Tag Archives: non-native

Planning Commission hearing on the Courtyards at George King Road near Little Creek tonight

The Durham Planning Commission will hold hearings on four projects and two amendments to the UDO tonight, Tuesday, December 13th at 5:30pm. See the link for details and how to attend the meeting virtually, through Zoom. There will be a hearing on the proposed 45.945 acre Courtyards at George King residential project on George King Road, just east of Little Creek, part of the New Hope Creek basin, like Northeast Creek, and bordering the Chapel Hill town limits, between Highway 54 and Ephesus Church Road, near Creekside Elementary School. The McAdams Company is proposing up to 99 single-family homes and townhouses. Below are some comments. After the advisory Planning Commission hearing the next step would be a City Council hearing.

Also, remember to “Leave the Leaves” for wildlife and fallen leaves are also good for composting and mulch. Consider the interesting colors and shapes of the leaves (the shape varying by the amount of sunlight a leaf received, up in the sunlit and windy treetops or lower down in more shady, sheltered, and humid conditions, etc.), and some leaves hold moth cocoons or galls. I think I once read that the each leaf on a tree varies genetically, but I still need to verify that. This year might have been good for fall color, or was for some trees here, with unusually red foliage on a some branches or throughout the tree.


Courtyards at George King comments

Again the Planning Department’s staff labelled an area that is obviously part of the Cape Fear River basin as part of the Neuse River basin. Water in one basin goes to the coast at Wilmington and the other goes to New Bern, a great distance away. That error might have been fixed by now. Silt and other pollution would quickly reach nearby Little Creek and Jordan Lake. Well-known Bolin and Booker creeks join just east of University Mall in eastern Chapel Hill to form Little Creek, which flows through Durham County a relatively short distance to the Lake, which now probably covers its confluence with New Hope Creek, in the area that was part of the 751 South controversy over where the Lake is.

This area seems to be adjacent to gameland and further construction could impinge on hunting, contributing to deer overpopulation and overgrazing in the larger area. In places at Fews Ford at Eno River State Park there is very little undergrowth within a few feet of the ground, probably due to excessive browsing by deer, so it is possible to see far into the woods. There are probably large herds of deer along the Durham-Orange county line because private hunting is not allowed in the State Park and at nearby Duke Forest, though there is a hunting program at Duke Forest to cull deer. In my neighborhood it seems like the abundance of otherwise common downy arrowwood bushes has really fallen, possibly because of the deer population. I like being able to see the neighborhood deer herd, but there can be too many for the good of other species. South of Pittsboro deer are harming the reproduction of the rare white pines, a relict of the ice ages, at the Triangle Land Conservancy’s White Pines Nature Preserve. Construction on George King Road would also impact species living in the protected area that need large areas of forest, lack of human disturbance, lack of domestic cats, etc., potentially driving some away permanently. This project would increase lighting and noise in the area, again impacting and possibly driving off wildlife, perhaps species that might sometimes prey on deer. I don’t know if there are any bobcats there, but how much disturbance will they tolerate before leaving? There are supposed to be bobcats and coyotes in the Hopson-55 area, and maybe it will be possible to see how they tolerate the huge disturbance next to the gameland. Would any streetlights around George King use the new blue LEDs that have been appearing in Durham and Chapel Hill, possibly a worse source of light pollution than other colors? More than just 46 acres would be disturbed by this project, including public land. Some of these concerns were also brought up in comments on the Durham Social PinPoint. I think I’ve seen ospreys and hooded mergansers at the gameland, probably nesting, as well as beavers, and various aquatic turtles, with white buttonbush, beds of knotweed like a beaver pond, scenic red maples, mistletoe, pawpaws, various oaks and ash, baldcypress that must have been planted, maybe common and other milkweeds, definitely dogbane, a vining pea, something like a carrion flower, etc. There are at least nest boxes for wood ducks. During the first year of the pandemic, in November 2020, a large white atamasco or Easter lily bloomed after woody brush was cleared on the waterfowl impoundment dam, though they usually bloom in late spring.

Farrington Road often backs up a lot at rush hour and when there are major events at UNC and people might be tempted to cut through if George King is paved with increasing construction. The traffic sometimes backs up for miles on the main roads. It seemed like floral diversity declined and might not have returned after Grandale Road was paved in about the 90’s, and now there is a plan to increase traffic and extend the road southeast, further into Chatham County. I’m not sure that the orange butterflyweed, a milkweed eaten by monarch butterfly caterpillars, or the edible wild strawberries ever returned. I occasionally take the increasingly less scenic way along George King Road instead of Farrington. Do bicyclists use this road to avoid the high-speed traffic on Farrington? Cyclists have been killed on 54 in nearby.

The applicant or Planning staff claim that this area is not part of a wildlife corridor, despite the protected forested corridor along Little Creek and the currently somewhat rural surroundings. How many animals cross George King Road and would likely be killed if traffic increases? Grandale cuts across a known wildlife corridor, and already seems hazardous for pedestrians/cyclists/children going to the new elementary school nearby, but planners want to increase through traffic, possibly benefitting Cary more than residents of Durham.

There are long trails around the nearby waterfowl impoundment area and extending to Barbee Chapel West and north (the “Little Creek Trail System”) – could this project or sidewalks connect to those? The trails have official-looking metal signs with maps and so seem authorized.

I notice that The McAdams Company basically ignored the Community Goals questionnaire, which could be seen as ignoring the Durham community’s stated concerns. There are trails in the area, geographically relevant or historic names could be used for new roads, this is obviously part of an important natural area and waterway between Durham and Chapel Hill, with known historic buildings and Civil War sites close by, etc. The Durham government didn’t show much concern for the Highway 55-Grandale area, but maybe the community will see more of a need for resistance next time and the current construction is being monitored.

What about flooding, increasing due to impervious surfaces being added upstream and climate change-driven long or heavy rains? Climate change could also be an issue with any old farmponds on the site, though I hope, probably in vain, that they would be preserved or drained with a minimum of wildlife being killed. There would probably be mass grading at this currently wooded site, at whatever time of year is good financially or logistically for The McAdams Company, with little preservation of existing vegetation, presumably killing a lot of wildlife.

As was mentioned on Social PinPoint, rural residents could be driven out, and they could be considered a marginalized multi-ethnic group vanishing from much of the Triangle, depending on income. What do voluntary agricultural districts do to protect farming in Durham?

Are there any historic sites around the site, given the historic buildings and Civil War Trail sites on Farrington and Leigh Farm roads nearby, apparently related to the skirmish near New Hope Creek around April 1865?

Does the no longer applicable commuter rail corridor have any effect on this proposal?

Given that this site borders Chapel Hill, does the Town government have any comments on this proposal?

Get to know some local chelicerates, from spiders to scorpions and pseudoscorpions

This is an excerpt from my article in the September – October issue of Triangle Gardener magazine, available at local libraries, the NC Botanical Garden, plant nurseries, etc. and posted online at www.trianglegardener.com. This is the last part of the article. Also, the annual Big Sweep and UNC University Day trash clean-ups are coming up in October. Late September also seems to be the season when copperheads get on roads at night, often in the same places every year, and then can’t or won’t avoid traffic, possibly because they get too cold, and get killed. I carry a metal grabber so I can safely remove copperheads, but I often come across them too late. Note that people have been ‘bitten’ handling dead snakes.

I doubt that arachnophobia is innate, but I have long been disturbed by spiders. I used to be a bit creeped out just looking at the photos in the Audubon guide to insects and arachnids. When I was very young there were large, striped spiders in my backyard, perhaps rabid or dotted wolf spiders, and unfortunately I tried to kill them. I don’t remember going out of my way to knock down webs and some arachnids and spiders were less unsettling. I wasn’t really afraid of omnivorous daddy longlegs, also known as harvestmen or shepherd spiders, though I think I was bitten once. NC has many species of daddy longlegs. Later I volunteered in UNC’s invertebrate biology lab, and was asked if I wanted to hold the hairy, palm-sized tarantula. It had its legs tucked in and didn’t move, so it wasn’t very trying. On the other hand last fall I was disturbed when a brown orbweaver, spinning its, probably her, web at the front door on a breezy evening suddenly dropped down to anchor a line, revealing just how large and ‘spidery’ she was, legs outstretched. A few weeks ago I saw a pretty large wolf spider indoors. I was preoccupied at the time, so I let it stay inside temporarily as a beneficial animal, but I haven’t seen it since.

Insects have three body sections and six legs with five parts, while spiders have two body sections and eight legs, with seven parts. Crustaceans are arthropods with 10 legs and four antennae, but are accepted as food animals. Insects generally have a pair of compound eyes and three smaller simple eyes, while spiders have at most eight simple eyes, the arrangement and acuity varying by family. Moving a pencil tip around a corner attracts a sharp-eyed jumping spider, like a curious cat. Jumping spiders might also tend to be more intelligent than most spiders, especially those that specialize in hunting other spiders. Spiders use ‘hairiness’ for functions like sensing, in the absence of antennae; defense; etc. Spider chelicerae end with sharp, venom-injecting fangs and are sometimes toothed. The chelicerae and pedipalps just behind rub together to grind up prey, but spiders typically only consume pre-digested juices. Some spiders are actually omnivorous or even mostly herbivorous. Males can be identified by their clubbed pedipalps, used in mating. Many spiders engage in courtship and in most species males survive the attempt. It seems like arachnids are often longer lived than insects and spiders often mature later in the growing season. Spiders can go to an exposed point, such as the roof of a car, and release a long silk thread to catch the wind and balloon to a new location. Spiders typically make several kinds of silk, even a silk just for egg sacs. Medicine spider silk was once used to make a painkiller and clothes, bandages, and canvases for painting have been made with spider silk.

The NC Biodiversity Project website lists 713 arachnids in the state. LL Gaddy estimated in 2009 that there are around 600 spider species in the Carolinas. The Tuscarora orbweaver is only found in NC, including in Durham County. The spruce-fir moss spider is an endangered species found on peaks in the Appalachians.

At Falls Lake State Recreation Area there are black trapdoor spiders of some kind, resembling tarantulas. Actual tarantulas are considered a normal food animal in some cultures. Huge dark fishing spiders live around the park buildings, where I saw one kill an adult Carolina mantis. Smaller and more aquatic six-spotted fishing spiders, which actually have more than six spots, might be seen around Parkwood’s Euclid Pond on summer days, delicately moving on and sometimes under the surface. Species of elongated long-jawed spiders typically build their webs in vegetation at the edges of ponds and are common in the area.

Once I got lost in a scrubby forest behind Kure Beach, between Wilmington and the end of the Cape Fear River, where the water from Northeast Creek meets the sea, and was struck by the many large brown and yellow butterflies, probably giant swallowtails, flitting about. I was also struck by the numerous boxy webs inhabited by very large female golden silk orbweavers and much smaller males. It seemed like the spiders weren’t catching the similarly huge swallowtails, but I have seen other orbweavers capture a swallowtail or cicada. Golden silk orbweaver build their webs in stages and refurbished them a half at a time. I think I read that they have been found in Raleigh, but these spiders might have been brought back by vacationers. On the other hand with a warming climate they might extend their range inland. Southeastern NC is at the northern limit of their range, which extends to the Amazon. Male spiders often live near or in webs spun by females, but truly social spiders are limited to the tropics. There is also the case of introduced snakes killing off native birds in the tropical Pacific, leading to forests abnormally full of solitary spider webs.

Another large orbweaver is the yellow garden spider, known for the stabilimentum, a jagged line down their webs. In recent years I had some, the males staying near the females. One morning last summer a wrapped up and stored away and May beetle was waving a backleg and I peeled off the silk and freed it , apparently unharmed, but afterward the female left, as if taking umbrage, followed by her retinue, and I haven’t seen any since.

There are still one or more large brown nocturnal orbweavers, maybe Neoscona species, though it seems like they were more abundant many years ago. I saw one or two near porchlights over the summer, but not in recent weeks. Occasionally the large orbweavers are joined by much smaller conical spiders colored like liquid mercury, species of Argyrodes, co-habiting the webs as kleptoparasites, feeding on caught insects and possibly also on the orbweavers when they die in the fall.

Several smaller orbweavers can be seen during the day in wooded areas and yards and their webs can stick to people in late summer. This summer I noticed a few spiny orbweavers, white or yellow with somewhat colorful spots and ‘spines,’ the harmless spikes possibly providing some protection from birds. Their webs have prominent white dashes around the edges and in the center. More familiar Micrathena orbweavers are also spiny. It seems like triangulate orbweavers or something similar like to place their large webs across bottomland clearings. Triangulate orbweavers have a prominent white, yellow, or pink triangle on the top of their abdomen. Conical trashline orbweavers leave a vertical line of silky debris in their webs.

I sometimes see widows in webs around house foundations and in outbuildings. Female Northern and Southern black widows are large and black with bright red markings, but the smaller males look different and brown widows are moving north. Unrelated brown recluses are apparently not native to the Carolinas and are rare. These are the only venomous spiders regularly found in the Carolinas whose bites might cause serious effects. Some spiders are physically unable to bite humans and in general venomous animals won’t bite or sting if left alone and if they do, some have the option of injecting little or no venom.

I occasionally see green lynx spiders, relatively large and bristly spiders that hunt on plants, females turning from bright green to brown in the the fall. Aparently green lynx spiders fill an ecological niche similar to that of crab spiders. I see various crab spider species more often, usually lying in a wait on an upper leaf or flower, where they can be very colorful for camouflage.

