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Friends of Sligo Creek
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On March 15, we held a program about tree stewardship. Speakers discussed the new Tree and Forest Steward Volunteer Program, recently designed by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC) to assist in the care of trees on Park land. The discussion covered the role of the stewards, upcoming training opportunities (including tree identification), risk assessment, care of reforestation sites, and areas for participation by members of FOSC.
On May 24, we learned about micro-moths from John Lill, an insect ecologist at George Washington University. He specializes in the 300+ species of micro-moths that feed on oaks in the eastern United States. John is a native and current resident of the Sligo watershed and leads our popular Caterpillar Hunt each year.
On July 20, we held a program meeting about water quality in Sligo Creek. The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP), with help from Montgomery County and interested citizens, monitored Sligo Creek for illegal discharges in the winter of 2010. Lori Lilly of the CWP described the findings from the monitoring, along with recommendations the CWP will be making to Montgomery County about its discharge monitoring program. Also, Dr. Harriette Phelps, professor emeritus of the University of the District of Columbia, and Charles Poukish of the Maryland Department of the Environment discussed the results of monitoring Sligo Creek for the pesticide chlordane.
On October 11, we held a program meeting to get to know two new urban groups, Silver Spring Green and GreenWheaton. These new groups are working to bring together businesses, civic organizations, residents, and governments to improve our environment. This event introduced the groups to Friends of Sligo Creek and allowed our members to learn how we can work with Silver Spring Green and GreenWheaton to enhance Sligo Creek Park and the entire watershed.
Habitat was the byword in 2011. First, habitat protection was a central activity, as a cell-phone tower was proposed for placement at the very edge of some of Sligo's finest oak-hickory uplands, under a proposal that would have meant certain slope collapse, erosion, and woodland incursion. In coalition with neighbors and other advocates, we provided expertise and energy in the eventually successful press for the denial of the commercial proposal.
Habitat creation was the similarly happy conclusion of efforts to see the city of Takoma Park meet the requirements for certification as a "Community Wildlife Habitat", the first Maryland town to be so certified by the National Wildlife Federation. For its size, certification required four schools, four public spaces, and 150 backyards to provide water and plants that would give food and shelter to birds, butterflies, and other "welcome native wildlife". The certification initiative was led by Friends of Sligo Creek's Bruce Sidwell, in concert with the Takoma Horticulture Club and the Takoma Foundation.
The theme of habitat prevailed also in new natural history resources on the Friends of Sligo Creek website. An inventory developed by Michael Wilpers describes the 10 primary habitats within Sligo Creek Park, lists prominent locations for each, and illustrates each habitat type with dozens of photos taken in Sligo by resident photographers. The resource was artfully designed and posted by Clair Garman.
In mid-August, the fourth annual Caterpillar Hunt was held at Hillwood Manor Park. Leader John Lill, an insect ecologist and Sligo resident, helped kids and adults find caterpillars and other signs of insect life in lower Sligo. John was also the presenter of an outstanding indoor, evening program in mid-May, instructing us in some of the highlights of local "micro-moths" — the hundreds of tiny moth caterpillars that feed on our oaks and other trees.
Throughout the year, the Natural History Committee prepared and posted nature-appreciation material in the 10 signboxes along Park paths — this year adding postings in Becca Lily Park in the Long Branch of Sligo.
The "Sightings" page at www.fosc.org continues to show high levels of interest, as people post their observations in the watershed — both Park and neighborhood — on a page monitored by this committee, working with webmaster Clair Garman. There were more than 100 different postings in 2011.
