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Learn About Our Urban Forest, Climate Resilience, Wildlife Protection & Bolin Creek & Stormwater
On The Bolin Creek Decision
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...
Support for the protection of Bolin Creek and Bolin Forest from indigenous leader
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...
The Truth About Vernal Pools
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...
Learn about Creek Critters this Sunday!
A paved path in Carrboro would be a roadway in some places
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...
WRAL-TV: Flash Flood Warnings create problems around the Triangle
Umstead Park and other areas were affected by severe weather Friday evening.
Greenways are great in the right places, but not in a riparian zone.
Greenways are great in the right places. There is a big caveat. Pavement does not belong in riparian zones next to a creek. What is a riparian zone? See diagram below. The 2009 Bolin Creek Greenway Conceptual Master Plan favored the creekside route before an...
Do Not Turn Carrboro into an Urban Heat Island
As I drove home from Raleigh yesterday, I looked at my car's thermometer, it read 95 degrees. I could feel the heat island just 30 minutes earlier on my run with a friend. The hot pavement of the parking lot reflected the heat back to us as we drank our post run...
More Practical Alternatives Exist
I would like to point out something: THERE ARE PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVES to paving along Bolin Creek. This is what I think is so crazy. There exist possible paths that Friends of Bolin Creek and myself have been pointing out for years to accomplish this. Damon Seils and...
Why a Paved Path Fails Water Quality
I would say to anyone who says a paved path along Bolin Creek is going to improve water quality, you are mistaken. The path along Bolin Creek in Chapel Hill has been there since I moved to town in the early 1990's. This section of the creek is still listed as a 303d...
Carrboro Linear Parks Project a Misnomer
First and foremost, the Carrboro Linear Parks Project is NOT a Town of Carrboro project. It is a project pushed forward by NEXT NC, a political PAC associated with Triangle Blog Blog, along with the Democratic Socialists of America who seek to end our present form of...
What Does the Sierra Club Say About Climate and Conservation?
Carbon in the air harms us. Nature can pull carbon out of the air and sink it underground and underwater. That makes it a powerful climate stabilizer. Carrboro has a powerful partner to make our town more resilient in the face of a climate getting hotter each year....
No Buffers, No Birds
Bolin Creek in Carrboro has many places where the riparian vegetated edge of the creek is intact. This zone is vital to our wildlife. When you remove that riparian buffer, the nature of the creek changes. The Barred Owls in the photo are a mated pair who have raised...
Why a Riparian Buffer?
The Carrboro Council proposes to put a 10 foot wide cement structure with additional clearing on each side, totaling 30 feet of grading to meet DOT standards. While it sounds appealing to recreational bicyclists to ride next to a creek, the conditions found in the...
Absorbing Stormwater Naturally
Stormwater management in the Bolin Creek watershed will continue to be an issue now and in the future as rain events increase in duration and intensity. An increasingly urbanized town has led to more impervious surfaces causing more rapid run-off and dramatic changes...
The Big Picture
The towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro make up more than half the population of Orange County, with approximately 80,000 people between them, according to the NC Department of Commerce 2020 estimation. With a mix of permanent residents and university students, this...