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We are so fortunate that bird’r Dave Wallace periodically does bird counts in Waterford/Rock Creek parks.  Thank you, Dave!

His results from January 4, 2013 starting at 8:30 am are:

• 1 mallard
• 1 great blue heron (right)
• 1 turkey vulture
• 1 cooper’s hawk
• 2 red-shouldered hawks
• 1 red-tailed hawk  (love all these vole and mouse-eating birds!)
• 1 red-bellied woodpecker
• 4 blue jays
• 9 American crows
• 1 white-breasted nuthatch
• 1 Carolina wren
• 36 American robins
• 10 European starlings
• 1 song sparrow
• 3 northern cardinals
• 5 American goldfinch
• 7 house sparrows

This month we will purchase more of the sturdy fencing and replacing the chicken wires.  We will also patrol staked and fenced plants, straightening, securing, even mulching if the weather is warm enough. Our main project is the area on the hill near the shed where creeping euonymous has been growing for a long time. We are clearing as much as we can and will hit any remaining sprouts with herbicide in the spring. We’ll plant ninebark and other shrubs that can take fairly dry part-shade after we have the invasives under control.

Happy New Year.

Ginny

State of Waterford Park

by Pres. Virginia Brace

2012 has been a fine year from my perspective. First, we were able to work throughout the mild winter months clipping or pulling invasives. We received grant monies for our major planting, and our current “worker bee” group is a pleasure to work with. To make a good year even better, we had weekly rains most of the summer, so we could get out in the park and work on improvements rather than spending hours each week with the watering chores. Shown right, members of the Mount St. Mary’s University Women’s Rugby Club worked with the Friends of Waterford Park on Dec. 2, 2012 to pull invasive bush honeysuckle from the park. Several years ago the honeysuckle was removed, but the seeds remain viable for years, so controlling the plant is an ongoing process. From left are Chloe DeLoughery, Jessica Martinez, Kayla Bishop, club President, and Emily O’Brocki.

In 2013 we plan to continue replacing the chicken wire fences around shrubs with more substantial 4-foot galvanized fences that can remain in place permanently. The shrubs will grow through the fence, and even if the deer browse the tips, they will grow back – pruning by Bambi is not necessarily a bad thing for the shrubs. Our ongoing battle against invasives will continue of course.

As always, we appreciate and depend on the support of our members. We have a couple of hundred dollars left from this year’s dues and donations, and that will last us until renewal time in the spring. As you read the 2012 section below, you will see how your funds were spent. We receive many comments about how great the park looks – I hope you agree that we have come such a long way since our start in 2005. Shown left, Lynn Leathery installing a tree sign.

2012 in review….

The hardy worker bees spent over 50 hours in the park during January, February and March working our way along the paved path, clearing the entire 600 feet of visible invasives. The state PLANT program again awarded us the Gold level of achievement (the highest non-staff level we can hope to achieve) qualifying us to apply to the MD Urban and Community Forest Committee for grant funds. We were awarded $650, and Ruppert Nursery donated $300 for our efforts as well. In April we planted 53 container trees and planted or potted 50 bare-root seedlings.  Throughout the summer we monitored plants, replaced fences, staked, watered and weeded. We added plants to the tended areas at Meadowdale and Baughmans   Lane and are planting around the new bench near the downstream bridge. We waded the entire length of Rock Creek picking up trash only to have rains soon after bring more garbage downstream to us.

This fall we planted an additional 100 trees, some larger ones to fill in the buffer area, some that we had potted in the spring to grow out, and some that the birds had planted in the neighborhood gardens.

Three new large trees were donated this year, a disease-resistant elm, a magnolia and a yellowwood. Donors also provided the park with two new benches. Shown right is one of the new benches donated this year.

We recently installed descriptive signs for 43 species of trees and plan to add signage to more of the shrubs and wildflowers.

We are working with Dr. Ferrier’s class at HoodCollege; they are monitoring Rock Creek, hopefully a first step toward getting some bank stabilization along Rock Creek.

The people we thank…..

The folks who make all this possible are our generous members and donors; over 50 households support us. The workers who make all of this effort so enjoyable include some who have worked for years such as Lynn and JoAnn Leathery and Lesley Cristol as well as newer volunteers Bill Einloth, Nancy Engle, Kathy Soria, Rachel Zigler and Andy Driscoll. Bill wins the hardest-worker award, and Andy, a professional arborist who generously gives his time and skills, wins the most knowledgeable prize. We received help this year from Scouts in Troop 799 and from the Mount Saint Mary’s Women’s Rugby Club. Buck Wisner continues to take our cans to the recycling center. Dwight Moser mows the buffer area at a very reduced price.  Kathy Soria is now doing all of our mailings work. Ellen Dean handles the duties of secretary, and Linda Berkheimer is now in her eighth year as treasurer. Right, the park is beautiful even in Winter!

