ECWA
Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association
  • Our Watershed
    • What is a Watershed?
    • History of the Ellerbe Creek Watershed
    • Plants & Animals
    • Stories from the Watershed >
      • Blog
      • Ellerbe & Me
  • Our Preserves
    • Overview
    • 17-Acre Wood
    • The Rocks
    • Pearl Mill
    • Glennstone
    • Beaver Marsh
  • Our Work
    • Overview
    • Protect
    • Restore
    • Engage
    • Advocate
    • Creek Smart​® >
      • About Creek Smart​®
      • Walking Tours
      • Downspout Disconnection
      • Cisterns
      • Rain Gardens >
        • Siting
        • Designing
        • Installing
      • Support Creek Smart​®
  • About Us
    • Our People
    • Careers
    • Our Supporters
    • History of ECWA
    • Guiding Documents
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Volunteer
    • Attend An Event
    • Stewardship
    • Visit a Preserve
    • Creek Watchers
    • Make Your Property Creek Smart
  • Donate

Volunteer

Whether you have a little time to give, or a lot, there are many ways to lend a hand and support our work.
Join Us
The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association was formed by a small group of people who care about their neighborhood creek. Although we have grown into a larger and more formal organization with 6 staff members we still count on hundreds of volunteers each year to help us maintain our preserves, clean up the creek, spread the word about ECWA, and raise the funds that we need to operate. 

Ways to Get Involved

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Cleaning Up the Creek
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Managing Invasive Species
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Stewarding with the Eagle Scouts
Attend a Preserve Workday – ECWA owns over 140 acres of open-to-the-public nature preserves. Maintaining these preserves for public use while also working to restore native habitat takes a LOT of work! Come get your hands dirty at a community preserve workday near you!  Volunteer activities include picking up trash, maintaining and creating new trails, and managing invasive species (such as ivy and privet).

​Join us For a Creek Clean Up – We are all in this creek together, so let’s all clean it up together! The amount of trash that flows into Falls Lake (Raleigh’s drinking water source) from Ellerbe Creek is astounding. From the candy wrapper dropped in the downtown parking lot to the basketball that falls down the storm drain at Walltown Community Center, it all makes its way down stream eventually.
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Three times a year a group of volunteers canoe down the creek from Red Mill Road to where it meets Falls Lake picking up trash. There is a Frog Hollow Outdoors creek cleanup for Creek Week (the third week in March), a Great Lakes Brewing Company Month of Service Little Sweep in late spring, and another clean up that is part of the national Big Sweep movement in the early fall. These clean ups have an ongoing competition – who can find the strangest trash in the creek?! From shopping carts to TV screens to sofas to cars, we have seen it all! Or have we?!
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Tabling
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The Beaver Queen Pageant
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Committees & Conferences
Become a Preserve Steward – Preserve stewards are people who live, work, or attend school near their adopted preserve and are on preserve on a regular basis. After participating in a brief training, they regularly visit and maintain their preserve. These visits might include removing litter, restocking dog waste bags, and keeping preserve signs and kiosks up to date. They also help with leading volunteer workdays and promoting the preserve in their neighborhoods. If you are interested in becoming a preserve steward, please contact ECWA’s Stewardship Coordinator at donna@ellerbecreek.org.

Represent ECWA by Tabling at a Local Event – Help us spread the word about the good work that ECWA is doing across the watershed. We are always looking for volunteers to table at annual events such as The Festival for the Eno, Earth Day, The Farmers Market, etc. Or maybe you are aware of another event that would be a good fit? Contact info@ellerbecreek.org for more information.  

Help out with Fundraising Events – We are always looking for volunteers to help us with our fundraising events. In the late winter we have the Bull City Food & Beer Experience, in spring we have Tails & Tiaras, and on the first Saturday of June we have the one-and-only Beaver Queen Pageant. Volunteer duties for fundraising events include: helping set up and take down, taking donations, selling merchandise, taking photos, and event planning. Contact rachel@ellerbecreek.org for more information.  
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Join a Committee – The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association has 4 programmatic committees: Land Protection, Land Stewardship, Education and Engagement, and Water Management. We also have a Fundraising Committee and a Finance Committee. Committees tend to meet either monthly or every other month. If you have expertise in any of these areas and are interested in getting involved with ECWA on a deeper level, please contact info@ellerbecreek.org. ​

​18 and older Volunteers, follow this link to online event sign up.
17 and under Volunteers, follow this link to online sign up event AND  have a parent or guardian complete Participant Release of Liability Form prior to the event.
ecwa_-_participant_release_of_liability_form_-_final.pdf
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We count on hundreds of volunteers each year to help us maintain our preserves, clean up the creek, spread the word about ECWA, and raise the funds that we need to operate. 

JOIN US
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ECWA​
Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association

Mail:  PO Box 2679
Durham, NC 27715
Office: 904 Broad St 
Durham, NC 27705
919.698.9729
info@ellerbecreek.org
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​OUR WATERSHED

What Is a Watershed?
History of the Watershed
Plants & Animals
Stories from the Watershed
Ellerbe & Me




​OUR PRESERVES

Overview
Glennstone
Beaver Marsh
Pearl Mill
The Rocks
17-Acre Wood
Non-Public Preserves
​
​OUR WORK

Overview
Protect
Restore

Engage
Advocate


​
​ABOUT US

Our People

Our Supporters
History of ECWA
Guiding Documents
​
​GET INVOLVED

Donate
Volunteer
Visit a Preserve
Creek Smart
Attend an Event
Copyright © 2019 ECWA   |   Terms   |   Privacy
  • Our Watershed
    • What is a Watershed?
    • History of the Ellerbe Creek Watershed
    • Plants & Animals
    • Stories from the Watershed >
      • Blog
      • Ellerbe & Me
  • Our Preserves
    • Overview
    • 17-Acre Wood
    • The Rocks
    • Pearl Mill
    • Glennstone
    • Beaver Marsh
  • Our Work
    • Overview
    • Protect
    • Restore
    • Engage
    • Advocate
    • Creek Smart​® >
      • About Creek Smart​®
      • Walking Tours
      • Downspout Disconnection
      • Cisterns
      • Rain Gardens >
        • Siting
        • Designing
        • Installing
      • Support Creek Smart​®
  • About Us
    • Our People
    • Careers
    • Our Supporters
    • History of ECWA
    • Guiding Documents
  • GET INVOLVED
    • Volunteer
    • Attend An Event
    • Stewardship
    • Visit a Preserve
    • Creek Watchers
    • Make Your Property Creek Smart
  • Donate