{"id":10242,"date":"2023-04-28T21:03:03","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T21:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=10242"},"modified":"2023-04-28T21:22:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T21:22:56","slug":"a-siege-at-the-rookery-council-weighs-protections-for-rare-heron-nesting-grounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2023\/04\/28\/a-siege-at-the-rookery-council-weighs-protections-for-rare-heron-nesting-grounds\/","title":{"rendered":"A siege at the rookery: Council weighs protections for rare heron nesting grounds"},"content":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s a unique group of Durham residents who don\u2019t think too often about the politics of City Hall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They don\u2019t vote or sign petitions. They don\u2019t read or watch the news. Even when their neighborhood, part of a 215-acre chunk of city-owned land, is on the agenda, they don\u2019t send emails or show up to make public comments.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>They\u2019re too busy working to maintain their homes \u2014 four-foot-wide nests, built high above the wetlands \u2014 and feeding their young, who look like winged monsters from a prehistoric era.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Around 160 great blue herons and great egrets <\/span>gather annually above a beaver marsh<\/span><\/a> in northeast Durham between East Club Boulevard and Falls Lake. The area is one of the birds\u2019 only known nesting sites, or rookeries, in piedmont North Carolina. In the spring, dozens of trees fill with these huge birds, known collectively as a siege. Newly hatched chicks wait with their beaks pointed to the sky, ready for their parents, some with wingspans as wide as six feet, to return and regurgitate chewed-up fish into their eager mouths.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you live in Durham, and if you’ve ever seen a heron, chances are you’re looking at a heron that raises its young, or was raised in this area,\u201d Chris Dreps, land protection director for the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, a Durham-based conservation nonprofit, told The 9th Street Journal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The herons and egrets, their habitat, and the hundreds of acres surrounding them are the subject of past and future conservation efforts at the State Capitol and City Hall. The <\/span>NC Natural Heritage program<\/span><\/a> has worked with Durham and the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association to develop a proposal to permanently preserve the area, which is entirely owned by the city.<\/span><\/p>\n While other parts of Durham have seen <\/span>a familiar debate<\/span><\/a> about preservation versus expansion, there hasn\u2019t been a line of developers trying to build condos near the herons. Most of the land can\u2019t be developed, Dreps said, because it\u2019s situated in a 100-year floodplain.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHere’s a huge opportunity to protect the biggest piece of land that the City of Durham is ever going to protect\u2026.And they already own it!\u201d Dreps said. \u201cIt’s probably the most important land project we\u2019ll ever work on as an organization.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n While the Ellerbe Creek association and Durham city staff worked together cordially through the process, they have different ideas on how best to preserve the site.<\/span><\/p>\n