July 4, 2025
To start off our week, Monday, we built out some brush mats in Tryon to help support the stream banks and collect sediment. The crew also removed some blockages to the stream. In the afternoon we went to the DeSable estuary where we got some really cool shots and videos of the area with the drone. To finish the day went swallow banding with Matt Ginn since some of our chicks were the right age–you need to band them at 10 or 11 days old.
Tuesday we started the day off with headwater surveys off of the County Line Road. About a 45 minute hike through the woods to the stream headwaters, just to find out that one of them ran under a nearby field and was not flowing much in this dry weather. The other few were looking good and healthy. It’s important to check on the headwaters, because they influence the health of the whole river system. Once the survey was done Cam and Matt went around and checked trail cams while Ian, Teo and Nout went door to door handing out landowner permission forms.
Wednesday we were short two team members as Cameron and Ian were sent to do in the stream chainsawing training with some of the other watershed groups. Half of the team started the day off by checking quadrats to note any changes. At the same time the other half did some estuary monitoring. After the check the crew did yet another headwater survey, this one a little more lengthy. To finish off the day the team transplanted saltmarsh cordgrass into the saltmarsh restoration site in the DeSable Estuary. We are excited to see if it takes well to the area, and are happy to be back working on this project.
Thursday we had a small crew, but they got a lot done! Half of them went to water the trees we had planted a few weeks ago, which took most of the day since there are around 1300 of them. The two people went to clean up the parks and weed the pollinator gardens. With everything looking spiffy, now is a great time to get out and explore some of SSWAs natural parks!
To finish off the week, most of the team went to Branch road to finish up the stream restoration stretch there; this took most of the morning. In the afternoon the crew went and quickly checked our water temperature monitoring devices before heading off to the Linden Hill Pond and Lord’s Pond pollinator gardens to do a thorough weeding and trimming. Right at the very end of the day we trimmed up the edges of the Tryon River Trail and finished it all up with a quick tidy of the office.
Get out and explore!
Love, SSWA
