This past year has offered many new opportunities for ReWa and the expansion of our WAIT program.

New opportunities include:

A 1.4 mile walking\nature trail at our newly certified Gilder Creek plant.  Jay Rex, an Eagle Scout candidate, has taken this planned project on, making it a reality.  The trail skirts the edge of a 10 acre swamp and borders the Enoree River and Gilder Creek as it winds through the edge of our plant property.  This project will take about one more year for completion.

Plans for the continuation of the Greenville ‘Swamp Rabbit Trail’ keep progressing.  Some right of way issues have delayed the trail through our Mauldin Road Administration and plant properties, but this year promises to see the trail continuation through to the Lake Conestee property.  Plans are underway to include wild flower plantings and expansion of our food plots to offer additional wildlife viewing opportunities.

Two of our new sites, the Lower Reedy and Georges Creek properties, are in the planning stage for food plot preparation.

Our two previously certified sites, Mauldin Road WWTP (Waste Water Treatment Plant) and Durbin Creek WWTP, remain our focal points; one being adjacent to the I85 corridor plus convenient to downtown Greenville and the other a 300+ acre ‘working farm’.  Our goal of maintaining these locations as WAIT showplaces has been realized with exposure via our website, class tours (grade school, high school, and college), teachers’ workshops, various publications including our annual report, and scout activities.  Wood duck and blue bird houses have proven to be productive with annual maintenance revealing successful hatches.

Some of the details for the past year include:

Purchasing our own farm equipment (drag rake) to better maintain and expand food plots and wild flower beds.  We are now completely outfitted for food plot preparation.

Expanding the number of food plots at both previously certified locations.

Planting spring food plots as well as the traditional fall.

Our ongoing educational plant tours always include discussions about our environmental programs, WAIT being one of them.  Depending on the age of the participants, appropriate hand out materials cover many aspects of backyard habitat, conservation, and environmental awareness.

Annual Cub Scout activity on our sites includes bird house maintenance, trash cleanup, and nature hikes.  The Cub Scouts have also been involved with Jay Rex’s Eagle Scout project with scheduled work days.