The RIP Committee has been quite active this past year. While every Sligo section had some activity in removing invasive plants, the biggest thing that happened was the wider participation of organizations, schools, and churches. We had volunteers from Montgomery College (Sections 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7); University of Maryland (Sections 4 and 6); Siena Middle School (Section 6); twice from the Green Club of the Silver Spring International Middle School (Section 5); the freshman crew team from Blair Senior High School (Section 4); Iglesia Getsemani Church (Section 6); the Discovery Channel (Sections 6, 7, and 8) (this year was the second year in a row); twice from employees of the Wildlife Habitat Council (Sections 6 and 10L); the Cardiolite class from the Silver Spring YMCA (Section 8); as well as many individuals (all sections).
In addition, Carole Bergman is coordinating a great amount of work in Sligo Creek Park. One of the most visible activities is in Section 6, just inside the Beltway between the Creek and the path. This area was heavily infested with mile-a-minute and porcelainberry. The MCP sprayed this with herbicide two years in a row, and this past summer and fall, cleared the area of debris and planted native grasses and many native trees and shrubs. The trees are planted in such a way as to allow mowing to keep invasive plants from becoming reestablished. The MCP also spent considerable time and resources working in two other areas — near the stormwater ponds off Forest Glen Road (Section 12) and around the confluence of Long Branch and Sligo Creek (Section 10L). Additional work is planned for the coming year. More on this as progress is made.
Beginning in January and lasting into March, several sections held events concerned primarily with the removal of English ivy and other vines from trees and the removal of bush honeysuckle and multiflora rose. With the arrival of April, the removal of garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), a native of Europe, became the focus of activity. The removal of garlic mustard involves more volunteers than any other RIP activity. The garlic mustard in some parts of the Park is coming under control. As spring waned and summer began, mile-a-minute took center stage. Removing mile-a-minute lasted into October. Most vines (e.g., English ivy, porcelainberry, bittersweet, wisteria) can be removed any time during the year. Some effort is being made to control stiltgrass with late-season mowing by the MCP to control seed production. Pulling stiltgrass in late summer or early fall before seed production is completed is a potential way to control this annual grass.
On November 5, Paul Carlson from the MCP brought in 25 Weed Warriors to clean up the area around the water retention ponds off Forest Glen. It was an outstanding event, the largest group of Weed Warriors Paul ever had.
On December 3, Friends of Sligo Creek joined other volunteers to plant 50 native shrubs, mulch newly planted trees, and perform light maintenance to help restore the Flora Lane Tributary of Sligo. Over the years, the MCP and Friends of Sligo Creek have performed extensive invasives removal, spraying, and reseeding of this site. The planting on December 3 is the latest in a long process of restoration. The tree and shrub planting is a joint project of the MCP and the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments, with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Our annual Spring Sweep the Creek was held on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10. We worked in partnership with the Anacostia Watershed Society and other groups who honored Earth Day during that weekend. As usual, we picked up trash at 11 sections along the creek, while expanding our efforts to record "trash data", including the type and estimated weight of trash collected. FOSC is gathering detailed trash information in order to use hard data to promote and measure effective policy decisions; our plastic bag count contributed to our push for the recently enacted bag bill in Montgomery County. Through this additional step, we were able to do the following:
Trash Data: More than 11,000 pieces of trash were counted at the Spring Sweep the Creek in our first comprehensive effort at quantifying the trash in and around Sligo. As with the Fall 2010 Sweep, the most abundant item was plastic bags, totaling over 2,100 collected. Following these in quantity were food wrappers (1,669), plastic bottles (1,463), cigarettes (1,073), glass bottles (997), cans (966), cups, plates, and utensils (779), caps/lids (455), clothing (241), and straws/stirrers (225). These top 10 items constituted 89 percent of the total collected.
Also on Sweep day, a group of volunteers, including volunteers from Friends of Sligo Creek, worked to clean up Breewood Park (located just south of University Boulevard) and the nearby Breewood tributary. The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, and Northwood High School are partnering to clean up the park and tributary. The partners will also work to extend the Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail (NCBT). This project is part of an ongoing effort to extend the NCBT/Northwood Cross Country Course, improve water quality, and reach the goals of the Potomac Trash-Free Treaty.
