The irony is that one of the lessons we learned from the 2008 event was to have a rain date in our pocket. We did. But the weather forecast for the 27th was just as bad as for the 26th. That the actual weather on one day turned out so much nicer than the other just points out the folly of placing too much reliance on weather forecasts.  There are probably some lessons to be learned from the 2009 festival.  When we eventually dry out we’ll try to decipher them.

This is the most beautiful time of year at Greenfield Lake. And to help you experience the lake at its most glorious CFRW has scheduled two special 90 minute Photographers’ Tours of the lake in our new electric boat. The first tour will be on Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00am.  Take advantage of the last week before the end of Daylight Savings Time to see Greenfield at it’s most mysterious and peaceful. The morning mist rising off the mirror smooth lake and mixing with the Spanish Moss in the autumn cypress is a photo op not to be missed. Throw in alligators, egrets, herons, anhingas, turtles, cormorants etc.  and it’s worth getting up early. 

The new electric boat is ideal for this kind of tour: smooth, stable, silent, non-polluting, and vibration free. Each tour will be led by CFRW’s Program Director and staff naturalist Joe Abbate so if something is out there, you’ll see it.  Contact Joe at 910-762-5606 for reservations or e-mail him at joe@cfrw.us. 

Cost for these tours is $15/person for members, $20 for non-members.

For those true environmentalists who recognized that rain is a part of the environment and can’t get enough of the great music, click on the links for the bands’ homepages and full schedules – no need to wait for 2009.

L Shape Acoustic – Wow.  Two guys and two guitars is a pretty simple formula to produce a LOT of good music.  Catch the full band (L Shape Lot, with rhythm section) on October 16th at WHQR or at October 24th’s Downtown Sundown Celebration.

Ron Etheridge and Travis Shallow – Two more guys and two more guitars – and the formula doesn’t get tired. Watch for these guys around Wrightsville Beach and check out their videos.

Sera Harold – Sera shares an office with River Watch as part of her day job so we already knew she was pretty cool. Now everybody else knows it as well.

Daniel Parish – If you follow the Wilmington music scene at all you already knew Daniel Parish was the real thing. Look for him at Wilson’s on a fairly regular basis.

The Cedar Circuit -  Cedar, Cypress, whatever. Who knew that acoustic and funk went together so well?

The Clams – Never mind the clown hair, the gorilla mask, or the local celebrity on guitar – these guys were the real thing. Look for them playing at the Latino Festival.

After School Special – It was dark, it was raining, people had been dancing in the rain for 7 hours and were tired. That’s a tough crowd and After School Special owned them heart and soul from the first beat. What a great finish. Look for A.S.S. at 16 Taps on Halloween and next day at the Battleship for the Triathlon.

To that end Cape Fear River Watch is sponsoring the First Annual Greenfield Lake Cypress Festival on Saturday, October 11th.  This will be an all day event at the Greenfield Lake Amphitheater featuring live music, displays by various local environmentally minded organizations, an eco-treasure hunt, pirate storytelling, cypress walks, food and beverages, discounted paddle boat rides and who knows what else.

Individual tickets are $8 in advance or $10 at the gate.  Family pack tickets are $20 in advance or $25 day of show.

If you’d like to attend, exhibit, perform, volunteer or just ask some questions, check out the festival’s very own myspace page and then call Joe Abbate at 910-200-4002.

Name the Boat

Cape Fear River Watch is now the proud owner of a new (to us) non-emitting, battery powered, electric excursion boat on Greenfield Lake. This will be a big step up in both comfort and capacity from the big red electric canoe CFRW has been using to conduct tours of the lake.  The boat still needs a few upgrades/fixes before it’s ready for passengers (little things like seats and extra battery capacity need to be added) but it will soon be cleanly and silently plying the waters of Wilmington’s urban cypress eco-system taking passengers in search of migrating waterfowl, big ‘gators, ancient trees or photogenic scenes, depending on the tour and the time of year.

What the boat needs next is a name.  So we’re announcing our first ever “Name the Electric Boat” contest.  Kids under 16 are invited to send in their suggestions for the new boat’s name.  The name should suggest Greenfield’s alligators. The winner will receive a free Greenfield Lake Gator Tour for up to 6 guests.  The winning entry will be chosen by the RIVERKEEPER and announced at the Cypress Festival.  Send your entries to nametheboat@cfrw.us.

