By Stephen K. Hiltner, March 2019
Before there was the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association, there were the elements out of which it most naturally grew. I moved to Durham in 1995, when my wife got a faculty position at Duke University. Though I had collected a couple degrees while in Ann Arbor, my most urgent calling was to take care of our newborn daughter, Sofia. Durham seemed an interesting town, but I had no ambitions other than to explore the new territory. I knew nothing about nonprofits, and had little awareness of watersheds. The only organization I had ever led was an 8-piece jazz-latin ensemble.
What followed was a series of revelations. The first came when we moved into a house in the Watts Hospital-Hillandale neighborhood. Having lived previously on a street where we barely knew the neighbor next door, it was astonishing to find that, without even trying, I had met nearly everyone on the block before we even moved in. I began sitting in on the neighborhood association's monthly board meetings, to witness with amazement the passion and commitment people brought to making the neighborhood a better place to live.
The second revelation awaited me two blocks down from our house, where Indian Trail Park straddled a creek. On walks to the park with Sofie, I would sometimes look around at the plant life. A botanist by training, I had already become acquainted with the local native flora featured at Duke University’s Blomquist Garden, and at the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. But at this city park near our house, there was something missing. The trees were native, but the plants growing closer to the ground were nearly all exotic weeds. I decided to change that, and got permission to start planting native shrubs and wildflowers in the park.
Filling that void with native plants, and the struggle to keep them alive through epic summer droughts, led to a third revelation. The plants that survived were the ones that liked low, wet, sunny ground, where water lingered from past rains to sustain plants through the droughts. Through a collaboration with the city, these areas became the wetland gardens of Indian Trail Park—the first in a lineage of lowland wildflower plantings that would eventually include the Hillandale Golf Course’s stormwater wetland (installed by NC State University) and a series of large-scale state-funded stream restorations.
The next revelation came on June 25, 1998, when I happened to notice a Raleigh News and Observer article about Lake Swannanoa, a pond that was getting choked with sediment coming from construction to widen I-85 on the west side of Durham. Neighbors around the lake were up in arms, demanding that the Dept. of Transportation dredge the pond and restore its tranquil beauty. The article mentioned Ellerbe Creek, of which the pond was a part. I had noticed the creek in Indian Trail Park turning deep brown after rains, and finally figured out that it, too, was Ellerbe Creek, carrying sediment from all that road construction. Thus began explorations upstream, towards the creek’s headwaters and the extraordinary lands up around Lake Swannanoa.
About the same time, I noticed a neglected woodlot, across Albany Street from Indian Trail Park, that turned lavender every spring when the wisteria bloomed. The woodlot was a nearly impenetrable tangle of opulent exotic vines and brambles, but the city kept a right of way clear along the creek. Exploring the woodlot, I was again amazed that this piece of quiet wildness could linger unnoticed in the midst of a dense middle class neighborhood.
At that point, the elements that would become the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association came together. A love of neighborhood, parks and native plants converged on this abandoned woodlot next to a degraded creek. What if we could make the woods accessible, so that neighbors could experience a nature walk right here in town?
I had been quite happy to work on my own with plants, but realized that the ideas I was developing required reaching out to people. I spoke with the owners of the woodlot. Lewis Anderson, a retired Duke botany professor, and his wife generously offered to donate their acre. The owners of another five acres, the Proctors, were glad to sell if we could come up with some money.
The next revelation came in the discovery of the Durham County Matching Grants program, which was distributing $100,000 every year to organizations to do exactly what I had got it in my mind to do. But the program was only giving money to incorporated, 501c3 nonprofit organizations. A group called the Duke Park Preservation Initiative had used one of the matching grants to preserve land, but they were focused on the Duke Park neighborhood. I called the Triangle Land Conservancy, but they weren’t interested in small urban properties. Nor was it in the mission of the Eno River Association to own land along Ellerbe Creek. Maybe the Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association could expand its mission to include acquiring a nature preserve, but the board was pessimistic about being able to gain the non-profit status the matching grant required.
