Beech Bluff County Park Natural Resource Management Plan

A new 300-acre nature park restores native ecosystems and enhances climate resilience and well-being for a growing municipality.

To serve a growing population, Wake County is expanding its park system. Beech Bluff County Park, a new nature and educational park located in the County’s southeastern area, straddles the Piedmont and Coastal Plain physiographic provinces. Part of the 300 acres acquired for the park is agricultural, but much of it is undeveloped forests, wetlands, streams, floodplains, and rock outcrops, all of which support a diverse ecosystem.
As the ecological consultant on a planning and design team led by Surface 678, Biohabitats created a natural resource management plan to protect and restore the site’s valuable natural assets; obtained Clean Water Act 404/401 and riparian buffer permits; and helped achieve SITES accreditation, a comprehensive system for sustainable and resilient land development projects.
Climate change predictions and site resiliency informed the native plant communities for the restoration design. Biohabitats used the site’s pre-settlement natural history, which included periodic fire events, to guide the strategy for converting agricultural fields to native warm season grass, forb prairies, longleaf pine savannas, and shortleaf pine savannas. The management plan includes guidance on invasive species eradication and control, native species establishment, and prairie and savanna maintenance. Biohabitats delineated wetlands, streams and buffers and performed site surveys for invasive species and rare, threatened and endangered species, which informed the SITES accreditation process.