Dennis Creek Trail Cleanup

Gathering the crew

Deciding where to start

Getting started picking up debris.

On Monday, December 9, a crew of 12 Friends members joined Refuge Manager Andrew Gude and Deputy Manager John Stark to work on making the Dennis Creek Trail usable again. The trail was heavily flooded by Hurricane Helene. Trees fell into the trail. Wind and water carried inches of sea debris onto it, along with a lot of plastic and aluminum bottles, foam floats, and other flotsam.

Armed with mostly hand tools, the crew of volunteers removed black needlerush thatch where it piled so high that walking was difficult. They used loppers to trim back branches and vines that would hang in hikers way. They pushed aside the branches, palm fronds, and other items that would be "trip hazards."

The trail is now quite usable by sure-footed hikers. It still has a few inches of black needlerush and sea wrack and many sticks to watch for. Pushing a kid in a stroller would be seriously difficult. Progress was made, but Helene's damage is still very much in evidence. The Friends' volunteer crew hopes that as more folks can now walk the trail, it will get tamped down and made more firm underfoot making it an even more comfortable walk.

The main entrance point of the trail was impossible to walk, with limbs and thatch covering it

Looking back at the entrance after they cleared the debris.

How the trail looks after the work was completed.