We are grateful to everyone who attended our events in 2025, and a huge thank you to our volunteers, Umstead Rangers and Park Staff. None of this would have been possible without you!

Trail and Park Expansion

• Facilitated the MOU between Wake County and NC State Parks to create new single-track mountain bike trails in Umstead State Park, a project the Coalition has championed for decades.
• Helped secure new lands for the Park, including 7 acres of the Walton Tract by Richland Lake, a tract along US 70/Glenwood Avenue and additional land west of the Park entrance. While the federal shutdown delayed the official closing, we look forward to celebrating this long-awaited acquisition.

Cultural and Educational Programs

• Hosted special concerts featuring folk songs and stories collected in 1934 by Mercedes Steely for her UNC master’s thesis, sharing the voices of those who lived in what is now the Park. Thanks to Ann Bauer and Steve Woodbury for their contributions.
• Led the First Day Hike on January 1, with plans to continue this tradition along the Yellow Dot Trail.
• Held an in-person exhibition honoring the 2025 winners of our Photo and Illustration Contests, with next year’s contest opening in January.
• Produced a 2026 calendar featuring the contest winners, available at the Park Visitor Center, Great Outdoor Provision Company and the Umstead Coalition’s online shop.

Volunteer and Conservation Efforts

• Hosted Spring and Fall native plant sales.
• Organized volunteer workdays in forested rain gardens and butterfly gardens.
• Continued restoration of the historic Sycamore Mess Hall, including a September 11 Remembrance Day event.
• Advanced efforts to restore the correct boundary along the Odd Fellows Tract and the Park.
• Led a series of educational hikes along Park borders, including tree identification, geology, mushrooms, family-friendly naturalist hikes and Park history. Details are posted at Meetup.com/umsteadcoalition
• Supported Park Ranger environmental education programs.

Advocacy and Legal Work

• Continued the fight against the proposed RDU Quarry through multiple court trials. Your support helps cover legal and expert costs as we work to protect the Park and the surrounding open space.
• Ongoing legal efforts to restore low-density residential zoning for the Odd Fellows Tract continue in the NC Court of Appeals.
• Won the Sunset Clause case to end all mining adjacent to Umstead State Park by May 2031! Wake Stone has filed a last-minute motion to intervene in an attempt to dismiss the case.

Thanks to our members, volunteers and supporters, 2025 was a year of significant progress for protecting Umstead State Park!

Sunset Clause Lawsuit and Protective Buffer Reductions

The Umstead Fight started in 2018, our legal case started 2022 and it continues today

The current Wake Stone Triangle Quarry adjacent to Umstead State Park had their original Mining Permit 92‐10 approved in 1981 with a 50-year Sunset Clause and protective Park and stream buffers. After 50 years, in 2031, Wake Stone was to donate the pit to the State and all mining operations would cease. 

Wake Stone accepted permit renewals and modifications without objections to the Sunset Clause for 37 years. In 2018, without public notice, the Wake Stone Mining Permit was changed to eliminate the Sunset Clause, take out the undisturbed protections along the Creek and the Park, and reduce the protective buffers along Crabtree Creek by 30 feet and allow for them to be “unexcavated” which means logging, roads, stock piling, etc - certainly NOT “protective buffers.” 

In July, 2022, after DEQ continued to ‘evaluate’ the Umstead Coalition's request to reinstate the Sunset Clause with no action, the Umstead Coalition submitted a lawsuit to reinstate the 50-year Sunset Clause on the existing Wake Stone Triangle Quarry and to restore undisturbed buffers promised to protect Umstead State Park. If the Sunset Clause is restored, RDU Quarry would not be practical.

In 2023 to present, various court filings and Hearings in a very winding legal manner have transpired — DEQ and Wake Stone trying to prevent us from going to trial on the merits — the Umstead Coalition striving to get a trial to proceed. Judge Holcomb summed it up “complaint filed by the Plaintiff (the Umstead Coalition) concerns modifications of significant interest to the parties and the public-at-large…”  After a Hearing before Superior Court Judge John W. Smith on December 7, 2023, he overruled van der Vaart and remanded our case back to OAH to force a hearing on the merits. We had a two-week trial in front of the same judge at AOH (ALJ van der Vaart) that stated during this trial he did not want to hear our case (was hearing the case under duress) and he, not surprisingly, ruled against us after waiting more than 6 months to issue his ruling! 

HOWEVER, we appealed to Wake County Superior Court. We do not have the official ruling, but thanks to Wake Stone the Wake County Superior Court Judge Sean Cole’s draft ruling is now public record (as it is part of the motions filed in a case now filed by Wake Stone-see “Current Status” below).  It is in support of the Umstead Coalition. 

Current Status

Wake Stone saw this draft ruling (we presume from the DEQ attorneys for DEQ itself). Then filed a Hail Mary to Intervene with the stated purpose of getting our case dismissed, that is, to void our win. Our lawyers are defending our case at a Virtual hearing on December 1.

It is obvious from the above, Wake Stone has made our legal journey arduous, yet our supporters (donations and attendance at various court hearings) allows us to continue and we believe to eventually prevail!