[11/21 edit – Spiders frequently turn up in religion and mythology and there are many ideas about spiders (usually small) bringing general luck, money, visitors, letters, or new clothes and prognosticating the weather. Sometimes small spiders were nonchalantly eaten alive for luck, etc. On the other hand it is considered unlucky to kill spiders (maybe this is only at night) and daddy longlegs (it’s possible that this actually refers to a spider often found indoors in Europe – see the Spiders of North-West Europe website linked below). This has also been said about killing crickets, katydids, ladybugs, wasps, toads, frogs, doves, etc. For some reason killing a spider was linked with water, while killing a toad was linked to fire. Taking down webs and cobwebs has also been said to be unlucky. Spiders have been used for illness such as fevers (ague), malaria, and whooping cough and their webs were supposed to staunch bleeding. Medicine spider webs were mentioned above.]





Some resources:


Spiders of the Carolinas LL Gaddy, 2009

The Audubon Guide to North American Insects & Spiders [and other arachnids] Lorus and Margery Milne, 1992

North Carolina Biodiversity Project – Arachnids – www.nc-biodiversity.com/taxonomic-group/arachnids

Arachnids of NC, from the above site – auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/arachnid/index.php .

Arachnids of NC checklist – auth1.dpr.ncparks.gov/arachnid/checklist.php?format=pdf

Biology of the Invertebrates, Fourth Edition Jan A Pechenik, 2000

The Life of the Spider John Crompton, 1954 – anecdotes

eco.confex.com/eco/2008/techprogram/P12401.HTM – a mostly vegetarian Central American jumping spider – information at the 93rd annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America

A review of the ethology of jumping spiders (Araneae, Salticidae) David B Richman and Robert R Jackson, 1992 – www.peckhamia.com/hosted/Richman%20Jackson%201992%20A%20review%20of%20the%20ethology%20of%20jumping%20spiders.pdf

Pseudoscorpions of the World – museum.wa.gov.au/catalogues/pseudoscorpions

Spiders of North-West Europe – ednieuw.home.xs4all.nl/Spiders/spidhome.htm

World Spider Catalog – wsc.nmbe.ch/statistics/

Global Biodiversity Information Facility – www.gbif.org

BugGuide – www.bugguide.net/

American Arachnological Society – Americanarachnology.org

International Society of Arachnology – arachnology.org

The Arachnid Order Solifugae – www.solifugae.info/index.html

AracnoLab – Aracnologia MNRJ – Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – mndi.museunacional.ufrj.br/aracnologia/ – on daddy longlegs, harvestmen, or shepherd spiders

Jumping spiders (Arachnida: Araneae: Salticidae) of the world –www.jumping-spiders.com

International Field Guides – find a field guide by subject or region – www.library.illinois.edu/biology/fieldguides/

[The Complete Illustrated Book of the Psychic Sciences, Walter B and Litzka R Gibson, drawings by Murray Keshner, 1966.

A Dictionary of Superstitions, Iona Opie and Moira Tatem, 1989.]

Some rezoning hearings coming up this August

Below are some comments for the Durham City Council meeting tonight, August 1st, and there will be several other rezoning/annexation hearings this month, including for 4150 Old Chapel Hill Road [, at the corner with Garrett Road, among other sites,] August 9th [this is actually a Planning Commission hearing], and the Courtyards at Farrington Civil War Trails site, by the old [Patterson’s Mill] country store, August 15; see: www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4 [www.durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/Planning-Commission-15 ] There is also a Durham Rail Trail comment period and information about ShotSpotter implementation in the news.


Durham County Utility Building at the corner of Highway 55 and TW Alexander Drive

I mentioned this project in a previous post: www.northeastcreek.org/wordpress/where-the-red-fire-pink-blows-and-other-campions-in-the-triangle/ Neither community consultation meeting provided much information, though I felt somewhat better about participating in the second meeting. I thought the County was buying the site to expand the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant, and that is what Planning Commission members seemed to think, yet now it is supposed to be a County administrative building. I think WWTP expansion was denied at the meetings, but I could be mistaken. Given that the site was a large hill, there is probably very hard, possibly igneous, bedrock just under the surface and it would be difficult to build on. The treatment plant was rattled back then, according to the staff, and there might be the possibility of damage from renewed blasting. The area is “culturally significant” for me, and presumably for the people who once lived there, and it wasn’t merely clearcut – a large, wooded hill was blasted away night and day more than 10 years ago to build something like 540, with the remainder reportedly being dumped in the abandoned claypit across 55, now acres of mass grading at “55-Hopson” and most likely the reason Northeast Creek is quite opaque yellow at the Grandale Road bridge.

It would be good to preserve the old farmpond on the County site, where I have seen people fishing, which relates to the Community Goals and Objectives about food, accessibility, etc., though those people were probably displaced by the Council’s friends at the nearby Social Security Administration printing facility, as they have tried to do to me. These are apparently still publically-owned roads and the SSA doesn’t own any land south of the railroad tracks, on “Experiment Drive.”

I don’t know that there are any rare species on the County land now, but rare plants grow very close by and red fire pinks, seemingly very rare in Durham, grew just beyond the property lines and probably still grow somewhere in the vicinity. They might like the new openness of the site. Buttercups have been common in the still mostly treeless field where the wooded hill once was. Given that the field doesn’t seem to be mowed, is it treeless after about a decade because there is very little soil? It seems like potential open habitat for meadowlarks, a bird in decline in North Carolina.

The landscaping of an administrative building and the naming could relate to the ‘flavor’ of the local area and/or areas not built on could be managed in a way beneficial for plants such as fire pinks, but that is not addressed at community consultation meetings and probably not at Council hearings. If the site is rocky and denuded of topsoil, it might also be difficult to landscape conventionally and might require more water than usual to sustain lawn grasses and ornamentals. The Main Library had an example of probably xeric herb gardening at the entrance. A large area of mown lawn, with the lake across 55 at the WWTP, would probably attract Canada geese, possibly onto the roads.

This is also a gateway to Durham, formerly with trees and April-blooming blackberries. Other woods were cut on the north side of TW Alexander for a residential area recently and there was a residential rezoning of the old house east of the County site, another area with some wildflowers, mainly early spring woodland species, as well as some ornamental roses, though there is also invasive Vinca minor. Water from the County site drains both north and south, possiby mainly north, so where would the stormwater pond be located? The State Employees’ Credit Union branch a short distance north at the corner of 54 and Alston seems like a good example of stormwater retention pond landscaping, also attracting flocks of geese.

The farmpond drains into a clear, rocky small stream. Despite the small size of the waterway it apparently doesn’t dry up completely during the summer and so supports sunfish of some kind, possibly somewhat rare salamanders, and an abundance of crayfish, as well as having waterfalls over the igneous rock and many wildflowers.

Light pollution from the County site and 55-Hopson would impact the large area of gameland along Northeast Creek on the other side of 55. Would there be large parking lots for County vehicles, lit all night? Again I can’t remember what was said at the meetings about the storage of County equipment; maybe there won’t be storage there. Lit-up parking lots could be a hazard for migrating birds. There seem to be a lot of moths in the area, which would be adversely impacted by adding more lights. Annual National Moth Week was just a last week.

What about chemical spills near Northeast Creek, including road salt and oil or gasoline from County equipment? There might be few beaver ponds in the area to intercept a spill before it reaches the main Creek.

What does 55-Hopson plan to build across 55 near the County site? They voluntarily renounced some uses at 55-Hopson – except along 55, so what are they planning? The government allowed a text-only development plan, so there is no way of knowing now without a whistleblower, and there was just a whistleblower appreciation week. I am observing and will report any possible violations. After recent rains Northeast Creek is very opaque and yellow at Grandale Road from some source, and the hundreds or thousands of people using the Tobacco Trail every week must see it as well. Unlike in other nearby towns the land in southern Durham County seems to bleed readily when mass graded, and everyone can see.

In addition, local government wants to increase traffic on Grandale, and the DOT sprayed herbicide all over, but there is still a danger that someone will be hit by a vehicle at the narrow bridge. Given the the area is already dangerous and a known corridor for wildlife, why do the DCHCMPO’s planners think increasing traffic is a good idea?

It might be good to have an access to the County site on Experiment Drive, unless the County brings in security contractors/domestic mercenaries who behave like the SSA’s, I’m not going to be “displaced.” I think that is where the driveway to the farmhouse on the hill once was. Maybe 55-Hopson will bring over-zealous faceless corporate entity security contractors even closer, in addition to the vigilantes and the policing establishment.


East Cornwallis

Regarding East Cornwallis, from the aerial photo it does seem to be a residential area, or residential adjacent to industrial, though I didn’t know there were Cannabis growing operations in Durham. A car dealership would probably be very bright at night and there would be few trees buffering it, judging by the larger dealerships near Southpoint. On the other hand the site might already be very lit up if there are greenhouses nearby. What about the risk of oil and other toxic spills in the headwaters of Northeast Creek? A car dealership would probably heat up the surrounding area. Climate change is contributing to unusual heat waves, fires, floods, and crop losses filling the news around the world this year, but cutting trees and paving the land will increase local heating quickly and increase electricity demand. Someone commented at the community meeting about the need for sidewalks there, which is probably a good idea.

As with Hopson-55 the Morningstar Law Group is saying that they renounce some uses, leaving unclear what the intention is, though in this case it is a much smaller area and not on the edge of Durham, next to parkland. Too late to comment on Hopson-55 I heard that bobcats and coyotes have been seen adjacent, but it isn’t clear if they will still be there in a few years. I also began to worry about how much earthmoving is envisioned along 55, where there no commitments were made. Has the small area north of the powerline been cleared? They even offered not to build there at the Planning Commission meetiing if not at the City Council hearing, but it was not made a committed element, so did they clear it anyway, and for what purpose? Was all that land clearcut to create biomass fuel for European powerplants? This fuel source has been condemned by some groups. There is what looks like a very large chipper installed across from the construction entrance.


Garrett Road/751

On Garrett Road the application is for only a few townhomes, but paying a fee-in-lieu of open space requirements doesn’t sound good. While there is a vast area of what I assume is protected New Hope Creek floodplain “encumbrance” around the site, if animals need upland areas as well, those have probably largely been built on, as shown in the aerial photo. My impression is that most City or County parks are for things like athletic use, rather than to protect land that would otherwise be built on. There are parks in the Triangle that are supposed to have Catesby’s trilliums in the spring, but I have long wondered why there aren’t any in my area. If they prefer the dry uplands maybe they were plowed under by agriculture and building long ago, though for some reason not in northern Durham and Orange counties.

I expect there is a long history of people living along Garret Road, similar to how people long lived along Fayetteville Road, but they left in recent decades and the old houses have since been razed or covered up. There are also obviously thousands of years of human habitation buried in the ground, and maybe it is a matter of who knows what is buried where and a bulldozer operator probably won’t notice what gets scooped up.


The Courtyards at Farrington

Regarding the Courtyards at Farrington, coming up at the August 15th Council meeting, how can Durham allow the destruction of what is apparently the only Civil War battleground in Durham, with historic buildings, part of the national Civil War Trail and probably with designated historic buildings? What is the exact nature of the Civil War Trail designations on Farrington and at Leigh Farm, cut through by I-40? It reminds me of the NC NHP reports in relation to 55-Hopson. I saw a meadowlark near Farrington Road once, so they could be present on this grassy old farm. Unlike 100′ of woods on Farrington Road, the large hill on the County site probably did block a lot of traffic noise.

NC55-Hopson Approved and Comments on proposed road extensions

Today, February 22nd is the deadline to comment on the proposed extension of Hopson Road in Durham and other parts of Amendment #4 to the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan: www.dchcmpo.org/what-we-do/programs-plans/comprehensive-transportation-plan The NC55-Hopson annexation and rezoning was approved, though two members of the City Council did vote against at key points (one of whom is resigning in early March); see the February 7th agenda at: durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4/ and there are videos of the meetings.

Some comments to the DCHCMPO:

I have some comments on Amendment #4 to the Comprehensive Transportation Plan, especially regarding the proposed extension of Hopson Road, and I want to clarify a few possibly related points in my February 1st comments on the 2050 CTP. I have several points regarding the Hopson and Grandale extensions, and the NC Natural Heritage Program and the NC Wildlife Resources Commission have made similar statements regarding this area, though they might not comment on this specific amendment.

I did not follow the light rail project closely and it was on the other side of Durham from where I live or might need to commute, but at the same time, I question whether it was necessary to give Duke University a veto over the project. Could a light rail route have been planned without involving the Duke Hospital area? On the other hand environmental concerns were raised along Little Creek, and I visit the waterfowl impoundment there and other areas. I suppose there will still be high density construction, even without the light rail that was supposed to justify that density. I value the public and private green spaces or vacant lots downtown, but at the same time, there is plenty of room for density in downtown Durham, where density is normal, rather than out on the fringes of the City like Farrington Road. Also, there has long been a lot of congestion around rush hour along Highway 54 where it meets Farrington Road and nearby I-40, as well as at Barbee Road, etc.

Politicians campaign on addressing climate change and other environmental issues, but then preside over the building of unnecessary and environmentally destructive roads. I have heard claims that building new roads encourages more car use, so new roads only temporarily relieve congestion, and presumably increase carbon dioxide emissions and other air pollution in the long run. Why was a Glover-Ellis connector cutting through scenic headwaters of Northeast Creek considered necessary, and if it was necessary, why was construction then allowed to block it? I thought a new residential road had been built connecting the roads. I understand that people will build what they want, consistent with laws, and that elected leaders approve rezonings, etc., but it seems like the Durham Planning Department can’t be portrayed as a passive bystander in “The alignment of the Ellis-Glover connector” becoming “compromised.”

The possibility of building the planned Northeast Creek trail is probably also becoming compromised.

In Wake County I question why town public facilities, etc. were allowed to block the preferred route of the 540 extension, so it was then built in a way that threatened the endangered dwarf wedgemussel and other species. What is the situation in southern Wake County following freeway construction? It is unclear which organizations (CAMPO? The NC DOT?) are reponsible for what decisions regarding new roads and maintenance. In Durham, who decided to cut the large, mossy red maples that lined Alston by Lowes Grove Elementary School?

