surfaces in the watershed it captures some of this heat, changing the temperature of streams. This can have negative impacts on sensitive wildlife that can't tolerate extreme temperature changes.
On any given summer day, man-made surfaces can be 30 degrees hotter than forested land.
Surface Temperatures of Managed Land
Managing land for conservation in the Upper Neuse can help regulate these extreme temperature shifts. The average surface temperature of managed land in the basin on August 6, 2023 was around 90°F. This is about 10 degrees cooler than the average of the basin's impervious surfaces, which reached 99°F!
Surface Temperatures of Managed Land
Use the different map buttons below to explore the temperatures of different landmarks in the Upper Neuse and surrounding metropolitan area. Click on the points on the map to learn more about each location.
Flooding Resilience
Conserving grasslands and forests help maintain our soil's stability, by anchoring it in place with their root systems. When rain falls on the watershed, stable soils act as sponges, absorbing water until they become fully saturated. In the days following a storm, this water drains deeper into the ground and replenishes our groundwater.
When natural landcovers are cleared, this process is interrupted. Bare soil is much more likely to be washed away from the force of storm runoff. When this happens, soil accumulates downstream and clogs stream beds in a process known as "sedimentation." This suffocates sensitive wildlife and transmits deposited pollutants.
Impervious surfaces also speed up stormwater runoff and prevent water from absorbing back into the ground. Large quantities of fast-moving water can carve steep unstable walls into streambeds.
All these interruptions to the natural flow of water exacerbate the negative impacts of flooding. As storm frequency and intensity in the Southeast are expected to increase, conserving land to mitigate these effects becomes even more important.
Storm Runoff in the Upper Neuse River Basin
The quantity and speed of storm runoff depends on many natural characteristics of a river basin including soil type and slope steepness. The shape and spacing of soil particles dictate how much water they can store and the speed at which it will drain. Soils on steep slopes are more likely to be carried downstream than soils on flat land. Slope also increases the speed of water moving downhill.
This map shows the relative risk of fast and forceful runoff in the Upper Neuse River Basin. The data shown were created by overlaying slope steepness with information about the underlying soil's hydrologic behavior from the USGS Web Soil Survey .
Darker brown colors represent the most important opportunities for land conservation that reduces flooding impacts.
Stormwater Runoff on Managed Land
Managed land in the Upper Neuse River Basin currently protects over 15,000 acres of soil at high risk for erosion (classified as Medium, Rapid, or Very-Rapid runoff potential). Projects funded by the Watershed Protection Program are responsible for over 3,500 acres of this soil from being cleared or developed.
There are thousands of acres of land with characteristics that are high risk for extreme runoff. Focusing conservation projects in these areas can help prevent some of the processes that worsen flooding impacts.
Stormwater Buffers & Streambanks
Forests close to the edge of the lake serve as buffers and filters for surface and groundwater that will become drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in the watershed.
Plants and vegetation anchor highly sensitive soil on the bank's edge.
Example of channel erosion and sedimentation
Growth continues to accelerate throughout the Triangle.
Capture from a 2023 US News & World Report on city growth
As the region rapidly grows, we must accelerate the pace of conservation efforts to protect spaces crucial to the health and safety of our drinking water. In 2022, the American Growth Project identified Raleigh-Durham at the fourth fastest growing city in the United States ( See Report ). The US News & World Report also placed the Triangle in the top 25 fastest growing places in our country in 2023. It's clear that economists agree our area is changing fast!
Explore the slide maps below to see a bird's eye view of the changes occurring in the Upper Neuse River Basin, just miles away from Falls Lake. Over the past 20 years we've estimated to have developed an additional 12,000 acres of the Upper Neuse River Basin. We've lost over 6,000 acres of forest and wetlands, 1,500 grasslands and 5,000 acres of farmland to compensate (NLCD 2001 & 2021). Planning for smart development and conservation will be important in determining the future health of the Upper Neuse River Basin and its residents.
Aerial Imagery from 2006 (left) and 2022 (right) of development in the Upper Neuse River Basin acquired from USGS .
Aerial Imagery from 2006 (left) and 2022 (right) of development in the Upper Neuse River Basin acquired from USGS .
Upstream matters campaign for the Upper Neuse River Basin
Upstream Matters
As we think about ways to plan for smart and sustainable development, it is important to consider what we do upstream. The Watershed Protection Program in the Upper Neuse River Basin has been leading the way for innovative watershed management for over 20 years. Continual support for this program, and expansion of its model to other watersheds in our region, is more crucial than ever. To learn more about watershed protection in the Triangle, browse the references below.
More to Reference:
Read more about TLC's watershed protection initiatives in the Upper Neuse
Read more about Upper Neuse River Basin Association initiatives
The Nature Conservancy's Resilient and Connected Landscapes for Terrestrial Conservation
One water approaches in other watersheds: Jordan Lake One Water Initiative
