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Looking down into the floodplain in
late March. The buckeyes are leafing out and the trout lilies are
about done blooming ©.
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Swampy forest left between Burdens
Creek and the Duke Health building, visible on the right. Amphibians
breed in these seasonal pools and there are many wildflowers, but
this young forest also has more non-native plants than the forest on
the west side of Alston, for example the Japanese honeysuckle visible
here ©.
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On the west side of Alston there were a few small houses, but today only one is left, overlooking the bridge at Burdens Creek. At the crest of the hill a house surrounded by woods was used as a daycare for a long time, but was replaced by a complex with three brick buildings (5310 South Alston Avenue) in about 2002. It apparently won a 2003 Merit Award in the North Carolina Architectural Competition, sponsored by the Brick Association of NC (but I can only find one reference: www.loopnet.com/Listing/14218503/5310-South-Alston-Avenue-Building-100-Durham-NC/ ; other photos at: www.loopnet.com/Listing/19797681/5310-S-Alston-Avenue-Durham-NC/ ). I think I read once that the office complex was designed by Durham's Freelon Group, Inc., and it houses their office, merged with Perkins+Will in 2014. The complex had been listed as belonging to The Dilweg Companies, LLC ( www.dilweg.com/ ), with offices in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, and a focus on office buildings, but in recent years the owner has been listed as I-LOFT RTP LLC, based in Suite 210, the same address as Dilweg's Corporate Office. I was thrown out of this complex once, which I attribute to white collar bias. Parts of the complex are listed as belonging to the Life Community Church of RTP NC INC (with an RTP address; I haven't seen any activity at building 100, on the south end, but it is apparently Life International's Global Leaders Center). John S Carbone LLC (in nearby Morrisville) and CCR Durham Land Holdings (in Santa Monica, California) are also listed as owners, and other companies lease office space. There are few wildflowers in the remaining young, piney woods surrounding the complex, but the property lines extend down the slope behind the buildings and across the floodplain where there is older deciduous forest with more floral diversity.
There is a lot of privately-owned open
space in Durham, even in the urban core, often owned by companies far
from North Carolina. In urban areas there is the similar issue of
public spaces that are increasingly privately-owned, so people can be
deprived of rights more easily than in truly public city squares and
parks. There is also the issue that volunteers can freely pick up
trash in a park, but could be barred by private owners, even if the
owners refuse to take responsibility themselves. There are a few
more or less working farms in Durham (and more in nearby Orange
County), but the non-built up parts of Durham are mostly long
abandoned farmland now returned to forest, probably because farming
so close to an urban center became cost prohibitive. Over the
decades a lot of “development” in Durham has been on this former
farmland at the periphery. Durham had two malls, to which was added
Southpoint Mall at the south end of the County, so Durham briefly had
three malls, and at least two more close by in neighboring counties,
but then older South Square Mall closed and that site still hasn't
been completely re-developed, so Durham is back to having only two
malls. Supposedly sprawl wasn't going to spread from Southpoint, but
that is what seems to be happening, even before the General Assembly
forced Durham to accept 751 South few years ago. It has only been
relatively recently, maybe in the last 10 to 20 years, that there has
been much building downtown, in the abandoned ruins of the tobacco
industry and open spaces.
The main concern is next to the
offices, at the Falls Pointe at the Park Apartments (100 Cascade
Falls Lane, www.fallspointeattheparkapartments.com/
, formerly fallspointeapartments.com/ ). I thought they were built
after the office complex, but property records say Falls Pointe was
built around 2001. For several years if not from the beginning Falls
Pointe belonged to The NRP Group, LLC ( www.nrpgroup.com/
), based in Cleveland, Ohio and having 16 offices, all in the East,
including one office in NC (4515 Falls of Neuse Road Suite 100
Raleigh, NC 27609). According to property records, the complex was
sold (by subsidiaries NRP Alston Village, LLC and NRP Alston
Management, LLC) April 25, 2018 to Fairfield Residential (
http://www.fairfieldresidential.com/
), based in San Diego, California (5510 Morehouse Drive Suite 200 San
Diego, California 92121), although the actual owner is a subsidiary
called Fairfield Falls Pointe LLC, with the same San Diego address.