I object to extending Hopson Road west to Grandale and extending Grandale south. The attached maps show the connector barely avoiding the Jordan/New Hope gameland and seemingly still cutting through a large area of wetland. If the idea is to avoid crossing the county line, Wake Road is a short distance beyond the line, so why build a new connector? Grandale cuts across Northeast Creek and is surrounded by public gameland, resulting in a lot of roadkill as is, and traffic has increased, I imagine because of Cary rather than Durham, but Durham’s landscape is to be sacrificed. I can’t remember the title now, but I saw a government document demonstrating public knowledge that Grandale crosses wildlife migration routes along the Northeast Creek corridor.

The bottomlands along Northeast Creek at the south end of Durham County are listed as a significant natural area by the NC Natural Heritage Program. The inventory reports noted nesting black-and-white warblers and probably nesting sharp-shinned hawks and the presence of ribbon snakes as rare animal species in the areas studied, as well as Douglass’ bittercress and other state or regionally rare or unusual plants, and there were river otters and mink along the Creek. The area has not been re-surveyed since 1999. Otters have been reported more recently on a tributary of Northeast Creek nearby in RTP and I saw what might have been evidence of otters a short distance upstream from Jordan Lake. I know mink live east of Jordan Lake near the Tobacco Trail in Chatham County, and along the Eno, and there have been reports of bobcats near Indian Creek at Jordan Lake, a short distance south of Northeast Creek. Apparently bobcats are easily driven out by human activity, so I wonder how close they come to my area, and without bobcats, coyotes, or hunting by humans there are few checks left on the deer population, leading to problems. Increased construction adjacent to the gameland might end hunting. Turkeys, woodcocks, wood ducks, indigo buntings, prothonotary warblers, pileated and red-headed woodpeckers live in that area of gameland and several species of amphibians breed in the wetlands and waterways. The most recent Durham inventory recommended that “Preservation of upland buffers along the edges of the bottomlands should be given a high priority. These slopes provide denning areas for terrestrial species, as well as refuges during periods of high water” while the 1999 Jordan Lake Inventory recommended that “No more utility corridors should be allowed in the area” along the Creek between 55 and 751. Did the authors not imagine that new roads, which seem worse than utility easements, would be proposed? Building a new road parallel to Northeast Creek or along other waterways would harm species that regularly migrate between the bottomlands and higher ground, such as toad and salamander species, or animals that have to move upland to escape flooding. Roadbuilding along the Eno River was stopped, but unfortuntely for Northeast Creek and fortunately for the Planning Department there are few to oppose it here in this round, though it is an election year for some local, State, and Federal officials. Would extending Hopson towards 751 or O’Kelly Church Road be in a future CTP if this goes through?

I think the complete paving of Grandale in recent decades reduced floral diversity and no doubt increased traffic, speed, and probably the amount of roadkill. Was it the DOT that cut a large oak, maybe a post oak or possibly a white oak, near the northeast corner of Grandale and Sedwick many years ago? It could be called a historic oak, from before Parkwood existed, and was left in large pieces hidden off the road. Maybe it lived when the road network was much different and what is now called Sedwick Road was forked. Now I can’t remember if the tree was cut when Grandale was paved or later. More recently Duke Energy on its own decided to cut a landmark relatively old oak, maybe a Spanish/Southern red oak, on a berm beside 751 in front of an abandoned house.

If Grandale is widened, black walunts at the south end might be cut. They are small trees, but at least one produces many nuts and black walnuts are rare trees in this part of the Triangle. In theory they could also be a food source for people, so roadwork would reduce the local food supply and the diversity of foods.

Speaking of history, there has long been a lack of clarity in what Grandale is called, and roads could reflect the landscape and history, such as in the appropriate name of the Northeast Creek Parkway.

The curve on Grandale at the bridge is already unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists and nearby Scott King Road, soon to be the site of a Durham elementary school, seems even more unsafe, and extending Hopson Road would presumably increase traffic on Scott King. Speeding far above the 25 mph limit is a problem on Sedwick Road in Parkwood, but Sedwick, Green Level Church, and Wake roads already connect 55 and Grandale. Hopson was extended through RTP to 55 in a way that made it harder to use the old Green Level and Wake Road connection. Members of my family used to be able to unicycle or bicycle along a circuit of a few miles, but South Alston was cut and is now treated as the property of the Social Security Administration printing facility on “Louis Stephens Drive” and the intersection was changed, which also destroyed a young woods with many fox (?) grapes running from the very tops of the relatively young pines down to the roadside, unusual in that the large cluster[s] of sweet black grapes were so easy to reach on those September weekends. On the other hand the large copperheads that would enter the road in late September benefitted by the road being effectively removed, if they survived a large hill being levelled, clearcutting, and a new electrical substation being built.

I don’t like the way scenic hills and ridges have been destroyed along Highway 55 there, to extend Hopson to 55 and earlier at the corner of TW Alexander Drive and 55 for fill for a freeway, possibly tolled, which I also generally oppose. That hill with an old farm house on top was blasted away day and night, leading to noise complaints from Scott King Road, and I heard that the excess was dumped in the old Triangle Brick Company claypit the Hopson extension would skirt. The spoil seems to be visible in aerial photos. Given the presence of rare plants and animals along 55, probably because of the presence of igneous rocks, what was lost on those hills over the last 10 years, and might still live on the hills west of 55?

After it was too late for the public hearings I realized that maybe Scannell’s intends to level the hills on the west side of 55 for their “business park,” to build who knows what under an Industrial Light zoning, and also making road building easier. The likely presence of dikes of very hard igneous rock would make it harder to tear down these hills. How much carbon dioxide and siltation of waterways results from levelling hills? It would be better regarding greenhouse gas emissions if businesses along 55 relied on the freight railroad on the east side, rather than locating on the west side and relying on trucks.

Would Grandale be expanded and streetlights added, possibly blue-rich, degrading the surrounding gameland for nocturnal wildlife and possibly driving species out? Blue-rich white light is especially polluting to human eyes; for example see: www.darksky.org/our-work/lighting/lighting-for-citizens/led-guide/ Except for passing aircraft little or no artificial light is visible in a large area along Northeast Creek between 55 and Grandale, shielded by the width of the gameland and the high surrounding hills. Noise pollution would also degrade the gameland, even if a road is outside of it. Grandale is audible south of Sedwick Road and what must be noise mainly from I-40 as well as highways is often very loud in other parts of Parkwood. 751 is audible from the vast expanse of gameland along lower Northeast Creek south of O’Kelly Chapel Road.

This winter the gameland along Northeast Creek between Grandale and the powerline corridor seems much smaller, because of the clearcutting around it a few years ago, and Hopson Road would skirt the south side, where there is an unusually winding and low-lying small tributary with flood-tolerant forest.

I saw a breeding whip-poor-will or chuck-will’s-widow at the school site nearby a few years ago, and I thought they had been driven out of the Triangle. What about the beaver ponds adjacent to Grandale? At times there has been a great blue heron rookery nearby and hundreds of turkey vultures and a few black vultures roosted in the summer. Construction also encourages non-native plants, and a few non-native trees have sprouted in utility corridors and clearcuts near this planned road.

Grandale also sometimes floods by the bridge during hurricanes, though raising the road would dam up the floodwaters.

The NC Wildlife Resources Commission and US Army Corps of Engineers might not comment, though Grandale cuts through the public land they are charged with protecting and Grandale, might be expanded, impacting their area. Since neighbors aren’t notified about proposed roads, people probably are not aware of what is being planned.

There is also an obscene amount of roadkill on Highway 98, especially east of Sherron Road, and along Highway 50 to the north in Wake County. Admittedly it is mostly small animals that are killed on Grandale and 54, but entire lanes are dyed red on 98 when deer are killed and two cats or foxes were left on the centerline in front of a professed church for something like half a year. Around early to mid-summer there are often brief showers or downpours just before 5pm followed by clearing, and aquatic turtles leave the ponds a short distance east of Sherron and are killed. Sometimes they manage to get to the center but then stop and are killed. I commented (assuming they received it) to some agency regarding work on 98 a few years ago. There is also a problem on Old Creedmoor Road north of 98 extending northeast to Highway 50 and on 50. I tried to be careful there and elsewhere, but I hit animals. Some how a flock of cedar waxwings that had come down to a puddle at the Highway 98 end was hit during a snowstorm, when traffic should have been moving slowly. Pets have also been hit on rural 98.

In places there have been efforts to reduce roadkill, but except for lobbying about raising the new 15-501 bridge over New Hope Creek, a few old deer and livestock warning signs, and the fencing full of holes along freeways, I am not aware of any effort at all in the Triangle or elsewhere in the State. Deeper roadside ditches and fencing might deter some animals and signs could at least be put up to warn drivers. Would intentionally hitting an animal and leaving it in the road count as littering? The speed limit is also a factor. On the other hand, there could be conservation problems if roads become impassable barriers for plant and animal species.

Roadkill and human fatalities are problems along 54 from Durham to Chapel Hill. More sidewalks and wider shoulders would be good, though I like the roadside trees, ever decreasing with dense residdential building along 54. I suppose that the shady overhanging trees along 54 where it crosses the gameland protecting New Hope Creek will be cut and will not return, if 54 is expanded in Durham. There was a shady dark green tunnel along 751 where it crosses Crooked Creek, but the trees were cut for a utility line or some other reason. Weedy verges along 54 beneficial to pollinators are also being replaced with close-cropped grassy lawn, though Durham supposedly cares about pollinators.

I also object to the way the DOT indiscriminately sprays vegetation along roads, including on parkland, even spraying trees far from the road, high branches, and herbaceous plants such as goldenrods. Issues with the shoulders and the lack of guard rails seem like bigger safety problems along straight Scott King Road then vegetation several feet from the road, beyond a deep stream or ditch. I thought a population of rare pinxterflower azaleas was safely on public land, but then the DOT sprayed them in the summer of 2017 or 2018, though fortunately not enough to kill them off.

If new roads have to be built, I would like the environment to be given more consideration. Installing streetlights next to gameland would be a problem and light pollution harms my view of the night sky as is. I have monitored the exceptionally abundant and diverse firefly population in a dark area east of Grandale since about 2008 as a volunteer with the Massachusetts-based Firefly Watch program. Would the bridge at Grandale be raised, so that animals might be more likely to go under it, as well as reducing erosion caused by the constriction of floods? Note that aquatic turtles such as yellow-bellied sliders sometimes seem to intentionally climb on to the bridge and are killed. What else could be done to reduce roadkill? Animals will be killed on roads, including pets and livestock, but I have seen little evidence that governments want to reduce the carnage, though people do sometimes attempt to assist animals or shed tears. Would there be more traffic lights to slow traffic on Grandale, Scott King, Sedwick, and Wake roads? At times many people park around the Grandale bridge to access the gameland for hunting, fishing, and hiking and it might be good if the shoulders were levelled and wider in places, though I would not want to see many trees cut. It was difficult to get the DOT to pick up wooden shipping pallets dumped just off the road next to the bridge, even though their mowing equipment was obviously running into them. Wooden pallets are a vector for non-native forest pests and diseases such as emerald ash borers, already killing trees in Durham and Chapel Hill, and redbay ambrosia beetles, which haven’t reached this far inland yet, but have sassafras as a food source as they leave the Wilmington area and the redbays and related trees near the coast. These pests can’t travel very far on their own, but have spread much faster with human help, after getting here from East Asia through shipping. One of the few benefits of the proposed extensions might be a reduced risk of roadside harassment of people legally using the gameland and road shoulders, though the traffic would be deterimental to enjoyment of the gameland to begin with.

Thank you for your consideration.

I’m not sure if it was published anywhere, but in late January I sent out a letter to the editor on the extensions, and the NC55-Hopson rezoning (approved by the Durham City Council February 7th):


Protect the gamelands along the Durham-Chatham-Wake county line

February 7th the City Council will hold a second hearing on the rezoning of an area extending from east of 55 to within sight of Grandale Road for a research/manufacturing-type “business park,” with Hopson Road extended west. Hopson and Grandale extensions are included in Amendment #4 to the DCHCMPO’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan, accepting comments through February 22nd (links at northeastcreek.org).

This rural section includes a large area of protected public land. The Northeast Creek bottomlands’ significance was recognized by the NC Natural Heritage Program, which recommended the “Preservation of upland buffers” and a moratorium on new utility corridors there.

Despite the parkland, species could still be lost. The rezoning application considers the State gameland only a “buffer.” There is no public site plan and industrial light zoning allows many uses. If large greenhouses are built, reflected light would be obvious for miles, likewise with blasting and traffic noise. What of spills? Hundreds of fireflies of several species glimmer, gathered amphibians roar, and herons, nightjars, and likely turkeys have nested nearby. If hunting ends, will deer overpopulate? I would like consideration for the welfare of this valuable, public land. Additionally, the claypit has paleontological significance. I suspect that rezoning would trigger more land sales, like the boom (of moonscaping) along Ellis.

Durham claims to care about emissions, but plans to level ridges for a redundant road. Nearby roads already seem unsafe and Grandale threatens wildlife, which the government knows. Does the Council need to see the roadkill from a short stretch [I could fill a several gallon bucket or buckets with bloody bodies on a summer night and go to a government office in the daytime or send photos.]?

