Eno River Workday

This Saturday, October 3rd, is our second Fall Eno River MST trail workday this year. We will be meeting at 9AM at 317 Omega Road in Durham working on the River Forest Trail section of the MST.

The weather forecast so far looks great for Saturday: dry and not too hot.

We will be working on several projects.

Trail repairs using rocks we have had delivered. This is a smaller pile of rocks than we worked on last Saturday, as we do not have such a large problem spot. Some of the rock needs to be moved 50 feet or so, some much further, up to a quarter mile.

Invasive species removal. In particular privet. This will be working in an area where we have removed privet for the past two years, and we are making much progress and there is far less there now.

Removing trash from the river. The water level in the Eno is currently quite low and the water is clear, due to the ongoing drought, and it doesn’t look like rain this week so it will be a good time to go into the river and pull out trash. This is a “wet foot” project so if you want to help on this you will need to wear boots or solid shoes you don’t mind getting wet. One good thing is that there was a flood last July, many of you helped in the cleanup after that, and since then when I have gone into the river the riverbed is now much less muddy/silty than it used to be. Many of you have noticed the tremendous amount of sand and silt that washed up on the banks of the Eno. That all came out of the river. Part of the natural cycle of a river like the Eno. Another good thing is over the past two weeks I have seen great blue herons, a bald eagle, an osprey, and a kingfisher. I have seen eagles and osprey along the Eno in the past, often when the conditions are like they are now, with the water level low and the water clear. I think they fly up from Falls Lake when the conditions are like this and it is easy fishing.

We had a fabulous workday last Saturday behind the Eno Trace neighborhood, installing cedar posts, removing trip stumps from the trail, and putting some 15 tons of riprap in place to harden the trail where there are erosion problems, particularly below storm sewer outfalls.

For this workday you will want to wear work cloths, boots or solid shoes, work gloves, and bring water, a snack, lunch if you plan to work the whole day.

Tools will be provided.

RSVP to [email protected]

See you on the trail

Fred

Community event in Raleigh, Wake County, NC 27609.