Woods Trail Now Complete from Peavy to Lippitt/Sylvania!

March 6, 2026 Amy Martin

by Amy Martin, Greenbelt & Gardens coordinator

TOBs for the win! It was a small but mighty restoration crew last Wednesday, just Hala and me, both of us of… a certain age. I call us the Tough Old Broads. And wow were we! Knocked out the final 20 yards of the Woods Trail. It now spans from Peavy to Lippitt/Sylvania, emerging right next to the Deep Tributary of Dixon Branch by the playground.

By the way, orange ties indicate the trail. Red ones are invasives slated for removal. Yellow ties mark native plants to be careful around.

It was no easy feat for sure, but made easier by the start Steve P. made on it a few days before. He swung the trail past what must be the largest chinkapin oak in Eastwood, at least 150 years old.

It would take three people to encircle it. But don’t until I determine if that’s a poison ivy vine growing up it.

Across the tributary is a tree that is barely hanging on to the creek bank, but what a work of art its roots are.

While the roots look alarming, the space behind them provides a sleeping abode for mammals.

The trail slips through a narrow section of trees behind the large pecan at the Creekmere/Sylvania corner.

We’re almost where the Woods Trail turns to parallel Creekmere.

Now we are headed east.

To get to this point, Hala battled a LOT of briar. She’s a beast. But here we could see up ahead to the Woods Trail former end.

To reach here, a bunch of two-story-tall privet and robust bush honeysuckle had to go. Also a tremendous amount of vining honeysuckle, which was as strong and rangy as briar, but without the thorns, thank goodness. And all along the new trail’s way, I dispatched a fair amount of poison ivy.

Note all the red ties. The batteries for my little reciprocating saw were kaput by this point. So we used loppers to cut through honeysuckle and small privet to reach the end.

As always, when we take out invasives, we find cool native plants that have been struggling to survive amid the privet, waiting for someone to liberate them.

We are blessed with abundant yaupon, a most excellent bird shrub.

Lots of cherry laurel, another woody plant that makes great berries for birds.

Finally, here are the invasives we removed. We achieve a complete trail, and the hardwoods and understory can now get the light and rain needed to thrive.

We should probably move this out to the curb this weekend so bulk pickup can see it.

Afterward, I seeded a thick band of frostweed along the wooded edge. The robust native grows over five feet tall and boasts large leaves and big white umbels in the fall that are a crucial nectar source for migrating monarchs. Also scattered some big and big-leaved bear’s foot. Hopefully they’ll provide a privacy screen from the street.

I also seeded inland sea oats/river oats to hold the creekside soil down, and tossed about heartleaf skullcap and spiderwort seeds beneath the trees. We have lots of donated wood fern and Turk’s caps roots that are ready to dig in.

Here’s hoping!