Go ahead. Read that sentence again. 7,000 pounds. Now consider that 2 of those 3 clean-ups took place in the cold rain. Granted, the volunteer crews did knock off at noon on the rainy days rather than the usual 1:00pm, but that kind of dedication is worthy of recognition and applause. Go ahead. Clap.

In addition to the usual assemblage of plastic bags, styrofoam cups, fast food wrappers, bottles, cans and discarded car tires, volunteers have picked up television and computer remnants, the discarded front door to somebody’s house, and a full and sealed IV bag. Enough trash had accumulated in a tributary of Smith Creek near Maides Park to effectively dam the creek. River Watch volunteers removed the trash dam and restored flow to the creek.

Where does it go from here? April’s clean-up is scheduled to take place at Greenfield Lake on April 19th (the Saturday closest to Earth Day.) Judging from the effectiveness of the River Watch volunteers thus far in 2008 and the experience of previous years’ clean-ups at Greenfield Lake, the City of Wilmington had best send more than one dump truck to remove the expected trash haul. The recent low water in the lake due to repairs to the outfall dam has shown that too much of the lake’s more than 5 miles of shoreline is strewn with trash. CFRW is hoping for/expecting a big turn-out to put a big dent in that mess. It’s little early to make real predictions, but so far the long range forecast is calling for sunshine and temperatures in the 70s. We’re due.
Greenfield Lake is one of the hidden jewels of Wilmington and it shines even more beautifully in the spring when the cypress begins to leaf, the dogwood blooms under the long leaf pine canopy, and the thousands of azalea bushes that ring the lake explode in color. It’s about the prettiest spot in the world to pick up trash.

As with previous years’ Greenfield clean-ups, this years effort will include both land and water components. Since so much of the lake’s shoreline is approachable only by water, many volunteers will be using canoes and kayaks to get where the trash lies. For those who aren’t comfortable plying waters of a lake with multiple 14 foot alligators in a tippy canoe, there will still be plenty of trash to pick up on shore. Sometimes it seems that azalea bushes exist solely to catch blowing McDonalds wrappers.

If you’d like more information about how you can help with April’s big Greenfield Lake cleanup contact either Bill Murray or Joe Abbate at River Watch. Until then, just consider that first number again, 7,000 lbs, and take your hats off to a great crew of volunteers.

CFCC’s Hydrographic Surveying class used Greenfield Lake as a lab last month and produced what is likely the first subsurface map of the lake in . . . well, forever. It’s a great map. Who’d have thought that the relic stream meanders would still be so well defined some 200 years after the lake was first flooded? Thanks to Tim Shaw and his class for this image.

The one hour tours are led by trained and experienced birders and cost $15/person. Tours operate on Thursdays and Saturdays through February, or by special appointment, leaving the dock at 11:00am, Noon and 1:00pm with a special “roosting hour” tour leaving approximately 4:00pm.

As the canoe can hold only the guide and four passengers, reservations are required. Call Joe Abbate at 910-762-5606 or 910-200-4002 to make arrangements.

8 watershed cleanups completed. 141 volunteers worked a total of 557 hours to remove more than 202 bags of trash from various watersheds.
Held a workshop for Stormwater Services employees. This was a hands-on workshop completed in cooperation with NC State University Extension Service. The employees learned two techniques 1) how to stabilize stream banks using native vegetation and 2) how to harvest and use plant materials from City wetland areas.
10 public seminars were completed with 159 participants.
11 school field trips programs completed with 193 student participants in a variety of educational experiences at Greenfield Lake.
61 Greenfield Lake eco-tours completed with between 250 to 300 people learning about the flora, fauna at Greenfield Lake and its water quality challenges.
We were an active partner in the Burnt Mill Creek program. Five large BMPs were installed in cooperation with the NC State Extension Service. Six backyard rain gardens were completed in the Bottoms neighborhood.
36 Enviroscape presentations were completed. We brought this water quality educational experience to more than 844 students. We spent 236 volunteer hours and staff time completing these presentations.
We contributed speakers to the Birch Creek Week program.
9 Greenfield Lake Monitoring reports were completed with photo documentation.