Sixty-nine acres, including wetlands and floodplain, along the Wake-Johnston county line are now permanently off-limits to development, after Triangle Land Conservancy protected the tract adjacent to its Sarah and Bailey Williamson Nature Preserve in eastern Wake County. The land, known as the Neuse River Connector, sits in the Shotwell community and includes two parcels now held under a conservation easement administered by the state.
A New Link in a Growing Chain of Protected Land
According to Triangle Land Conservancy, the acquisition closed on Sept. 22 and expands the contiguous protected acreage around the 450-acre Williamson Preserve, strengthening wildlife corridors and widening buffers around streams that eventually feed the Neuse River. Ten of the 69 acres are wetlands and floodplain, land the conservancy says filters water upstream of Clayton before it reaches the broader watershed. As CBS 17 reported, the tract also falls within a state-defined natural heritage area, and researchers recently identified the rare Veined Skullcap growing on site.
The conservation easement held by the state is designed to protect the tract in perpetuity, preventing future residential or commercial development there. Triangle Land Conservancy will own, manage and monitor the property going forward. The organization plans to eventually incorporate the acreage into Williamson Preserve, adding walking trails and creating a new public access point along the Neuse River Greenway, though the land is not currently open to the public.
Why the Neuse River Matters to Millions
The Neuse River runs 275 miles entirely within North Carolina, flowing from the northern Piedmont to the Atlantic Ocean, per the conservancy. Its 2,400-square-mile watershed includes Raleigh and parts of Durham and feeds Falls Lake, which supplies drinking water to roughly 2.5 million people. Leigh Ann Hammerbacher, senior director of conservation east at Triangle Land Conservancy, said the watershed is a key Triangle water resource and that expanding the preserve benefits both water quantity and quality. “We're excited to partner with the state and Novo Nordisk to protect this land,” Hammerbacher said.
That partnership reflects a broader pattern across the Neuse watershed, where rapid growth has been eating into forested land that once absorbed rainfall naturally. As forests give way to pavement, more stormwater runs off, carrying sediment and nutrients into the river and raising flood risk, the conservancy notes. Research cited by NC State Sea Grant found that more than 70% of the Falls Lake watershed consists of unmanaged land, and more than half of the lake's nutrient load originates from those areas — a dynamic the Upper Neuse River Basin Association has urged local governments to address by conserving forests and restoring stream buffers.
A Landscape Under Pressure From Growth
The new tract sits within the Marks Creek Priority Area, a stretch of more than 7,500 acres of largely undeveloped land just 10 miles from Raleigh and a few minutes from Clayton, filled with historic homes, active farms, wetlands and rural views. Scenic America has designated the area a “Last Chance Landscape,” and conservation groups and local governments have protected more than 3,000 acres there over the past 30 years, according to Triangle Land Conservancy. The Trust for Public Land notes that the Marks Creek Watershed carries a long-term goal of conserving 7,500 acres of open space in a part of the state that is rapidly urbanizing and short on parks.
That urbanization pressure is acute in neighboring Johnston County, which ranks 19th nationally for potential farmland loss, per the Johnston County Report. Since October, Triangle Land Conservancy has protected 303 acres across three projects in that county, the outlet reported.
Novo Nordisk's Stake in the Watershed
Shaylah Nunn Jones, director of public affairs and communication at Novo Nordisk, said the company has called the Triangle home for more than three decades and that supporting land protection reflects its commitment to health, environmental and community resources. Novo Nordisk operates a plant downstream in Clayton, and the newly protected wetlands and floodplain forest help filter water before it reaches that stretch of the river.
The 69-acre deal adds to a string of recent Neuse River conservation projects in the region. Triangle Land Conservancy's more than 800-acre acquisition along the river, funded in part by a $1.06 million contribution from Johnston County toward its $4.6 million price tag, ranks among the organization's largest single land deals. In late July, the conservancy also purchased 602 acres along the Neuse in Johnston County, including more than two miles of river frontage and shoreline on two oxbow lakes, according to the Johnstonian News. The same report noted Triangle Land Conservancy transferred the 308-acre Rose Dairy tract to Johnston County in May 2026.
The Neuse River Greenway, which will eventually offer public access to the new tract, forms part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail. For now, the Neuse River Connector remains closed to visitors while Triangle Land Conservancy works toward folding it into the Williamson Preserve, adding one more piece to a conservation effort decades in the making along one of North Carolina's most important rivers.