Our Fall Sweep the Creek was held September 24 and 25 in concert with National Public Lands Day. We had 222 volunteers who picked up a total of 167 bags of trash. Some of our volunteers were part of groups, including the Parkland Swim Team, Path Finders, Earth Scouts, Pack 478 Cub Scouts, and Girl Scout Troops 1273 and 6253. Once again, a subset of Sligo sections (3, 4, 8, 9, and 10L) collected data on the trash we collected, with these data going to the Ocean Conservancy’s ongoing research on trash sources. All the trash in the five participating Sligo sections was tallied for a total of 8,008 items recorded. The top 10 items made up 91 percent of the total items. For the third Sweep in a row, plastic bags were number one with 2,075 bags, followed by aluminum cans (1,554), food wrappers (1,166), plastic bottles (1,115), glass bottles (354), cups, plates, and utensils (310), clothing (274), styrofoam bits (183), plastic sheeting (125) and beverage caps/lids (105). With the Montgomery County bag bill taking effect on January 1, 2012, it will be interesting to see whether the number one litter item in the Park is reduced when we continue data collection next year.
This year, National Public Lands Day was responsible for hosting 2,067 sites. More than 170,000 volunteers contributed $17 million in improvements to public land sites in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Throughout the year, the Water Quality Committee monitored two Sligo sites for benthic macroinvertebrates, one site as part of the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS) Water Quality Monitoring Program, the others as part of the Izaak Walton League's Save Our Streams Program. We monitored Sligo Creek for macroinvertebrates at our ANS site on April 20, July 21, and October 15, and sent the results to ANS.
Committee members monitored three Sligo Creek sites biweekly and other sites occasionally for basic water quality parameters. The monitoring results were regularly recorded and uploaded to the FOSC website.
We received and reported the results from the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission's continuing bacteria source tracking monitoring for Sligo Creek and other area creeks (this is part of the 2005 consent decree – see below), posting them on the FOSC website and notifying members of updates. There was a meeting with WSSC staff and the Anacostia Watershed Society on December 19 to discuss findings of the WSSC's monitoring so far.
Major repair work on sewer pipes and manholes is scheduled throughout the Sligo Creek watershed in 2013 as part of WSSC's legally mandated repair and restoration work under the 2005 consent decree, which followed a lawsuit to which Friends of Sligo Creek was a party. WSSC staff and consultants met with FOSC representatives on July 19 to discuss the planned work. Sligo is one of 26 watersheds in Montgomery County whose water quality problems WSSC must address, according to the dictates of the consent decree. (For background on the consent decree, see our Action Log item)
The week of January 10-14, volunteers from FOSC, Audubon Naturalist Society, and Anacostia Watershed Society participated in the Center for Watershed Protection's investigation of Sligo Creek for illicit discharges. At the July 20 FOSC program meeting, Lori Lilly of the CWP reported on findings of illicit discharges in Sligo and recommendations made by the CWP to Montgomery County to improve the County's illicit discharge detection and elimination program. A meeting on October 10 at Sligo Creek's Brashears Run outfall with CWP staff, a volunteer from ANS, and staff of the Bay Journal resulted in an article in the November issue, highlighting the problem of illicit discharges in Sligo. Friends of Sligo Creek sent a letter to Montgomery County in support of the CWP recommendations in November. It is expected that there will be a FOSC program meeting in February 2012 to learn how well the County is doing in following up on these recommendations.
At the July 20 FOSC program meeting, we learned about levels of chlordane in upper Sligo Creek from Dr. Harriette Phelps of the University of the District of Columbia and Charles Poukish of the Maryland Department of the Environment.
The Water Quality Committee provided approximately 30 storm drain markers and related supplies and instructions to a middle school student who will put these "Drains to Sligo Creek" markers in the Silver Spring Area.
