We hope this post fines you well and healthy! Hope you are getting outside on Greensboro's great trails and greenways and enjoying this spring weather while social distancing! Here are some tips for staying safe during the COVID-19 outbreak:
Follow CDC’s guidance on personal hygiene prior to heading to trails — wash hands, carry hand sanitizer, do not use trails if you have symptoms, cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, etc.
Do not visit trails/parks if you have symptoms of COVID-19 or have been recently exposed to the virus and do not have symptoms (within 14 days).
Observe at all times CDC’s minimum recommended social distancing of six feet from other people. Practice it and know what it looks like. Keep it as you walk, bike or hike.
Use parks/trails near your home instead of traveling and avoided parks that are crowded and the six feet rule cannot apply.
Warn other trail users of your presence and as you pass to allow proper distance and step off trails to allow others to pass, keeping minimum recommended distances at all times. Signal your presence with your voice, bell or horn.
Note that trail and park users may find public restrooms closed — be prepared before you leave and time outings so that you are not dependent on public restrooms.
Bring water or drinks — public drinking fountains may be disabled and should not be used, even if operable.
The CDC has other recommendations for using parks and recreational facilities here.
Click here to find trails and parks near your home. And find out here which sections of the Downtown Greenway are open and closest to your home.
Artist Thomas Sayre has been selected to create the West Woods Project on Phase 4 along the railtrail on the Downtown Greenway. Thomas is a Raleigh-based artist and architect and has constructed works of art all over the world. To create his art, he uses earth and soil from the ground where his sculptures will eventually stand to form earth casts. On-line public meeting will be planned for May to give the public the opportunity to view his proposal for the West Woods Project and to provide feedback. Click here to watch a segment from UNC-TV on the process that Thomas uses to create his art.
Golf Cart tours have been postponed due to COVID-19; we will reschedule the tours in the coming months. Stay tuned and stay well!
Click here for plans to make your own Mason Bee House.
Click here to learn more about all pollinators in an article in Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.
Hi, my name is Reid Lorenz. I am a Senior at Grimsley High School and an approaching Eagle Scout in Boy Scout Troop 101. You may have noticed new additions to two of the cornerstones on the Downtown Greenway, at the Edible Orchard at Meeting Place and Woven Works Park in the Bird, Bee, and Butterfly Pollinator Garden that surrounds Muddy Creek stream. These new additions are raised mason bee houses, small houses made of cedar wood and stuffed with bamboo rods that help protect and save the declining mason bee population. Recently, bees are in danger from extinction, due to parasites, pesticides, and colony collapse disorder. But when most people hear about bees becoming extinct, they automatically think of honeybees because they are more well-known and affect us more prominently as they are the main pollinators that help our food grow and end up in our homes. But mason bees are just as important. It is thought that one mason bee can do the work of 100 honeybees. Therefore, the main goal of these houses is to help these bees in their pollinating process and give them a nice home to thrive in.
In addition to designing, fabricating and installing the houses, I will also plant some pollinator plants around the bases of the three houses at Meeting Place in spring 2020. According to Charlie Headington, local permaculture gardener and member of the Permaculture Guild, mason bees prefer blue, purple, and yellow flowers, so planting purple hyacinth, blue asters, or yellow black-eyed susans are the best options. Back to the houses themselves, the reason for the bamboo inside the houses, is for each bee to have their own nest. They are known as solitary bees, because they neither live in colonies nor have a single queen. Rather, each female mason bee lays four or five eggs in small, natural holes or cavities, like the bamboo rods, each egg separated by mud. You may wonder why the houses are facing the direction that they are—mason bees are ectothermic which means that they can’t regulate their body temperature so their houses need to face a south/southeast direction so they can stay warm with the sun in the winter months.
I want to thank Dabney Sanders, Downtown Greenway Project Manager, for letting me put these houses on the Downtown Greenway and can’t wait for the bees to start to cultivate the houses in the spring.
Reid Lorenz, BSA Troop 101
Mark your calendar for this years event-it is something to BRAGG about! New location at 100 East Bragg Street on the Downtown Greenway at the corner of South Elm and Bragg Streets. We are collecting gently used kid and adult bikes for kids at Peck Elementary School. If you would like to donate a bike, please drop it off at REI -Friendly Center during business hours or contact Laura Lorenz at llorenz@actiongreensboro.org.
We need 45 people to sign up for this special one-time viewing! If you have every wondered how you can make a difference to help our pollinators– here is a great opportunity!
Click here to reserve your ticket.
There is a fee for each ticket. If we do not reach the minimum number of tickets reserved by February 28, your credit card will not be charged.
Local bee experts from UNCG’s Plant & Pollinator Center will be on hand to answer questions. Also, Boy Scout Reid Lorenz will have plans for making your own Mason Bee House and samples to share like those he installed on the Downtown Greenway this fall.
Corey Hillman shares ideas for making Greensboro a walkable city. What can you do to help make this dream into a reality? Click here to his read article.
Corey Hillman is a graduate of Baylor University holding a Doctorate in Physical Therapy. He is a Greensboro native and a member of the Communications Committee for the Downtown Greenway. You can follow him at @GboroPhysio.
