Waterfront Botanical Gardens, this duo of Chronolog stations aims to engage citizens in the ephemeral beauty, vegetation, animal life and waters of Jefferson County's Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River upstream of downtown Louisville, Kentucky.

The Beargrass Creek Tributary

The dock provides small boat access to the Ohio River and is a trail head for the Ohio River Recreation Trail (mile 602.3). Just downriver from the Beargrass Creek confluence, the boathouse dock reveals a view of historic Towhead Island and the bridges of metro Louisville, all impacted by the manipulation of water levels.

This photo station helps document the seasonal changes of the floodplain forest island and the impact of changing water levels of the Ohio River on the shoreline. There will be changes in water quality, the amount of floating algae, types of flotsam and the presence of wildlife. Different recreational users and their crafts on the river will also be captured.

Community Boathouse Dock

The Old River Road bridge -- constructed in 1930 over the Beargrass Cut Off -- was decommissioned in 2013 and is now a walking bridge part of the 105-mile Louisville Loop. This station overlooks the confluence of present-day Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River (river mile 602).

Please help us document the changes in the confluence area at this photo station.  Said to the most biodiverse avian area in all of Kentucky, this station will reveal sediment deposition, the effects of reversible current on the riparian area and the area's bird life.

Old River Road Bridge

The eastern border of Waterfront Botanical Gardens abuts the Butchertown Greenway (a spoke of the 100-mile Louisville Loop). The Gardens rises about 30 feet higher in elevation because it is built on the former Ohio Street dump, which was capped with soil and sat vacant since 1981. The Greenway path runs parallel to the present-day course of Beargrass Creek (historically known as “the Beargrass Cut Off”). 

This station looks south/upstream on the Creek toward the double I-71 overpass bridges. Please help us document the seasonal woodland phenology as well as any creek flooding that may swell upward from the overpass on the Greenway.

The Beargrass Creek Tributary

Kentucky

3 chronologs managed by The Beargrass Creek Tributary

Waterfront Botanical Gardens

Old River Road Bridge

Community Boathouse Dock

About The Beargrass Creek Tributary

For nature-lovers

For organizations