On January 27, Marty Ittner of Section 2 reported to officials seeing red liquid that smelled like gasoline leaking into Sligo Creek from the Washington Adventist Hospital parking lot. The offending fuel turned out to be diesel spewing from the hospital's generator. The incident required a hazmat clean up team, the fire department and the hospital grounds supervisor was fired. Channel 9 News and a local blogger covered the story. Read the Action Log web page about the spill.
This year, Friends of Sligo Creek continued its work with the Montgomery County Stormwater Partners Network. The network, which was first organized in 2005, has 22 mostly local member organizations. The core mission is to advocate for a revised Clean Water Act Stormwater Permit for Montgomery County. The group also advocates for techniques that will significantly reduce stormwater pollution in our streams.
Ed Murtagh, chair of the Stormwater Committee, made a presentation at the Community Clean Water Summit in Silver Spring on February 26. The event, which was sponsored by the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, was a forum for citizens to learn about the problems streams are facing and how they can help protect the streams.
In February, two members of the Stormwater Committee, Kit Gage and Jenny Reed, participated in the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy. Their "capstone project" for the course was to help start up a Watershed Stewards Academy for the National Capital Region; in this effort they are working with Jim Foster, president of the Anacostia Watershed Society. The Academy's goal is to "restore stream health by a thousand repairs". The Academy teaches its students to assess watersheds and create solutions for stormwater and pollution by installing rain gardens and implementing other ways to limit the pollution that enters our waters.
Classes at the new Metro-DC academy began this year, with a session in the spring and another in the fall. Those completing the program become Master Watershed Stewards; they will provide leadership in restoring watersheds in DC and in Prince George's and Montgomery counties – Sligo watershed among them. On November 28, the capstone stormwater projects for the first class of the National Capital Region Watershed Stewards Academy were presented. FOSC is a member of the steering committee of the National Capital Academy.
Washington Adventist University (formerly Columbia Union College) is partnering with the National Capital Region Watershed Stewards Academy to evaluate potential on-campus stormwater projects for the Sligo Creek watershed. As part of this effort, a rain garden was installed on the Washington Adventist University grounds.
GreenWheaton (GW) was formed to "green" the Wheaton Sector Plan and is now expanding to green the wider Wheaton community. The Stormwater Committee is a major GW partner. One of its first projects was to work with the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection and FOSC to install a demonstration conservation landscape garden in the center of the Wheaton Central Business District in 2010. This garden was recognized by the U.S. Department of Transportation with a distinction of Excellence. GW continued to maintain the garden in 2011. GreenWheaton has also conducted outreach events, including talking to the community about Sligo-friendly landscaping practices. Recently the Mid-County Citizens Advisory Board (MCCAB) recognized GreenWheaton as the 2011 Civic Association of the Year. The Stormwater Committee has also been working with the newly formed Silver Spring Green.
On April 22, at downtown Silver Spring's Earth Day Workshop event on Ellsworth Drive, Wendy Bell and Kit Gage described the benefits of rain gardens and other stormwater management techniques.
In May, there was a walk-through in some neighborhoods with new neighborhood assessment screening tools. Diane Cameron has been in contact with Pam Rowe of the DEP. As part of a mini-contract with DEP, we reviewed the tools and made recommendations.
We are partnering with the City of Takoma Park, the Maryland State Highway Administration, Montgomery County, and the Chesapeake Bay Trust on The Flower Avenue Green Street Project. The kickoff community meeting was held August 3. The goal for this multi-year project is to improve Flower Avenue from Piney Branch Road to Carroll Avenue by adding a sidewalk on the east side of the road; installing low-impact stormwater facilities (such as rain gardens) along the road; repaving the road surface; and improving crosswalks, bus stops, and street lighting. The project will be coordinated by the City of Takoma Park.
The Stormwater Committee held maintenance work days on the Eastern Middle School and American Elm Park rain gardens.