NC55-Hopson and Bull City Townhomes rezoning hearing comments

Below are some comments on the NC55-Hopson and Bull City Townhomes rezoning hearings coming up tomorrow evening, Monday, February 7th, at the “virtual” City Council meeting at 7pm. There will also be a hearing on the proposed 3602 Westminster Avenue rezoning, but that project isn’t in the Northeast Creek basin. People who want to speak at the hearings have to register by 2pm Monday:  cityordinances.durhamnc.gov/OnBaseAgendaOnline/Meetings/ViewMeeting?id=507&doctype=1 Most of this has been posted here before in some form. First there is a shorter summary of some issues with NC55-Hopson and then longer comments on the two proposals, mainly on the first.

Some points on NC55-Hopson

The NC Natural Heritage Program recommended in the most recent Durham County Inventory that “Preservation of upland buffers along the edges of the bottomlands should be given a high priority. These slopes provide denning areas for terrestrial species, as well as refuges during periods of high water” while the 1999 Jordan Lake Inventory recommended that “No more utility corridors should be allowed in the area” along Northeast Creek between 55 and 751.

In light of the above, where would the utilities be placed for building in this part of Durham, including along Grandale south of Northeast Creek? It seems like new roads would be worse than utility corridors.

Harm to public land and its users can be seen as harm to the public, and people can benefit from or enjoy the gameland without ever going there to hunt, hike, etc. There is also the issue of things that currently happen at little or no cost, but might become externalities paid for by the City, neighbors, etc. because of construction.

What are Scannell’s plans? Recently roads were bulldozed at the northwest end for detailed surveying, so they would appear to already have a plan for where buildings and roads will be placed, but aren’t revealing it to the public. Since last year they have been planning to begin building this spring – building what, where?

I am against the extension of Hopson and Grandale, mainly because of the impact on the gameland and wildlife, as well as already existing dangers for pedestrians and cyclists on Grandale and nearby roads, though maybe these impacts could be partially alleviated. There are already connecting roads in roughly the same place. Could they be improved, instead of building a new road? Speeding on residential parts of Sedwick Road, far above the 25mph limit, should be addressed. On the other hand it might be beneficial if parking were improved to access the gameland.

What about light pollution? Would streetlights be placed on Grandale and the Hopson extension, harming nocturnal wildlife in a public natural area? Would NC55-Hopson include large greenhouses, which would impact my quality of life, miles away, and those further away, not to mention wildlife in the adjacent gameland? Currently that area is pretty dark and except for air traffic to or from RDU little or no artificial light is directly visible in places such as the middle of the powerline corridor between 55 and Grandale, probably one reason the gameland has so many fireflies, of several species, and nocturnal birds now very rare in the Triangle have been seen a short distance away.

An increasing issue – are Durham’s new blue streetlights worse with regard to light pollution than more conventionally-colored lights?

I am against blasting levelling hills, as has happened on the east side of 55. Also, the neighbors and possibly I would hear this construction and blasting going on. I’m more concerned about traffic noise, but long periods of loud construction noise might bother the neighbors and wildlife as well.

Building new roads obviously contributes to climate change, aside from the traffic and deforestation, and it would be redundant.

Runoff and any other pollution from these projects would quickly get into neighboring Northeast Creek and then into Jordan Lake, and if something toxic to humans leaked, people live not that far away. Non-native species and GMOs would also escape into a so far relatively pristine natural area. I doubt a “business park” would be interesting in managing its property to not harm the gameland, for example by limiting lawn chemical use and the amount of close-cropped, unnaturally green lawn and non-native plants. People would no doubt be watching for violations during construction, though it is a somewhat remote area. On the other hand Northeast Creek would probably turn from relatively clear to conspicuously opaque yellow or red at the well-travelled Tobacco Trail trestle, even if erosion regulations were followed completely.

Is building around the gameland in Durham and Cary going to end deer hunting, and cause overpopulation, leading to overgrazing and danger on roads? Someone, perhaps the City or neighborhood associations, would then have to pay to control the deer population, where before hunters and nature checked the deer population at little or no cost. A high deer population can eliminate plant species from an area. Fews Ford at Eno River State Park seemed like a highly-grazed area when I was last there, which would make sense since hunting is banned in much of that part of the Triangle.

The former claypit has some value in itself and could be preserved in some form, though it would probably be difficult to erase completely anyway.

Historical names for the area and geographic features could be used in future construction, rather than naming things after “Southpoint” when they are far from the Mall, etc. In this case at least Kit Creek isn’t that far away to the south, though I don’t think it drains much or any of the site. One location was called Togo/Genlee and I will have to look up whether Oyama/Few was also in this area. Burdens Creek and its major tributaries, once all having names, is nearby, though it does not drain this site. People seem to like former industrial history downtown, and here is a rural site, possibly the source of some of the red brick buildings downtown.

NC55-Hopson

I am not necessarily against building anywhere on this vast site but I have several concerns about this application and some issues tied to this application but not addressed in any public meetings that I am aware of, especially road expansion.

The entire property and I think what is proposed for annexation extends from east of Highway 55 to within sight of Grandale Road, an area probably a mile or more across, and this is the site my comments address, not just the smaller, but still very large, portion the applicant wants rezoned Industrial Light. It appears that the staff report recommends just zoning Industrial, if IL is deemed acceptable, but I have not looked into what that would allow. There are also connected issues covering a larger area.

There is too much ambiguity about what would be built and where. It seems like the applicant might not want to build at the very north end, but there is no commitment and surveying is going on up to the powerline corridor as if something will be built there soon, visible from Grandale, especially with the Wrenn land clearcut. There would be few limits on construction near the neighbors, and much of the site was clearcut, including the portion closest to Audubon Park and Parkwood at the north end. The clearcutting is very convenient for the Kimley-Horn memorandum on the environmental condition of the site, though it should be noted that a field or young pine forest is still habitat for some species. Rare plants such as pink ladyslipper orchids might prefer relatively young pine forests and red-tailed hawks hunt over fields and clearcutting probably benefits the deer and maybe woodcocks. Kimley-Horn is listed as an “agent” in the Zoning Map Change Application, attachment 11, and therefore would seem to have a conflict of interest in evaluating the environmental conditions.

The publicly-owned bottomlands along Northeast Creek are noted as a “buffer,” but they are not that wide and I would like to hear some concern to avoid harm to this public land and those who use it. At times many vehicles can be seen parked along Grandale on a weekend. If deer hunting decreases because of building hemming in the Wildlife Resources Commission-managed, Federally-owned gameland there might be an increase in the deer population in nearby neighborhoods, which is probably already high compared to other counties in the State. I like our neighborhood deer herds, but there could still be problems. There is also the issue that some species might need larger areas of forest than just what is protected as public land, or species might need upland as well as bottomland habitat, so buildings and roads could lead to the loss of species within the gameland. There is also the issue of species associated with human activity, such as English ivy, Norway rats, and feral cats, coming in with building and harming native plants and animals, not that I liike seeing rat traps around shopping centers. Near the site I have seen some non-native trees common on vacant land downtown growing on the clearcut land and utility corridors, though so far they are uncommon.

There is talk of a 40-50-foot buffer around the site, but most of the land was completely cleared of trees. Since then a growing woods around 20 feet high or more has sprouted since then, so the site is again wooded, but it once had larger trees and more hardwoods. A wooded buffer could have been had freely, but if non-native species are planted, they could easily escape into the adjacent gameland, and clearcutting spreads some non-native plants.

The NC NHP inventory reports noted nesting black-and-white warblers and probably nesting sharp-shinned hawks and the presence of ribbon snakes as rare animal species in the areas studied along Northeast Creek at the south end of the County, as well as Douglass’ bittercress and other state or regionally rare or unusual plants, and there were otters and mink along the Creek. The area has not been re-surveyed since 1999. The most recent Durham report recommended that “Preservation of upland buffers along the edges of the bottomlands should be given a high priority. These slopes provide denning areas for terrestrial species, as well as refuges during periods of high water” while the 1999 Jordan Lake Inventory recommended that “No more utility corridors should be allowed in the area” along the Creek between 55 and 751. These recommendations directly relate to this rezoning application, but aren’t being brought up. I suggested to the Wildlife Resources Commission and US Army Corps of Engineers that the proposals in this area should be of concern to them.

This site is already vast, and I suspect that the Wrenn family’s land to the west, which was also recently clearcut, is available for sale. Does the applicant know something the public doesn’t? I am concerned that approving the rezoning under consideration will be the signal to sell more land in the area, so the near future of a larger area is in question today. Similarly there was a large amount of change along Ellis Road over a short period. The application seems to say that housing will be built along Grandale, as well as a new road. I only found out recently that the DCHCMPO plans to extend Hopson Road from 55 to Grandale and extend Grandale south in Chatham County. What are Cary’s plans along the county line? Is their plan to burden Durham to benefit Cary and other locations not in Durham County?

Until recently the government’s road plans in the area were only rumors for me; I thought the idea of a connecting road had been defeated decades ago and I was not aware of any proposals regarding Grandale. While it might not be ideal, there is already a connection between 55 and Grandale along the county line, but made harder to use by the changes along 55 around a decade ago. Speeding is a problem on Sedwick Road, but is the solution to increase traffic and no doubt speeding on Grandale? Would traffic on already dangerous Scott King Road, future site of an elementary school, increase? It seems like speeding traffic coming over sharp hills and around bends is such a problem on Scott King that even birds get killed. If Hopson were extended, there would still be a jog to get to Scott King Road, so would the DCHCMPO next want to extend Hopson to 751, crossing the very large and mostly unbroken publicly-owned forest along Northeast, Crooked, and Kit creeks and the Tobacco Trail? Or is this the reason they want to extend Grandale, presumably to O’Kelly Church Road, crossing Kit Creek? This application shows a road passing north of the abandoned claypit, which I think is also part of the site that still has older trees and steep slopes, and Federal land is located there. A lot of blasting would be required, since 4-lane Hopson currently ends at a steep hillside, on one of the highest ridges in the area. When they blasted away the hill at the corner of TW Alexander and 55 nearby, it could be heard for miles through the night, including where I live, and I think there were complaints to the police from Scott King Road. On the other hand it might allow easier access to the gameland it would degrade.

Building new roads obviously contributes to climate change, aside from the traffic and deforestation, and it would be redundant.

How would a new road change traffic patterns? Traffic has increased on Grandale, probably because of all of the recent building in Wake and Chatham counties, and there is a lot of roadkill at times. I saw a report demonstrating that the government knows that Grandale around Northeast Creek is a chokepoint for wildlife movement. Would the bridge be raised so that wildlife might tend to cross underneath, as was discussed where expanded 15-501 crosses New Hope Creek? A road basically paralleling Northeast Creek would be a problem for animals migrating between the uplands and the bottomlands, such as toads and marbled salamanders. The bend at the bridge on Grandale isn’t very safe for pedestrians and bicyclists and neither is Scott King Road, site of a future elementary school. A huge number of turkey and black vultures used to or still roost near Grandale at night and might be driven off, as well as other wildlife. The Kimley-Horn memorandum notes a report of a waterbird colony and I saw a large heron rookery near Grandale. I have heard that building new roads tends to increase traffic overall, rather than alleviating congestion, increasing carbon dioxide emissions.

It would be less polluting if the existing freight rail connection could be used for freight or passengers, but the tracks on the east side of 55.

If Grandale were widened, it would be good to improve parking at the bridge and maybe more traffic would decrease the risk of harassment and dumping there. I use that area and monitor the fireflies for the Massachusetts-based Firefly Watch program and there are other people who hike, hunt, or fish, and people probably still drive ATVs on the City, County, Federal, and Parkwood Association land. On the other hand maybe a new business park would be like the Ellis Research Center on Ellis Road east of 147 and put up permanent signs threatening the public on a public road and reflecting badly on Durham.

An IL zoning allows many possible uses, and there is not a guarantee about what would actually be built. I see that the applicant has now committed to forego certain uses on certain parcels, but there still isn’t a detailed site plan and other areas near Northeast Creek have no prohibitions. What would be built along 55 at the northeast corner of the site, near Northeast Creek and County facilities? It is possible that an office-type business park would be more environmentally benign than housing, though possibly an unkempt junkyard would be more benign than a business park with close-cropped, agrichemical and fossil fuel dependent, unnaturally green lawn and giant impervious aand unshaded parking lots, creating heat islands. Freight would increase traffic, air pollution, and windblown litter and waste management would probably also increase litter and air pollution.

Would IL zoning allow large greenhouses? There are some at research or manufacturing facilities in and around RTP. The “buffer” provided by Northeast Creek would not be enough to prevent a significant impact on Audubon Park and Parkwood. I live miles away from greenhouses near the intersection of TW Alexander and Highway 54 but I see an area of very bright orange or yellow light reflected by low clouds (higher clouds also get lit up, but the light is less glaringly obvious) for much of the night and when it is clear that light is still there, obscuring my view of the sky. This is a huge impact, but the UDO classifies all of this stray light as indoors and therefore not regulated, though the night sky is lit up for miles. I’m not sure that I have ever seen the Milky Way and light pollution in the Triangle most likely increases every year. The Stonesthrow apartments on South Alston next to Burdens Creek are adjacent to the greenhouses and have little need for streetlights when there are low clouds.

Greenhouses would have a large impact on the bottomlands along Northeast Creek, and there is the more ordinary light pollution from streetlights, parking lots, area lights and also noise. The area is currently relatively dark and this large rural area of forests and fields probably serves as a refuge for many nocturnal species. Fireflies of several species are numerous and for more than 10 years I have observed at a location on Grandale for the Firefly Watch program. Fireflies are much more abundant at Grandale than along my street and I see more species there, though I live near a small protected woodland. Bobcats have been seen not very far away at Jordan Lake and it is possible that they live at the south end of Durham and bobcats have been given as an example of a rare species driven out by human activity. I thought birds such as chuck-will’s-widow and whip-poor-wills had been driven out of the Triangle, but then I encountered one at the future elementary school site on Scott King Road, obviously trying to lead me away from a nest or chicks. River otters live in the Northeast Creek basin not far away if not near the site, and turkeys, prothonotary warblers, beavers, etc, have been seen adjacent to the rezoning site. At the neighborhood meeting a year ago someone mentioned seeing a bald eagle, and when I checked two weeks ago a bald eagle was audible from the rezoning site and landed on a tall snag nearby. I also saw wood ducks, a woodcock, red-headed woodpeckers, etc. similarly nearby.

