LFWA Weed Warriors finishing up a work day along the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda Chevy Chase area. Volunteers spent more than 450 hours saving trees along the trail in 2024. This on-going monthly event is done in partnership with the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail.
Native plants can breath easy thanks to the efforts of 584 Weed Warrior volunteers who work in parks in the Little Falls watershed removing non-native invasive plants. Watershed volunteers freed more than 1,200 trees and put in 1,784 hours to remove bush honeysuckle, porcelainberry vines, English ivy and other plants that are threatening our native trees and shrubs.
Little Falls Watershed Alliance Executive Director Sarah Morse leads the pack for the second year for the most hours recorded by a Weed Warrior supervisor. Weed Warrior supervisors have special training and are allowed to lead community workdays that are open to the public. Sarah led 32 workdays on Park land in 2024 supervising 1,056 man hours. Sarah also leads workdays on State Highway land, in DC Parks, and in the Montgomery County Public Schools Forest Conservation Land for a total of 49 events in 2024.
Weed Warrior Supervisor Celia Martin also had an impressive year, leading 25 events in the Little Falls watershed for 603 supervisor hours. Celia’s team focused on removing bamboo along Massachusetts Avenue to save the native trees and planting encroaching on the Falmouth Habitat project.
We also have 26 Certified Weed Warriors working in the Little Falls watershed. Certified Weed Warriors have attended the Montgomery Parks Weed Warrior training and are allowed to work unsupervised in the Parks. More about how you can become a certified Weed Warrior is HERE.
What did the Little Falls Weed Warriors do?
According to the Parks data, we freed 1,217 trees from strangling vines and smothering bushes.
LFWA Volunteer using a weed wrench to pull out bush honeysuckle.
Our most popular plant to conquer was porcelain-berry vines, followed by English ivy, and then bush honeysuckle. We also removed oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, creeping euonymus, garlic mustard (in the spring), wine berry, winged euonymus, leatherleaf mahonia, Japanese knotweed, mile-a-minute, Italian arum, bamboo, privet, multi-flora rose, chocolate vine, pachysandra, and more.
where did we work?
Sarah works primarily along the Capital Crescent Trail and in the Little Falls Stream Valley Park above River Road. Celia hosts her work days below Massachusetts Avenue in the lower part of the Little Falls Stream Valley Park, in Westmoreland Hills Local Park and along the Capital Crescent Trail. But we have other certified weed warriors working at sites all over the watershed.
According to Park data, work sites in the Little Falls Watershed by the number of hours are:
LFWA Weed Warriors finishing up a day of non-native weed removal at Norwood Park in Bethesda.
Boundary Park NCA: 24 hours
Capital Crescent Trail: 460 hours
Little Falls SVU 1 (South of River Rd): 429 hours
Little Falls SVU 2 (North of River Rd): 486 hours
Norwood LP: 100 hours
Westmoreland Hills LP: 45 hours
Western Grove Urban Park: 71 hours
Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park: 130 hours
Join the Mission - Get Certified, Participate in a community event
It’s against Montgomery Parks rules and regulations to remove plant material from a park unless authorized. That’s where the Weed Warrior Program comes in. By training and certifying citizens to remove non-native invasives from parkland, Montgomery County has a robust program that allows residents to help save our forests.
Sign-up for an Event: You can join one of our community workdays by visiting our events page and registering. We provide all necessary tools and gloves as well as instructions. Our workdays are open to everyone, but students under 14 must be accompanied by a supervising adult. No experience or previous training necessary.
Book a Private Event: We host dozens of workdays for office groups, civic groups, scouts, or just any group looking to make a difference. We provide tools, gloves, and a supervisors, you provide manpower. These days are arranged at mutually convenient times. Contact us at info@LFWA.org for more information.
Become a Certified Weed Warrior: Montgomery County certification program trains individuals to identify and remove non-native invasives. After receiving their “green card”, the weed warriors can work anywhere in the Park system without supervision. There is online training as well as in person training days. More information HERE.