Last week TLC led an outing to our Flower Hill Nature Preserve and caught the…
Triangle Land Conservancy closed on its last project of 2016 on Dec. 29. The 39.5-acre Reimer Nature Preserve Expansion is a beautiful mix of upland forest and riparian areas. The property contains two headwater streams of the Little River and over 750 feet of frontage on the South Fork of the Little River. In total, this project protects 16.7 acres of stream buffer and 2,125 feet of stream.
TLC worked with the City of Raleigh’s Watershed Protection Program and the Merck Corporation, and used funds from our Land Opportunity Fund to close the project. The Byerly family made a generous donation of the value of the property not funded through these conservation resources. TLC will seek reimbursement of our Land Opportunity Fund from The City of Durham’s Water Management program when that program is up and running this spring.
This addition brings the Reimer Nature Preserve to a total of 140 contiguous acres. The initial approximately 100 acres were donated to TLC by Susan Reimer, in memory of her husband, Keith Reimer, in 2010. Susan Reimer remarked that originally “we bought it because we wanted to save it…we fell in love with the place.”
The transaction costs were provided by the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative (now called Raleigh’s Watershed Protection Program), because the preserve protects the water quality of the upper Neuse watershed. The forest not only protects water quality, but also offers significant habitat for local wildlife.
The property sits upstream of the Little River Reservoir and Falls Lake, drinking water sources for both Durham and Raleigh. Located nine miles from downtown Durham, the property is less than two miles from the Little River Regional Park and approximately two miles from Eno River State Park.
(Photo of Reimer Nature Preserve by Sonke Johnsen)