On October 11, 2015, 29 members of the Nelly Custis Chapter and other chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) turned out in force to help in the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve (photo left by Robert Smith). Under FODM Vice-President Ned Stone's direction, they split into three groups and cleaned the shoreline of an island and the Belle Haven picnic area and took on invasive plants on the dogleg portion of the Haul Road trail. The eager group collected around 58 bags of trash. "It makes a difference," wrote FODM Treasurer Robert Smith.
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On September 27, 2015, the Friends of Dyke Marsh had a table offering Dyke Marsh information at Earth Sangha's semi-annual native plant sale held at their garden in Springfield. We participated alongside other groups, including the Friends of Huntley Meadows, the Friends of Accotink Creek and the Arlington Master Naturalists.
FODM and the National Park Service (NPS) have undertaken a project to save some of the preserve's pumpkin ash trees (Fraxinus profunda) from the emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis), an invasive insect that has been documented in Northern Virginia and will kill all species of ash trees, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture experts.
On September 28-29, 2015, National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) officials met to begin the design of the restoration of Dyke Marsh under a NPS-COE interagency agreement. Officials estimate the design phase will take at least 12 months.
On the lovely, warm, sunny day of August 8, 2015, I led 19 ecology students and professional ecologists and one child for a too-abbreviated visit to the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve (DMWP), as part of the special 100th anniversary meeting of the Ecological Society of America being held at the Baltimore Convention Center.
Sixty Belleview Elementary School students, teachers and parents visited the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve on a blustery November 4 to learn how animals and plants in the wetland ecosystem are preparing for winter. National Park Service rangers Emily Zivot and Miguel Roberson led the walk. FODM President Glenda Booth attended the walk and provided the following photo essay.
Standing on the wooden bridge, Ranger Emily Zivot told the youngsters that the “sad looking plants” caked in mud and disappearing into the muck are spatterdock, a common wetland plant.
Ranger Miguel Roberson let the students feel a beaver pelt and explained that beavers live in Dyke Marsh (photo at top).
