Open to the public, the ECWA Urban Nature Reserve consists of 17 acres of floodplain forest owned and managed by the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association. Purchased with grants from the Durham County Matching Grants Program, it now extends from Albany St. to Maryland Ave, on both sides of the creek. The Reserve complements two city parks, Indian Trail Park and Westover Park, that border it at either end.
Since the initial purchase, in 2000, some 300 volunteers have transformed the Albany Street end of the reserve from an impenetrable thicket of invasive exotic plants into an oasis for people and native plant diversity. Neighbors and ECWA members, with help from volunteer groups like ScienceStars and the Sierra Club, cleared out exotics and built the nature path that now winds through a portion of the reserve. Educational signage and a kiosk aid self-guided tours. Represented plant communities include prairie and wetland, in addition to the mature floodplain forest.
A paved trail, part of the West Ellerbe Creek Trail that will eventually extend under I-85, through Northpointe and over to the Museum of Life and Science, follows the creek through the middle of the Reserve.
Unique among city trails, its corridor is managed by ECWA for native floodplain and prairie wildflowers rather than for turfgrass. Volunteer groups from the EPA, Duke University and the Community Center of Durham have helped in this effort. Management of the trailsides has proven an opportunity for volunteers to learn basic plant ID while helping preserve Durham’s rich natural heritage.
The trail and reserve also serve as refuge for native plants rescued from development sites elsewhere in the watershed. In addition to resident wildlife like barred owls, beavers, muskrats and box turtles, the reserve provides food and resting place for migrating birds and other wildlife moving up and down the creek. Periodic sightings of wild turkey, great blue heron, deer and fox show that even an urban nature reserve can play an important role in a larger web of life.
Based on the positive response to this first reserve, ECWA is working to establish a string of similar refuges along the full length of Ellerbe Creek, from the headwaters down to Falls Lake. The goal is to serve as many neighborhoods along the creek as possible, with all the reserves to be connected by the city’s paved trail system.