Durham to preserve heron rookery despite fears of permanent state control
A great blue heron watched from the audience as the Durham City Council debated Monday night how to protect its home on Ellerbe Creek, a hidden oasis a short drive from downtown.
The bird was crafted from cardboard, its 7-foot wingspan to scale, painted in shades of blue, white and gray, a stripe of black feathers framing the eyes.
“They can’t be here, so we have to speak for them,” said artist Joanne Andrews, who also brought along a handful of smaller birds she painted with her neighbors.
The city voted after a lengthy debate to permanently preserve the 215-acre breeding grounds by creating a state preserve.
“We cannot see into the future, but we can take some examples from the past,” Mayor Elaine O’Neal said. “We don’t have a Grandfather Mountain in Durham, North Carolina. We don’t have a Florida Everglades. We don’t have a Grand Canyon.”
“But somebody, in their infinite wisdom, thought to preserve them forever, and I thank them for that,” O’Neal said. “We have that unique opportunity today.”
The 4-2 vote to put the rookery, home to great blue herons and great egrets, into a dedicated nature preserve came despite concerns about trusting the state with the land, which the city owns.
“It’s really difficult to overstate how precarious the political landscape in our state is,” Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton said. “I just trust the people of Durham more.”
State or local control?
City staff had recommend the land be registered as a heritage area, not dedicated as a nature preserve.
A dedicated nature preserve can only be undone by an act of the governor and Council of State, while a registered heritage area can be reversed or shrunk by the City Council.
“In one hand, we’re looking at local control and in the other hand, we’re looking at state control,” said David Fleischer, the city’s real estate director.
O’Neal voted in favor of permanent preservation alongside council members DeDreana Freeman, Monique Holsey-Hyman and Leonardo Williams.
The two who voted no, Middleton and council member Jillian Johnson, argued the city would provide better better protection.
“We probably thought Disney was off limits too,” said Williams, who was on the fence throughout the discussion, referencing the company’s recent struggles with Florida Gov. Ron Desantis over its longstanding self-governance around Disney World.
Misty Buchanan, director of the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, said the state manipulating a dedicated nature preserve would be unprecedented.
“Some of the most recognized jewels of our natural heritage are dedicated nature preserves, places like Grandfather Mountain, Jockey’s Ridge, much of Eno River State Park,” Buchanan said. “They really are seen as being permanent protection.”
Freeman said conjuring a conspiracy was unhelpful.
“I mean, that’s just nonsense,” she said.
Fleischer said, under state control, the city may have trouble maintaining or adding utility infrastructure through the land, such as water lines or telecommunications equipment. They also considered about 35 acres “potentially developable.”
The boundary abuts the city’s closed landfill and one of its current wastewater treatment plants. Monday night’s vote carves out space for the Northern Durham Parkway, which transportation agencies eventually plan will bisect the site.
“This is a complicated issue in terms of the terminology,” said Rickie White, the executive director of the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association. “I understand the reticence.”
‘A hidden gem’
Last year, the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association counted more than 160 nesting herons and egrets in a beaver pond on several hundred acres along Ellerbe Creek north of downtown.
The waterbirds typically arrive by March and leave in early summer.
It’s about as far west as great egrets breed in North Carolina, according to the National Audubon Society. State wildlife agents have observed great blue heron nests in most counties east of the mountains.
Middleton called it an “urban oasis.”
ECWA has known about the site for a couple of decades, and nominated it about five years ago to the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, a state agency that joined ECWA in proposing the nature preserve.
City Manager Wanda Page will now negotiate a management plan for the property with the state.
Residents inundated the City Council with emails advocating for protection ahead of Monday night’s vote.
Vanessa Mason Evans was one of a couple of dozen who attended Monday night’s meeting to speak in favor of permanent protection.
“It is a space of peace and quiet,” she said, speaking virtually. “It’s a gem, a hidden gem. As a child, we used to play on that land.”
Contact ECWA at ellerbecreek.org to participate in its annual Memorial Day tours of the rookery.
This story was originally published May 2, 2023 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Durham to preserve heron rookery despite fears of permanent state control."