NRP still owns a large area of floodplain that surely cannot be built
on, perhaps as mitigation for construction elsewhere (last sold
December 27, 2000, presumably the date when they originally acquired
the land). This article mainly covers the period under NRP
management, and it is possible things will improve, but there was
still plenty of trash in the woods in the fall. Before the
apartments were built there were about two small houses near the
road, with a large field of tawny broomsedge and lawn in between, and
young lobolly pines, red cedars, and maybe a thicket of sumac or
blackberries towards the back, but this mostly flat area drops off
steeply to the edge of the swampy floodplain west and northwest,
forming what can be called Burdens Creek Bluff. Older deciduous
hardwoods grow on the slope and in the floodplain. A slough,
probably a former course of Burdens Creek, runs along the base of the
Bluff, which slopes more or less steeply down from the apartments,
with some natural terraces.
Behind Falls Pointe the hillside has a
lot of plant diversity, and is literally covered with flowers in
early spring, probably because of atypical soil weathered from
igneous rocks that intruded into the surrounding sedimentary rocks
millions of years ago; the long time the forest was left mostly
undisturbed; and the cool, moist microclimate formed by the steep,
generally northwest-facing hillside. Some flowers can bloom as early
as December, but definitely by March yellow trout lilies densely
cover the slope, especially at the top, while lower down there are
numerous grasslike spring beauties with white flowers that open when
it is sunny. Relatively rare toothworts, another white to pinkish
flower, are common on a moist terrace and there are rare pennyworts.
Other spring flowers include rue anemone (also known as windflower, a
forb with white flowers that nod in the wind), purple-colored
violets, saxifrage, and possibly relatively rare white star
chickweed, related to the rare firepinks once found down the road.
The blue or lavender to white flowers of Hepatica, formed by sepals
rather than petals, can appear as early as December or January.
Hepatica and evergreen wild ginger have leathery leaves with
interesting marbled patterns as if for camouflage. Trout lilies also
have striking leaves, finely dappled like the sides of a native brook
trout, only visible in spring. Trout lilies are also known as
dogtooth violets, but are lilies. Many of these native wildflowers
are relatively rare in the Triangle and are very abundant here.
Being flowers of older woodlands and early blooming (several are
spring ephemerals, perennials that only appear aboveground for a
short time, before the trees leaf out), they are probably unknown to
most people today.
Five hundred years ago these flowers
and species now entirely absent might have grown all over what is now
Durham, but agriculture and overharvesting are probably the reasons
they are now restricted to older woodlands near waterways.
Overgrazing by deer might be another factor, and the scarcity of
predators (due to human persecution and habitat loss, but some
remain) or areas where deer can be hunted allowed their population to
boom. Catesby's trilliums, if not other species of trillium, are
supposed to grow in the Triangle, but I have never seen any, except
for a dark red species growing along woodland trails at the NC
Botanical Garden, presumably planted. Further west, Randolph County
must be full of them, if they can allow acres of trilliums to be
drowned under recently impounded Lake Randelman, on the Deep River
south of Greensboro and north of the town of Randleman (
ptrwa.org/index.htm ), from what I have heard.
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| Trout lilies and some spring beauty leaves in late February ©. |
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A few toothworts and spring beauties
still blooming in late March and there are many trout lilies not
blooming and a sprig of strawberry bush ©.
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Spring beauties in bloom and trout lily
foliage ©.
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Toothwort, rue anemone, and spring
beauty flowers ©.
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The forest floor in April is carpeted
with blooming spring beauties along with many other wildflowers, not blooming, such as pink wood sorrel ©.
