September 2005
Contents
Upcoming Events
· Planting Work Event September 17
· Program Meeting September 20 on Water Quality
· 4th Annual Sweep the Creek September 24
· RIP This Fall
News and Announcements
· RIP News
· New Invasive found in Sligo
· New Outreach and Education Committee Takes Major Role in September Events
· Update Your Membership Information
· Transportation Issues
· Green Job Opening
· New Insect Drawings on the web
· Comments on the Newsletter?
Feature Article
· Northwest Branch After 30 Years
From the Board of Directors
Upcoming Events
Planting Work Event September 17
What: Group Planting at Long Branch/East Wayne Local Park
When: Saturday September 17th (Rain Date will be Sunday the 18th)
Time: Work will start at 9:00 a.m. and should be completed by 12:30 p.m. Come
help or drop by to see what the project is all about.
M-NCPPC will have coffee, doughnuts, and some basic tools (you are welcome to bring a favorite shovel to use). We'll need your green thumbs to pull it off.
Come help complete the new surface sand filtration system at Long Branch/East Wayne Local Park. M-NCPPC recently constructed this stormwater management system that will not only retain stormwater runoff, but will also filter out much of the pollution. All that remains is installing the plants. One of the important aspects of the new stormwater filtration system is the plants that will grow overtop the basin and sand/soil filter. The new plants will act to maintain soil porosity, stabilize the site, and take up pollutants. 850 plants grown at Pope Farm Nursery need to be planted and the M-NCPPC is looking for folks who would be interested in participating in installing the plants and learning about bio-filtration (how plants and soil can clean stormwater runoff). Learn how you can install a bio-filter in your yard and help improve Sligo Creek and Long Branch’s water quality. Contact Ed Murtagh at for more information or directions.
Program Meeting September 20 on Water Quality
Friends of Sligo Creek holds regular bi-monthly program meetings to inform our members about issues of importance to Sligo Creek and the local environment. The next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 20’th, at 7:15 p.m. at the Long Branch Community Center. Its theme will be water quality. A representative of the U.S. Geological Survey has been invited to describe their stream monitoring gage system and its relevance to Sligo Creek. Please join us for what promises to be an informative meeting. For more information or directions, contact Mike Smith at .
Fourth Annual Sweep the Creek
This year’s Sweep the Creek is Saturday, September 24th, from 9-11am, with a post-sweep celebration at 11:30. (Rain date: Sunday, September 25th, from 1-3. If the weather is questionable, check the web home page http://www.fosc.org ). Each year the Friends of Sligo Creek gather together to remove as much trash and debris from the Creek as possible. Join us and make a real difference. It is a great way to meet your neighbors for a morning of environmental and civic action. You can work on your section of the Creek and have a direct impact on your neighborhood. You can also learn how the Friends of Sligo are helping to enhance habitat for wildlife and improve water quality within our watershed.
· Hours spent on the clean-up can be counted towards Montgomery County's Student Service Learning requirement.
· Prizes will be awarded in each section for the most unusual trash item and most trash bags filled.
· We will have a Post-Sweep celebration at the Kennebec picnic area in Takoma Park at 11:30 A.M. for more environmental fellowship, with music, live animals, speakers, awards, refreshments, and photo-ops with Sally the Sligo Salamander, Friends of Sligo Creek's new mascot.
· We will provide trash bags, cloth gloves, and water.
Wear long pants and shirt.
Also wear waterproof boots if you have them.
And you might want to bring your own gloves.
Contact Wendi Schnaufer at for information on your section's cleanup. Directions to all sites are available on the web. To find the section of the creek nearest you, click here for a map showing the creek sections.
Check out the home page for more information http://www.fosc.org/SweepTheCreek2005.htm
Note: Section 9 (north of University Blvd.) is holding its Sweep on Sunday, September 25, from 1-3pm for anyone who cannot work on Saturday. Contact Ed Murtagh at for more information.
RIP This Fall
This fall is our chance to make an impressive change in Sligo. After a hot summer,the RIP Committee encourages everyone towork atlocal eventsduring October and November!Look for differences in bush honeysuckle, wineberry, and rose. Training sessions open to anyone will be held Sunday Sept 11 and 18, 3-4:30 pm. All are welcome. Contact Lea, 301-807-4697. A schedule of events will be sent to those in the Plant Interest group. To join this group, contact Lea.
