June 13, 2026
This week started off with some cleaning and tidying of our pollinator gardens and Linden Hill Pond Park and Lord’s Pond. We also checked out the extension of the Tryon River Trail to see if there were any trees that had fallen over the winter. We want to ensure that our trails are spiffed up in time for this summer season. That afternoon, we conducted the first of a few redd surveys to look for the nests of Rainbow Trout. They are the only fish in our streams that nests in the springtime so any redds we see, we can be sure are from Rainbow Trout.
On Tuesday more data was collected from the trail cameras and captured photos of a ruffed grouse, a coyote and a field mouse! It was also our first day of checking our fish trap in Lord’s Pond, which will now be checked everyday in June in hopes to record some data on fish passage up the fish ladder there. On the first day we were able to record measurements from one small rainbow trout and luckily as the week went on we were able to record measurements from six other small rainbow trout!
Next up, was to check the quadrats in the salt marshes to measure the grass so we can monitor how well the grass is growing and get an idea of how good the environment is within the estuary. The other part of the crew spent this morning putting in three brush mats! Off to a good start on our restoration efforts. The afternoon was spent conducting a stream assessment and redd survey in Westmoreland. Starting Thursday off strong, we did some park maintenance at Linden Hill Pond Park to get ready for the event on Friday. We also continued our stream assessments in the Tryon watershed, which is one of our surveying priorities this spring–we have not conducted stream assessments in Tryon since PTS Fiona.
To finish off the week, we did some trail maintenance at Camp Abegweit and repaired the fish trap, which was somewhat worse for wear. In the afternoon we hosted Art in the Park at Linden Hill Pond Park where we painted a peace pole! It was wonderful to see people come out to such a positive event and the pole will be erected in the park in a couple of weeks. If you’re in the DeSable area, feel free to check it out! And if you’re sad you missed the event, keep an eye out next May–we host Art in the Park each spring.
We had a great week full of fun and laughs, and are excited to see what next week brings us!
Stay cool!
Love, SSWA