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Later in the spring pink wood sorrel, mayapples, alumroot, and Solomon's seal (or a relative) bloom, while at the foot of the hill there seem to be Atamasco or Easter lilies. I have heard that these large white lilies used to be abundant at what is now the Greenwood Commons shopping center nearby. There is a huge patch of dwarf crested irises, though they might be too shaded to flower. There could be some Carolina blue bluets around, a relatively common spring flower, though I haven't noticed many in recent years. Cranefly orchids have leaves that are dark green on top and bright purple below during the cool months, but are leafless by the time they flower in summer. Beechdrops also bloom in summer and are always leafless, being parasitic on beech tree roots. There are jack-in-the-pulpits in the bottomlands. Spring is the best time for flowers at the Bluff, but some composites bloom in the summer and fall when there is mostly heavy shade.
Dark evergreen Christmas ferns grow
near the foot of the hill, and there are a few other ferns. Large
igneous boulders at the top of the slope are covered with clinging
resurrection ferns, so-called because their thick leaves can shrivel
up, but resurrect green and flat again later. There are also a few
spleenworts amid the rocks and even growing out of small cracks.
There is little if any poison ivy on the hillside. In May bright red
coral honeysuckle blooms along the forest edge behind the apartments,
as do very large strawberry or hearts a'bustin (with love) bushes,
named for their spiny, hot pink capsules that dangle red-orange seeds
in the fall; their flowers are much less spectacular. The shrub
layer also includes lots of painted buckeyes that have yellow flowers
in March, visited by bumblebees; maple-leaf viburnums that have
clusters of white flowers in May; and pawpaws, possibly the dwarf
variety. Taller pawpaw groves are common along nearby creeks and
have large, cloying, bananalike fruit in late summer. The hillside
has a few scattered dogwoods, redbuds, and fringetrees that bloom in
March and April when they get enough light down in the understory.
Overhead there are various oaks, hickories, American beech, ash,
sugar maples, and a large black walnut, surrounded by legumes during
the summer.
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Resurrection ferns, cranefly orchids,
trout lilies, coral honeysuckle, and other plants at the top of the
Bluff ©.
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Frogs and probably also salamanders
breed in the pools below the Bluff in early spring. Marbled
salamanders and small snakes shelter under debris on the moist
hillside. Eastern newts, seemingly rare in this part of Durham, have
been found in the neighborhood, and much more common Eastern box
turtles can also be found. By late summer large brown mosquitoes
make going into the forest problematic, but there are also many
fireflies and large black damselflies, the territorial males jet
black with bodies that flash with blue and green iridescence in the
forest shade. In the large area of bottomland forest barred owls,
hawks, migratory yellow-bellied sapsuckers, herons, and other birds
can be heard or seen at various times. There could be wood ducks,
pileated woodpeckers, prothonotary warblers, woodcocks, and even
turkeys. River otters are said to live in relatively small and clear
(except when it turned opaque and yellow as 540 was being built
upstream) Burdens Creek. There are many crayfish and fish in the
Creek, and probably freshwater mussels, though the main species might
be an Asian species. There are also beavers. Once in these woods I
suddenly found myself walking along next to a possum during the day
and there are raccoons and deer. With the people there are also
feral or pet cats. Maybe there are nocturnal flying squirrels, and
there must be flocks of moths and katydids on summer nights,
Urbanization must be reducing their numbers, but I see a lot on
Hopson Road on summer nights.
Fortunately the richest and oldest
woods were mostly left alone when the apartments and offices were
built, but the apartments come very close to the edge of the slope,
which people seem to take as an invitation to dump their trash, and
NRP never seemed much troubled by it. Landscaping contractors dumped
fallen leaves, uprooted bushes, excess soil, etc., though one of
NRP's local managers claimed they were against this (it seems like
they should have been in control of their own contractors). The
large debris piles take years to decompose, so plants underneath are
killed, and this debris propagates non-native bushes into the woods.
