Central Raleigh | The Raleigh Naturalist

September 3, 2008

Fletcher Park water feeds Pigeon House Creek

Filed under: Central Raleigh, green initiatives, Greenways & Parks — Tags: Five Points, Fletcher Park, Pigeon House Branch, wetlands — raleighnaturalist @ 10:10 pm

There is not a lot to update on the earlier post about Fletcher Park’s new water park, which remains in a distinctly unlovely stage of construction, but this project is interesting from several angles and seems worth another look. The large cavities being excavated from the red clay are designed to hold the water headed down to Pigeon House Creek, which is the long-suffering waterway that parallels Capital Boulevard as it flows north toward its intersection with Crabtree Creek at Raleigh Swamp. What look like huge pits will allow the water to deposit sediment and be filtered by plant activity before flowing on down the hill.

A nice description of the benefits, which include hopes for “A new ecosystem for this area of the park [with] butterflies, dragonflies, and frogs, among other animal species, ” can be found at The Raleigh Connoiseur. But that post was in May, and the plan was for the water garden to be finished soon after. But there it sits. The upper pool shown below will cascade or slide down to the larger lower pool.

This site was a Methodist orphanage, built in 1900 and still operating well into my lifetime. The City purchased the property in 1982 and named the park for A.J. Fletcher’s recreation-loving son. Fred Fletcher was inducted into the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2007.

The outlet seen above is the water’s exit toward Pigeon House Creek. From this point the water dives underground and is piped under the railroad line and across N. West Street. I cannot find a spot to view that intersection yet. Below is a picture of Pigeon House Branch just downstream. We will follow it’s grim journey down Capital sometime soon.

Fletcher Park and Pigeon House Creek photo album

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June 29, 2008

Hot Spring Critter Sightings!

Filed under: Central Raleigh, Greenways & Parks, Nature Lore — Tags: Crabtree Creek, geology, owls, sliders, snapping turtles, turtles — raleighnaturalist @ 11:12 pm

This post was originally published in May 2008

This owl swooped down and landed on a branch directly above Crabtree Creek as I walked on the high greenway that traverses a steep hill off Capital Boulevard. This is just east of the sad section that has recently had its woody buffer appropriated by bulldozers.

It sat there for the 20 minutes or so I watched it from different angles. I believe it’s a Barn Owl. This was about half hour before dusk. The owl was getting ready for work.

The owl is somewhere in the scene below. Crabtree takes a sharp bend as it approaches Capital Boulevard near the beltline. It is turned by a large rock outcrop that underlies the hill on which a large former car dealership resides, framed by the south ramp off the beltline. The slope from the back of the car dealership down to the creek is some really interesting terrain, and the troublesome but dramatic walkway that clings to the hillside is one of my favorite stretches in the whole system. One reason being it’s a great place to spot turtles, as you will see below. (snapper story below that)

Below is the rock that turns Crabtree. It looks dark and foliated, but it’s drenched in algae, so Iwon’t make a specific guess.

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Snapper Lays Eggs

The family of one of my students had a female snapping turtle crawl up into a sandy area near their backyard creek and lay some eggs. She finished and went on back to the creek, and now they get to watch for babies. Good luck to Carson and her family!

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Lassiter Mill and Raleigh mill history

Filed under: Central Raleigh, Greenways & Parks, North Raleigh, Raleigh History, Raleigh mills — Tags: Crabtree Creek, fishing, Lassiter Mill — raleighnaturalist @ 10:30 pm

I remember the day whenI found out they would eventually close Lassiter Mill bridge. It was old time rickety but somehow made it to modern Raleigh – the 1970s- before being closed and then destroyed in 1984. I had conscientiously driven my 68 VW carefully over the twin tracks several times, fully aware I was testing out a soon-to-be piece of history. The iron on the right is part of the original bridge structure – iron and wood, and a thing of beauty it was. That bridge gave off an air of classic American architecture of a century past, and was fun to drive across as well, following old Lassiter Mill Road off of the new one.

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The site was originally called the “Great Falls of Crabtree” and was used by successive mills starting about 1780, a decade before Raleigh’s creation. Cornelius Lassiter purchased it in 1908 and built two 40-horse turbine wheels to mill grain and lumber. It burned in 1959, but the family continued to make use of the property until current times.

