With summer and all its associate splendors arriving, bloom of mountain laurel and rush of cool mountain waters, the Pisgah is lush and welcoming, calling us all to its coves and mountaintops. Amidst this, TPC’s three core crews are up and running providing direct on-the-ground support and stewardship to the Pisgah’s trails, biomes, and watersheds. With more personnel performing work in the field on a daily basis, we are accomplishing more than ever before with great progress being made by our Trail Crew, Invasive Plant Management Crew, and River Rangers programs.
The TPC trail crew has continued their work with the mini-excavator this month with focused improvements on sections of the Cat Gap Loop, Daniel Ridge, and Buckhorn Gap trails needing significant drainage improvements. With this preliminary rehabilitation, they were able to establish functional, long-lasting drains, eliminate trail braiding, and ensure that future maintenance on these trails will be much more achievable for years to come.
In addition to establishing drains, the crew also constructed a series of locust staircases and installed rock armoring over a significant seep on Cat Gap Loop trail, as well as a locust crib wall on Daniel Ridge trail diverting water coming off FS Road 5046 away from the trail below helping to eliminate a significant source of erosion and trail damage.
In the coming weeks the crew will be focusing on the upper sections of Buckhorn Gap trail similarly suffering from entrenchment and drainage issues and in need of reestablished reverse grade dips throughout. After completing these projects, the crew will reorient their efforts toward implementation of the Estatoe trail improvement project this July. It has been an exciting and productive start to summer with much more to come.
TPC’s Invasive Plant Management crew is now running full steam, with Will, Sam, and Brendan out tackling non-native invasive plant infestations in the Catheys Creek watershed. They have been making great headway on their initial treatment of the most massive, dense, and egregious infestation centered around the Kuykendall Group camp, treating and removing thick stands of autumn olive, multiflora rose, and privet.
Special thanks to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) who assisted us for two days in the field and brought along their forestry mulcher to help us remove large swathes of nearly impenetrable invasive plant growth on the flats around the camping area. Their assistance has definitely saved us weeks if not months of strenuous field work in these areas and will allow for easier and more effective follow up treatments in the coming months and years.
After focusing on the relatively flat areas directly around the camping area and above the ford, the crew is beginning to edge down into what they have dubbed “the pit of despair,” a sunken former lakebed which has become completely filled in and overgrown with woody stemmed invasives after it was drained decades ago. They have been indefatigable in their efforts to restore a balanced, native, and diverse plant population to these areas in dire need of ecological restoration.
The Pisgah River Rangers have also got off to a busy start this season, the sixth since the program’s inception in 2019. Their first few weeks have consisted of training and certifications, performing angler surveys, delivering educational programs, taking part in hellbender surveys, and assisting with the District’s annual Pisgah Kids’ Fish Day event.
June and July are fully planned out and packed full of good work and exciting adventures as they continue their work connecting the community to our precious waterways in the Forest, the classroom, and other locations throughout the community. All this while developing crucial work, life, and leadership skills that will support them beyond their time with the River Rangers as they transition from college to career. Many thanks to our partners supporting this important program.
The Pisgah River Rangers is a partnership program supported by The Pisgah Conservancy (TPC), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the Pisgah Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Mills River Partnership, Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority (TCTDA), the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC), and the Public Land Corps (PLC). Be on the lookout for the River Rangers this summer, say hi, and be sure to try to catch one of their educational programs.
Here’s to a summer of trail work, invasive plant removal, and watershed education and stewardship with TPC crews hard at work on the ground in the Pisgah. Great thanks, as always, to all of you for your continued support of The Pisgah Conservancy and Pisgah National Forest!
