Get to Know Project Pando: Meet Celia, Assistant Manager at Walnut Creek Wetland Park

Tell me a little more about yourself. How did you go from childhood development to doing this? Why did you want to pursue this?

I went to college in Boston to become a theater teacher, and I learned pretty quickly that it wasn’t for me. While there, I worked with after-school programs for children who had family members impacted by incarceration. I was sitting in the office at a movie theater where I was working when I suddenly realized that I really like teaching. It's my calling. It's the thing that makes me genuinely happy. I also really want to be in a place that makes me happy, and I thought, I kind of want to be on a farm. So, I googled “educational farm,” and it turned out that this was actually a “thing”! Fast forward, I ended up teaching forestry to kids. I followed my coworkers and my boss around like a puppy, asked tons of questions, and learned a lot about trees, along with the kids we were teaching.

And then COVID happened, and I got laid off. I was applying for all kinds of weird stuff in outdoor education. My mom sent me a posting for a private educator, which I'd seen a lot, but none of them quite matched what I was interested in. However, this one was different. I ended up packing everything into my car and teaching four kindergarteners in Durham, North Carolina. I adored every minute of it, even though it was really, really hard.

More jobs and adventures followed, and then someone I admire and had worked well with told me about this job. I applied for it, and now I’m here. I never want to leave.

Tell me more about Walnut Creek. How big is it?

The park itself is about 60 acres. Most of the property isn't accessible to the public. We share a lot of space with the greenway system. I believe about five acres is where this Nature Center is located, with trails connecting to paved trails and the greenway. The rest of our property extends to the edges of the greenway, which includes a deeper wetland swamp.

The Walnut Creek wetland area is the floodplain of Walnut Creek and Little Rock Creek. Walnut Creek is approximately 11 miles long, connecting to the Neuse River and flowing out to the ocean. Little Rock Creek intersects Walnut Creek on our property.

It's super teeny tiny, but it drains almost all of the stormwater from downtown Raleigh, so it has a significant job for such a tiny creek. It's kind of an underdog, and I love it. Walnut Creek was recently recognized as part of the Federal Urban Waters Partnership. We're the 21st site in the country in this program, which identifies impaired urban waterways or stream systems and connects us to many federal partnerships. Who knows what's happening with all of that now, especially with the recent changes at the federal level, but many hands are involved with Walnut Creek. We need that, because Walnut Creek is a heavily eroded, challenging urban stream system under a lot of human impact.

How many volunteers does Walnut Creek have, and what do they do?

That's such a good question. I don't know the exact numbers, but I know it's large and surprising. When our boss pulled the volunteer report at the end of the year, she called us because she couldn't believe how many volunteer hours we had accumulated throughout the year.

Volunteers here assist with trash pickups because of a history of dumping on the property. They also remove invasive species. Additionally, volunteers planted all of the trees in the project we are doing with Project Pando.

How did Leaf & Limb and Project Pando connect with Walnut Creek?

It happened during my very first week of working here. I was able to attend a workshop at the Leaf & Limb office where EB was giving a tour of the site and some of the work you all do. The high-density forest planting right along the railroad tracks really made a huge impact. I was in awe of the entire concept.

EB gave such an excellent presentation, and he’s such a warm and intelligent person that I just cold-emailed him about the air pruning boxes and the high-density forest planting. EB sent me a part of an early draft of Basil’s book, along with a bunch of resources and blueprints, and said “let me know how I can help.” Immediately, I knew we should be friends and work together. And I'm persistent, which helps and often gets me the things I need!

At Walnut Creek, we are dealing with degraded stream banks and invasive plants. I had just jumped completely headfirst into this job, stewarding an important piece of land, and I saw some solutions for us in Project Pando.

Project Pando is helping us stabilize a stream bank next to a trail, which I call my “problem child trail” that was supposed to connect to a nearby neighborhood. It’s a soft-surface trail and has sunk a foot and a half and is often underwater. It's one of the most wild and coolest parts of the park. It's full of wildlife and amazing native wetland plants. We want to make it accessible for more of the year and eventually also make it beautiful. We have removed the invasive privet from parts of the trail. Project Pando has supplied us with saplings to start replacing the privet and stabilize the stream bank with native plants.

It’s a lot of work and a lot of learning. There are many challenges too. Invasive plants require constant weeding because they shade out native plants, and there’s no access to bring in mulches or use equipment. EB’s and Fiona’s encouragement, ongoing help, and patient counsel go a long way. The first thousand-square-foot project site is going beautifully.