Over Labor Day weekend, the normally quiet Confluence Natural Area nature preserve in Orange County was brimming with families. Site steward Ed Sredzienski described how the parking lot was “overflowing,” with at least 30 cars at any given time each afternoon.
“People are looking for places to go,” Sredzienski said.
The Confluence Natural Area, located where the East and West Forks of the Eno merge to form the Eno River, rarely sees this kind of traffic. The influx of interest in the Confluence, Sredzienski suspects, stemmed from park and trail closures throughout the Eno River basin following the extensive flooding and destruction of Tropical Storm Chantal in July.
Chantal, when it struck the Triangle on July 6, caused the Eno River to surge past its previous peak during Hurricane Fran. Huge swaths of land and many trails along the Eno were closed due to dangerous flooding. Now they are slowly reopening, with several reopenings occurring last week.
The natural areas along the Eno span 260 square miles and feature multiple parks, trails and preserves managed by different entities including the City of Durham, the state parks system, and the Eno River Association.
West Point on the Eno, the City of Durham’s popular 404-acre park along the river, partially reopened on Sept. 9. However, the lower half of the park remains closed for construction, and there is no river access. Two other city-run parks near the Eno, River Forest Park and Old Farm Road Park, also reopened on Sept. 9.
The Eno River State Park, which stretches across Durham and Orange counties, is also gradually reopening. On Sept. 9, state officials reopened the park’s Fews Ford Access in Durham County. As of Sept. 15, these Eno River State Park trails in Durham County are open: Eno Trace, Buckquarter, Ridge, Knight, Piedmont, Fieldstone and Pump Station (only at the Pump Station Access). Two of the Eno State Park’s Orange County trails are also open: the Historic Speedway Access and the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area.
Two Eno River State Park sites in Durham County, the Holden Mill trail and the entire Cole Mill Road Access, will be re-routed further from flood-prone areas, and will be closed for multiple months, Eno River State Park Superintendent Kimberly Radewicz told The 9th Street Journal.
The next trail to reopen will be the segment of the state park’s portion of Mountains to Sea Trail, which follows the Eno River to Falls Lake, Radewicz said. That trail will likely open in early October.
The Eno River State Park’s beloved swinging bridge, which was badly damaged by the storm, will not need to be replaced, she said. But bridge repairs have not yet begun as the park coordinates with various engineering firms.
The closure of these various parks bordering the Eno during the busy summer and early fall season has saddened residents. Wade Thornton typically walks the Fews Ford trails in Durham multiple times a week with his dog. Due to the closures, he has instead driven to Orange County to the Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area.
“It’s a huge deal,” he said. “I’ve been coming to the parks since I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, and now I come with my grandkids.”
The slow re-opening followed record-breaking destruction caused by Chantal. Swaths of trails were swept away, and huge piles of debris, dangerous, listing trees and hanging branches were left behind.
“I think that the community feels like: ‘Okay, the water’s receded. Everything looks fine,’” said Ryan Fehrman, executive director of the Eno River Association. “But the scale of the damage was much more significant than most people realized. The river is 40 miles long, and there are probably tens of thousands of trees that are either down or listing dangerously.”
These safety hazards led the Eno River State Park to restrict volunteers from helping with clean-up. Hazard trees needed to be cleared before non-employees could enter the park. Since last week, volunteers solicited by the state in partnership with the Eno River Association have been allowed to do trash clean-up in the state park, and more workdays are planned.
Bureaucracy also added to the delays. Superintendent Radewicz had to coordinate with state and federal emergency management, both of which had to complete damage assessments before clean-up could begin.
“It took us awhile to get started,” Radewicz said. “I haven’t heard anything about any aid coming from FEMA or the state in terms of disaster response. We’re doing the best that we can with limited information on what kind of aid we might get later.”
Also, a hiring freeze imposed by the state Division of Parks and Recreation in mid-August prevented Radewicz from increasing the park’s seasonal staff, she said. She has six park rangers and five maintenance staff, but not all staff are trained to use chainsaws and other necessary equipment.
“We have a manpower shortage,” she said.
Sredzienski, who has been trained by the Eno River Association to use a chainsaw and has served in his role as a steward for five years, hopes trained volunteers can help fill the gap.
“I understand safety concerns,” he said. “But you’re talking to a group that is very familiar with how to to open up trails, cut trees, use all the tools that the state parks would be using. We can do a lot more than pick up trash.”
While the Eno River basin is beginning to recover from the damage wrought by Chantal, the risk of future flooding remains high. This is the region’s third large-scale flooding event in 30 years: Hurricane Fran in 1997, an unnamed storm in 2015, and most recently, Tropical Storm Chantal.
Flooding risks are top of mind for local stakeholders. The decision to re-route Holden Mill trail and the entire Cole Mill Access was made partly to defend the park against future storms, Radewicz said.
“This isn’t a 100-year storm, this is a 10-year storm,” Fehrman said of Chantal. “If the frequency of these storms is increasing, what does strategic retreat look like?”
Above: Hikers have been plentiful along the Occoneechee Mountain trail in Hillsborough recently as they seek out alternatives to other closed Eno River trails. Photo by Todd Jones — The 9th Street Journal
