On Feburary 23, 2006, with the generous donation of three acres of land by the Duke Energy Corporation, ECWA created our third urban preserve in Durham; ECWA now owns and maintains over 100 acres of greenspace in Durham County. Located along the East Branch of the South Ellerbe Creek, the Pearl Mill Nature Preserve is part of a corridor of wetlands and floodplain woods bounded by the Trinity Park, Old North Durham and Duke Park neighborhoods. It stretches alongside the popular South Ellerbe Creek Trail, just south of Green Street. The property abuts the public greenway, and now that we have hacked the olive out, the public has access to the creek. It wasn't even visible before.
Strong neighborhood interest in the corridor was voiced at a Greenway Community Forum two years ago, and ECWA’s founder Stephen Hiltner and others nursed the acquisition to fruition. The property was named the Pearl Mill Preserve because of the old textile mill - Pearl Mill - that is nearby - just upstream, near the headwaters of the South Ellerbe. The mill has been converted to apartments and the old tall smokestack is visible from all around. There are mill houses just east of the creek. In short, the name reflects this history, and folks in the area call the creek Pearl Mill creek.
Shortly after closing the deal, ECWA members and neighbors living near the new preserve enthusiastically discussed the opportunities and concerns it now opens up. These include restoring native habitat, creating nature trails, building an observation platform over a wetland area, cultivating flowers along the greenway, building a kiosk to post greenway ecological news in both English and Spanish, garbage cans, places to access the creek from the greenway trail, and concerns with erosion, mowing and safety.
There has been an outpouring of energy for the first phase of native habitat restoration at the preserve. We have had a total of four workdays since February 23rd when the transfer of property was formalized, with about 80 people participating! Many, many thanks to all of you. Thanks especially to members of Beth El Synagogue who formed the core group for the second workday on March 5th, and to the 20+ members of Duke’s AEPi Fraternity who rolled out of bed early on April 1st for the most recent workday. ECWA members Steve and Edie Cohn, Joanne Abel, Leanne Nelson and Fred Broadwell did a great job working with these groups. It has been a great community effort.
The first phase of the restoration work has involved cutting and killing the two most dominant invasive species: Thorny Olive and Japanese Privet. In doing this, not only have we let in light and made room for other species to take hold, but we have cleared sight lines to the creek, revealing the lovely little bluffs on the opposite shore – which almost nobody knew about!
The second phase, includes the arduous tasks of cutting and pulling English Ivy, Japanese Honeysuckle, Euonymous, and Multiflora Rose. We’ll be working on this awhile…We have also planted live stakes of native Silky Dogwood and American Elderberry (harvested near 17 acre Woods) along the banks of the creek and the small tributary that runs into it. For now they all have pink tape so we can keep track of them to water as needed while they get established. Look for them when you visit and you will see small leaves already sprouting from the Elderberry stakes. Both species have lovely lacy white blossoms.