On The Bolin Creek Decision

On The Bolin Creek Decision

by | Nov 18, 2023 | Climate Resilience, What's New

A perspective from Margaret Wiener

Published in CHAPELBORO, October 24, 2023

I was disheartened by the vote by the Carrboro Town Council in favor of paving beside Bolin Creek’s last remaining section not already so affected. Creekside is the worst choice for siting a greenway from the perspective of stream health, flooding, and the ecosystem. But you have to listen to actual scientists–not NEXT and TBB-to know that. Alternative paths exist, and would be much less expensive, both environmentally and fiscally—though we can only know this by pricing out all paths, not just one.

Those in favor claim that it will mean more people riding bicycles and walking and that will reduce emissions. Emissions are important. Switching to new energy and transportation systems, however, will not put an end to the extraction of oil, given the robust demand for plastics (ubiquitous, e.g., in medicine). Plastics are now everywhere on the planet, and in the bodies of all species. If solar energy (built in the right places) and wind energy are excellent paths to follow to satisfy energy needs, so are efforts to improve efficiency, including green rooftops (will there be one on the new library?). But cutting down trees, putting in more impervious roads, are poor choices for addressing climate change. In most of the country, people have been discovering the costs of heat sinks and frantically planting or re-planting trees. Since trees sequester more carbon when they are older, it is far better to leave old trees in place than to plant new ones.

And then there’s flooding. Water always wins. Recall the devastation wrought to roadways in Vermont only months ago, and that’s the future of a concrete path along the creek, given the kind of rainfall we have been having, which will only become worse. Waterways need to meander; when they overflow (increasingly the case here, with the growing intensity of storms) their banks absorb the excess–they are, in short, floodplains. In most states, floodplains are MANDATED, to help with climate resiliency. But Carrboro’s Town Council wants to destroy a floodplain. If you pave alongside the creek, it will mean water can only rush downstream to. . .  Camelot Village. Nice inclusion! This is environmental injustice. Moreover, this unpaved portion of Bolin Creek is the last part with even the barely adequate EPA rating of “good fair.” Every other section, paved, is worse. The insects still barely present in the unpaved portion are the foundation of the forest ecosystem. All of the claims being touted–“but it’s already damaged as an OWASA easement”; “it’s already impervious” “it’s eroded and concrete will help”–are either misinformed or deliberately deceptive.

As for transportation: it will never be the case that everyone can ride a bicycle in a place as hilly as Carrboro and Chapel Hill—or even that those who can will choose to when it rains or snows. Electric cars and bikes have costs no one is discussing (for one, electric cars are much heavier, which means worse accidents; then there is the matter of materials for batteries.) Many who want a greenway have noted how unsafe Carrboro’s bike lanes are.  They are right. That is a real problem; there is no separation between cars and bicyclists and there absolutely should be on the roads themselves. (See Franklin Street for one way to accomplish that. Or what is happening on Estes and could certainly happen if the greenway were on Sewell School Road instead.) Greenways are great. Just not in this location.

I once put a lot of faith in the Green New Deal. It increasingly looks to me like greenwashing: a way to maintain an unsustainable way of life. Development is at least equally (I would say more) responsible for the current crisis, which involves considerably more than global warming but encompasses a wide range of anthropogenic impacts on the planetary web of life. We are part of that web of life, however much we prefer to focus only on human comfort, convenience, and pleasure. Treating what we call nature as purely a resource for fulfilling human desires has gotten us into this mess. It is well beyond time for a radical change in our values and practices.

Margaret Wiener

Carrboro

Support for the protection of Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest from indigenous leader

Support for the protection of Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest from indigenous leader

by | Oct 31, 2023 | Our Urban Forest, What's New

As a Water Protector and Rights of Nature advocate, I wholeheartedly support all efforts to preserve Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest, and prevent the unnecessary, irreversible harms that will result from paving a concrete path alongside the sensitive riparian zone of Bolin Creek.

Since time immemorial, Indigenous peoples have been taught to treat the environment and other species as we would our human kin. Today, the Indigenous-led Rights of Nature movement aims to avoid the worst of the climate catastrophe by shifting the status of nature in our Western legal system from property or commodity, to arights-bearing entity. It challenges all of us to examine proposals for development through the eyes of our ecosystems, the more-than-human beings that inhabit them, and our future generations. It’s from these vantage points that I voice opposition to the proposed concrete trail alongside Bolin Creek.

Paving in the riparian zone of Bolin Creek would sacrifice the long-term vitality of its water quality and aquatic life by removing crucial riparian trees, destabilizing stream banks and creating ripe conditions for erosion. Manufacturing such frailty will have rippling consequences. Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest deserve health and resilience, and it’s our job as stewards to make choices that ensure it.