What would be done to prevent chemical releases, including gases, adjacent to Northeast Creek? The applicant notes how far Audubon Park and Parkwood are from the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant and compares it to the distance between those communities and this site. At one time the WWTP probably had a large quantity of gaseous chlorine on site and it is my understanding that in the event of a serious leak that buffer would have been far too narrow for safety. Things have improved, but at one time the WWTP and/or the sewer lines could be smelled strongly in the Frenchman’s Creek and Audubon Park neighborhoods if not in Parkwood and the Creek had a strong chlorinated smell as it left Durham County around Grandale. I have heard from local government employees that Northeast Creek or other creeks have elevated copper levels because of fallout from a smelter downtown and organic chemicals that might come from nearby freeways. There is also the possibility of the escape of GMOs and disease-causing organisms.

Where would the utilities be located? Fragmenting a forest by putting in utility easements can end its utility for deep forest species and are literally in roads for cowbirds and non-native plants. I think there was discussion of building a pipeline for 751 South through here at one point. At that time I thought Durham had a policy of not extending water utilities south of Scott King.

The staff report lists many items that might be good to have in the planning process, but they are rendered useless without a development plan. There are obviously plants, animals, communities, and ecosystems on the site, since it is a location on the living Earth, though after mass grading the site would like more like a tract on a lifeless celestial body. It is very easy to not find things. I would be surprised if there are not any steep slopes, such as around the claypit and near 55, and the site must include wetlands, such as along the powerline. The claypit might also count as a wetland and looks like a lake in the City’s aerial photo.
There must be at least scattered archaeological remains on the hillsides overlooking Northeast Creek, not likely to be noticed during mass grading. and there is a small cemetery on the north side of Green Level Church Road near the claypit and 55. Small old cemeteries have been mistreated by builders in the Triangle.

I think local universities found significant reptile fossils in the claypit and it is part of the area’s history, so it would be good to preserve it in some form. I found plant fossils a few miles away. The claypit is a former industrial use, but as far as I know it is not at all a “brownfield,” and has been left in a natural state, without any buildings, though there have been tobacco barns in the general area. The area also once had a name, probably associated with a rail stop, that could be used for referred to today.

There are also igneous rock outcroppings in the area, which could encourage rare plants, besides the low level of disturbance by human activity in recent decades, aside from the clearcutting. Rare plants might be present along 55 and many not so uncommon wildflowers grow on the gameland and rural roadsides. The igneous rocks would probably complicate cutting through the hills for a road.

The scenic small stream flowing under 55 isn’t very intermittent and harbors surprisingly large fish, salamanders, crayfish, and other species even upstream, possibly holding water well because of the hard bedrock just beneath. It seems like an unusually diverse and valuable clear stream that doesn’t dry up completely, despite its short length.

Bull City Townhomes

If people live next to steep slopes or retaining walls, they might be tempted to throw their trash over the edge, as has happened elsewhere in Durham, and the trash might then wash into the tributary of Northeast Creek on the site and go into Jordan Lake.

Apparently the large pond at the corner was drained or broken by rain, which is unfortunate.

I find it hard to believe that the application claimed in an earlier document that there is basically no life in a waterway and that it is ephemeral, then intermittent, then ephemeral again – where does the water go? This is apparently based on inspections in April and May 2021, and there was an unusually severe spring drought that year and maybe the dam breach washed away the usual aquatic life or it was temporarily killed by unusually dry conditions. Should these determinations be based on such limited observations? Mistreating headwaters such as at this site is where the problems in Jordan Lake begin, and then Durham has to pay to fix them. It seems bizarre to buffer one section and not all of it and the neighbors would benefit from buffering along the property edge. Would they put a stormwater pond there? What would they plant? Non-native bushes, often introduced for buffers along roads and landscaping, are a problem along waterways upstream from Ellis Road. Beavers and fish live in the larger though still quite small tributary of Northeast Creek paralleling 147 nearby.

If I lived in the neighborhood I might not want more townhomes there and traffic seems like an increasing problem on Ellis. If I am not mistaken dense housing has also been approved nearby to the south on Ellis Road and east of 147. I don’t think there are any bus stops or continuous sidewalks in this formerly kind of rural area and commercial areas aren’t very nearby. The shoulders on Ellis and other nearby major roads are often narrow, deeply rutted, or soft and not very good for bicycling or parking, unless they have been improved recently.

Durham could have started an environmentally benign Northeast Creek trail network in the Ellis Road area, but it is losing the opportunity. There are some new private trails.

Protect the gamelands along the Durham-Chatham-Wake county line

I’m not sure that it was printed anywhere, but below is a letter I sent to newspapers about what is planned in the Highway 55 to Grandale Road area. The agenda for the City Council Zoom meeting this Monday starting at 7pm has been posted at durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4/ Clicking on the NC55 and Hopson agenda item brings up the associated documents. I just started looking at the updated materials for this second hearing, but the main change seems to be a written commitment not to use some parts of the site for certain types of facilities apparently allowed under Industrial Light (IL) zoning. The site is made up of several parcels, and certain uses would be prohibited on four parcels the applicant wants rezoned from residential and commercial to IL, while the large area near 55 already zoned IL would have no special prohibitions. There have been indications that the applicant might not intend to build at the very northwest corner of the site, overlooking Northeast Creek and close to Audubon Park, but there are no commitments and there is still no indication of where the 1 million square feet of “industrial buildings” would be placed, and presumably the most likely impervious “parking and loading areas” are not included in the above figure and will sprawl over a large area and extend Durham’s heat island south.

Very little has been done to prevent encroachments on the environmentally vital land ‘owned’ and both passively and actively used by the public. I have doubts that the NC Natural History Program recommendations have mattered much in what has happened at this end of Durham County and instead of protecting what remains it seems likely that there will be new roads, Grandale will become busier if not wider, new utility easements and infrastructure seem likely, and construction of some density will extend up to the edges of the gameland on all sides. If housing is soon built along Grandale, where are the utilities going to be located? Species that live in the gameland today might be driven out by impacts from NC55-Hopson and the roads, along with human users of the gameland. The government bodies managing the gameland can’t or won’t give Durham a strong warning that what it plans to do could have serious consequences for public property and water quality. There are obviously limits to their authority, but they don’t seem interested in defending the public interest as long as road construction, etc. is not on the Federal land, even if it is right next to it, and it seems obvious that there will be work on Grandale impacting the adjacent gameland if new roads are built. The environment has become a common talking point in political campaigns, such as in the elections this year, but these piece meal land use changes add up create the environmental problems that then seem possibly too big to fix, such as climate change, mass extinction, and local flooding. For what it is worth I will at least comment in writing on all of these proposals, and I commented on the DCHCMPO’s 2050 transportation plan (the comment period ended February 1st).

A young forest of mostly loblolly pines around 20′ tall, along with some tuliptrees, wax myrtles or bayberries, etc. has regenerated on the clearcut Triangle Brick Co. land in question and a grid of small roads was recently bulldozed for detailed surveying up to the powerline and close to Audubon Park. Scannell must have plans, but nothing has been revealed to the public, except that they have been planning to start the first stage of construction this spring. Each facility would take about 9 months to build and construction would extend over 3-4 years, with an announced total of around 5-6 buildings. It is a somewhat remote area, but people will no doubt watch for silt management violations if this goes ahead. I have observed for Firefly Watch ( www.massaudubon.org/get-involved/community-science/firefly-watch ) in the area for over 10 years, so I might be able to see how new light pollution effects the firefly population. I’m not sure what zoning large greenhouses fall under, but there isn’t a commitment not to build them here and there are a few at similar research or manufacturing facilities in and around Research Triangle Park. Grandale is a good dark location for stargazing, but I’m not sure that it is far enough from light pollution to be that much better than easier to get to locations in southern Durham County, and light pollution to some degree obscures the stars over much of the world and is hard to escape.

At the Planning Commission hearing a neighbor, I think in nearby Audubon Park, mentioned seeing a bald eagle, and a week ago [actually the snow was two weeks ago] I went to the vicinity and there an eagle was, conspicuously flying around and loudly calling from the top of a tall snag. I saw two or more wood ducks in the Creek closer to Grandale, and as usual I didn’t know they were there until they shrieked and swiftly flew downstream. On a brushy hillside a woodcock suddenly flushed, seemingly from a sunny patch free of snow at the base of an oak. Maybe the males can be seen displaying around twilight here and there might even already be eggs. I have seen turkey tracks here before and I think chuck-will’s-widows or whip-poor-wills have nested recently in this part of Durham. Grasses such as broomsedge and Indian grass, along with the seedheads of last year’s mullein, teasel, vervain, asters, goldenrods, cattails, and other wildflowers (some introduced in this case) are evident under the powerline, while the stalks of grasses such as river oats nod in the woods. A Polypodium fern grows on an ash leaning over a sharp bend of the Creek. In a younger part of the bottomland forest a few very large loblollies linger while the area closest to Grandale is mostly deciduous. It seemed like there weren’t a lot of tracks in the snow, but the signs of small birds, small rodents and maybe shrews, beavers, deer, squirrels, possibly foxes, etc. were visible. Snow covered the tire tracks, but it seems like there is still some prohibited ATV activity on the gameland, though the Wildlife Resources Commission or the Army Corps of Engineers have taken steps to discourage them. There were spiky white ice crystals on moss and lichen-covered boulders and where the snow had begun to melt the day before. Red-headed woodpeckers were very conspicuous in an area of sloughs against a hillside with many beech and there were various sparrows, cardinals, towhees, wrens, and other songbirds out in the bottomlands.

I heard a few gulls flying overhead, possibly going to nearby Parkwood Lake. The Lake was mostly frozen over, and mallards, Canada geese, cormorants, gulls, and a small flock of what seemed to be ruddy ducks, the first time I have seen this species here, had gathered in the unfrozen area by the dam. An Eastern phoebe and myrtle or yellow-rumped warblers were foraging amid the willows in a swampy part of the frozen Lotus Pond near the trail. Later I saw a small hawk and heard a flock of cedar waxwings along Clermont there. Near the pool birds I couldn’t identify were searching the branchtips at the tops of shortleaf pines. I heard a few yellow-bellied sapsuckers, I think all in built-up areas. Near Parkwood’s giant white ash a garrulous red-winged blackbirds have been frequenting bamboo groves and I think I saw the conspicuous resident hawk pair mating a few days ago. It seems like there have been few owl calls and the deer have been scarce this winter, possibly because of the new trail through the woods from Seaton to McCormick, though I did see a buck with pretty large antlers in January. The trail’s bare yellow clay turned to mud as the snow melted. I realized that there is second colony of what must be dwarf pawpaws near the Fire Station.

Back on the gameland, for decades I have known a beaver pond, for many years mostly a marshy abandoned beaver pond that still holds some water, and I was surprised to find that it has been restored to almost its former state. I don’t remember there being a lodge before, or not conspicuously, the beavers instead seeming to live in a burrow, but now there is prominent lodge towards the back. The pond has been a breeding site for amphibians and fish such as American toads, cricket frogs, bowfin, and sunfish, and though it isn’t particularly large, migrating waterfowl and shorebirds sometimes visit. Mistletoe is conspicuous on the bare limbs of some of the surrounding red maples. Herons, red-headed woodpeckers, and no doubt birds that use their abandoned nests have nested nearby, but I’m not sure if there are still adequate large snags. I heard that some other ponds have also been restored recently, so there is some positive news that what was lost has returned, at least for a time.

February 7th there will also be hearings on the proposed Bull City Townhomes, at the corner of Ellis Road and Southern Drive, near Rada Drive and Ed Cook Road, north of RTP, in the upper Northeast Creek basin, and a hearing on 3602 Westminster Avenue, in the Neuse River basin.


Protect the gamelands along the Durham-Chatham-Wake county lin

February 7th the City Council will hold a second hearing on the rezoning of an area extending from east of 55 to within sight of Grandale Road for a research/manufacturing-type “business park,” with Hopson Road extended west. Hopson and Grandale extensions are included in Amendment #4 to the DCHCMPO’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan, accepting comments through February 22nd (links at northeastcreek.org).

This rural section includes a large area of protected public land. The Northeast Creek bottomlands’ significance was recognized by the NC Natural Heritage Program, which recommended the “Preservation of upland buffers” and a moratorium on new utility corridors there.

Despite the parkland, species could still be lost. The rezoning application considers the State gameland only a “buffer.” There is no public site plan and industrial light zoning allows many uses. If large greenhouses are built, reflected light would be obvious for miles, likewise with blasting and traffic noise. What of spills? Hundreds of fireflies of several species glimmer, gathered amphibians roar, and herons, nightjars, and likely turkeys have nested nearby. If hunting ends, will deer overpopulate? I would like consideration for the welfare of this valuable, public land. Additionally, the claypit has paleontological significance. I suspect that rezoning would trigger more land sales, like the boom (of moonscaping) along Ellis.

Durham claims to care about emissions, but plans to level ridges for a redundant road. Nearby roads already seem unsafe and Grandale threatens wildlife, which the government knows. Does the Council need to see the roadkill from a short stretch?

City Council hearing on NC55 – Hopson tonight, January 3rd

The Durham City Council will hold a virtual hearing regarding the 55-Hopson annexation and rezoning request tonight, Monday, January 3rd. There will also be hearing on 2211 Page Road. Below are some comments, mostly reiterating what has been posted here earlier:

I am not necessarily against building anywhere on this vast site but I have several concerns about this application and some issues tied to this application but not addressed in any public meetings that I am aware of, especially road expansion. 