A new trail now connects Sligo Creek Park to Northwest Branch, thanks to a team of 19 volunteers who completed the Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail during a workday on November 19. The trail has been a long time in making. Volunteers spent two years removing trash and non-native invasive plants from the woodland at the high school and creating a natural surface trail. This stretch of woodland was long used as a dumping ground for car parts and trash. Now Northwood students use it for hiking, learning about environmental science, and running cross-country meets. The project was led by Erol Miller, a Northwood teacher, and Jennifer Chambers of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club, with help from several community groups, including Friends of Sligo Creek.
This year, the Outreach and Education Committee staffed information tables at several events: the Takoma Park Arbor Day Celebration, the Takoma Park Folk Festival (where we also ran a volunteer "trash team" with Anacostia Watershed Society [AWS]), and, also with AWS, the Takoma Park Street Fair. In addition, we helped organize FOSC program meetings and provided refreshments for them.
In cooperation with the Natural History Committee, the Outreach Committee prepared and posted information in our trail signboxes. We advertised upcoming events and thank-yous for help with Sweeps and other volunteer events. Also this year, with a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the cooperation and in-kind support of the Montgomery County Department of Parks, we are preparing to install one of nine new signboxes. After a brief durability test, we will install the other eight early in 2012. Thanks to Clair Garman for design, construction, and maintenance of the original signboxes, which have served us well but are now showing signs of wear.
Working independently, our webmaster continued to keep our website up-to-date and thorough. Our home page has up-to-the-minute information about our events, and the website includes our calendar, an extensive set of archives, many topographical maps, and a sightings page showing animals and plants reported by members.
Our newsletter editor retired this year, and while looking for another, our president took on the task of getting out the monthly newsletter. The president also spearheaded a new design.
We developed and printed a revised FOSC brochure.
We have had some issues with the new database we moved to last year. This year, Friends of Sligo Creek posted a request for proposals for help with the database system and accepted a bid from the local company SilverSoft, Inc. The new system will be up and running early next year, and we hope it will be the end of our database woes. Once the database is in place, we will be training stewards and committee chairs in how to use it. Automating many of the processes done by volunteers will lead to more effective outreach and greater benefits for the Park.
We continued this year to advocate for a Montgomery County bag bill. A letter from the FOSC board was sent to the County Council, and Marty Ittner, section 2 steward, testified in favor of the bill on behalf of FOSC at the Council public hearing on March 31. The legislation was passed and will take effect in 2012.
As part of our 10th anniversary year, the board organized a half-day retreat for committee chairs, stewards, board members, and our Sweep coordinator.
In March, the Board sent a letter to the Montgomery County Hearing Examiner concerning the petition of T-Mobile for a "special exception" to the Montgomery County zoning code, asking for consent to construction of a cell-phone tower on the grounds of Sligo Middle School. Laura Mol, as steward of the Dennis Windham section (8L), was joined by Michael Wilpers and Bruce Sidwell in documenting for the Board the negative impacts that could be expected if the tower and access road were constructed, as proposed, on the eroding edge of Sligo upland oak-hickory woods. (The county Board of Appeals dismissed the T-Mobile application as withdrawn in July.)
On August 8, we sent a letter in support of deer culling in Sligo to Mary Bradford, director, Montgomery County Department of Parks.
On November 5, members of Friends of Sligo and others helped MCP plant native trees on the Sligo Creek Golf Course. The Sligo Creek Golf Association and FOSC have been working with MCP and the management of the course to fill in spots where trees have died and to add to wildlife habitat.
In other letters and emails last spring, the board expressed concern to the Montgomery County Council about the use of recycled tires to make artificial turf sport fields. We urged the County to look into the potential environmental problems before approving the use of these tires. This issue is still pending. We also asked the Council not to hamper management of the Parks by merging them with the Department of Recreation. This was not pursued this year. In addition, this fall we supported language giving stronger protections for the watershed expressed in this year's draft of the Wheaton Sector Plan.