Clean out of Lake Johnson Trash Trap 8/29/26
After heavy rainstorms the trap was filled with trash, tree, leaf litter and hay from seeding an adjacent DOT highway project. So the response team suited up and removed trash and organic debris from the trap. We seperated it by category and inventoried it priorto puting into bags to weigh. In oder to secure pins…
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Wild Times With Wildlife Trivia
It was a fun night at the Black Dog Bottle Shop Friday evening, as we held our second annual Wildlife Trivia Night. Over forty people, families, couples, friends, and other wildlife enthusiasts, joined SWC to test their wildlife knowledge as teams to compete for some great prizes. Jennifer Mann emceed the event, assisted by Jeremy…
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Mud Day Madness
This was our fourth year in a row as an exhibitor at Mud Day at the Walnut Creek Wetland Center in Raleigh. This is always a fun event, and though our exhibit was far enough away from the mud slide to not get splashed, we did get some collateral mud from muddy visitors to our exhibit. A…
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Invasive removal at Annie Jones Trail in Cary, NC
Great kick off for The Invasive Removal Coalition of Cary’s first event at the Annie Jones Trail in Cary. Approximately 16 volunteers from multiple conservation groups showed up. Six of those were with SWC, other groups that participated were SWANEC and Rewild Cary. The Coalition provided quality snacks and beverages. The mission was to primarily…
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A Fun Night in the Park
SWC partnered with Wake County Parks to hold our fourth annual Moth Night at Crowder County Park in Apex Saturday evening. Bonnie Eamick, a certified environmental educator and SWC member and Adam Prince, an outdoor educator with the parks, teamed up with some friends from the local insect (and arachnid) population to deliver a fun…
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SWC Volunteers Pull Together at Bass Lake!
Our SWC volunteers are a determined group. Despite what felt like 100% humidity, our team of eleven spent the morning pulling weeds like nutsedge, black nightshade, crabgrass, stilt grass, and vinca, then spreading fresh mulch throughout the Bass Lake shade garden. This summer’s extreme heat, drought, and a few very hungry deer have taken a…
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Southeast Elementary Roof Top Garden Invasive Removal
Our first weeding event primarily focused on the center boxes in which students planted pollinators and vegetables. At the time, we thought that was a large amount of weeding, but that was nothing compared to what was in store for us. To avoid the forecasted 100 plus degree heat, we decided to move the event…
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Hoppin’ Down the American Tobacco Trail
Nature enthusiasts of all ages had a nice stroll down the American Tobacco Trail at the New Hill trailhead on our “Hoppin’ Herps Hike,” led by Kara Solomon, NCWF Conservation Coordinator. We kept a lookout for herps (reptiles and amphibians) in the ditches along the way, but the best opportunity was when we reached the…
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Celebrating Pollinators Together at Lake Crabtree Park
What a great day to celebrate pollinators at the annual Pollinator Festival at Lake Crabtree County Park on Saturday! Being under the shade of mature trees, it was quite pleasant on an otherwise warm day. This event leads us right into National Pollinator Week, which starts June 22. We enjoyed welcoming a lot of visitors…
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Volunteers Take Back the Pollinator Garden at Yates Mill
Was today’s Gardens and Habitats for Wildlife event an invasive removal or a pollinator gardening day?! We definitely did both! On May 30, South Wake Conservationists volunteers came together to restore the Yates Mill Pond pollinator garden. Native plants that had been buried under a dense tangle of poison ivy, blackberry brambles, and the invasive…
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Eco Kids Discover how Amazing Wildlife Can Be!
Our special Eco Kids event held today at Bass Lake Park, “Nature’s Secret Superpowers,” was a lot of fun, and not just for the kids! Led by the incredible Mary Bures, who leads NCWF’s Great Outdoors University, kids discovered how animals adapt to their environment in amazing ways. Avoiding predators by “hiding” via camouflage, in…
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Final 2026 Spring Invasive Removal at C. H. Johnson Environmental Education Park with The Audubon Society.
On May 14 these groups met to remove as much privet, and other invasives, as they could before the heat, ticks and humidity arrive, at this species rich park. The event was attended by 10 volunteers and 3 members of the Fuquay Varina Park Systems landscaping team. The weather was perfect and everyone was experienced…
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SWC Hits the Roof!
We held the last session for the school year of SWC’s Southeast Raleigh Elementary Rooftop Garden Nature Program Friday. For the adult leaders, it was a treat to see the enthusiasm and joy these fourth and fifth-graders showed in our “diggin’ in the dirt” experience with the rooftop container gardens. Brought back to life following…
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Got Wild in Holly Springs
SWC exhibited again at the annual Wild About Nature festival at Sugg Farm in Holly Springs yesterday. It was a hot day, but we still had a nice turnout, and everyone seemed to have a good time . Out theme was Wildlife Habitat, which included an informational display about all the different types of habitat,…
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Pollinators on the Roof
This past Friday, twenty-five 4th and 5th grade students at Southeast Raleigh Elementary School held their second garden workday on the roof of the school with SWC. The first one, held at the end of March, was a day to plant crops in one half of eight large raised beds and to learn hands-on how…
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Third Successful Invasive Removal With The Audubon Society
April 23 was our third invasive assault assisting our conservation allies, The Audubon Society. Our ultimate plan is to restore Carol H. Johnson Environmental Education Park. The weather was perfect and our crew experienced. The City of Fuquay-Varina generously aided us by providing a park employee who helped with debris removal from the site.…
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Good Times at the Open House and Native Plant Sale
It was a hot one Saturday, but everyone had a great time at Simple Gifts Community Garden for the annual open house and native plant sale, in collaboration with SWC. Visitors to the garden had access to native plants not readily available locally, joined tours of the garden, learned about the value of pollinators and…
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Successful First Trash Trap Clean Out on Walnut Creek at Lake Johnson
Much appreciation to all the volunteers who showed up for our trash trap training and SWC’s initial clean-up of the trap. They braved the cold weather and the deepish water to remove 16 pounds of trash (it appeared another group may have have been there recently). Our instructor, Madison, is a volunteer with the Great…
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Eco Kids on the Roof
The SWC Eco Kids project to launch a sustainable garden program on the roof of the Southeast Raleigh Elementary School kicked off its first hands-on session with 25 fourth and fifth-grade students Friday, just before their Spring break. The team had been working well in advance, planting a variety of pollinator plants and seeds in…
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SWC Did the Bash!
It was a blustery day, and we had to batten down all the hatches, but it was a great turnout at the SWC exhibit at the Beech Bluff Bash at Beech Bluff County Park in Willow Spring Saturday. This was our second year exhibiting there, with last year being the grand opening of this wonderful…
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