Well-heeled homes now surround the entire site, but the area south of dam and lower pool, and downstream to (the new) Lassiter Mill Road, constitutes a small city park. There are picnic tables, a canoe put-in, and truly fine fishing – I have watched fly fisherman work below and above the dam many times. This is the spot where the city animal control folks bring misplaced snapping turtles for release – I’ve seen them wrestle some real monsters out of their truck. The fishing is also perfect for young ones, as my own can attest. Dorian’s first small-mouth bass came from just below the tailrace, and he had the enormous satisfaction, not only of helping to clean, cook, and eat it, but make his sister sick to her stomach as well. Below is his lucky fishing hole.

You can also put a boat in very easily just off the cul-de-sac, and paddle your way as far upstream toward Crabtree Valley as the downed trees and water levels will let you. The deep water above the dam is like a linear lake right through the backyards of million dollar homes. As the water get shallower, you start to see some really nice slate deposits on the banks and realize you have climbed out of East Raleigh’s muddy ditch sections of Crabtree and gotten into some cool Raleigh Belt geology. This reminds us that Lassiter Mill literally and precisely marks the Fall Line in central Raleigh. I’ll run pictures of that trip this summer.

This is the deep water above the dam. Dams like Lassiter Mill present a problem for migrating fish and the mussels dependent on them for reproduction (a long story we’ll get into sometime). Someday we may make an ecological choice to remove the dam. I will miss the easy canoe trip, but I understand the value of unencumbered stretches of water. Amazing to think of all the gristmills (and dams) that used to dot the Raleigh area – road names alone give you some idea – Lassiter, Edwards, Yates, Ligon, etc. A future gem of a post will explore the remains of the small mill still visible in Fallon Park. We used to live closer to nature – but we also exploited nature in ways we have given up.

The comments below represent well the amazing memories and feelings the Raleigh community has for this spot. those comments are a major feature of the newly published book based on this blog.

The Natural History of Raleigh

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Flower Power!

Filed under: Central Raleigh, Gems & Surprises, Nature Lore — Tags: Atamasca Lily, buttercups, henbit, rainbow, sitar, wildflowers — raleighnaturalist @ 10:23 pm

This post was orginally published April 22, 2008.

A sitarist at downtown’s Earth Day festivities and Sunday night’s rainbow.

Flower Power!! Here are some local beauties to follow up on the Asheville post.

Purple dead-nettle at Lassiter Mill. Leaves can be just as pretty as petals.

(I originally called this henbit).

front yard volunteers. bluebells of a sort?

Lady Banks blossom on ferns

Buttercups beside Hodges Road

Atamasca Lily stand on Buckeye Trail.

Happy Spring, Katie & Russ!

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Spring Forward – erase your nature deficit!

Filed under: About & reflection, Central Raleigh, Greenways & Parks — Tags: Fletcher Park, garden, Green River Preserve, Richard Louv — raleighnaturalist @ 9:37 pm

This post was originally published on March 23, 2008.

The equinox on Thursday and the warm weather have us all thinking about getting out into the dirt – right? Maybe your kid doesn’t like to get out and garden with you. Consider sending them to the Green River Preserve this summer. This environmental camp for rising second through ninth graders, with expedition programs for all high schoolers, is located on several thousand acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains. They have an outstanding program. They also promote a book, Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv, which centers on a concept to consider: nature-deficit disorder, which can affect any of us if we’re not careful. Plant those seeds, take that walk, mount that expedition! Have a great one!

The flowery driveway of a street that edges Fletcher Park. This time of year, it’s one of the prettiest sights in central Raleigh. You can glimpse the new construction on the right. More about that below.

The Fletcher water garden project is really moving along and needs more coverage. One of the primary functions of the water garden will be to capture, slow and filter the water from this drainage as it makes its way down to Pigeon House Creek, across the railroad tracks by Capital Boulevard. There are plenty of other tributaries to that troubled creek that need help more than this heavily wooded glen, but it definitely will provide some much-needed quality control. We will watch this project carefully, and use it as an entrance to the many issues surrounding Pigeon House Creek.

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Fletcher Park’s new project

Filed under: Central Raleigh, Greenways & Parks, Nature Lore — Tags: Fletcher Park — raleighnaturalist @ 9:22 pm

This post was originally published on March 19, 2008

As well described at New Raleigh, a new water garden has been approved for Fletcher Park. This controlled, even manicured, piece of urban wilderness was a Methodist orphanage most of my childhood. Now it is a heavily used recreational area with a friendly hillside picnic area and a gorgeous, richly planted plateau overlooking a really intriguing amphitheatre. The south edge used to be more or less thickly shrubbed and ignored, but now the environmental model project will dress up and bestow structured access to that area. For now, it’s a mess, but it sounds nifty.

Above, the flowering trees of the plateau and the amphitheatre. Below are two wonderful tree specimens that are nearby. Last are two pictures of the water garden construction.