Residents come together for first Shades Creek Appreciation Festival

The rain held off on April 7 to allow everyone to enjoy the inaugural Shades Creek Appreciation Festival, held in Jemison Park near the corner of Mountain Brook Parkway and Shades Creek Parkway.

The event was hosted by the cities of Mountain Brook and Homewood, the Board of Landscape Design, the Friends of Jemison Park and the Friends of Shades Creek and provided a fun and educational atmosphere for residents to learn more about their local ecosystem and, more specifically, Shades Creek. Families were able to learn about stream erosion, fly fishing, the history of Shades Creek and native wildlife, including salamanders, turtles and birds. Live music was provided by Clear Blue Sky, and members of The Dance Foundation performed "The Water Dance" in the creek during the festival.

Guests were also able to take home a sapling to plant as part of the festival. The saplings are part of Mountain Brook's champion tree line, which is a lineage of trees that originally grew in the city. The champion tree line is based on the Birmingham Botanical Garden's Centennial Tree Project, which was created by Henry Hughes and works to plant seedlings from 100-year-old trees that are descendants of historic forests that previously covered the land.