News
RIP (Removing Invasive Plants Program) News
Our goal this year so far has been to stop fairlyNEW invasives from getting established. In spring we removed garlic mustard, an easy-pull weed that wreaks havoc in woods when ittakes off. We believe weremoved it all in sections 2, 3, 4, and 5. Sections 6, 7 and 9pulled a considerable amount. Section 8 lacked aRIP Leader at the time, andunfortunately very littlegarlic mustard was removed, though three high school students picked up some service hours there.
In July camemile-a-minute. This plant really does seem to grow at sixty miles an hour. It is worth going toconsiderable trouble toprevent getting established, and we are almost too late. Section 8outdid itselffor working on a large field, then removing one new site after the next, under the direction of Jane Barrett. Sections 6 and 9can be proud of removing it from the edges oftwofields so large that they seemedoverwhelming when we started.
BUT the day after the last field was completed,moremile-a-minute was discovered.The Parkcame toour rescue! We are extremelyappreciative that Martin Aument came to look at problem areas, and hehad severalsites mowed. In fact,the Park now expects to mow much moreof Sligo'sopen sun areas over the next two to four yearsuntil vinesthere are under control.
The Park also helped with a new invasive, Canada thistle.A large strip near the soccer field below Forest Glen was mowed, and two small siteswithunyielding roots were sprayed.
Japanese knotweed appeared in a few new areas.Two Park employees have checked them out and later this month will take over management.
One last new invasive remains, stilt grass. It's anyone's guess whetherwe can ever stop this grass. The Park is cutting an experimental site in section 9.
Friends has produced a one-page flyer that explains why non-native invasive plants are so destructive to the Park, and what Friends is doing. If you want a copy to give to your friends and neighbors, contact Lea Bonfiglio, .
New Invasive Plant in Sligo
A new invasive plant has come to Sligo, discovered by Lea and Sally when they were looking for thistle. The plant is growing on the back stormwater pond just inside the Beltway.
"Trust me, it is bad news," John Parrish wrote after identifying this species for us.
"In local stormwater ponds it competes with our native species. Most of the non-native Jussiaeas are from tropical America - as far south as South America, and are spreading northward in disturbed habitats such as stormwater ponds."
For more information and pictures see http://www.fosc.org/WaterPrimrose.htm. The new plant is one of five closely-related species of Jussiaea. It is part of the Evening Primrose family, Onagraceae.
Two members of Friends have removed a third of the new plants, and the rest should disappear in one more session. Anyone who is curious is invited to help. This occurrence is apparently the first in the county. Typically this plant covers and chokes entire ponds. This is a situation where a grassroots organization like Friends can mobilize quickly and react to new events, hopefully getting rid of this threat before it gets started.
New Outreach and Education Committee Takes Major Role in September Events
In the interest of improving communications within our own membership and increasing our visibility in the larger community, Friends has formed a new committee. Chaired by Brent Bolin and comprised of several active Friends members, this group is currently working to promote the Sweep the Creek and September Planting Day. The committee is also organizing the celebration after the Sweep (guess who thought of Sally the Sligo Salamander!).
In addition, members will be providing information tables at several “Back to School” nights and at the Takoma Park Folk Festival (Sunday Sept 11). If you have 2-3 hours to spare to a good cause, the committee needs more people to sit at information tables this fall and throughout the year. It is a great way to meet people while you hand out flyers and talk about Friends of Sligo Creek. If you would like to participate in the committee or help out on any of the tasks, contact a committee member (below) or Ann Hoffnar (301 585 8891, ).
Here are some of the things we do. You’ll find a committee person’s name assigned to each task. That person would be the one to contact if you have questions, suggestions, or want to help. If no one is assigned, contact Brent ( ).
· Work with media: press releases, articles, notices of Friends events in media calendars… Alison Gillespie. gilbrig@ boo.net
· Monitor web calendar to ensure we don’t have conflicts or announce events that don’t fit our mission. Alison Gillespie
· Manage the Web (Webmaster). Clair Garman
· Manage the database. Lenore Boulet.