The entire proposed project extends from the east side of Highway 55 to within sight of Grandale Road, an area probably a mile or more across, and this is the site I am commenting about, not only the smaller, but still very large, portion the applicant wants rezoned Industrial Light. It appears that the staff report recommends just zoning Industrial, if IL is deemed acceptable, but I only just noticed this and have not looked into what that would allow. [The staff report and other documents are linked from the meeting agenda, posted at durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/City-Council-4/ ]

There is too much ambiguity about what would be built where. There would be few limits on construction near the neighbors, and much of the site was clearcut, including the portion closest to Audubon Park and Parkwood at the north end. The clearcutting is convenient for the Kimley-Horn memorandum on the environmental condition of the site, though it should be noted that a field or young pine forest is still habitat for some species. Rare plants such as pink ladyslipper orchids might prefer relatively young pine forests and red-tailed hawks hunt over fields and clearcutting probably benefits deer.

The publicly-owned bottomlands along Northeast Creek are noted as a buffer, but they are not that wide and I would like to hear some concern about avoiding harm to this land and those who use it. At times many vehicles are parked along Grandale on a weekend. The Federal land is managed as gameland by the NC Wildlife Commission and if hunting decreases because of building there might be an increase in the number of deer in nearby neighborhoods, which is probably already high. There is also the issue that some species might need larger areas of forest than just what is protected on public land, or species might need upland as well as bottomland habitat, so construction could lead to the loss of species despite the large amount of protected land. There is also the issue of species associated with human activity, such as English ivy, Norway rats, and feral cats, coming in and harming native plants and animals. Nearby I have seen some non-native trees common on vacant land downtown sprouting on clearcut land and utility corridors, though so far they are uncommon in this part of Durham.

There is talk of a 40-50′ buffer around the site, but most of the land has already been cut, though large saplings have grown since then.

The NC Natural Heritage Program inventory reports noted nesting black-and-white warblers and probably nesting sharp-shinned hawks and the presence of ribbon snakes as rare animal species in the areas studied along Northeast Creek at the south end of the County, as well as Douglass’ bittercress and other state or regionally rare or unusual plants, and there were otters and mink along the Creek, but the area has not been re-surveyed since 1999. The most recent Durham report recommended that “Preservation of upland buffers along the edges of the bottomlands should be given a high priority. These slopes provide denning areas for terrestrial species, as well as refuges during periods of high water” while the 1999 Jordan Lake Inventory recommends that “No more utility corridors should be allowed in the area” along the Creek between 55 and 751. These recommendations directly relate to this rezoning application, but aren’t being brought up.

This site is already vast, and I suspect that the Wrenn family’s land to the west, which was also recently clearcut, is available for sale. Does the applicant know something the public doesn’t? I am concerned that approving the rezoning under consideration will be the signal to sell more land in the area, so the near future of a larger area is in question. Similarly there was a lot of change along Ellis Road over a short period. The applicant says that housing will be built at the south end of Grandale and a new road will connect 55 and Grandale. What are Cary’s plans along the county line? In recent years they did so much just south of the county line, along Kit and Panther creeks, major tributaries of Northeast Creek.

I am not aware of any discussion of the government’s road plans relating to this site. There are rumors that there are plans for a new connection from 55 to Grandale and that Grandale will be widened. While it might not be ideal, there is already a connection between 55 and Grandale along the county line, but made harder to use by the changes along 55 around a decade ago. If Hopson were extended, there would still be a jog to get to Scott King Road, so would the DOT next want to extend Hopson to 751, crossing the very large and mostly unbroken publicly owned forest along Northeast, Crooked, and Kit creeks and the Tobacco Trail? I was informed that the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Comprehensive Transportation Plan calls for a “major thoroughfare” from the intersection of Hopson and 55 to Grandale, though nothing is listed in the State Transportation Improvement Program from now to 2033. The application shows a road passing north of the abandoned claypit, which I think is also part of the site that has older trees and steep slopes. A lot of blasting would be required, since 4-lane Hopson currently ends at a steep hillside, on one of the highest ridges in the area. When they blasted away the hill at the corner of TW Alexander and 55 nearby, working day and night, it could be heard for miles and I think there were complaints to the police from Scott King Road. Building new roads obviously contributes to climate change, aside from the traffic and deforestation, and there are already connecting roads. How would a new road change traffic patterns? Traffic has increased on Grandale, probably because of all of the recent building in Wake County, and there is a lot of roadkill. I remember a report demonstrating that the government knows that Grandale at Northeast Creek is a chokepoint for wildlife movement. Would the bridge be raised so that wildlife might tend to cross underneath, as was discussed where expanded 15-501 crosses New Hope Creek? The bend at the bridge on Grandale isn’t very safe for pedestrians and bicyclists and neither is Scott King Road, site of a future elementary school. Many turkey and black vultures used to or still roost close to Grandale and might be driven off, as well as other wildlife. The Kimley-Horn memorandum notes a past report of a waterbird colony and I saw a heron rookery near Grandale. A large amount of traffic, usually going much faster than the speed limit, on residential Sedwick Road is a problem now, but it would probably increase on Grandale and Scott King if Hopson were extended, even if it decreased on Sedwick. I have heard that building new roads tends to increase traffic overall, increasing carbon dioxide emissions. It would be less polluting if the existing rail connection could be used for freight or passengers, but it is on the east side of 55.

If Grandale were widened, it would be good to improve parking at the bridge and maybe more traffic would decrease the risk of harassment there. I use that area and there are other people who hike, hunt, or fish, and people probably still drive ATVs on the City, County, Federal, and Parkwood land. On the other hand maybe a new business park would be like the Ellis Research Center on Ellis Road east of 147 and put up signs threatening the public on a public road and reflecting badly on Durham.

An IL zoning allows many possible uses, and there is not a gurantee about what would actually be built. It is possible that an office type business park would be more environmentally benign than housing, though possibly an unkempt junkyard would be more benign than a business park with close-cropped, chemical and fossil fuel-dependent lawn and large parking lots. Freight would increase traffic and air pollution and waste management would probably increase windblown litter as well as air pollution.

Would IL zoning allow large greenhouses? That would seem to fit with research and development use. The “buffer” provided by Northeast Creek would not be enough to prevent a significant impact on Audubon Park and Parkwood. I live miles away from greenhouses near the intersection of TW Alexander and Highway 54 but I see an area of especially bright orange or yellow light reflected when there are low clouds (higher clouds also get lit up, but the light is less glaringly obvious) and when it is clear that light is still there, obscuring my view of the sky. This is a huge impact, but the UDO considers all of this stray light indoors and therefore not regulated, though the night sky is lit up for miles. I’m not sure that I have ever seen the Milky Way and light pollution in the Triangle must increase every year. The Stonesthrow apartments are adjacent to the greenhouses and don’t need streetlights when there are low clouds.

Greenhouses would have a large impact on the bottomlands along Northeast Creek, and there is the more ordinary light pollution from parking lots and area lights and also noise. The area is currently relatively dark and this large rural area of forests and fields probably serves as a refuge for many nocturnal species. Fireflies of several species are numerous and for more than 10 years I have observed at a location on Grandale for the Firefly Watch program. Fireflies are much more abundant at Grandale than along my street and I see more species there, though I live near woodlands. Bobcats have been seen several miles away at Jordan Lake and it is possible that they live at the south end of Durham and are an example of a rare species that would be driven out by light and noise pollution. I thought birds such as chuck-will’s-widow and whippoorwills had been driven out of the Triangle, but then I encountered one at the elementary school site nearby, obviously trying to lead me away from a nest or chicks. River otters live in Northeast Creek nearby if not here, and turkeys, and wood ducks can be seen near Grandale.

What would be done to prevent chemical releases, including gases, adjacent to Northeast Creek? The applicant notes how far Audubon Park and Parkwood are from the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant and compares it to the distance between those communities and this site. At one time the WWTP probably had a large quantity of gaseous chlorine on site and it is my understanding that in the event of a chlorine release that buffer would not have been enough for safety. Things have improved, but at one time the WWTP and/or the sewer lines could be smelled strongly in the Frenchman’s Creek and Audubon Park area if not in Parkwood and the Creek had a strong chlorinated smell as it left Durham County around Grandale. I have heard from City employees that Northeast Creek or other creeks have elevated copper levels because of aerial fallout from a smelter downtown and organic chemicals that might come from the freeways. What about the escape of GMOs or disease-causing organisms?

Where would the utilities be located? Fragmenting a forest by putting in utility easements can reduce its utility for forest species and encourages cowbirds, non-native plants, etc. I think there was discussion of building a pipeline for 751 South though here at one point. At that time I thought Durham had a policy of not extending water utilities south of Scott King Road.

The report lists many items that might be good to have in the planning process, but then they are rendered useless if there is not a development plan. There are obviously plants, animals, communities, and ecosystems on the site, since it is a location on the living Earth (though after mass grading the site would like more like a tract on a lifeless celestial body). It is very easy to avoid finding things. I would be surprised if there are not any steep slopes, such as around the old claypit and near 55, and the site seems to include wetlands, such as along the high-tension powerline. The claypit might also count as a wetland and looks like a lake in the recent aerial photo. The photo might show the remains of that ancient hill overlooking 55 at TW Alexander, blasted away as fill for the toll road, with the excess dumped in the claypit.

It would seem likely that there are at least scattered archaeological remains on the hillsides overlooking Northeast Creek and there is a small cemetery on Green Level Church Road near the claypit and 55. I think local universities found significant fossils in the claypit and it is a historic use, so it would be good to preserve it in some form. I found plant fossils a few miles away. There are igneous rock outcroppings in the area, which could encourage rare plants, besides the low level of disturbance by human activity in recent decades, aside from the clearcutting. The claypit is a former industrial use, but as far as I know it is not polluted and has been left in a natural state, without any buildings or trash, though there have been tobacco barns in the general area.

The announcement that this case would be on the Council’s agenda came in late December, before the agenda was even posted, presumably because of the holidays, and the public might not have been paying attention because of the holidays.

55-Hopson and MLK rezoning hearings at the planning commission tonight

Tonight (October 12th) at 5:30 the Planning Commission will hear two rezoning requests in the Northeast Creek basin, a large Industrial Light project proposed along the edge of the County around the intersection of Highway 55 and Hopson Road and apartments at the northeast corner of Fayetteville Road and Martin Luther King Jr Parkway.  I have been paying the most attention to the 55-Hopson proposal, but I did not realize its full significance until a few days ago, so this post is at the last minute.  Tonight is not the final hearing.  There are or have been some other rezoning requests along the Creek this year.  This will be an online meeting through Zoom; registration is at:

zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Az71ESRRSPumnJMjRXPEMg

More information about participating:

durhamnc.gov/4062/Participate-in-a-Virtual-Public-Hearing

The application, referenced below, is available in the agenda posted at: 

durhamnc.gov/AgendaCenter/Planning-Commission-15

See also Durham’s new supplemental Social PinPoint system:

durham.mysocialpinpoint.com/land-use/map#/sidebar/tab/about

I wrote about this and some other proposals earlier in the year at:

www.northeastcreek.org/wordpress/where-the-red-fire-pink-blows-and-other-campions-in-the-triangle/

After the Planning Commission there would be a hearing before the City Council.  Below are some comments.  

Hopson-55 rezoning 

The staff report incorrectly said this site is in the Neuse River basin, but I think this is being corrected to the Haw and ultimately Cape Fear basin.  Legal definitions must be being used at the bottom of page 4, because there are obviously plants, animals, communities, and ecosystems on the site, since it is a location on the living Earth (though after mass grading the site would like more like a tract on a lifeless celestial body).  It is very easy to not find any rare or protected species or historical relevance.   The report lists many items that might be good to have in the planning process, but then they are rendered useless by saying that they do not apply in the absence of a development plan.

There are references to extending Hopson Road west of 55 on page 32, etc.  The rezoning request only covers part of the area discussed at the community meeting, but obviously the applicant must intend to build in the entire area, looking at page 34, etc.   The clearcutting over the last 10 years from 55 to Grandale leads me to suspect that all of this land is being sold, so does the applicant have plans or know something the public doesn’t know?  It’s possible the logging was done so they could then say on page 53 that the communities discussed in the NC Natural Heritage Program reports no longer exist, and without committed elements there are no guarantees about where building would be done on the site.  The area north of the powerline was also clearcut, but they say it will not be built upon.  When was there a hearing on building a new connecting road from 55 to Grandale?  I also heard a rumor late last week that the DOT wants to enlarge Grandale.  I have since been informed that the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Comprehensive Transportation Plan calls for a “major thoroughfare” from the Hopson and 55 intersection to Grandale, but nothing is listed in the State Transportation Improvement Program from now to 2033.  The NC NHP repeatedly surveyed the public lands along Northeast Creek immediately bordering the proposed rezoning site and recommends that new utility easements not be built (Jordan Lake Inventory 1999) and that “Preservation of upland buffers along the edges of the bottomlands should be given a high priority” (Durham County Inventory 1995).  It seems like building a major new road would have a worse impact on the environment than new utillity easements and there is already a lot of roadkill on Grandale Road around the bridge over Northeast Creek as it is, especially in late spring/early summer.  When was or will the public given an opportunity to comment on road plans?  How much blasting would have to be done to extend Hopson, given that it currently ends at a steep slope, on one of the highest hills in the area?  Will the DOT then want to extend a road across one of the wildest parts of Northeast Creek and the Tobacco Trail to 751?  There is already a connecting route from 55 to Grandale, made harder to use when the intersection was moved north, and the area around the old claypit can be accessed from the existing road.

