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November 20, 2009

Volunteers gather to combat litter, erosion

By Jennifer Hannigan Special to the Review

As Brian Baumgartner walked along the shores of Dilsey Creek last Friday, he could literally feel the passage of time beneath his feet.

“See this here, the ground is literally washing away from under you,” said Baumgartner, pushing down on one of the many areas near the creek where small indentations have formed in the ground. Baumgartner is a biology instructor at Trinity Valley Community College.

Dilsey Creek, a tiny spring-fed waterway, runs through the southwestern parts of Athens, winding its way through areas such as Athens Country Club and Trinity Valley Community College.

Over the years, the part of the creek which stretches between the greenhouse and the Fine Arts Building at TVCC has been in serious need of a facelift.

Litter washes from upstream, and gets caught in the reeds growing along the bank. Heavy rains cause the creek to flood, washing away the soil, and causing serious erosion problems.

Last week, volunteers from Keep Athens Beautiful and TVCC got together to help fight both the litter and the erosion.

The goal of the college and KAB is to remove all the litter from the portion of Dilsey Creek that runs through the college.

Then, once the area is clean, there will be an ongoing effort to restore the creek, and combat erosion by removing some old concrete along its banks, and planting trees to help anchor the natural soil.

The problem for this part of the creek, said Baumgartner, is that the water comes rushing through too fast. As the water travels from the east side of the college to the west side, it has little to block its way. So by the time it travels through the culvert that runs under Cardinal Drive, it has picked up considerable speed.

“It shoots out from under the street like a water cannon,” said Baumgartner.

Over the years waste concrete has been placed along the bank in an effort to stop the erosion. But, said Baumgartner, once again, Mother Nature has been more powerful than man.

“The water just washes around the concrete, adding to the erosion,” said Baumgartner. “One way to reduce this erosion is to plant trees along the bank. The roots of the trees will help hold the soil.”

So last week, volunteers did just that. Friday, volunteers from KAB, the TVCC Cheerleading team, and Iota Alpha – the college’s branch of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society – began cleaning up the litter along the creek and planting trees.

In the coming weeks, a contractor will come in to remove the concrete around the creek, and work will begin on restoring the creek channel to its natural state.

The project was made possible by a grant through Keep Texas Beautiful. The Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) grant became available to KAB earlier this year.

In order to qualify for the grant funding, Keep Athens Beautiful had to develop and carry out a waterway improvement project.

“There aren’t a lot of waterways in Athens,” said KAB Executive Director Carol Morton. “But as we were looking, someone mentioned the erosion trouble at Dilsey Creek, and it was the ideal project.”

So KAB began developing a project in cooperation with the college to clean up the eroding areas of the creek.

The grant money helped furnish vests and tongs to the volunteers cleaning litter out of the creek. It also is helping with the concrete removal.

In the past two years, the college had already been working to re-establish a natural zone in one area near the creek, said Baumgartner. By working with KAB, a larger section of the creek channel itself can be restored to its natural state.

To help complete the project, Dogwood Nursery in Athens donated a large variety of plants, from natural shrubs, to sycamore and sweet gum trees, which are now planted along the creek’s edge.

Morton said the project would not have been able to move forward without the hard work of those at the college, particularly Baumgartner and Iota Alpha sponsor Nancy Long.

“They have put an amazing amount of work into this,” said Morton. “We at KAB brought them the project, and they have just taken it, and run with it. Because of their hard efforts, this creek will once again become a beautifully-restored natural habitat.”

Baumgartner said that, hopefully, the efforts of today will last long into the future.

“Look at the trees that are already growing along the bank,” he said. “The fact that they are still there proves they are working to stop the erosion. By planting more trees, we are thinking about the future.”

But there is still a long way to go, he said.

“We can stabilize this bank now, but at some time in the future, we are going to have to address the water flow upstream.”

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