There seemed to be no alternative than to create a new nonprofit that would reach beyond the neighborhood to include the whole Ellerbe Creek watershed, extending from west to east through town. My daughter Sofie, who had led me to the park along the creek, also led me to the neighbors who would help form the new group. Leslie Nydick, whose daughter was Sofie’s age, turned out to be a lawyer willing to help apply for nonprofit status. Lou Perron, whose son was good friends with Sofie, took an interest in helping develop the matching grant application, and later served as ECWA’s first treasurer.
ECWA’s first board meeting took place on Feb. 17, 1999, and by April ECWA had its official non-profit status, with soon-to-be six acres of floodplain forest to call its own. Dave Lilley wrote the minutes for the board meetings, which at times consisted mostly of me pouring out my latest ideas. Some of the ideas were actually implemented, like organizing hundreds of volunteers to smother a half acre of wisteria and other exotic invasive plants with a layer cake of cardboard and mulch.
Though at first three board members formed the core group—myself, Lou, and David—clustered on two streets (Pershing St. and Sunset Ave), it’s important to acknowledge some key supporters early on. My next door neighbor Dale Evarts was a founding board member who provided continuity and gravitas, given his high-level position at the EPA. Neighbor Don Moffitt made donations and offered advice. Mike Shifflett provided an important link to Watts Hospital-Hillandale Neighborhood Association, and ongoing support. Robin Kirk joined the board, and Chad Hallyburton attended meetings and made a detailed fish survey that is on ECWA’s website. Steve Williams’s arrival on the board made a big difference, as he helped build the organization in many ways.
When ECWA was two years old, it received a Conservationists of the Year award from the Durham Water and Soil Conservation District. Most auspiciously, ECWA received a $10,000 donation from the BIN Foundation, which had been created by a remarkable woman, doctor and scientist named Barbara Newborg. As chance would have it, she lived a half block away, loved to take walks along the creek, and would see me working with native plants there. One day, she asked me, “Does anyone pay you to do this?” When I answered no, she decided to fund ECWA’s first staff position, which helped greatly to rationalize the ECWA project on my domestic front. Dr. Newborg and the BIN Foundation would continue to provide vital funding, year after year. Another important development around this time was the city’s decision to build a key section of the West Ellerbee Creek Trail, from Maryland to Albany Street, and greatly increased the accessibility and public awareness of ECWA’s first nature preserve.
The annual meeting in fall of 2001 proved a key moment in ECWA’s growth—a second wave of sorts--as Larry Brockman, Jane Finch, and Perry Sugg joined the board. Two members of our original core of three, Lou and David, departed around this time.
A year later, as Larry Brockman became ECWA’s 2nd president and I shifted to executive director, other key people joined the board. A naturalist extraordinaire named Josh Rose added tremendous energy, spirit, and knowledge. Tony Tschopp built the website. Candace Turney became the first professional accountant to serve as treasurer. Julie Holmes brought additional energy and ideas.
In 2003, my wife was lured to Princeton University. Though we moved to New Jersey that August, I continued to serve as ECWA’s executive director for two years, using email and monthly visits to keep projects like the 17 Acre Wood expansion and the Glennstone Preserve acquisition moving along. Though it was hard to leave Durham, where I had come to feel more at home than anywhere else I’ve ever lived, I realized it could in many ways be good for ECWA, allowing others to make their mark and build the organization in ways a founding visionary is not always best fit to do.
By this time, ECWA's future president Steve Cohn had joined the board. Dean Kanipe, with a strong interest in Falls Lake trails, increased awareness of Ellerbe's lower valley, and catalyzed my work to create the Glennstone Preserve. In 2005, Diana Tetens became ECWA’s 2nd executive director, overseeing the complex stream restoration at 17 Acre Wood and the acquisition of the Veasey preserve.
Diana was succeeded in turn by ECWA’s current executive director, Chris Dreps. Chris, along with Steve Cohn as president, a dedicated board, supporters, and hundreds of volunteers continue to take ECWA far beyond its beginnings in a city park, in a remarkable neighborhood that happened to have a creek flowing through it.
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