As I said before, the application includes very little information about what is actually planned.  At the community meeting (see page 41) they said the plan was for office-type biomedical buildings, but Industrial Light allows many applications, including recycling centers, warehouses, freight facilities, junkyards, wholesale, etc.  It is possible a junkyard would actually be more environmentally benign than office buildings, parking lots, and lawn.  Freight or recycling would probably increase roadkill and litter and have other impacts.  What would be done to limit harmful chemical releases?  Would the buildings be built where they would have maximum impact on the adjacent gamelands, and Parkwood and Audubon Park would also be impacted since they aren’t that far away? 

What about the impact on hunting?  If hunting is limited by building, there could be over-population of deer in Parkwood.  Wildlife such as turkeys, wood ducks, prothonotary warblers, beavers (a subject of concern east of Parkwood this year), and possibly otters live adjacent to this site, while further away I saw a breeding female chuck-will’s-widow or whippoorwill, and I thought such birds had been driving out of the Triangle, like bobwhites.  

Would IL zoning allow greenhouses, under research?  I live miles from TW Alexander Drive, but I am already impacted by the light pollution from large greenhouses there, along with the new blue-white streetlights installed this year.  It is less obvious, but I can probably see light pollution from the Southpoint Mall area as well.  Light pollution is very obvious when there are low clouds, such as last weekend, but it reflects off dust, etc, and muddies the sky even on clear nights, so the Milky Way, which should be easy to see is barely if at all visible.  Closer to the site buildings and parking lots would no doubt be lit all night and there would probably be light trespass from poorly shielded lights into the gameland.  If a large greenhouse were built close to Parkwood it would probably be very bright on nearby streets when it is cloudy, and during the winter, even though there is a forested buffer, as happens at the Stonesthrow Apartments, by Burdens Creek.

What about the scientific significance of the claypit?  I can’t remember the details now, but I think paleontologists at local universities have excavated significant fossils there.  I have found plant fossils elsewhere where the sedimentary bedrock has been exposed a few miles away.  The application says there are not any steep slopes or wetlands, but is this true of the entire area they want to build on, from 55 to near Grandale Road?  The aerial photos show water in the old claypit and there are marshes in places under the powerlines, while it seems likely that there would be steep slopes around the claypit and 55.   

There is a small cemetery southeast of the claypit by the road and it is likely that there are archaeological remains where ancient people could overlook the floodplain and watch for game.  There is an old road of some near 55, but I don’t know of any ruins there.    

Even though there is preserved land, development nearby could still cause local extinctions, for example if species are bothered by light, noise, or water pollution; needed the upland habitat on private land as well as the public bottomlands; if they need a larger area of forest than just what is preserved; or if they are harmed by non-native species such as cats, dogs, Norway rats, or English ivy that could come with increased human activity.  

Some but not all of the woods in this area were clearcut over the past 10 years, but young trees have since grown back and species such as deer and red-tailed hawks have probably benefitted, and bobwhites might also like such habitat. Unlike what the application says, when I would go by over 10 years ago it seemed like the claypit was surrounded by forest, though it was relatively young, and some remains.

Apparently tree planting is a significant way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as the City of Durham supposedly desires, but Durham probably has fewer trees now than it did in 1995, at least in this section (though the amount of forest is probably greater than when agriculture was more prominent in Durham).  Building a new road, instead of using what already exists, and relying on cars, would also contribute to climate change.

I’m not necessarily against building something and I actually find new construction interesting, but very little information is being offered, what would this project mean for nearby “vacant” land, and suddenly there is talk of a new connecting road and expanding Grandale. I am generally against making Grandale a major road and there is already too much roadkill and dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists along Grandale and on Scott King Road, where an elementary school is planned. The speed limit is high, and people speed, coming on to the curved and narrow bridge over the Creek, at one time a one-lane wooden bridge on a long gravel road.  Increased traffic might potentially drive off the huge numbers of  turkey and black vultures that sometimes roost, though it might increase their food supply. The only benefit is that the risk of people being harassed by over-zealous neighborhood watch types and even deputies while doing legal activities might be reduced, as well as illegal dumping, though littering might increase. It might be good to have better parking by the bridge. On the other hand, given that people like or liked to joyride ATVs in the area, including on the site in question, and it borders parkland, maybe it would become Durham’s next Ellis Research Center (on the south side of Ellis Road east of 147), which has private metal signs saying “No Stopping, No Standing, No Parking” along a public road, which reflects badly on Durham and is a threat to the public.

518 Martin Luther King Jr Parkway

I am not very familiar with this site except passing by, but it is in the headwaters of Northeast Creek’s north branch and it would be good if woods were preserved, especially along the roads, the Tobacco Trail, and any streams; native plants used in landscaping; light pollution limited, etc. The woods might not be very old, but a rare pink ladyslipper orchid grew in young pinewoods where Woodcroft Parkway was extended across Fayetteville and some species prefer young or otherwise piney woods. There is already a lot of traffic at the intersection to consider and the ATT has crossings in the area. If there are steep slopes, people might throw their trash over the edge if it is made convenient and without consequences for them. It is good that the applicants say they will preserve some existing trees and include a park, though these probably aren’t binding commitments and it would be good to keep the trees along the roads. The maps show a hill on the site and it might have a good view if cleared, as did the ridge at 54 and Barbee Road, which is the watershed separating the Northeast Creek and Crooked Creek basins.  This area has also become much more densely built-up in recent years, but much of it is in the Third Fork and Crooked creek basins. 

Late summer soothsayers

In late July or early August last year I walked under a hackberry sapling in my backyard and thought, surely I won’t look up and see an arboreal rough green snake. Instead I was surprised to find a large green and brown mantis, and it was there almost every day through mid-September. The hackberry attracted a species of large, blueish-gray plant-sucking true bug, and the mantis ate those, and then cicadas, putting on weight. It stalked large dragonflies that perched on dead twigs but I never saw it catch one (it also stalked small katydids, but I’m not sure if it caught any). At night it rested, often upside down, its ‘beady’ green eyes turning black. Earlier that summer I saw a beautiful green nymph that might have been the same mantis. The adult was probably a female Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis), but it could have been a narrow-winged or Japanese mantis (Tenodera augustipennis), or a praying or European mantis, which is actually only one kind (Mantis religiosa). Later I found an eggcase, resembling that of a Chinese mantis, on a low plant nearby and nymphs are around again this year. There were also Carolina mantises (Stagomantis carolina), a small, mottled gray species with bright orange markings. One spent a night just before Halloween on a red maple snag covered with morning glories vines. There are more than 2500 species, and over 11 in the USA (and introduced species might be harming native mantises). Mantises or mantids were classified with grasshoppers as orthopterans and then given their own order, Mantodea. Mantises are closest to cockroaches and termites, and they can all be grouped together as dicytopterans.

Also in the area there are much smaller but also predaceous mantisflies, which resemble a cross between a mantis and a wasp or fly, but they are neuropterans like lacewings and antlions.

Mantis comes from Greek for prophet, and mantises are charismatic creatures worldwide. Here they have been called soothsayers, rearhorses, devil-horses (god-horse in the Caribbean), praying locusts, and mulekillers, because their dark saliva was thought to be poisonous (and blinding). In the Southwest they were called campomoche and cortón, rezadora, or just mantis in Spanish. A Japanese name is kamakiri, which appears to combine sickle and “to cut,” but this is a guess about the etymology. Another name is tōrō. T. augustipennis is called Chōsen [Korea] kamakiri in Japanese while T. sinensis is ōkamakiri (presumably big mantis). Praying mantis is la mante religieuse or prie-Dieu in French and Gottesanbeterin in German. A dictionary from ancient Assyria calls them necromancer or soothsayer-grasshoppers. In ancient Egypt the bird-fly was thought to guide the dead and in ancient Greece mantids directed lost travellers. The Southern Africa trickster god !Kaggen could appear as a mantis inspiring an Afrikaans word for mantis, Hottentotsgot. Mantids were apparently more closely observed in East Asia than in Europe and inspired two Chinese martial arts. Mantises appear on ancient Greek coins and in modern monster movies. People today talk about being abducted by mantislike beings. The Carolina mantis is South Carolina’s state insect while Connecticut’s is the praying mantis. Mantises are also popular as insect pets.

This is an excerpt from my article in the July – August issue of Triangle Gardener magazine, available at many libraries, public gardens, and gardening-related stores in the Triangle and posted online at: www.trianglegardener.com

Some resources:

A key to the mantises of Florida, but useful elsewhere:

entnemdept.ufl.edu/choate/mantid_key2_03.pdf

Carolina mantises:

bugguide.net/node/view/4821

Praying mantises:

bugguide.net/node/view/22947

Chinese mantises:

bugguide.net/node/view/12409 

Narrow-winged mantises:

bugguide.net/node/view/22947

Asian jumping mantises (recently found in Virginia and north apparently):

bugguide.net/node/view/1738253

animaldiversity.org/site/accounts/information/Stagmomantis_carolina.html/ (Carolina mantis)

animaldiversity.org/accounts/Tenodera_aridifolia/ (Chinese mantis listed under an old classification or a closely related species)

“Praying mantids of the United Statesn, native and introduced,” a detailed article in the 1950 Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution:

www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/8787514#page/408/mode/1up

“Another Oriental mantis well established in the United States” in the 1933 Entomological News:

www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/20315#page/9/mode/1up

Japanese insect website with many photos:

www.insects.jp/konbunkama.htm

Where the red fire pink blows and other campions in the Triangle

Fire pinks seem to be very rare wildflowers in and around the Northeast Creek basin and possibly throughout the Triangle. I have only come across these bright red flowers with five deeply notched “pink” type petals at two locations in southern Durham County, on the edge of RTP. Fire pinks were the North Carolina Botanical Garden’s 2015 Wildflower of the Year, and free seeds were offered at the time ( ncbg.unc.edu/plants/nc-wildflower-of-the-year/ ; this year’s plant is the American beautyberry), so some might grow near the visitor center, but I haven’t seen them there myself. The first time I came across one of these unusual flowers might have been in May or possibly June off of South Alston not far from the border with Wake County, between the basins of tributaries Burdens Creek and Kit Creek. It might have been on a Sunday morning in late May 2001, also memorable because Sheriff deputies had a roadblock up the road, though there wasn’t much traffic. I stepped off the road along a rocky brook I think of as azalea brook in a somewhat open forest of pines and deciduous trees with sort of ‘dry’ soil where abandoned farmland was reverting back to forest on a late spring/early summer morning. I was familiar with the area because my Dad used to unicycle on a curcuit through the area on Saturday mornings and I sometimes joined by bicycle. The brook flows over slabs of solid bedrock, and the unusual igneous rock intrusions in the area might be the reason fire pinks and other rare flowers have grown there. On a high bank above a sharp bend there was an unusual wildflower maybe 1 to 3 feet high, probably bent over, with sparse leaves and striking red flowers that were sticky on the outside. On another occasion, maybe in the summer, I saw a single small fire pink on the edge of lawn on So Hi Drive near the Creek (maybe this was actually the first one I saw). Several years ago many fire pinks grew in a ditch at the edge of the woods across “Solutions Drive,” former South Alston, from what is now the back gate of the Social Security Administration’s secretive printing facility at 3604 Louis Stephens Drive, but more recently I have only seen yellow Jerusalem artichokes there (native flowers, despite the name). Wildflowers of North Carolina (Second Edition) calls fire pinks “weak perennials” and individual plants don’t seem to live very long. I went back to see the first plant I mentioned one or a few years later and there was no sign of it. I haven’t seen a fire pink in many years; possibly I haven’t been in the right habitat in the right season, but I think they must really be rare or I would come across them more often. They seem to prefer well-drained possibly poor soil with at least part-sun, and being shaded out by trees might be one reason individuals don’t live very long. They might benefit from periodic burning so they can get more sunlight.

Fire pinks (it seems like they could be called firepinks, but at most guides just hyphenate the name), also called Indian pinks and red or scarlet catchflies, are in the pink, campion, or carnation family (the Caryophyllaceae), as is star chickweed, a somewhat common early spring woodland wildflower, and several other sometimes showy flowers that should be found in the Triangle, though I haven’t encountered them myself. Like carnations and other pinks, fire pinks have opposite (paired) leaves and the stems are swollen at these nodes. The leaves are rounded and without serrations and when not in flower the plant is a clump of basal leaves. Fire pinks and related flowers often have a swollen calyx (the green sepals around the base of a flower) to varying degrees. Pink refers to their deeply notched petals, sometimes so deeply notched that they appear to have many petals, as is the case with star chickweed, not to their sometimes pink or red colors. “Pink” probably relates to pinking, as in pinking shears, scissors that make a zigzag cut in cloth, similar to the petal shape of many pinks. Catchfly refers to the stickiness of many of these species, not always around the flowers.

Fire pink’s scientific name is Silene virginica; it is unclear whether the generic name Silene refers to the Greek mythological figure Silenus, chief of the woodland satyrs and foster father and teacher of Dionysus, the god of wine, or to saliva (sialon in Greek), because of the stickiness. Both interpretations could be correct. The eFloras website says these flowers were or are called seilenos in Greek, possibly because Silenus got drunk and foaming. All About Alabama Wildflowers, an informative book that covers propagating and growing many wildflowers, compares distinctive projections low on the petals to hooves, satyrs sometimes sometimes being described as hooved. Both the genus and this species were named by Carl Linnaeus.