Bila:huk,

Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck, Co-Founder and Director of 7 Directions of Service

7 Directions of Service (7DS) is an Indigenous-led environmental justice and community organizing collective based on Occaneechi-Saponi homelands in North Carolina dedicated to canceling the Mountain Valley Pipeline/Southgate Extension,advocating for legal Rights of Nature and developing a land, language and cultural center based on traditional teachings. Visit 7directionsofservice.com to learn more and get involved.

 

The Truth About Vernal Pools

The Truth About Vernal Pools

by | Aug 24, 2023 | Creek and Stormwater, What's New, Wildlife Protection

Why do we need vernal pools?

The question was posed recently on a walk along Bolin Creek: Can vernal pools be easily relocated, if Bolin Creek is paved?

According to the EPA, vernal pools – or mini wetlands – are a valuable and increasingly threatened ecosystem. These mini pools are rapidly disappearing from our landscapes, as pavement and bulldozers replace the natural forest floor. As a result, we are in danger of losing the rare and important habitat found in these small pools, such as salamander

Vernal pools are miniature wetlands that provide habitat for numerous rare plants and animals that are able to survive and thrive if they can reproduce in water. Plants and animals that spend the dry season as seeds, eggs, or cysts, require a wet environment to grow and reproduce when the ponds are again filled with water.

It turns out on this walk along Bolin Creek, that there is a debate about whether vernal ponds can be recreated as in nature. What does the scientific literature say? One of the best reviews of the literature on relocating vernal pools comes from the University of Maine and its center on sustainable solutions. In this scientific paper, researchers state: “Our review of the literature indicates that vernal pool creation is an imperfect science and should be used as a last resort after exhausting more reliable protective methods…Vernal pool ecosystems are difficult candidates for creation because the community structure is as tied to the surrounding forested ecosystems as to the actual pool depression and because pool function is so tightly tied to hydrology.” (Creating Successful Vernal Pools: A Literature Review and Advice for Practitioners.)

Vernal pools matter to community residents who love their forest. If the Town were to decide to pave the length of the riparian buffer with a cement bikeway, the puddles and vernal pools will be gone.

Now we’ve learned vernal pools are super difficult to replace, why would we mess with nature and destroy what can’t be replaced? Instead let’s follow North Carolina’s Jordan Lake rules, protect the Triangle’s drinking water, and save the creatures: Keep Bolin Wild!

(PHOTO: Marbled Salamander female guarding her clutch of eggs in the dry pool basin. Credit: Jack Ray)

A paved path in Carrboro would be a roadway in some places

A paved path in Carrboro would be a roadway in some places

by | Jul 20, 2023 | What's New

Scenes from construction of a portion of Bolin Creek Greenway in Chapel Hill


https://youtu.be/lRrv2aI440A

 

Barb Stenross read the following statement to the Council on June 28.

I’m here tonight to read my husband’s statement about paving next to Bolin Creek. His name is Michael Charles Russell. Michael retired from the Town of Chapel Hill 9 years ago. He was the Senior Engineering Inspector during all phases of the construction of Bolin Creek greenway and other bike paths in Chapel Hill, so he knows a bit about this topic.

Regarding the Bolin Creek bikeway in Chapel Hill, he said he thought the town should have acquired more property so they could have built bike path further away, at least 40 to 60 feet from the creek bank. He also feels, in retrospect, that they should have paid for creek restoration, although the cost of that would most likely have exceeded that of the bike path itself. He told me that Town bike paths customarily had cost overruns because they had to modify the plans in the field to build to road standards or sometimes higher to support the heavy equipment needed to construct the paths and install bridges. They also had cost overruns because they discovered unstable soil materials and needed to add subdrainage systems and geotechnical fabrics that were not contained in the initial designs.

The big problem in Carrboro, he said, is that the soil materials here are even less substantial, the costs will likely be even higher, and heavy rains in the floodplain will add a wild card with respect to safety. In his words, quote: “I am concerned about the amount of damage that will be done during construction and the excessive cost it will take to build a bike path that can support construction equipment and OWASA’s vehicles. Due to the proposed location next to the creek, I also believe the Town would have to commit to a full stream restoration. Failure to do so would become evident after another flood such as Fran or other large rain event. Even many now-ordinary rain events will make bicycling close to the creek dangerous at times.

Contrary to the simplistic images on social media, constructing a bike path along Bolin Creek will involve much more than laying down a narrow strip of concrete or asphalt paving. It will involve much heavy equipment, a path that’s virtually a roadway in many places, environmental damage, and costly restoration. I am not sure that Carrboro has the staff or funds to manage such a huge construction project in a sensitive riparian zone. And I worry that even a carefully built and very expensive bikeway in the Bolin Creek floodplain would erode out and be unsafe during heavy rains.

As for access to the creek for those in wheelchairs or with other disabilities, there are new materials and designs that could be used to enable handicap accessibility from Tripp Farm Road, without the need for paving.”