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It’s a great day at ECWA when a landowner calls and asks, “Can we talk?” Late in fall 2017, this was the exciting situation when two landowners contacted the land protection team about conserving their properties with ECWA. Both sites, located just north of the city limits, fall within the Ellerbe Creek watershed and were properties that ECWA had long been interested in protecting. Thanks to Edward and Marlou Bacon and funding from the City of Raleigh’s Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative, sixty-two acres of gently sloping former agricultural fields with open meadows and both young and mature hardwood forests have been added to ECWA’s Veasey Farm Preserve, creating a green space now more than 250 acres. Located only two miles from Falls Lake and five miles from downtown Durham, the expansion includes smaller tributaries to Ellerbe Creek that wind through the property. Along with protecting drinking water for the Triangle, this conservation property may one day allow for agricultural use, educational opportunities, and public recreation. Just west of the Veasey Farm Preserve is a pie shaped sliver of land adjacent to the Army Corps of Engineers’ Falls Lake Game Lands, and around the corner from the beloved Heron Rookery. These 5 acres were purchased years ago as part of a nearby development, but due to its location and limited access, the site was never developed. ECWA’s ongoing relationship with the landowner, Cimarron Homes paid off. Knowing ECWA’s reputation for protecting, restoring, and connecting Durham to Ellerbe Creek, Cimarron Homes’ President Craig Morrison was moved to donate the property to ECWA. The Triangle Community Foundation generously provided ECWA with a grant to cover closing costs and to increase ECWA’s Stewardship Legacy Fund. We are excited that more land protected means more breathing room for the herons, migratory birds, and other wildlife in our vibrant, rapidly expanding city. 
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The Pearl Mill Branch of South Ellerbe Creek is fed by two major systems of pipes: one drains most of downtown Durham through Central Park, while the other drains Duke East Campus and Trinity Park. During the 1900s, this system was gradually built to carry water rapidly from the many roofs, roads, and streets directly to the creek. The large volumes of water rushing through South Ellerbe at the Pearl Mill Preserve after every big rain have, over time, eroded the banks and deepened the creek to the point where it also acts like one of these large stormwater pipes. Because of how deep it is, the creek can’t flood except in really extreme rain events. So, over time, people have been lulled into developing in the floodplain. Too many people in the floodplain means there’s even greater pressure to stop the stream from flooding. Problem is, streams need to flood on occasion to stay healthy and clean. So how can we help get out of this cycle of stream destruction? ECWA has partnered with the City of Durham, Duke Energy, and the City of Raleigh Watershed Protection Program to install a series of bioretention cells along Rand Street, just east of the creek, this winter. A bioretention, much like a rain garden, is a shallow depression that captures stormwater and infiltrates it into the ground. Underneath the plants and mulch, a bioretention contains several layers of sand and gravel. This filters pollutants and nutrients out of stormwater run-off before it flows into a pipe and slowly flows to the creek as clean water. And that’s not all that ECWA is doing to help heal the creek at Pearl Mill. In 2018, ECWA purchased the nearby Soles Property with support from the City of Raleigh Watershed Protection Program and a Durham Open Space and Trails Matching Grant. The Strayhorn Branch, which flows into South Ellerbe just north of Green Street, has also eroded down more than three feet! ECWA is in the planning stages of a project to heal Strayhorn Branch. This project will help reinforce the banks, restore a natural riffle-and-pool structure, and reintroduce Strayhorn Branch to its former flood plain in the adjacent woods. This combination of Creek Smart® projects will make Pearl Mill more inviting to visitors while helping to heal South Ellerbe Creek. Upon completion, these two projects will serve as stops on ECWA’s Creek Smart® tour (www.creeksmart.org) to educate our community and encourage visitors to use similar nature-based solutions to manage stormwater in their own yards, businesses, and neighborhoods.  The Pearl Mill Bioretentions will serve as a filter to clean runoff before it enters the creek.
The Rocks Preserve Stewards Hope Wilder, Vanessa, Finn and Nate of Pathfinder Community School and Joel Ross at their training in March 2018. (The Rocks Preserve Steward Zenki Baston not pictured). The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association (ECWA) has always had a strong volunteer force that cares for the organization’s five open-to-the-public nature preserves. As ECWA’s preserves grow, its stewardship program must also grow, and thus a need for volunteers who specialize in taking care of a specific preserve has emerged. So ECWA introduced a new Preserve Stewards Program in 2018 to expand our capacity to address each preserve’s unique needs and to provide a more regular presence on all the public preserves.
Many ECWA volunteers officially became preserve stewards this year, and the Preserve Stewards Program also attracted new volunteers like Hope Wilder and students from Pathfinder Community School. The preserve stewards usually live, work, or attend school near their preserve. After participating in a brief training, they regularly visit and maintain the preserves. These visits include removing trash, restocking dog waste bags, and keeping preserve signs and kiosks up to date. All the stewards report to the ECWA Stewardship Coordinator and assist in leading workdays on their preserves. Partners of the Preserve Stewards Program The Preserve Stewards Program officially launched at The Rocks, Pearl Mill, and 17-Acre Wood this spring. In partnership with McAdams Company we were able to launch the program at Beaver Marsh this fall. At Glennstone Preserve, we are in the process of creating a group thanks to support from a Triangle Community Foundation Support for Places: Environmental Conservation Public Benefit Grant. REI Co-op also provided a generous grant to build trails and update preserve communications at Glennstone. We’re looking for more stewards, so if you live near the Beaver Marsh, 17-Acre Wood, Pearl Mill, or Glennstone Nature Preserve and are interested in becoming a preserve steward, please contact Donna Myers at donna@ellerbecreek.org. And the next time you’re on a preserve and see one of those dedicated preserve stewards—they’ll be wearing an ECWA shirt or vest—please tell them thank you! |
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Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association Mail: PO Box 2679 Durham, NC 27715 Office: 2600 W. Carver St., Suite C Durham, NC 27705 919.698.9729 info@ellerbecreek.org |
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