What Makes the Glennstone Preserve Special

The Glennstone Nature Preserve, owned and managed by the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association in Durham, NC, is made special not only by what lies within its borders, but also what can be found close by.

The plants are more diverse than usual at Glennstone in part because much of the preserve slants down towards the north. A "north-facing slope" is more protected from the sun's rays, and so stays more evenly moist through the year. This helps many kinds of plants survive that would otherwise die out during harsh droughts.

The soil here is also special. Glennstone contains large areas of diabase soil, which is less acidic than other piedmont soils. Some of the rarest plant species in North Carolina grow only in this soil type. Because this soil type was not believed to be good for farming, much of the preserve was spared the plow, which would otherwise have obliterated the native plants. The preserve does contain two small fields that once were farmed, containing much less plant diversity than the unfarmed areas.

Glennstone also has two rock-strewn tributaries of Ellerbe Creek flowing through it. The remnants of a cottage dating back to the 19th century (?) can be found on a bluff overlooking one of the creeks, with an old spring nearby.

But the quality of any preserve is affected by what surrounds it. In this regard, Glennstone is especially lucky. Just to the north of the preserve, Ellerbe Creek flows through federally owned mature floodplain forest on its way to what is now Falls Lake (formerly the Neuse River). Like all waterways, Ellerbe Creek serves as an important wildlife corridor, and Glennstone no doubt gets visited frequently by wildlife moving up and down the creek. Pileated woodpeckers have been seen in the floodplain woods. There's been evidence of bobcats coming through. Woodcocks do their spring mating flights in the more open areas of the preserve, and quail were common in the years after logging and before trees began once again to claim the land.

You may have seen large birds with folded necks overhead, flying steady and straight. These are great blue herons, coming and going from their roosts in tall trees on city land just to the west of the preserve.

Also just west, on a bluff overlooking the preserve, is the Glenn Cemetery, where headstones date back to the 18th century.