Saturday June 26, 2010

I began the day’s work by checking on some native plant colonies and by doing some “maintenance” weeding in areas that I previously cleared. Japanese Stilt Grass can often grow back if all of the roots are not removed.

I enlarged the “invasive free” area.

Before:




After:



I also cleaned another area near the stream:

Before:



After:



Here are last week's weeds [which are composting nicely]:



And this week's weed pile:



There are several plugs of native grasses which will hopefully replace the invasive grass that I removed:



I noticed a large number of fish [Darters]. I did some research, and found that there are six common varieties of this fish in the Rock Creek watershed.



Here is a video:



I also noticed a number of dead crayfish, with this one being the largest:



I planted a number of native plants, including Showy Goldenrod, Spotted Joe-Pye Weed, Mcdowell’s Sunflower, and Blue Wild Indigo. I concentrated my efforts in the areas of the park where the State of Maryland recently planted Sassafras and Oak trees. Soil that has been disturbed are very prone to being seeded by invasive species,and who knows what seeds are in the mulch that they used. By planting some native species, I hope that they will crowd out any future invasive plants.



I completed my afternoon’s work by cleaning about ¼ of a mile of the stream.

Saturday June 19, 2010

I am glad to report that most of the native plants are thriving, especially the native grassses.



The Wild Hydrangea [Hydrangea arborescens] are also thriving.



Three weeks ago, the State of Maryland planted several Sassafras and Oak trees. This disturbed the soil and created another outbreak of Japanese Stilt Grass, which I removed.



I selected another area to clear, east of where I began. I cleared this area of Japanese Stilt Grass, Mugwort, and Oriental Bittersweet.

Before:



After:



The invasive weeds:



This are is now open for plugs of native grasses to grow:



I walked along the trail and found a huge patch of Wine Berry bushes, which I removed.



Hopefully, this will open the area for native flowers to grow including Blue Wild Indigo[Baptisia australis], Mcdowell’s Sunflower[Helianthus occidentalis], Spotted Joe-Pye Weed[Eupatorium maculatum], Bottle (or Closed) Gentian[Gentiana andrewsii], and Showy Goldenrod [Solidago speciosa] - which are common to souther Maryland.

Thursday, June 17 2010

My Allegheny Pachysandra roots [Pachysandra procumbens], which I thought had died, have finally sprung to life:

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I found an interesting news item from NBC news about a project similar to mine:

NBC News Video

Instead of cleaning a stream with the goal of restoring threatened plants, these people were restoring coral off of the Florida Coast. Their results give me hope that my project will also be successful.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Today I removed Japanese Stilt Grass from another area:

Before:



After:



I also checked on the progress and growth of the native plants.





I also notice a number of dead crustaceans in the stream.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Finals are finally over!!!!!

I spent the afternoon cleaning about 1/2 of a mile of Turkey Branch, finding the usual debris.



This portion of the stream shows signs of severe "down cutting" - or rapid erosion caused by run-off from paved surfaces.



Here is a video showing an area of intense downcutting:



I also found a 20 foot section of industrial tubing. I have no idea what it was doing there!

Saturday June 5, 2010

This is week number two of final exams and we are supposed to have thunderstorms this afternoon. I spent an intense hour removing invasive Japanese Stilt Grass from about 200 square feet. I planted many plugs of the wild grasses that I have been cultivating.

The “Before” picture:



The “After” picture:



While weeding, a long-time resident of this area asked what I was doing. After I explained, he told me that there were very few invasive plant species in this area of Rockville, especially Japanese Stilt Grass. He said that these invasives were introduced and spread in this area during the landscaping and construction of Matthew Henson State Park.

In addition to planting more native grass plugs, I also planted some Wild Hydrangeas and Wild Lupins. The plants that I planted in previous weeks are growing nicely:



I planted American Lotus sprouts (Nelumbo lutea)in a shallow section of the stream.



There was a large patch of Wine Berry bushes:



I cleared out this area so that with native Blackberry bushes could replace them.

The replacements:



I also found a number of Tadpoles in Turkey Branch:

Friday June 4, 2010

I found an interesting video on YouTube made by EQR Consulting - the company that built the erosion control structures for Turkey Branch in 2006. Notice how nice the grass, that EQR planted, appears compared to the recent pictures where the ground is covered with non-native invasive plants.