Let's Get Wet!
Just past the meadow, a stream flows over and around huge rocks (perfect for walking or sitting). The water falls and runs fast in places, some spots are still and slow. This is Wildcat Creek - a very important part of the ecosystems that make up Dunwoody Nature Center.
The creek provides an exciting, fun teaching tool for DNC educators to share with their students, habitat for the creatures of the park, and a peaceful, burbling stop for visitors. Local students help to monitor the stream's water quality and check on its diverse inhabitants.
Crossing over the main trail, upstream, the creek meanders through the wetlands — a natural filter for contaminants and home to a wide variety of wildlife. This boggy area is more important to the health and well-being of the park than you might expect; our students learn a lot about the ecology of wetlands by visiting and experiencing this lively ecosystem for themselves.
While Winter & Spring of 2003 brought us the beautiful boardwalk, they also brought a LOT of rain. Wildcat Creek collected this rain, but it was too much for our small stream to handle, so the banks began to erode. While this is a normal, natural process, it became a problem in one area - around the piers of the boardwalk teaching platform. Thanks to Southeast Waters AmeriCorps, DeKalb Parks & Recreation's North Shop and Rolanka Erosion Control Materials we now have biologs to control future erosion where it is a problem and the teaching platform has been re-stabilized so it can once again be safely used.
Thanks again to the volunteers, donors, and the county for providing the materials and manpower to save the boardwalk!
Bank Erosion Repairs
GALLERY »
Bank Erosion | Fix In Progress | Erosion Fixed
OUR HEROS
Southeast Waters AmeriCorps
Rolanka Erosion Control Materials
DeKalb Parks & Recreation's North Shop
Visit DeKalb County's DeKalb Greenspace Web site