Gills Creek Watershed Association

08/29/2026

~ TUESDAY @ 5:30 PM | 4230 Timberlane Dr, Columbia, SC ~

Be part of the solution - lend a hand to floodplain restoration!

Join us after work on Tuesday for the final work day of Phase One at our Timberlane Drive restoration site. We'll finish laying out cardboard and cover it with mulch, "sheet mulching" this entire lot to suppress weeds and reduce erosion.

Can't make it Tuesday? Stay tuned for Phase Two this fall/winter when we'll begin planting!

You don't need tools or special skills to contribute, but bring wheelbarrows and pitchforks if you got em. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty and sweaty. Bring a reusable bottle and fill it with ice cold water from our cooler. Park along the road, but don't block traffic. See you Tuesday!

08/18/2026

~ WEDNESDAY @ 5:30 PM | 4230 Timberlane Dr, Columbia, SC ~

Be part of the solution - lend a hand to floodplain restoration!

Join us after work on Wednesday for the 2nd Community Work Day at our Timberlane Drive restoration site. We'll finish laying out cardboard and start to cover it with mulch, with the goal of "sheet mulching" this entire lot.

You don't need tools or special skills to contribute - we'll have gloves for you to borrow and tools to share. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty and sweaty. Bring a reusable bottle and fill it with ice cold water from our cooler. Park along the road, but don't block traffic. See you Wednesday!

https://www.gillscreekwatershed.org/event-6800480

08/16/2026

A flood-ravaged Columbia house is now gone. Can nature take its place?

08/14/2026

**UPDATE: The discoloration and smell are apparently the result of a dam release upstream in Spring Valley.

Brown foam and a strong sewage smell reported on Little Jackson Creek behind Columbia Northeast Shopping Center on Two Notch Road. Authorities responded promptly and are investigating the issue.

08/13/2026

Work Day #2 for Phase 1 of this restoration project is coming up:
WEDNESDAY, Aug 19 @ 5:30 - 7 PM
4230 Timberlane Dr, Columbia, SC

Please volunteer with us to complete Phase One of this project: sheet mulching. Our first work day saw the completion of removal of debris from the demolition site and covering more than half of the lot with cardboard. Wednesday's work day will focus on laying out the rest of the cardboard and covering all of that with a thick layer of wood chips.

All hands on deck! You don't need tools or special skills to contribute - we'll have gloves for you to borrow and tools to share. Wear sturdy shoes and clothes that can get dirty and sweaty. Bring a reusable bottle and fill it with ice cold water from our cooler.

Background info/timeline (if you're interested)
Oct, 2015 - Devastating flood, homes & lives destroyed. This section of Timberlane Drive was especially hard-hit, and most of the homes were purchased by Richland County using disaster relief funding, allowing the residents to move to a safer place. Unfortunately, a private individual purchased a block of homes within this neighborhood and sold them off individually for a profit. These homes continued to be bought and sold, mostly by individuals from out of town who weren't aware that their property wasn't going to be an easy flip.

Mar, 2026 - Gills Creek Watershed Association used floodplain preservation grant funding to purchase one of the remaining homes.

Jun/Jul, 2026 - GCWA demolished the structure, removed all of the concrete footings, pads, and driveway, and recycled the masonry and concrete, thanks to our contractor, CIDS Demolition & Abatement Services

Aug 11, 2026 - Begin Phase 1: Community Work Day #1 - 18 volunteers came out after work to clear the site of debris and start laying out cardboard, thanks to our friends at Queen City Homestore for donating and delivering the cardboard!

Aug 19, 2026 - Community Work Day #2 - Help us finish sheet mulching - covering the whole site with cardboard layered with wood chips to reduce erosion and smother weeds. This buys us time so we can start planting this winter.

Winter 2026/27 - Begin Phase 2: Planting plants! The shorter, cooler days of our SC winter present the perfect time to plant. We will phase in patches of native plants to return this site back to its natural floodplain state, and include green infrastructure (like a rain garden!) to help absorb stormwater that flows in from uphill.

2027/28 and beyond - Maintain this site as a thriving ecosystem, use it as a starting point to engage our community in exploring the flora and fauna of the adjacent Gills Creek wetlands, and point to it as a demonstration of how to rehabilitate the dozens of flood-damaged lots across our watershed (and beyond!) for community greenspace, responsible stormwater management, flood mitigation, and habitat restoration.

08/06/2026

Community Work Day!

When: Tuesday, August 11 | 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Where: 4230 Timberlane Drive, Columbia, SC
Who: You!

Join the Gills Creek Watershed Association as we take the first hands-on step in transforming a recently demolished, flood-damaged property back into a thriving, functional floodplain!

For Phase One, we’ll be sheet-mulching the site by laying down cardboard and topping it with a thick layer of wood chips to suppress weeds and build healthy soil. We’re hosting this event in the evening so you can come lend a hand right after work. Drop in, and stay as long as you like!

This will likely be the first in a series of work days to complete Phase 1, so if you can't make it Tuesday, stay tuned for a few more work days the following week!

Things to Know:

What we provide: Cardboard, wood chips, tools, gloves, and guidance.

What to bring: Plenty of drinking water and, if you have them, extra pitchforks or shovels!

What to wear: Sturdy, close-toed shoes and clothes you don't mind getting dirty and sweaty.

What to expect: Uneven, loose soil that has just been graded by a skid steer. If walking over this type of terrain doesn't align with your ability, bring a folding chair and help us by removing tape and flattening cardboard. We can all contribute!

Where to park: Along the street beside the property. Just don't block the road!

Come roll up your sleeves, meet fellow neighbors, and have fun building a more resilient community and healthy watershed!

Shout Out to Queen City Homestore for donating and delivering alll of this cardboard!! Y'all are rock stars!

08/06/2026

08/03/2026

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS. Richland County’s Conservation Division and its partners invite residents to an upcoming open house. It's a chance to engage with staff, share your input on conservation priorities, help identify future opportunities to strengthen the County’s environmental and recreational assets, and more.

Help play a role in our community's environmental stewardship. The meeting is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tomorrow at Midlands Technical College’s Center for Business and Information Technologies, located at the college's Beltline Campus, 316 S. Beltline Blvd., Columbia.

07/31/2026

Please pardon our mess! 🩵💚🩵💚
This giant pile of cardboard is getting a lot of attention right now, and we want to clarify that this is intentional. Yep, we've been hard at work collecting all this cardboard so we can use it to cover the bare soil of our recently cleared lot on Timberlane Drive. This is just Phase One of an environmental restoration process that will transform this vacant lot into functioning floodplain, wildlife habitat, and neighborhood greenspace.
So please pardon our mess! We're sorry that this unsightly pile has caused alarm amongst our Gills Creek neighbors. We will get to work spreading the cardboard as soon as our demolition crew has completed the clearing process.
We invite you to be part of this project! We hope to host our fist volunteer work days beginning the week of Aug. 10. Stay tuned here and sign up for our newsletter - https://www.gillscreekwatershed.org/news-and-events/newsletter - if you'd like to get involved!
In the meantime, please bear with us and don't report this carefully collected pile as illegal dumping to Richland County or City of Columbia Government.