Walk on the Wild Side with Sally Sears

The Yellow Dragon Trail

Trail along the South Fork of Peachtree Creek off Zonolite Road

From Sage Hill Shopping Center, exit across Briarcliff Road, and go straight across Johnson Road onto Zonolite Road. Pass the Briarcliff Animal Hospital, and take the second left onto Zonolite Place. At the end of that street, on the left, is a yellow dragon made from discarded earth moving equipment treads. Park beyond the dragon on county owned  land.

Walk into the woods, and make your way around the clearings, bogs  and trees until you arrive at the creek. Better markings will make this easier, but the downstream end of the path is ahead and to the right. Some of the path is marked with orange and green streamers, tied to trees and shrubs.

Enjoy the view and the sandbar. Turn around and head upstream. You’ll leave a gravel path and follow a summer-cut path upstream along the creek bank. Keep following the orange tape. After 135 yards or so you’ll arrive at a double track at a turn around, circling a large box elder tree.

Bear right staying on the creek bank. About 200 yards ahead is more double track path and leading to the right for excellent access to a sandbar beach.

Return to a main  path which continues upstream goes about 30 yards more before a deep ravine blocks the trail. If you can navigate the ravine, the path continues on the other side. A footbridge makes this easier. This is roughly the end of the county-owned land. The path continues winding along the water’s edge. Private property owners are allowing temporary access to let neighbors see what a trail might reveal along the creek.

Continue to the chain link fence which corrals buses for several area universities. We need to figure out how to proceed beyond the fence, and your thoughts here are welcomed. Turn around and retrace your steps downstream. A series of double track paths cross the land and gravel underneath indicates the presence of the sewer line.

You can probably see Johnson Road from the chain link fence. It is not far to reach the bridge across the creek at Johnson Road.  From there, you can cross the creek and on the left, upstream, is the broad public expanse of Herbert Taylor and Daniel Johnson park. Many paths invite you in to this public area, maintained by neighbors and owned by the City of Atlanta.

October, 2009

Medlock-Mason Mill Park

1. Park at Medlock Park, 874 Scott Circle. Decatur,30033. The well-loved park with ball fields and a swimming pool is a great start for a trip into the wilder stretch of the South Fork of Peachtree Creek previously known only by neighbors whose houses back up to the creek.  When you return to your car, admire the decades-long creekbank restoration project at Medlock. (see right)

2. A broad concrete path at the downstream, left, side of the ball fields leads to a new wooden foot bridge across a tributary to the South fork. You’ll stay on wooden boardwalk as you cross a lowland meadow bringing you to Willivee Road. Carefully cross Willivee.

3. The newly built path edges the left bank of the creek, weaving between wide trees. Some of them are being saved from smothering by English ivy. Yank out a handful of the non-native invasive to throw away in a trash can elsewhere. Be conscious of the new native plantings and cross your fingers they’ll be established before the ivy returns.

4. A new bridge crosses the creek and brings you to the bank most contested by the neighbors who opposed the construction of this trail.  Be mindful that one of their objections was noise and trail trash left in their backyards.

5. On the right bank, the boardwalk hugs the steep bank, giving splendid views of the green creek water. You’re high enough to be in the lower story of shrubs and small trees.

6. Soon the path crosses the DeKalb access path to the sewer line. If you smell something amiss, please report it quickly to DeKalb Watershed Management.  The faster problems are detected, the better for the water quality in the creek. 

7. On the ridge above the right bank, you’re between the creek and the railroad. When the trees are full, you can see nothing of the 20^th century. This is what DeKalb County might have looked like before Atlanta amounted to much.

8. The ridge path descends to an old stone bridge across a tributary to South Fork. Admire the stone work at the bridge’s approach. Upstream you’ll see the remains of an old dam. Was it built for flood control? A mill site? Both? It was dynamited long ago, and the silt which gathered above it is now the floor of the tributary, washing downstream.  This is a good spot to turn around and retrace your steps to Medlock.

9. If you cross the bridge a path continues to the old city of Decatur water works. They are a marvel of old technology and modern graffiti. Spooky but ripe for clearing and some kind of conservation –reuse  project.

10. Continuing to walk on the informal path will lead you across the railroad tracks, into a gravel clearing and up the hill to the right to the DeKalb tennis center, the dog park and the large acreage of DeKalb park land linked by this new trail to Medlock Park.