There are several species of native and introduced Silene in North Carolina, as well as less closely related flowers. Silene that might be found in the Triangle include the starry campion, also called star silene or widow’s frill (S. stellata); bladder campion or maiden’s-tears (S. cucubalus); sleepy catchfly (S. antirrhina); wild pink (S. caroliniana; it can hybridize with the fire pink); and night-flowering catchfly or sticky cockle (S. noctiflora). None are bright red, but in the Midwest royal catchfly, also called wild pink (S. regia), is another bright red Silene, and there are related flowers in the West that have been called Indian or fire pinks. Non-native bladder campions are named for their very enlarged calyx, and have also been called bird’s-eggs, fairy-potatoes, and rattle-bags. Also in the Triangle there might be non-native corn-cockles (Agrostemma githago) and mullein pink or dusty-miller (Lychnis coronaria). Lychnis comes from the Greek for flame, lamp, or light, another fiery color reference. White campion, also called evening lychnis or white cockle (L. alba), can be found elsewhere in the Carolinas. Species of Lychnis and Silene are very similar and are sometimes classified in one genus. There could also be soapwort or bouncing bet (Saponaria officinalis), both names related to how it produces a soapy lather in water (bouncing bets were washerwomen).

There are many related native and non-native chickweeds, in more than one genus, and while they are probably best known as household weeds star chickweed is a bright white wildflower blooming in older woodlands along Northeast Creek around now, and stands out as the forest floor is cast into shade later this month. Its scientific name is Stellaria pubera; the generic name refers to stars and the specific name might refer to its minute fuzziness or puberulence. It is also called giant or great chickweed, wood starwort (some other chickweeds are also called starworts), winterweed, and birdseed and has five petals, but they are so deeply notched that five seems to be ten. Introduced common chickweed or starwort, S. media, is eaten by chickens and other birds (and so it has been called “the hen’s inheritance,” according to A Sampler of Wayside Herbs), and there is grass-leaf chickweed, also called lesser or common stitchwort, S. graminea, another non-native, as well as native and non-native mouse-ear chickweeds in the genus Cerastium.

Related Dianthus, such as carnations (D. caryophyllus), sweet william (D. barbatus), and the (garden) pink (D. plumarius) are common ornamental relatives from the Old World with many cultural associations around the world, including with International Workers’ Day (May 1st, labor day in many countries), International Women’s Day (March 8th), Mother’s Day (May 9th this year), both weddings and funerals, and carnations are one of January’s birth flowers. Sweet william and pinks grow wild in parts of the Carolinas, and Deptford pinks or grass pinks (D. armeria), another European introduction, can be found in the Triangle, according to the Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. D. superbus, native from Europe to Japan, is called nadeshiko in Japanese, and Yamato nadeshiko refers to Japan’s traditional feminine ideal (Yamato is one of the many old names for Japan) and the national women’s soccer team is nicknamed Nadeshiko Japan.

A fire pink flower has five petals (with distinctive projections around the flower’s green throat), five sepals, ten male stamens, three female styles, and the deep tubular throat of the flower is ribbed longitudinally. The flowers are arranged in a wide and loose cluster called a cyme, in which the center flowers open first, and a fire pink probably has blooms over several weeks, producing flowers and ripe seedheads at the same time. Each flower can yield several brown seeds, in a bell-shaped capsule with six teeth at the top. There doesn’t seem to be any special means to spread the seeds, yet they seemed to spread far along that stretch of South Alston in only a few years, though there might have been more plants than I knew about.

According to Wildflowers of North Carolina, fire pinks can bloom April – July. The Illinois Wildflowers website ( www.illinoiswildflowers.info/woodland/plants/firepink.htm ) hypothesizes that they are pollinated by ruby-throated hummingbirds and larger butterflies, which would make sense given their bright red color and tubular shape. It seems surprising that these relatively small flowers growing in dry soil would produce enough nectar to satisfy a hummingbird. The stickiness should deter ants and other insects from stealing the nectar without transferring pollen, as well as deterring pests. Bees can steal nectar by biting through the sides of flowers, such as morning glories and probably also coral honeysuckles, another red spring and summer flower, but fire pinks might be toughened against this. A Field Book of American Wild Flowers (first printed in 1902) says white starry campions attract clouded sulphurs, a medium-sized yellow butterfly, and moths. Some related campions, such as night-flowering catchfly and white campion, as well as soapwort, are stark white and fragrant, to attract moths, specifically including sphinx moths in the case of soapwort (according to A Naturalist’s Guide to Field Plants).

Fire pink flowers have both male and female parts (a perfect flower), but other Silene species have been used in the study of the genetic determination of sex in plants (and they have sex chromosomes similar to our own, though the phenotypic results can be much more complex than just producing male or female flowers) and they suffer from a sexually transmitted fungal disease that causes sterility. Some species of Silene also have exceptionally large or even the largest known mitochondrial genomes (these genes control a eukaryotic cell’s powerplants, the mitochondria, which might have originally been free-living prokaryotic cells).

I haven’t come across any information about herbivores of fire pinks. There are also seemingly few recorded cultural uses or associations with fire pinks. Fire pinks were apparently considered poisonous by some Indian groups, possibly because fire pinks were conflated with pink-root (Spigelia marilandica), also called Indian pink, a five-petalled red and cream-colored flower related to the early spring-blooming and poisonous (if eaten) yellow jessamine vine, South Carolina’s state flower. Pink-root and possibly fire pink were used to drive out intestinal worms. For some reason starry campion was once used to treat copperhead and rattlesnake bites, but this treatment has long been called useless. Old World campions, including bladder campion, were thought to have the power to stun scorpions and neutralize their stings, and maybe this idea was transferred to snakes. The leaves of both bladder campion and chickweeds can be eaten after boiling (some chickweeds are eaten raw). Reportedly people on the Spanish Mediterranean island of Minorca lived on bladder campion after locusts consumed their crops. Chickweed is or was even considered “a delicacy” in Europe, sold in markets and substituted for spinach (according to Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge Parkway). Several of these plants contain saponins, ranging from a poisonous level in soapwort to just adding a little bitterness in bladder campion. Saponins are surfactants and soapwort really can be used for cleaning, and has been called fuller’s herb for its use in the fulling (cleaning and thickening) of wool cloth.

The reason to think about fire pinks early this spring is because three rezoning requests will probably be coming up near where fire pinks have been found. First, a few years ago Durham County bought the large flat field bordered by NC 55, TW Alexander Drive, and two stubs of what was South Alston, “Solutions Drive” and “Experiment Drive.” Until about 13 years ago this was a large hill covered with a young pine forest; a house near the top had a commanding view up and down 55, with a few mimosas, sumacs, black locusts, or the like and winged elms over grass and herbs down to the highway, while blackberries bloomed along TW Alexander in April. The hill was blasted away day and night, reportedly trucked away as fill for NC’s first modern toll road and whatever was left was deposited in the abandoned claypit a short distance southwest across 55, on what was the continuation of South Alston into Wake County. I remember hearing it from miles away on balmy late spring or early summer evenings. When I went by the corner in late May it had already been mostly levelled, with a whitish or pale cliff at the south end. I think they were reported to the police several times for noise heard further west. Blasting the igneous and sedimentary innards of the hill might have rattled the County’s Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant, across 55 and dumping into Northeast Creek. There were plans for residential construction or a commercial strip mall at the corner, shown on some maps, but nothing was ever built. The site, about 40 acres, is addressed as 451 TW Alexander, 6001 NC 55, and 6026 Experiment Drive, probably where the farm’s driveway was (these parcels can be searched for through Durham’s Interactive Maps durhamnc.gov/1455/Interactive-Maps ). I thought management at the Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant wanted the land for a sludge-drying facility, a valuable feature the plant currently lacks, but a community virtual meeting February 18th was about rezoning the site to Office and Industrial (from residential, commercial, and office zonings) for “a new Durham County Public Works Administration Building.” I was the only person who ‘attended’ the meeting. The presenters gave basically no information beyond what was in the brief Planning Department announcement about the meeting. I said what needed to be said, but I had a feeling that I had been insulted and there seemed to be little point to the meeting. Based on the very little that was said, I don’t have an objection to building an office building, but as I said then, it would be good if the landscaping fit with the unique features of the site, or if wildflowers were allowed to colonize the site naturally, and it seems likely that an office building wouldn’t take up all of the land. I haven’t seen any fire pinks at the site, but they could be there. Buttercups and probably Lespedeza or bush clover are abundant in the field and woodland spring ephemerals are currently blooming along a rock-lined stream I could call cane stream. The field used to be mown periodically, but even after that ended trees have been slow to return, and probably little real soil was left after the hill and its topsoil was carried away.

Business interests want to rezone a vast area of Triangle Brick Company land a short distance south of the above site, extending from the east side off 55, just south of the intersection of the new Hopson Road and 55, through the abandoned claypit off Greenlevel Church Road (formerly South Alston), as far west as the top of the ridge that can be seen from the Grandale Road bridge over Northeast Creek, a site that could be in all more than a mile across. Some of the land might not be in Durham County, but I think the proposal calls for building only in Durham. I’m suspicious about what such a project would mean for the land owned by the Wrenn family further west, along Grandale and Wake roads. Both of these vast areas were clearcut, the Triangle Brick Co.’s land around summer 2010 and the Wrenn land maybe in 2018 or before. The land immediately around Northeast Creek is owned by the Federal government and managed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission as gameland and on the west side of 55 a large area is owned by Durham County. I think I was one of only two community members ‘attending’ the virtual meeting on January 26th, but the well-known lawyer Patrick Byker, the main presenter, must not have known I was there. I think the figure given was that this “assemblage” is in all 241 acres, and they want it all rezoned Light Industrial (some of it is currently Rural Residential) and annexed by the City of Durham, to build a business park with five to six short office or industrial buildings (similar to those built recently at the corner of Hopson and 54, I think it was said by the same company), with construction in stages, starting in the spring of 2022. These low-lying gamelands are NC Natural Heritage Program inventory sites, and this discouraged residential construction on Scott King Road near the Tobacco Trail about ten years ago (but a DPS elementary school will soon be built at the “Scott Mill” site). The bottomlands periodically inundated by Jordan Lake for flood control are protected as public lands, but species living on the protected land could be lost if they also need the surrounding rural uplands to live or if they require a larger habitat than just what is preserved on the government lands. A stark example is provided by two very large woodpeckers. Pileated woodpeckers don’t seem to like built up areas, but I often hear their calls along Northeast Creek and elsewhere in the Triangle and occasionally see one, while ivory-billed woodpeckers, which are much larger but similar in appearance, are now more like rumors or apparitions than living birds and might be completely extinct. The related Cuban ivory-billed woodpecker, a subspecies or a separate species, might also be extinct, as might the related imperial woodpecker of Mexico, apparently the largest woodpecker in the world if it still exists. I saw something like a breeding chuck-will’s-widow or whippoorwill in a scrap of woods at the school site on Scott King Road, rural birds that I thought had been driven out of the region (the bird, I assume a hen, was obviously trying to lead me away from a nest or chicks hidden nearby). The NHP inventory reports note nesting black-and-white warblers and probably nesting sharp-shinned hawks and the presence of ribbon snakes as rare animal species in the area, as well as Douglass’ bittercress and other state or regionally rare or unusual plants, and there were otters and mink along the Creek, but the area hasn’t been surveyed since 1999. The most recent Durham report recommends that “Preservation of upland buffers along the edges of the bottomlands should be given a high priority. These slopes provide denning areas for terrestrial species, as well as refuges during periods of high water” while the 1999 Jordan Lake Inventory recommends that “No more utility corridors should be allowed in the area” along Northeast Creek between 55 and 751, and a project south of the Creek there would probably require new Durham water and sewer connections and lift stations to get over the hills, and maybe new electrical infrastructure as well. I think there was discussion of building a utility easement through here for 751 South at one point and earlier there was discussion of a road extension.

Lastly, during this economic crisis there is a rezoning proposal at the intersection of Northeast Creek Parkway and So Hi Drive (2102 So Hi Drive, on the south, RTP side of the intersection), near the Triangle Curling Club building and extending towards the intersection of Northeast Creek Parkway and East Cornwallis Road. Northeast Creek flows through this large, long undisturbed wooded site and the site also includes a small amount of land on the north side of the Parkway. It is owned by Parmer Woodlands 3 LLC, with an address in Carlsbad, California. Similarly named LLCs with the same address own much of the north end of RTP and March 23rd there was a Board of Adjustment hearing over rear parking lot landscaping at a very large project already being built a short distance beyond the Creek, but hidden by the forest (it has the addresses 2152 and 2362 So Hi Drive and 224 Northeast Creek Parkway, but doesn’t seem to connect, at least for now). I must have been the only person ‘attending’ the community meeting, which was also the evening of February 18th. They want the site rezoned as Science Research Park, from Rural Residential, to build two office buildings, but it was not entirely clear if the proposal is to build along the road, so Northeast Creek wouldn’t be crossed. I have seen many locally rare plants nearby, including horsetails, liverwort (the non-flowering plant), toothworts, Hepatica (a pale blue early spring flower sometimes called liverleaf or liverwort), star chickweed, at least one large Catawba Rhododendron (it is unclear if someone planted it long ago or if it really is the last of its kind along Northeast Creek, and a few years ago it was narrowly missed by a logging road), serviceberries (probably done blooming by now; their fruit is apparently a favorite food of chuck-will’s-widows), spicebushes, Penstemons, and umbrellatrees, deciduous magnolias with huge leaves that usually bloom by the start of May. Umbrellatrees seem to be much more common in Wake County than west, and perhaps fire pinks are also more common in the Neuse River basin. There are numerous beaver ponds, some visible from Northeast Creek Parkway near Cornwallis. These two ends of RTP where fire pinks grow (or grew) are also some of the few places where there are pinxterflowers, deciduous native azaleas a bit more common than fire pinks, with elegant honeysuckle-like nearly white to light pink or purple, fragrant flowers in late April, another sight to see before the Silene’s fiery red as summer’s heat begins.