Ryan Colliton, program manager for the Vegetation Ecology and Management Program at Montgomery Parks. and Corinne Stephens, the Weed Warrior Coordinator, presented proposed updates to the Weed Warrior program and to the 2009 vegetation management plan for parks. The presentation slides can be downloaded from the button below. Big plans are in the works for a powerful Weed Warrior program once training can again take place!
Earlier plans: the 2009 Vegetation Management Plan ; The 2013 Natural Resources Management Plan. It describes all the major habitats in the county and lists links to all the management plans (for deer and streams, for example).
VegMgmt AND WW PP- FoSC&NNWB (FINAL6.23) (pdf)
DownloadAt our Feb. 4 meeting, Dr. Kathleen Michels described the toxic effects of microplastic pollution on aquatic life and seabirds. Dr. Michels stressed that plastic pollution includes the broken bits and dissolved toxins from artificial turf. She displayed samples of the rug of plastic grass and the pulverized used tire crumbs that most often serve as infill for cushioning and to hold the blades up. Soccer fields contain roughly 675,000 square yards, or 40,000 pounds, of carpet with 400,000 pounds of infill. By the time the turf is too worn to use, a lot of the "grass" blades and much of the infill has already left the field and entered our waterways. But disposal of the rest is a serious problem, since it is not currently recyclable in the U.S. Other microplastics are the result of the breakdown of larger plastic objects such as our ubiquitous plastic bags.
Unfortunately, none of the bills that would have reduced plastic pollution managed to pass the shortened session of the Maryland Legislature, even the balloon release ban, which had seemed very promising. However, a similar balloon release ban is still awaiting action in the Montgomery County Council. Please let your state and county legislators know you support reducing killer plastic pollution, and we'll try again next year.
Find your legislators at MDelect.net. Use your right to be heard!
The absurdity of wasting scarce education money on these fields has been captured by the comic strip Big Nate. In case you missed it, here's the URL. https://www.gocomics.com/bignate/2020/05/08.
Rolls of syn turf taken from a Bethesda E.S. awaiting disposal...somewhere. Photo by Amanda Farber.
How soon after a snowstorm do we expect our local roads to be passable, and major roads to be at speed? During COVID, we've learned to slow down some, so perhaps now we can patiently wait for the roads to be cleared--to the great benefit of our plants, wildlife, and water if less road salt can be used.
What's the problem?
As winter snow melts, stormwater carries accumulated salt into stormdrains and lakes, ponds, drinking water reservoirs and streams. And road salt and sand really do a number on us in multiple ways. It
What can we do?
The program covered biological monitoring background and long-term monitoring results; stream restoration project updates, especially focused on the Glenallan Tributary to the NWB; other stormwater mitigation & water quality enhancement efforts; and volunteer services updates. Our presenters were Rachel Gauza, Biological Monitoring Program Coordinator; Erin McArdle, P.E., Environmental Engineer; Jackie Hoban, Senior Natural Resources Specialist; and Valeria Espinoza, Stream & Parks Cleanup Coordinator. Doug Stephens, Principal Natural Resources Specialist, kept an eye on the chat questions and provided answers. A YouTube video of the presentation is linked here.
gave us a virtual preview of the short-lived woodland treasures along the Northwest Branch and other local trails. She included key identification features, medicinal uses, and folklore associated with these spring ephemeral visual treats. She shared just where to find whole arrays of flowers--and also warned of the inroads being made by non-native invasives such as Lesser Celandine. The trail guide she mentioned in her talk and the slides she used can be downloaded below. If you want to review the entire presentation, check out the YouTube (below, or click on Spring Beauties). Toward the end of the presentation, you'll hear a variety of frog calls, identified. Enjoy! And then get out on the trails very soon, before many of these flowers are gone.
The group assembles near the Bladensburg Waterfront Park boat dock.
Leader Kem Morawski, sporting the latest in cleanup finery (fluorescent vest), kicks off the cleanup at Burnt Mills East. Photo A. Ambler, 10/2/21
With Robinne at the helm (which is actually mid-ships), we were off down the river. Photo by C. Williams, 10/23/21.
The cleanups, led in the morning by Hyattsville City Councilor Ben Simasek and Alexi Boadi, and in the afternoon by Hyattsville City Councilor Joseph Solomon and Melissa Schweisguth, addressed NW Branch trail from the Ager Road underpass to the East-West Highway underpass (a.m.), and NW Branch Trail around West Hyattsville Metro/QC Road to Kirkwood Park (p.m.).
On Tuesday, Dec. 1, Maryland Master Naturalist and science educator Paula Wang treated us to a virtual look around the winter forest, and my oh my, what we've been missing! Winter has its own interesting natural phenomena--among the trees, on the forest floor, and birds you can actually see now that the leaves are gone. Paula captured it all in pictures. If you missed the program, or would like to review, you can find a video of the complete presentation, courtesy of NNWB member Ed Murtagh, here. To review a particular slide, pause the video. Enjoy your winter walks with new powers of observation!
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