New Hope Creek Priority Area

Orange and Durham Counties, Between Chapel Hill and Durham

On the edge of two of the fastest-growing cities in North Carolina, New Hope Creek is a gift of nature within an hour’s drive of a million people. In its upper reaches north of Chapel Hill, the New Hope tumbles like a rugged mountain stream, boulder-strewn and wild, twisting below rock bluffs and snaking through a narrow valley in Duke Forest. Below, the lower New Hope changes character abruptly. There, in the highly developed corridor between Durham and Chapel Hill, New Hope becomes a lazy floodplain stream meandering its way south to Jordan Lake, the drinking water supply for thousands of Triangle residents. Miraculously, New Hope remains clean and forested for almost its entire length, a haven for hikers and wildlife, even as it winds between the two towns’ shopping centers, offices, and subdivisions. But it will stay that way only through concerted public and private action.

Significance of New Hope Creek

• Primary tributary of Jordan Lake, a regional drinking water supply
• One of the most important wildlife habitats in the Triangle, home to hundreds of plant and animal species that are quickly disappearing in these parts
• Discovery grounds for hundreds of families, who explore the creek via the trails at Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, Duke Forest, and Githens Middle School

TLC’s Goals for New Hope Creek

• Protect a linked green corridor between Duke Forest and Jordan Lake
• Help our partners create over 18 miles of trail along New Hope Creek and its tributaries from Chapel Hill to Duke Forest to Jordan Lake
• Protect New Hope’s headwaters, from TLC’s Steep Bottom Preserve to Johnston Mill

What TLC Has Done

• Built unprecedented partnerships, multi-jurisdictional and public-private
Helped create a conservation plan adopted by Chapel Hill, Durham City, Durham County, and Orange County
• TLC has protected 8 properties (over 500 acres) on New Hope Creek, including Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, north of Chapel Hill off of Turkey Farm and Mt. Sinai Roads, open to the public year-round with 3 miles of hiking trails

TLC’s Targets

• TLC has identified 10 priority tracts for conservation, approximately 275 acres
• TLC is actively working to protect 28 acres on New Hope Creek, including:
• Hollow Rock Trailhead – 25 acres close to Erwin Road that will connect the trails in Duke Forest in Orange County to trails in Durham County
• Steep Bottom Branch – Expansion of the Steep Bottom Branch Preserve by 3 acres

Copyright © 2006-2008, Triangle Land Conservancy Last updated on 11/22/2006.