Staff members of Friends of the Reedy River (FoRR) called it SPD, for Scott’s Pipe Dream. The moniker refers to the pet project of the organization’s board president, Scott Butler.
It was Butler who, on frequent walks along the Swamp Rabbit Trail, noticed the ugly, overgrown stretch of land along the Reedy River between Falls and Unity parks. “The idea [to turn it into a meadow] just came to me,” Butler says.
After discovering that the plot near Linky Stone Park was owned by Naturaland Trust, who had been saving the land from development, he contacted Frank Holleman, the Trust’s chairman of the board. Holleman didn’t need much convincing that Butler’s suggestion of transforming the neglected acreage into a space abloom with native plants was a good one.
Volunteers took the first step: clearing the land. They used no chemicals, instead pulling the six-foot-high Johnson grass and other weeds out by hand. Raven Invasives, an Asheville-based company, will remove larger trees and shrubs. To draw up the park’s blueprints, FoRR chose Earth Design, a Greenville landscaper who specializes in native plants. Butler’s dream, christened Reedy River Meadow, was coming to life.
Though Butler has no background in conservation, “I just fell in love with the river,” says the retired operational auditor and project manager, who moved to downtown Greenville with his wife in 2015. “And I saw that [not enough was being done] to take care of it. I want people to understand what an important piece of the success of Greenville this little river is.”
One of the biggest threats to the river is urban runoff from contaminants like oil and fertilizers that flow into it during heavy storms. Once established, the native plants in Reedy River Meadow will not only help stabilize the riverbank and stem erosion, but their root network will also filter out harmful chemicals before they reach the water. The meadow will also serve as a demonstration area that can be replicated elsewhere.
When the project is completed in early 2028 (delayed by the widening of the Swamp Rabbit Trail), Reedy River Meadow will be threaded with grass walking paths and punctuated by beds of native flowers like coreopsis, verbena, and milkweed that attract pollinators and Monarch butterflies. Butler envisions it as “a lovely place to wander through . . . a place for folks to relax and regenerate” just off the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
But it will be more than that, he believes. “I see Reedy River Meadow as the missing piece in the necklace of downtown Greenville parks, linking them all together.”
Numbers Game
- 83 acres is the size of Reedy River Meadow
- $205,000 is the budget for the project (fundraising is ongoing)
- 4,000 native plants, trees, and shrubs will fill the site
- More than 900 volunteer hours have been spent on the project to date
- 4 test plots will occupy Reedy River Meadow for experimenting with different meadow-establishment processes
Learn more about the project at friendsofthereedyriver.org.
