After cancelling once because of the bitter cold, the LFWA stream team was out monitoring the Little Falls Branch last week, February 22. The weather cooperated - sunny and 41 degrees and the team was able to complete the task. They were excited to find a crane fly larva and a narrow winged damsel fly larva along with 6 other species despite the high salt levels seen this winter.
LFWA citizen scientists are busy at work again, this time testing for salt pollution in our creeks. The baseline tests taken in mid-December showed high levels of salt - almost to the chronic level. This is alarming as the freshwater organisms who live in the creek, cannot survive when the salinity of the water gets too high.
Stream Team Leader Frank Sanford sampling the Little Falls Branch, October 2020.
Site 45, Little Falls Branch
10/09/2020 08:45 AM
3-FALL
1 Broad-winged Damselflies - Calopterygidae
32 Small Minnow Mayfly - Baetidae Baetis
36 Common Netspinner Caddisfly - Hydropsychidae
9 Midges - Chironomidae
6 Aquatic Sowbug - Isopoda
5 Planarians/Flatworms - Dugesiidae
2 Aquatic Worm - Oligochaeta
1 Leech (flat) - Glossiphoniidae
January 11, 2021
LFWA’s Stream Monitoring team went out Saturday, January 9 for their winter monitoring. The weather was beautiful; the results discouraging. The protocol is to just count the first 100 benthic macro-invertebrates organism found. Unfortunately, they were not even able to find half that number.
Frank Sanford, team leader, reports from the field:
Yesterday’s monitoring was very discouraging. We didn’t find the required 100 organisms, only about 40
Here are totals:
Aquatic worms - 3
Aquatic sow bugs - 7
Chironomidae (midges) - 3
Black fly larvae - 3
Crane fly larva- 1
Common net spinners - 16 (caddisfly larvae)
Damselflies larvae - 5
Unfortunately, our creek is rated poor. Using the protocol set by our partner organization, Audubon Naturalist Society, the team searches for benthic macro-invertebrates - the small critters that live on the bottom of the creek or under rocks. These organism are largely the larva form of flying insects you see around waterways. The diversity and number of organisms found help us determine the health of the creek. The organisms are rated by pollution sensitivity and then assigned a score based on the types found. The protocol also mandates that we find at least 100 organisms as the number of organisms is also an indicator of the state of the stream.
Macro-invertebrates from 2021 winter monitoring. From the left: Aquatic worm, caddisfly larvae and sow bug. Photo by Kevin Misener
Damsel Fly larva from 2021 winter monitoring. Photo by Kevin Misener
May 3, 2020: Nesting Adult Red-Shouldered Hawk in Little Falls Branch Stream Valley Park perched with a garter snake in her talons, photo by Terri Jacobsen.
Good news from Terri Jacobsen who has been documenting Red-shouldered Hawks in the Little Falls Branch Stream Valley Park this year. The successful fledging of six young Red-shouldered Hawks from two nests in LFBSVP in the summer of 2020, suggests that the Little Falls watershed offers high quality riparian forest habitat for this species and others that live and reproduce there. Terri’s report of the 2020 nesting season can be found at this link: https://flipbooker.com/user_files/html/8f2621e8-0228-49de-887d-c6d66f5045cd/index.html
Big piles of leaves by the curb, a certain sign of autumn and lots of fun for kids to jump in. What could be wrong with that? Not to be the Grinch Who Stole Leaf Pile Jumping, but everything. Leaf piles by the side of the road make their way to the creek where they decompose and cause nutrient bloom. Leaf piles left for pick-up mean no leaves around the base of your trees where they provide an organic blanket for the trees during the winter. Leaf piles in general mean you are wasting valuable nutrients for your lawn. If you leave the leaves, they will feed your lawn all winter long and in the spring, your grass will thank you.
So, this year, take a tip from Winterthur, the spectacular DuPont gardens in Delaware and mow your leaves right on the lawn.
