Rigorous science provides the foundation for successful conservation. The Durham County Open Space Program supports research to better understand and protect the County’s natural and cultural resources.

Comprehensive inventories, like the 2021-2022 New Hope Creek Biodiversity Survey, record the presence or absence of a wide range of species. These studies can provide a detailed snapshot of an ecosystem and are the most effective way to capture the complexity of local ecology.

Focused inventories concentrate on a few species or groups of species. These taxa may be unique, rare, or imperiled organisms, or may serve as indicators whose presence, absence, or abundance tell a larger story about the health of an ecosystem. These studies include several botanical inventories conducted on Open Space properties. 

Geographic studies, like the Landscape Connectivity study, the New Hope Creek mapping study, and the Piedmont Prairie report, tell conservation professionals where to focus their efforts. These studies may involve a combination of biological, geological, and soil data, aerial and satellite imagery, quantitative modeling, and field research.

Archaeological studies assess a site's cultural resources and improve our understanding of Durham County's rich, 10,000-year-long human history. The Open Space Program is committed to conducting comprehensive archaeological assessments on all of our properties and carefully documenting any sites deemed archeologically significant.

Ongoing monitoring can take many forms, including wildlife camera monitoring, bioblitzes, and citizen science. Often, these efforts are meant to follow up on findings from more formal studies. For example, the New Hope mapping study identified some of the most ecologically significant habitats and species in the New Hope Bottomlands, so Open Space staff have begun logging the types, locations, and abundance of the invasive species that threaten these habitats and species. Similarly, in response to findings suggesting a dramatic decline in moth populations along New Hope Creek, the Open Space Program has been working with local scientists to set up routine monitoring of these species to better understand the magnitude and causes of this decline.