Thanks to Mountain Creek Church of Christ and all of the volunteers, we have a bioswale!

Saturday, November 16 dawned beautifully and promised to be warm and sunny.  On Friday, Brooke and Lillian drove to Vonore to the amazing Overhill Nursery to pick up a big, big load of NATIVE trees, shrubs, and perennials to plant in the bioswale at Mountain Creek Church of Christ.  They brought a FULL truck to the Church!  Not only did our delightful friend and landscape architect Miko from LandStream Designs arrive to give us direction, Dan from Botanica was also on hand to help with placing plants in the right locations and teaching the volunteers.   Best of all, however, were the 45 or so volunteers that arrived to help dig, plant, spread mulch and otherwise make this all possible.  Wow!!  Even with all that help, we didn’t quite finish, so the landscapers from the church came back to finish getting the rest of the plants in the ground.  This church took a huge step toward protecting their creek from stormwater runoff by installing this bioswale! We are so proud of them!!  As Kyle, the youth minister from the church so appropriately stated, “Now I really can’t wait until Spring to see how it all looks then!” 

Gardening for Wildlife means protecting the creek!

May is garden for wildlife month…..and that fits perfectly with our initiatives in Mountain Creek Watershed!  We are partnering with the Chattanooga Area Pollinator Partnership (https://chapollinator.org )and Red Bank Elementary with a nice grant from Tennessee American Water Company to create a pollinator flyway down the Mountain Creek valley to the Tennessee River.  Read more

Visit the Gear Closet for Small Business Saturday!

Small Business Saturday is tomorrow, November 25th!  Since the Gear Closet provides funds for our clean water projects, it’s a great way to save money and help support kids and communities working to protect our water!  We appreciate you!! Read more

Celebrate Stringers Branch

Celebrate Stringers Branch

Come join us in the second special event of our new watershed group, Friends of Red Bank Streams!  Learn about the life of the creek as well as why it is posted “do not touch”….and why the critters ignore that!  Join our watershed group in finding ways to continue to improve and restore Stringers Branch. Read more

Save Water, Drink Wine 2017 was FABULOUS!

Thanks for the great welcome back!  Save Water, Drink Wine was so fabulous this year!!! Many thanks to our SPONSORS and VOLUNTEERS and EVERYONE WHO CAME for making this our […]

A day in Dominica….

Being in the Caribbean in February is usually a reason for envy, but this time the temperatures in Tennessee felt so springlike, it was actually difficult to leave the States!  These first pictures are from Dominica, the Nature Island, where rainforests cover much of the interior and the rainforests of the sea are vibrant and alive….except when they aren’t..  Nearly two years ago, Tropical Storm Erika dumped something like 27 inches of rain on the island in ten hours causing massive flooding and river erosion.  That sediment from the rivers is still heading out to the reefs near Coulibistrie, where my friend Izzy showed me the new deltas that have formed and the small, winding, tree covered streams which are now wide river beds devoid of trees.  Our plan is to evaluate the reefs and work on stream bank stabilization so maybe, just maybe, we can save these reefs.  We will need lots of help. Read more

Sapelo Island Teacher’s Workshop has been funded by VW!

Thanks to VW Chattanooga, the Sapelo Island Teacher’s Workshop run by our wonderful Jim Watson is happening once again! Dates this year are June 8-12 and applications will be available soon. You must attend a meeting with Jim to be eligible to apply. We will let you know when the application meetings are as soon as we set them up! Read more

Cuba protects life in the Caribbean at Jardines de la Reina

 

https://nyti.ms/1JfyaTZ

I watched this video again today. I haven’t seen Goliath Grouper since I swam with them in the Bahamas when I was a kid. I am so impressed with Cuba’s protection of the mangrove and reefs. They are intimately connected. Without the mangrove nursery AND the coral reef, life in the Caribbean Sea will not flourish.

2016 End of Year Appeal

It’s time to think about water. Our Southeastern streams dried up during this drought and many communities were on severe water restrictions. Our mountains burned. We are so thankful for these first rainy days in months, but our need to protect our water will never end. Will you help? Read more

Protect Mountain Creek Urban Wildlife Sanctuary and Outdoor Education Hot Spot