In January 2019, LFWA was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Montgomery County Department of Environment Protection to tackle the stormwater run-off problem at Sumner Village, a condominium community in Bethesda. The green areas by tennis court two had little or no vegetation and turned to a sea of mud when it rained. In addition, the creek adjacent to the area were experiencing considerable erosion due to rain water run-off. The fence has been moved several times in the past years because the bank has collapsed.
UPDATE, July 2020: The project is complete!
Project Complete! The concrete has been removed and replaced with a vegetated infiltration swale planted with native grasses and wildflowers.
Before: The concrete storm ditch collected water from uphill properties and directed it to the Willett Branch, causing flooding and erosion of downstream creeks.
April, 2020: The concrete ditch along Little Falls Parkway at Dorset Avenue is getting a stormwater management upgrade. The concrete is being removed and replaced with a vegetated swale. This will allow the stormwater run-off to soak into the ground instead of filling the channel and flowing directly to the Willett and Little Falls creeks. The swale will be planted with native wild flowers and grasses which will bring much needed native plants to the area.
The project is being undertaken by Montgomery Parks. The start date was April 2020 and completion is expected by June 2020. Please contact Erin McArdle, PE with any questions regarding the project. Erin.McArdle@MontgomeryParks.org
When I joined the board of Little Falls Watershed Alliance (LFWA) and later became president, I never envisioned writing a letter like this on a subject like this. I envisioned communicating about the organization’s many great accomplishments, its dynamic leadership, its tremendous volunteers, its myriad activities and our improving environment. I’ve enjoyed and am certain I will continue to enjoy opportunities to broadcast such things. Needless to say, the Coronavirus pandemic has, at least temporarily, disrupted our lives, plans and short-term aspirations.
Among LFWA’s greatest strengths is its vibrant volunteer base and the plethora of effective volunteer activities. Unfortunately, at our last board meeting, we made the difficult but responsible decision to suspend all sponsored volunteer activities for the foreseeable future, until they’re safe to resume. We hope and pray that our community can move past this and that we can resume our volunteer programs as quickly as possible. We want you to know that even during this pause, we continue to work hard on behalf of our watershed. We recently collaborated with our Maryland legislative representatives and provided testimony to help secure funding for the future Willett’s Branch Park and are currently preparing for virtual meetings on the proposed Westbard II site plan and senior center, among other things.
I encourage you all to continue to safely enjoy our watershed, including the Little Falls Stream Valley Park and Capital Crescent Trail. Nature can provide great comfort and solace in these trying times. I was out walking along the Little Falls Branch with my family on Sunday and signs of spring were everywhere. The loud whoosh of a huge Great Blue Heron taking off from the stream just above Massachusetts Ave. startled us. We also noticed several pairs and families of mallard ducks lazily swimming and feeding on the water. Finally, we observed fish, small and large, returning to the stream, as they do every spring. Our parks, always heavily used, are even more so now. Please be careful about social distancing, wear masks when advisable and do everything you can to stay safe. And, as always, if you venture out, feel free to bring a bag and pick up any trash you see to keep our environment clean.
On behalf of the entire LFWA Board, we wish you the best during this difficult time. Stay well!
Jack Sobel
LFWA President
Winter is here and there is one important thing that every homeowner can do to save their trees - remove any English Ivy that is growing up the trunks. Ivy can strangle trees, accelerate rot, attract mosquitoes and cause mature trees to fall down during storms. With the threat of snow, it's important that you pay attention to the last warning - the weight of snow added to the weight of the ivy can cause mature trees to fall down during storms.
In January 2019, LFWA was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Montgomery County Department of Environment Protection to tackle the stormwater run-off problem at Sumner Village, a condominium community in Bethesda. The green areas by tennis court two had little or no vegetation and turned to a sea of mud when it rained. In addition, the creek adjacent to the area were experiencing considerable erosion due to rain water run-off. The fence has been moved several times in the past years because the bank has collapsed.