The North Carolina Natural Heritage Program (NHP) and Chatham County released a comprehensive natural areas inventory for the county on Oct. 20, with surveyors reporting 56 mapped natural areas — including six newly described sites — and expanded boundaries for 13 previously mapped locations.

Mary Conlon, a project botanist with the Natural Heritage Program, said the updated inventory documents a high level of biodiversity in the Haw River and Upper Cape Fear watersheds inside Chatham County. The NHP’s review rated the county’s three major aquatic habitats as “exceptional” for statewide biodiversity values; the report highlights the Upper Cape Fear, Rocky and Hall River drainages as particularly significant.

The 2025 effort combined 7,500 acres of direct, on‑the‑ground surveys with desk review and landowner outreach; NHP staff contacted more than 400 landowners and obtained permission to survey roughly 42% of targeted parcels. Field work identified 32 natural community types in the county (most commonly oak‑hickory forest variants), recorded numerous rare plants (including county novelties) and described habitats ranging from Piedmont boggy streams to semi‑permanent beaver‑influenced impoundments.

Conlon said NHP staff documented previously unrecorded populations of several rare plants and notably discovered a county record — the Ozark tassel‑fern — and aquatic liverwort populations not previously known in Chatham. The updated inventory adds roughly 675 acres to previously known site boundaries while removing roughly 300 acres where habitat loss had rendered earlier boundaries no longer representative.

Erin Ansbro, Chatham County’s conservation and resiliency planner, said the county will integrate the inventory into the county’s online conservation viewer and use NHP findings in development review, especially when applicants opt for the county’s conservation subdivision approach. Under that optional program developers set aside 40% of a site as conserved area (80% of that natural open space); NHP can be hired to survey proposed conservation parcels and recommend areas the developer should protect.

NHP materials and the county’s GIS data will be published on NHP’s data explorer and Chatham’s conservation viewer; Conlon emphasized that many significant sites have public access, including preserves and game lands, and urged private‑land owners to consider voluntary conservation options. County staff said they will follow up with landowners the NHP could not reach during 2025 fieldwork and will incorporate new survey results as they become available.

NHP and county staff described the inventory as a working dataset that will evolve: further field work and new landowner permissions will change site counts and boundaries over time. The county said the report will be used for education, development review and prioritization of future conservation efforts.