Featured Friend Friday: Murphy Terrell

This Friday’s featured friend is a dedicated volunteer! Murphy Terrell has been involved with TCWC for about five years. She often donates use of her truck, and grows native plants at her house to harvest seeds, create root stock and cuttings for TCWC. She saw a need – to share native plants instead of composting the cuttings – and a niche – the TCWC nursery, and Spring Garden Creek – where she resides. And in her words, it has also been an opportunity for her to learn about propagation without being stuck with 20 plants she didn’t need.

Murphy’s favorite things about the watershed include having the option of long and short walking paths around the watershed, seeing swamp lanterns in bloom, and seeing licorice ferns everywhere – even though she can’t get them to grow in her own yard! She also loves meeting horses on her neighborhood trails as well, and walking when it’s hot out as it’s so much cooler in the Tryon Creek area than it is around the house; she says it’s “proof Mother Nature knows how to handle Global Warming!”

Being involved with the watershed council has shown her husband greater value in removing invasives and grass in their yard, as they’re upstream from Tryon Creek – pulling at home, so it doesn’t travel down there! And making him more inclined to plant natives. “I like being able to ‘volunteer’ our pick-up for your use, I’m a bit older and the shoulder does not allow pulling and planting all day, but I can haul pots to planting sites and haul clearing out to the recycle place,” Murphy said about her involvement with the watershed council, “I like that I can volunteer many ways and not just ivy pulling.”