February 16, 2009

Walk in Deepdene in the  Olmsted Linear Park        

Frederick Law Olmsted and his sons laid out and completed five skinny parks hugging the edge of Ponce de Leon Drive between Moreland/Briarcliff Roads and the creek where Fraser Woods is today. The sixth piece of the Olmsted Linear Park was never finished by the Olmsteds. Over half the total land of the entire linear park, Deepdene’s  twenty two acres  lay fallow for over 100 years, collecting stray yard clippings and growing a  frighteningly large crop of  English Ivy and other plants not native to Georgia. A friend who bought a house on Ponce across from the woods in the 1970’s tells me she never allowed her children to play there after dusk, out of concern about crime and fear of the vagrants who lived there. Many long-time residents did not know the woods were even part of the same park to the west.

Today, almost five million dollars raised by neighbors and foundations is helping to create what Olmsted may have had in mind for Deepdene. Lighting, signage and burial of utility lines will improve the views. But already, three separate trails with varying degrees of difficulty lead walkers through the woods. The gentlest rides at an even gradient along the southern edge, suitable for buggies, walkers and wheelchairs plus those who push them. The middle path is steeper, but fords the tributaries to Deepdene Creek on wooden bridges with granite supports. The third way, along the creek itself, shows off the water, the plants and animals in it, and the rocky edges at a close view. Hikers hop across the creek on stepping stones, climbing out on rocks  placed to give a foothold and resist flooding. It can be a great challenge for hikers and their pets.

Restorer and landscape architect Spencer Tunnell spent much of his efforts cleaning up the stream bed from the decades of high storm flows that scoured deep pits into the creek. Today, a slower, more meandering creek shows his success. The water that leaves Deepdene is cleaner and flows more gently  than the water that entered it.

If you go: East on Ponce de Leon past Clifton Road and the  Fernbank Museum of Natural History, take a left at the light at the bottom of the hill onto North Ponce De Leon. This is a slower road, a carriageway planned by Olmsted to give carriage drivers a slow, close look at the park.  Notice the curbing and gutters along the park edge. They are designed to slow rainwater and keep it from sluicing into the park. Freshly installed lighting fixtures recall the era when Olmsted was working in Atlanta.

Enter the park from the western edge. You’ll pass the overflow pond at the tip of the park, and walk up, choosing among the three paths. At the eastern end, where the soccer field sits, choose another path to return.  Enjoy the native greenery taking back the leaf litter now that the spread of non-native plants is being controlled. Quickly, the sounds of Ponce de Leon fade and the woods surround you. 

Sally Sears    March 18, 2009          

Olmsted Linear Park Alliance tour website is: http://www.atlantaolmstedpark.org/park_tour.htm

*South Peachtree Creek, Medlock Park, DeKalb County, GA Bioengineering: a simple approach for urban streams (from Restoring Rivers.org)

Many stream restoration projects being done in the country today involve millions of dollars of expenditure, large construction equipment, and dramatic changes to the stream channel. However, there are many less costly approaches to improving stream health which have been shown to have ecological benefits as well. In one neighborhood park just outside Atlanta, GA a simpler approach to stream restoration, bioengineering has been a true social and ecological success.

WHAT WAS DONE AND WHY?
In 1993, DeKalb County Parks Department undertook a bank bioengineering project on So Peachtree Creek in Medlock Park. In this neighborhood park devoted to baseball and dog walking, the stream banks were bare and eroded, with occasional large trees struggling to stay in place against the high storm flows typical of an urban stream. Banks were regarded and covered with a geotextile fabric. Willow stakes were pounded into the new banks to add vegetative support. A variety of trees including river birch and green ash were planted all along the thousand feet of streambank in the park. Because the park is very popular with dog walkers, and the stream is very popular with the dogs, treeless access points were left along the banks and picnic tables were added.

WHO WAS INVOLVED?

The bioengineering of South Peachtree Creek through Medlock Park cost $15,000 funded by a grant from the EPA section 319 Cleanwater program and DeKalb County Parks. Design and construction were done by the Parks Department in conjunction with DeKalb County Drainage and Roads Department, Southeast Waters AmeriCorps and numerous other volunteers.

WHY IS THIS A MODEL PROJECT?

This project has been a great social success. The visitors to the park who are aware of the project greatly appreciate the change that has been made in their stream. Visitors to the park who have only seen the stream recently are frequently not aware that the project ever happened because the vegetation appears very natural. This project is not just a social success, however. In 2002-2003, a study done at the University of Georgia showed that this project had greatly increased available roots and wood habitat for macroinvertebrates, benefitting these important members of the aquatic food web.

Contact: Dr Judy Meyer, Institute of Ecology, Univ. of Georgia, 706-542-3363

Elizabeth Sudduth, Dept of Biology, Duke University 919-660-7407