People go to these piles and dump trash, or throw it just inside the
forest edge or over the slope. Maybe a year or two ago one brush
pile had a lot of disposable diapers and the one next to it a lot of
bagged pet waste, leading to the question of which is worse, the
fecal coliform bacteria and pathogens or the plastic that won't
decompose or fragment for a very long time. At various times there
have been small piles of kitchen garbage, mattresses, furniture, a
sofa, a broken wall mirror, rugs, tools, cellphones, a wrecked
laptop, a computer monitor, batteries, plastic food packaging,
plastic and glass bottles, cans, pots, shoes, etc. The complex has a
central trash compactor and recycling center and they must have rules
about trash disposal. NRP's local management claimed they cleaned up
trash something like once or twice a year, probably meaning at most
only a few feet into the trees, even though NRP owned and still owns
a large area of the forest. The only reason there isn't more trash
there now is because volunteers clean up some of it, mainly the
plastic, one to three times a year. A few years ago Durham County
passed a law forcing people to clean up excessive trash or aesthetic
'problems' on their land, and that helped here three years ago. The
law is probably aimed more at penalizing homeowners, who may be poor,
old, or prefer unconventional or naturalistic, wildlife-friendly
landscaping, rather than companies that don't care about trash as
long as it isn't in front of their offices. Besides the trash,
herbicide is or was periodically sprayed along the forest edge and
chemicals are probably spread on the lawns. Native solitary bees,
providers of valuable and free pollination services, dug their
burrows in one spot. Some stormwater is sent over the hillside,
causing erosion, though I have seen worse though probably legal
examples, such as behind the Phillips Research Park Apartments,
located on a hill off Ellis Road at the north end of RTP, also
surrounded by biologically rich older woodland, and at the Old
Chatham Golf Club in Chatham County, though that might have been
corrected by now.
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Some of this is snow, but most of it is
trash thrown behind Falls Pointe in winter 2010 ©.
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A few volunteers picked up some trash
that spring (photo) and in the fall ©.
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Trash picked up in spring 2015 (there
were other cleanups through 2018 not shown) ©.
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Here is a pile of yard waste and trash
that same spring ©.
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Three mattresses thrown in a brush
pile, a sofa, a burned bicycle, etc. dragged out of the woods in fall
2015 ©.
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A pile of trash in summer 2017 ©.
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Having corporate offices far away, selling frequently, and creating subsidiaries helps those in control avoid accountability while generating capital. The land, created by nature over an eternity, is seen as a commodity, something created only for exchange on a market, rather than for its use-value, as the common environment humanity and the rest of nature inhabits. I did a short search to see what Marx said regarding the natural environment, and, among other works, there is a chapter of The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 (International Publishers, 1964, reprinted 1984, page 101 – 102; another translation is posted online at: www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/rent.htm ), containing some of his early writing. This passage is mainly about land used for agriculture and the transition from feudal landed property to capitalist commodification of the land, as is common around the world today, and especially in the USA, created out of colonies with few or no leftover feudal relations, after the land had been basically seized from its native inhabitants, who also had few or no feudal relations. Marx writes without sentimentality about the transition from feudalism to capitalism, which can then be replaced by socialism: “It is necessary that this appearance be abolished [“the semblance of a more intimate connection between the proprietor and the land than that of mere material wealth” and the “political” and “human, intimate” connection between the proprietor and his serfs] … ”that all personal relationship between the proprietor and his property cease, property becoming merely objective, material wealth; that the marriage of convenience should take the place of the marriage of honor with the land; and that land should likewise sink to the status of a commercial value, like man. It is essential that that which is the root of landed property – filthy self-interest – make its appearance, too, in its cynical form. It is essential that the immovable monopoly turn into the mobile and restless monopoly, into competition; and that the idle enjoyment of other peoples' blood and toil turn into a bustling commerce in the same commodity ... The medieval proverb nulle terre sans seigneur [there is no land without its lord] is thereby replaced by that other proverb, l'argent n'a pas de maître [money knows no no master], wherein is expressed the complete domination of dead matter over mankind,” domination over both the landowner and the worker. Later he writes that “Association,” replacing capitalist relations, has both economy of scale and equality, and “reestablishes, now on a rational basis, no longer mediated by serfdom, overlordship and the silly mysticism of property, the intimate ties of man with the earth, since the earth ceases to be an object of huckstering...” There is extensive discussion of the false view of land and other economic factors as commodities in The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by economic historian Karl Polanyi, published in 1944 (quotes are from the Second Beacon Paperback, published in 2001). He writes that “A market economy must comprise all elements of industry, including labor, land, and money … But labor and land are no other than the human beings themselves of which every society consists and the natural surroundings in which it exists. To include them in the market mechanism means to subordinate the substance of society itself to the laws of the market” (page 74 – 75). But even in the early 40's it could be seen that in treating land as a commodity “Nature would be reduced to its elements, neighborhoods and landscapes defiled, rivers polluted, military safety jeopardized, the power to produce food and raw materials destroyed … no society could stand the effects of such a system of crude fictions [labor, land, and money treated as commodities] even for the shortest stretch of time unless its human and natural substance as well as its business organization was protected against the ravages of this satanic mill” (page 76 – 77).
