Just days after the City of Durham kicked off its trail season, theTriangle Greenways Council (TGC) has finalized a deal allowing for the creation a new greenway in Durham County. The group purchased a parcel of land along Chunky Pipe Creek, about two miles upstream from Falls Lake, Raleigh’s drinking water source (see a map here). The land has already been designated for a future greenway project in the Durham Open Space Plan.
TGC bought the land on April 10 from private owners, who will benefit from the NC Conservation Tax Credit and other federal tax deductions that incentivize conservation efforts. The purchase is the fourth parcel that TGC has bought along the creek. The City of Raleigh provided funding via the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative, a consortium of seven conservation groups that aims to protect land important to the health of drinking water sources in the Upper Neuse River Basin.
“This creek is important for water quality and future creation of a greenway,” TGC President Bill Flournoy said in a statement released by the group. “Conservation of this property helps protect against fragmentation of the natural area and provides incentives for continued efforts to accelerate greenway implementation.”
The future greenway will eventually connect to land protected by the US Army Corps of Engineers around Falls Lake and will also provide a connection to the state-wide Mountains-to-Sea Trail.