Walkers who enjoy wandering along the trails on the Adawehi Campus have noticed earth-moving activity along the creek.

“Many people who normally travel Hwy. 108,” said Evangelena Barber, “are now driving along Fox Mountain Road to admire the beauty of the creek restoration.”

The activity is due to a project that is designed to restore 3,000 linear feet of stream on a major tributary to White Oak Creek between properties owned by the Adawehi Healing Center and the Barber Farm, also known as Tribranch Farm.

The major goal of this project is to help improve water quality and aquatic habitat in the Green River Watershed through:

• Removing exotic, invasive plant species

• Stabilizing failing streambanks

• Increasing the stream’s connectivity with its floodplain

• Improving stream channel dimensions and diversity

Polk County Soil and Water Conservation District was awarded a grant for this project from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Water Resources Development Program. Altamont Environmental Inc. was contracted to design, permit and oversee construction of the project. South Core Environmental was awarded the bid to construct and install Altamont’s design.