· Broaden membership base, particularly to establish contacts in the African American, Latino and Asian communities. This is a high priority area for Friends. If you have any contacts, we would love to follow up. Translation skills are especially needed.
· Develop links with schools, churches and scouts – also high priority. If you have any good contacts, please let us know.
· Set up and advertise program meetings, walks and talks. Ann Hoffnar. . All ideas welcome.
· Edit the newsletter. Michael Pollock, assisted by Alison Gillespie.
· Develop outreach materials such as flyers and powerpoint shows. All
· Tabling (setting up Friends information tables at festivals and other events). Ann Hoffnar, Brent Bolin and a set of volunteers.
· Membership. Jim Baird
· Greeters and refreshments for program meetings. Jane Barrett
· Graphics design for items such as t-shirts, brochures, posters, business cards. Marty Ittner .
Update Your Membership Information
Please take a moment to update your membership information for Friends, in particular your phone number and email address. Friends of Sligo Creek uses these to communicate with its membership about items of interest. We do not use mass mailings due to their cost and their use of natural resources. We do not share this information with any outside organization. We also make every attempt not to bother you with emails on subjects that you are not interested in, so please also update your ‘interests’ field on the Update Membership Form.
We now have a way that’s quick and easy for you to update your information. From the Friends of Sligo Creek home page - http://www.fosc.org go to “Join & Help” (in the green list on the left of the page). From there, click on “Update Membership Data.” If you are at your computer now, click on http://www.fosc.org/MembershipUpdate.htm.
Transportation Issues
Jill Mullins attended the August 9 monthly membership meeting of the ACT (Action Committee for Transit), where she got an update on the Purple Line. Highlights include:
Congress has included an earmark for Analysis and Preliminary Engineering for the Purple Line. This is an important step in the process, and represents a recognition at the Federal level of the project’s importance.
The managers’ report on the bill contained some significant language:
“It is the intent of the managers that any alignment of the ... Transitway ... should be designed and constructed ... to ensure a safe and accessible pedestrian-bicycle trail.”
The Transit Administration should consider a range of options including placing the rail line underground.
Specific use of the term “rail line”, which undercuts the efforts to promote a busway alternative.
On the whole, the text is a victory for a workable rail and trail over those who oppose the rail project or who wish to minimize the usefulness of the bicycle trail portion.
Green Job Opening
Montgomery County Schools has an opening for a Green Schools Program Assistant. The Green Schools program works to conserve resources and make the school buildings environmentally friendly and LEED™ compliant.
The full job description is at: http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/departments/personnel/posclass/6150.shtm
Sketches of Insects Native to Sligo
Dr. Cecilia Chen has sketched ten insects native to the Sligo watershed. See
http://www.fosc.org/InsectSketches.htm
Comments on the Newsletter?
We would like to make this newsletter more useful, interesting and informative for you. Please take a minute to tell us what you like or don’t like. Is there anything you would like to see more of (or less of)? Please send any comments to Michael Pollock () with a Subject Line: “Comments on Newsletter”. Feel free to send me anything you think may be of interest to publish, too.
Feature Article
Northwest Branch After 30 Years
Following is a summary of a letter sent to the Gazette about a local waterway and its changes over the years. If you are interested in reading the unabridged original, contact Michael Pollock (), or contact our sister organization, Neighbors of Northwest Branch. It is eloquently written and worth the read.
Northwest Branch After 30 Years by Bob Simpson
Northwest Branch runs through suburban Montgomery and Prince George's counties down to the Anacostia River. I spent my teenage years nearNorthwest Branch during the 1960's. For kids in the neighborhood, the Branch was both a playground and a quick shortcut to Woodmoor and the more distant downtown Silver Spring.
We hiked many miles of Northwest Branch, usually on the trail, but sometimes in the water itself with our creek shoes. There was a section of small pools and waterfalls deep enough and scenic enough to serve astraditional swimming holes.
In the winter, Northwest Branch would freeze over and kids would ice skate up and down its less-rocky stretches. The rocky sections with their miniature waterfalls would turn into surrealistic ice sculptures that were a wonder to behold.
I now live outside Chicago, but in early August of this year, my partner Estelle Carol and I hiked the Branch again.