Zonolite Trail Improvements On The Way
Tiny fans love the trail to the creek. Trail improvements promised by a Georgia Recreational Trails Grant are coming soon to the meadow trail and trailhead. Audra Brown Cooper from East Point is the low bidding contract winner for the work overseen by DeKalb County making the trails easier to enjoy.
Tiny trail fan using the meadow trail to get to the creek at Zonolite Park
Fall Calls For Volunteers
Justin Thomas planting saplings on the trail in fall 2013
Can you believe that fall is almost here? Not only is it a gorgeous time to be on the creek, the next few months are a vital time for planting and trail maintenance. Please join us for one (or many) of the volunteer days or trail tours listed below. We depend on our volunteers to make our vision of restoring the creek and connecting people to nature a reality. If you come we’ll provide you with free smiles, snacks, water and other fun things! Sign up now on our website.
September
Sept 6 9AM-11AM: Trail Tour
Sept 6 9AM-12PM: Glenn Memorial Good neighbor day
Sept 12: Home Depot and Hands on Atlanta Volunteer day
Sept 18: Park Pride Picnic for the Parks
Sept 18 6PM-7:30PM: Happy Volunteer Hour
Sept 23 9:30AM: Cheshire Farm Trail Ribbon Cutting
Sept 23 6:30-8:30PM: Dusk Trail Tour
October
Oct 1: Save the Deodar Cedars! Vine Removal Day
Oct 9AM-11AM: Trail Tour
Oct 18: Hands on Atlanta City Wide Volunteer Day
Oct 28 6PM-8PM: Dusk Tour
Oct 31 4PM-6PM: Halloween Vine Reaping
November
Nov 1 9AM-11AM: Trail Tour
Nov 8: Emory Cares International Service Day
Nov 15 9AM-12PM: Chestnut Tree Planting on the Confluence Trail
Nov 22 9AM-12PM: Chestnut Tree Planting on the Confluence Trail
Nov 18 6PM-8PM: Dusk Trail Tour
Cheshire Farm Trail Ribbon Cutting September 23rd
The remarkable bridge crossing the creek on the Cheshire Farm Trail
At last, a ribbon cutting is ready to celebrate a long-awaited trail beside the creek. Early users say the new trail is an exciting transformation, changing where they exercise and putting more nature back in their lives.
Please join us Sept 23, Tuesday morning at 9:30 am. We're inviting the trail builders at the Georgia Department of Transportation, the neighbors wanting this trail as mitigation for new Ga 400 Interstate ramps, and South Fork Conservancy friends who loved our vision of trails giving better access to the creek.
It will be a fun hour of talking and walking the half mile, firm stable trail from Cheshire Bridge Road at I-85 to Lindbergh Drive. So lace up your walking shoes and come to the Cheshire Bridge end of the trail for a short celebration and a good tour.
Bill LaDuca explores the site of the future Cheshire Farm Trail in 2011
Parking will be available at 2470 Cheshire Bridge Road, 30324. Let us know if you can come and enjoy our before (with Bill LaDuca visiting the site in 2011) and after (the largest bridge crossing the North Fork of Peachtree Creek) shots of the Cheshire Farm Trail! The story the trail’s creation and the process of naming it is a fascinating one- learn more and visit the new Cheshire Farm Trail page on our website.
Before and After: The Upside Down Bridge
At first glance, the upside down bridge on the Confluence Trail may not catch your attention. Believe it or not, we did that on purpose. Designed by Sylvatica Studio, this bridge is the epitome of the South Fork Conservancy's approach to trail making. Deftly engineered, the bridge provides effective storm water management with layers of filtering rocks. The low impact design blends in with its surroundings and provides a safe crossing- no trolls under this bridge!
We convinced a local dog resident, Marley (who belongs to Donna Davis, president of the Cedar Chase Condominium Association), to pose for us on the bridge. Here he is right after the bridge was installed in 2012.
Marley on the bridge in Summer 2014
A Fresh Perspective on The South Fork
Sonia Martinez on a dusk-lit Cheshire Farm Trail
Sonia Martinez is a Morningside native who never knew what lay beyond her backyard fence. After receiving a Masters Degree in Human Resources and Labor Relations in Milwaukee, she returned to Morningside with an itch to spend more time outdoors and thinks outside the box on how we can bring more young volunteers to our trails.
“One day I discovered Morningside and Herbert Taylor nature preserves while I was running” remembers Sonia. “It’s great that there are so many nature preserves right in the city, and there’s so much untapped land underneath all of these bridges. It’s crazy to me that we are all spending time on the street when there’s so much space to move in nature.”
Shortly after stumbling upon these parks, Sonia joined a tour of Zonolite led by South Fork’s Sally Sears- the rest is history. She became an instant support of South Fork’s vision of connecting people to greenspaces and could regularly be seen on the trails planting trees and removing invasive plants. In addition to her hard work, this twenty-something volunteer shed new light on our work while we walked on the Cheshire Farm Trail.
“One reason I don’t come out more is because of WHEN your volunteer days are- you’re not going to get a younger age group to come out at 9AM on a Saturday morning,” says Sonia. “Volunteer days need to be during the week, and then we all go grab a drink afterwards.” Sonia thinks adding volunteer days like this would help us tap into new groups like the artist and biking communities, bringing eager helping hands who already spend time in these areas to the trail.
“The graffiti community is a big in Atlanta- it’s quite an art form. When I got back I started spending time with street artists crawling under bridges to watch them paint- that’s another reason I learned about all of the creeks and green areas in Atlanta,” says Sonia.
Sonia calls these areas our “unchartered backyard,” and says that we need to continuing improving access to these gorgeous places so that more people can benefit from spending time along the creek and among the trees.