Glennstone
East Durham Glennstone Neighborhood
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Glennstone Nature Preserve is an 83-acre woodland with about two miles of walking trails that connect to Falls Lake Game Lands and Ellerbe Creek.
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With over 2 miles of trails just minutes from downtown Durham, Glennstone Preserve is a beautiful hiking destination. Hikers will discover native prairie grasses and wildflowers, a new growth forest, an old cabin site, and rocky tributary streams that feed into one of the most wild and scenic stretches of Ellerbe Creek. The eighty-three acre preserve in northeast Durham borders the Glennstone neighborhood, land protected by Army Corps of Engineers, and City of Durham property that serves as a nesting area for Great Blue Herons. Red-headed Woodpeckers are also a common sight along these trails. Join us for our annual Glennstone Memorial Day hike!
The Story of Glennstone Preserve The Glennstone Preserve story, which began in 2002, is a beautiful example of what can be achieved when local government, developers, interested citizens, and land trusts work together to protect our watershed. Glennstone was created as a "conservation subdivision," preserving land in return for increased density of houses, keeping roads and houses away from the creek and floodplains. Today, ECWA actively manages the trails at Glennstone and works to restore native plant diversity. Like the prairie grasses and flowers that spring up after a prescribed burn, the future for Glennstone is promising. We are working towards an active Preserve Stewards community in this preserve and have received funding from REI and the Triangle Community Foundation for a new trail that will provide more access to the heron rookery. |
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ECWA held a successful prescribed burn in 2021 and plans to continue to use fire in the future to restore the preserve's remnant Piedmont prairie which provides habitat for rare and interesting plants. Nearly all of the preserve was logged beforehand, some years ago. The plant survey showed there to be a rich variety of native wildflowers and grasses persisting in areas that have yet to become dominated by tree saplings. Red-headed woodpeckers inhabit one area with lots of snags. Glennstone is also home to our annual Memorial Day hike to one of the largest, most western heron rookeries around (at least that we know of). READ MORE ABOUT PRESERVE PLANTS & ANIMALS » |
Heron rookery
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Plan Your Visit
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Opening Hours: Dawn to dusk year-round.
Directions & Parking: Take Glenn Road north from East Club Boulevard, about 2.2 miles. Then, turn left on Glennstone Drive (3600 Glennstone Drive, Durham, NC 27704). You can park on Glennstone Drive to access the Prairie Loop, Tributary, and Lone Pine/Woodcock Trailheads. Follow the Ellerbe Creek Trail on to U. S. Army Corp Gamelands for a shorter hike down to the creek. Using the Durham Public Bus: There is no current bus service near this preserve. |
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ECWA protects lands that are in critical riparian areas, floodplains and wetlands along the creek, creating needed habitat for wildlife and protecting water quality by preventing urban development in these special places.
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