Chapter 4 Habitats
The Neuse River Basin is the third largest basin in North Carolina with 6,235 square miles of drainage area and is one of only four major river basins whose boundaries are located entirely within the state (NCDWR 2015d,h, NCDWR 2021) . There are two distinct portions of the Neuse River Basin: the upper one-third in the Piedmont and the lower two-thirds in the Coastal Plain. Streams in the Piedmont portion typically are low gradient, with sluggish pools separated by riffles and occasional small rapids. Soils are highly erodible in the Piedmont and are underlain by fractured rock formations that have a limited water storage capacity. This portion of the basin tends to have low summer flows and limited ability to assimilate oxygen-consuming wastes, which contribute to hypoxia. The Coastal Plain portion features slow-moving blackwater streams, low-lying swamps, and productive estuarine waters. The larger waterbodies in the basin are meandering, often lined with swamps and bottomland hardwoods, and often have naturally low DO and pH. Soils are deep sands that have a high groundwater storage capacity. Natural lakes include the remnants of bay lakes in the lower Coastal Plain (NCDWQ 2012a). There are several areas of rapidly expanding urban land use; however, much of the land use in the basin is agriculture or forest. Protected forested land in the basin includes Eno River State Park and seven game lands covering 236,330 acres (e.g., portions of the Croatan National Forest, Butner-Falls of Neuse, Neuse River) (NCDWQ 2012a) . Based on 2011 National Land Cover Dataset information, land use in the basin was estimated to be 29.4% forested, 4.4% grassland, 26.2% agricultural, 19.3% wetland, and 12.4% urban or developed (MRLC 2011; Jin et al. 2013). 4.5.12.2 Aquatic Resources The Neuse River basin is subject to state protection of riparian buffers as part of a Nutrient Sensitive Water (NSW) management strategy (15A NCAC 02B.0714). All waters in the Neuse River basin are classified as NSW. This classification is intended for waters that need additional nutrient management due to greater vulnerability to excessive aquatic vegetation growth (NCDWQ 2015d) .
Major tributaries include the Eno, Flat, Little, and Trent rivers and Crabtree, Swift, and Contentnea creeks. The basin contains:
• 17,901 acres and 3,389 miles of freshwater streams • 370,779 acres and 143 miles of saltwaters in the basin • 16,414 acres of freshwater reservoirs and lakes • 369,977 estuarine acres • 21 miles of Atlantic coastline
There are 284 different stream reaches that have supplemental classifications as High Quality Waters (HQW) (NCDEQ 2025f,g) representing about 265 stream miles in the basin because they
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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