There would have to be much more trash
to kill the wildflowers, but this special area that should be
appreciated and protected is instead marred with trash, and the trash
is harmful to the plants and possibly wildlife. Whatever waste isn't
decomposed or buried washes into Burdens Creek and on towards Jordan
Lake, where a large amount of trash is cleaned up by volunteers and
government employees every year. No doubt tons of debris and trash
have to be cleaned up at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area's swimming
areas after the prolonged flooding in the fall. There are worse
threats to local biodiversity, but the attitude that it is okay to
dump trash in a woods, where few will see it, is like the attitude
that it is fine to let exotic chemical GenX or pharmaceuticals get
into the Cape Fear River, leave coal ash where it could contaminate
groundwater and waterways, bury toxic waste near Crabtree Creek, or
send excessive carbon dioxide and poisons from fossil fuels into the
atmosphere. It might be out of sight and out of mind, but it adds up
to become a problem for the community. Things like light pointlessly
radiated into the night sky, the winter roar of traffic on I-40, and
native trees engineered to suit the timber industry are also a kind
of dumping and lack of consideration that could harm other people and
our common environment. I hope to write about some of these problems
in the New Year.
There must be other trash-filled
natural areas in Durham, but I am glad to rarely come across them.
At one time, possibly when suburbs first came to these parts, trash
was dumped at certain bridges and the ends of roads, and volunteers
cleaning up trash for Earth Day (April 22nd) and Big Sweep
(early October in Durham) still find appliances, mowers, shopping
carts, even cars, but much of the trash has been removed and nature
is overwhelming and burying the junk. The early suburbs also dumped
partially treated sewage into creeks and while the water released by
treatment plants into many creeks today is far cleaner, it is still a
source of pollution. Sometimes people still dump trash and yard
waste on roadsides or in secluded areas, but they can get into
trouble if there is a witness or something that bears their address
is included. In one of the more unusual cases, pounds of seemingly
edible bread were scattered along So-Hi Drive. Rural trash middens,
half-buried deposits of antique glass jars, etc., sometimes even
divided by brand, are hidden in woods all over Durham County. This
trash is half-buried, becoming more of a 20th century
archaeological curosity than an eyesore or hazard, though animals
such as mice and emerging cicadas could get trapped and snakes have
been known to swallow bottles and golf balls, another frequent find
in wooded areas. Fresh litter is abundant in many places, escaping
from dumpsters behind businesses, discarded along high-traffic roads,
or washed in during floods. Every week Durham's semi-automated trash
trucks release litter as they make the rounds in my neighborhood.
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Lots of trash, probably from Durham,
dumped at the Northeast Creek Waterfowl Impoundment in Chatham County
(owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and operated by the NC Wildlife
Resources Commission) and probably cleaned up by government workers
©.
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Litter and bags of trash and tires
dumped where Ellis Road crosses Northeast Creek in Durham ©.
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Keep Durham Beautiful probably lacks
the power to prevent a lot of these problems, but also doesn't help
concerned citizens enough, and local and state governments also seem
to care little, though they have some power to stop the dumping and
get it cleaned up. It is very hard to get the NC DOT to fulfill its
responsibility and pick up large junk dumped on rural roadsides,
which they claim they can't find when informed, though they were very
diligent in spraying herbicide along Scott King Road and Highway 54
over the summer (see the earlier post). Volunteers can adopt roads
and clean up litter there two or three times a year, but not all
roads can be adopted, including even some roads that have signs
saying that they are available.
