Homedale Trail Entry, 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.
Greenbelt Lovers,
Here’s our chance to learn of the dynamic relationships between water, steep grades, and the human hand. As John Cook and I walked the Homedale trail this week, between deluges, the mark of strong weather was everywhere on the trail: newly carved water ruts in the granite entry path, massively vigorous resprouting of the Chinaberry and Ligustrum trees that we removed six months ago (we’re not giving up!), numerous fallen trees blocking the woodland trail (enterprising humans have of course forged new temporary alternatives), signs of silt erosion onto the trails and down into the creek, collapsed stone retaining walls under our new footbridge, submerged boulder steps from the trail onto the rock flats, and massive amounts of human trash taking a free ride on the swollen creek waters, headed presumably for Town Lake and our not so fortunate neighbors downstream.
We’ve got quite a work day planned! We will be repairing the front entry path with new granite, assuring that it has a proper crown to avoid future erosion, hacking at the Chinaberry and Ligustrum root systems and re-drilling them to apply a root-weakening substance, yanking out johnson grass, ragweed and other prolific weeds by the roots, hacking back the bermudagrass intrusion onto the trail, adding a second tier of cedar log retainers along the woodland trail to reduce silt erosion, repairing the stone retaining walls, removing the fallen trees, and continuing the installation of boulder steps onto the stone creek ledge. We’ll also issue plenty of trash bags, because when the creek flow subsides, it will deposit a generous amount of human-generated trash.
I hope we will have many avid volunteers to enjoy the camaraderie of tending to our adopted trails. There is much to enjoy, learn, and repair. Both this work day and the next one in September will focus on the Homedale Trail in preparation for its being “featured” at the National Trails Conference being held in Austin this fall.
Please RSVP to this email address so we can properly plan for supplies and materials for the work day. Also, pass the information on to others who might we interested in participating. Thanks so much for the enthusiastic support for this wonderful resource in our midst. If you have any questions, please feel free to call.
Glee Ingram
Greenbelt Guardian Coordinator
443-7522
gleeful@earthlink.net
