| Lee County
- State Funding for Conservation Projects in Lee County (aka "Green Book" data)
- Example of conservation funding in Lee County:
The Deep River - A Rare And Shining Place
- With only five known populations, the two-inch-long Cape Fear shiner is a rare fish. This little shiner with a broad black racing stripe down its sides is the “canary in the coalmine” of the upper Cape Fear River: water that is clean enough for the shiner is clean enough for people as well.
Protecting water for the Cape Fear shiner and for people is just one of many reasons the NC Division
of Parks and Recreation is recommending that a new state park be established on the Deep River in
Chatham and Lee counties. The river is also brimming with other great things – abundant wildlife, fascinating human history, and some of the best fl atwater canoeing in the Piedmont.
Triangle Land Conservancy has been helping piece together that envisioned state park for many years, and several state grants in 2006 have helped bring the total acres protected to date up to 2,450. Two of those grants, totaling $655,000 from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, added 113 acres to the 275-acre White Pines Nature Preserve, a place where mountain species like white pines, mountain laurel, and Catawba rhododendron have been growing since the last ice age.
About 2.5 miles downstream from White Pines, another Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant
for $315,000 and a Natural Heritage Trust Fund grant for $234,300 added 75 acres and two miles of streams to the 870-acre Justice Lands Natural Area. This land will become a popular area in a future park because of its beautiful forests and its location near Jordan Lake.
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