Across the railroad tracks behind Falls
Pointe there have been plans to build on hills at the northeast
corner of TW Alexander and Highway 55, across from the Triangle
Wastewater Treatment Plant (and a sludge drying facility will be
built on the southeast corner) for several years, but clearing
started a few weeks ago, before the snow, and a Charlotte-based
subsidiary of the PulteGroup, Inc. (
www.pultegroupinc.com/home/default.aspx
), one of the largest residential builders in the US, bought the
corner October 9, 2018. The site was last cleared several years ago,
but a thick young forest resprouted. I don't think there are a lot
of wildflowers there, but there might be some jack-in-the-pulpits. I
thought Pulte might leave some woods between the houses and the
treatment plant (though it has been upgraded several times over the
years and doesn't produce as much of a smell now), but everything is
being cut, except along a stream coming from the SSA site and a
wetland that might have been flooded by beavers. The hill has a good
view, but it would not be surprising if Pulte mass grades it down to
a more mediocre level, allowing a lot of silt to erode into the
stream, which goes into Burdens Creek, with few around to see it.
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| Looking south from the Pulte site, across TW Alexander Drive to the large field where a high hill once stood; the SSA facility is in the distance on the left ©. |
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| Another view of the Pulte site; the saplings have mostly been cleared, but it is doubtful if any of the larger trees still standing, or even the contours of the land will still be here when they are done ©. |
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| A barred owl perched in this relatively large oak, but it is just barely on the wrong side of the "Tree Protection Area" fence, and will probably be cut (or will it be saved by the blue band painted on it?), as well as the beech next to it and the loblolly pine saplings in the background ©. |
Over the last three or four years many
townhouses have been built several miles away around the intersection
of Highway 54 and Barbee Road, on a ridge which forms the watershed
between Northeast Creek and smaller Crooked Creek (Barbee Road
basically marks the top of the ridge between the two basins). The
construction on 54 hasn't done much for the roadside scenery and the
design didn't take into consideration the good views of the sky and
landscape there, or the former farm ponds, now filled in. Public
engineering companies in Durham claim they can't add features
highlighting a site's natural advantages because of local regulations
that make features like trails too expensive. The height of
buildings must be regulated, but if companies and local governments
are going to build dense housing and increase mass transit services,
allowing higher buildings in the suburbs could save land. Pulte
built the townhouse project on the northeast corner at 54 and Barbee
and previously, in 2009, Pulte merged with the Centex Corporation,
the company behind many of the residential projects near Barbee Road
(typically large “McMansions” with little space in between and
few trees left standing, which might be the current 'style' or the
result of a push for density by the Durham Planning Department).
Despite erosion controls, the small streams around 54 and Barbee
turned opaque yellow, and after rain Northeast Creek was unusually
yellow, though there is additional construction going on upstream as
well, such as along Ellis Road at 147 and on NC 55. Southern
Durham's clayey Triassic Basin soil, weathered from sedimentary rocks
created in rift valleys that opened up when dinosaurs were around,
erodes when exposed and then doesn't settle easily.
Several years ago the Triangle Brick
Company clearcut its extensive holdings where Durham, Wake, and
Chatham counties meet, across Highway 55 from the pinxterflowers, and
sometime in 2018 more land was cut along Grandale Road around the
border between Durham and Chatham counties. I thought Durham had or
has a policy of not building densely south of Scott King Road, but a
residential project along 751 was approved and Cary is advancing from
the other side, so I wonder if this is just timber harvesting or
something more. Durham has a rule regarding building after
clearcutting, but someone has to be watching. In the current brushy
state these areas will benefit the deer population, as well as
rodents and red-tailed hawks, but not species that need large
unbroken woodlands. The combination of protected gamelands and
mostly forested private land there forms a valuable corridor for
wildlife, something the NC Natural Heritage Program pointed out to
local governments.
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| Burdens Creek Bluff - today the land rests under a blanket of snow ©. |
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Part of the Burdens Creek floodplain,
probably flooded by beavers ©.
|
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A wading bird track beside the slough
and a Chinese privet ©.
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