If you’re a regular user of the Hominy Creek Greenway, you’ve probably noticed the removal of shrubs and ground cover at both trailheads. One of the FOHCG’s strategic priorities is to ensure that the parkland is ecologically sustainable. We’ve partnered with Asheville based EcoForesters to manage exotic plants and replace them with native trees and shrubs. In July, City of Asheville park employees dedicated several days to remove invasive plants from the landscape. Over the course of decades, invasive plants have spread throughout the parkland. Oriental bittersweet, Chinese privet, tree-of-heaven, Japanese honeysuckle, and many others. The populations of nonnative plants have harmful impacts on the landscape such as displacing native plant populations.
The clearing is also the first phase of a project to redesign, improve, and reroute 500 feet of the Hominy Creek Greenway to create a sustainable pathway that more effectively manages stormwater. We hope the improvement will make the Greenway more accessible too. The plan involves raising the natural surface pathway at the Sand Hill Road trailhead, creating swales and cross-drainage to capture, store and redirect stormwater in order to reduce erosion, and improve the trail user experience. Depending on weather conditions, we hope to begin the project this fall.
This project is in partnership with the Malvern Hills Neighborhood Association. We are also grateful for financial support from our members; Connect Buncombe, the City of Asheville, Wildlands Engineering, the West Asheville Garden Stroll, Buncombe County, the Bicycle Thrift Store, Asheville on Bikes, and Asheville GreenWorks.
