Middle Crabtree Creek Trail Damaged by Development

Raleigh Parks Review January 7, 2009

Max has been reporting on the progress of the Raleigh System since 2005. The system began back in 1974 before many people even considered the need for greenways and parks in this city.

As the city has grown, the need for a large number of parks and greenway trails became more apparent. The planners in this region had already begun to plan for the growth that most people did not even know was coming.

Research Triangle was starting to expand past the boundary of the research park and people were pouring into Cary, Durham, Chapel Hill, Apex and Raleigh, just to name a few of the growing towns.

The wisdom of the city councilors in the mid-seventies became apparent. Unfortunately, even they could not imagine how quickly that growth would come. When Max joined the in-migration in 1995, the bulk of the city was inside the beltline. The beltline is the I440 bypass that allows U.S. Route 40 to go around the city center. It circles pretty much all that represented Raleigh at the time of the decision to begin the Greenway System.

The Greenway at that time had reached 20 some odd trails and was still growing. By 2005, the Greenway had 28 trails and the city had nearly 100,000 more people inside the city limits. That was when the real growth began. Each year the number of in-migrants is greater than the year before. It may slow down for 2009, but only by a little.

In 1995 the population of the city was already expanding north and west of the beltline. Where single isolated houses were, clusters of new apartment buildings were going up.

This trend has continued right up to this day, January 9th, 2008. It has been a chaotic trend that has made the growth of the Greenway System insufficient to meet the pace of the needs of the people in the area. It has also brought the race for development into conflict with the existing Greenway trails.

One trail that has been impacted, possibly seriously, is the Middle Crabtree Creek Trail between Capital Blvd. and Atlantic Blvd. There a developer pushed fill down into the woods, filling in an area of wetlands that has been used, probably for generations, by migrating wood ducks.

The developer, most likely with approval of the pro-development city council, poured fill to build a trail from the development's parking lot across canals that used to fill with water to build a connector to the Greenway Trail. Then the developer politely put a no-trespassing sign on the path.

Many people who use the trail will not notice the difference. They are too busy riding their bikes or talking to notice the ducks. They will never notice their absence or the probable reduction in the frequency of deer sightings.

Bird watchers will have to go somewhere else, as will photography nuts like Max. In four years of trying, he never succeeded at getting a clear shot of the ducks or the deer, although it wasn't for not trying.

Max doesn't know how much this developer gave the council members for their campaigns but it wasn't enough to undo the damage this developer did in a single winter.

It was interesting watching how the developer cleared the site and put up the retention barrier in a way that guaranteed that the canals the ducks used would be filled when it rained. It wasn't until the damage was done that the developer sealed the fill behind concrete.

Max is sure the developer will not brag about destroying the wood duck area as much as they will about the wonderful access to a natural area that has been provided.

Middle Crabtree Trail will continue to be a beautiful trail. It will be noisier and it will offer diminished views of wildlife. For those who rush swiftly through on their bikes or use the trail to talk on their cell phones, they will experience no change.

This is the conflict being determined by city councilors who care less than their predecessors, and by developers who apparently don't care at all. Across Raleigh Blvd. from the end of Middle Crabtree Creek Trail, another trail, Buckeye Trail is threatened with the same encroachment by developers who have been cutting the forest closer and closer to the northern banks of the creek.

The new inhabitants of the apartments will park their cars above the remains of the wood duck habitat that providing them with a parking spot destroyed. They will walk or bike down a trail to the Greenway System oblivious to the part they played in diminishing its value to preserving what made Raleigh a great place to live. They may be amazed at how quiet a trail this is now that it is stripped of the animals that gave it life. They will smile in their ignorance when they see one of the remaining inhabitants up in a tree chewing on an acorn. They will point for their children at the wild animal in the tree, the ever resourceful gray squirrel.

The conflict will continue to intensify. It will determine in the end whether Raleigh becomes a livable and healthy city or just another wannabe that proves its worth by being listed on the 10 or 100 best cities for this or that.

Max wishes good health and good fortune.

Max writes about greenways, rare diseases, timely topics, places to eat, travel and other issues of interest. He encourages you to add your comments.

Link shows a map of Raleigh Greenway system.