Finally, without the support of the City, the MD DNR and the Friends of Baker Park, our group would not exist or function. It’s a team effort. On to 2013!

First, I counted the FWP worker hours for 2012 and came up with 769.5 hours that I managed to record. Amazing!

That number does not include the hours Bill is out there on his own or the hours I forget to record for myself. If you are a regular, I would love it if you would record your hours, especially if you work on your own – Bill, that means you!!

Kathy and I were going to work this week but since the ground is snow-covered, we’ll forget that.

We were down to our last hundred bucks in the till, but we have received $200 in donations & dues this past week, so we have money now to get a couple of more rolls of fencing – getting rid of chicken wire and putting the good fences around shrubs is one job we can do even when the ground is frozen hard. I’ll let you know when I have gotten the new fencing.

Meanwhile, enjoy our winter wonderland – when I walked my dog after our Christmas Eve snow, there were deer and rabbit tracks all over the east end of the park.   – Ginny

Ten of our worker bees contributed to the planting today of 33 trees and shrubs.

• 17 of those are 5 gallon (about 6 feet tall) oak, hackberry, elm and sweetgum, mainly in the buffer area
• 1 is a beautiful 7 gallon oakleaf hydranga at the curve in the path, and 1 is a 5 gallon fringetree, also near the curve
• 2 are viburnum near the buffer
• 12 are gray dogwood and hornbeam along the old sewer line

The trees were picked up in Union Bridge at Clear Ridge Nursery by Chris Judd and Lynn Leathery. Trees were placed at the planting sites yesterday by Lesley Cristol and Rachel Zigler. Planting, watering and sheltering/fencing today was done by Andy Driscoll, Kathy Soria, Lesley Cristol, Peter Brehm, Bill Einloth and Chris Wise.

Shown above are (L) Peter Brehm planting and (R) Andy & Bill preparing to stake a hackberry we planted a few years ago that was leaning because of recent water and wind events.

We are trying a new tactic to discourage voles in the buffer – we put 3/4″ washed gravel around the base of the new trees. We’ll see how that works.

Last week several of the worker bees (Andy, Bill, Kathy and Rachel) dug up the approximately 2 dozen cherry, hackberry and sweet gum young trees that the birds had planted in my yard – we put those in the buffer and in the woods. Rachel helped me fence those mid-week.

If we can control the voles the buffer should in the next few years begin to look like a forest!

Two new large trees are also along the paved path (look for the green gator bags) – one is a Princeton elm (disease-resistant) and the other is a yellowwood (loves limestone soil). Both were donated by FWP members. We only need two or three more large trees to finish off the Waterford path tree planting. Stadler Nursery planted the elm and Tom Rippeon, City arborist, planted the yellowwood.

Below Ginny, Rachel and Lesley are getting the new trees loaded on the trailer and delivered to the planting holes. They are also unloading the stones we placed around each tree after planting instead of mulch.

Lynn Leathery and I have gotten 40 new tree signs up in the park, identifying and giving some info on the trees – it is amazing to me that we have about 50 species total in the park – and that’s just the trees, not shrubs or wildflowers. We get so many positive comments about the signs we do have up, so the board voted to add more. We got them from Voss SIgns in NY at a reasonable price and Lynn mounted them on pressure-treated lumber – your donations at work!!

I hope you can get out there on this fine weekend to enjoy the park and check out the signs.

Next week I’ll have a list of the trees/signs so you can take one and see if you can find all 43 (40 up now, 3 to go!)

Also, check out the 3 persimmon trees in the buffer area loaded with fruit. Pretty neat.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Ginny

As I patiently await the arrival the of rain we’ve been promised, I have time to take a few park pictures and update you on recent activities.

Bill and I waded the stream today from Baughman’s Lane to halfway between the two downstream (older) bridges. We got 5 buckets of trash and pulled or clipped some invasives (hops, porcelainberry, bittersweet, multiflora rose). I can report that we have pretty well controlled the invasives along the stream for this year, but they will be back. Frederick Noxious Weed Control no longer has the time to spend in the park, so all we do is cut back things like porcelainberry so the plants do not get in the trees and bear fruit.

We are not cutting the meadow now, as we have the past two early falls. Instead, six of us spent about 12 man hours clipping or pulling the ragweed. We hauled away 4 full trailer loads. It was very gratifying to see literally dozens of birds feasting o the seeds that now will be available to them through winter, if they don’t eat them all sooner. We found lots of wildflowers in the meadow as well as three native grasses that have survived our quirky weather of the past few years.

Scouts from Troop 799 Brookhill United Methodist have been doing community service hours. They have removed invasives and mulched many trees.

We are working to improve three small areas in the parks:  along the path at the west end of Waterford we have planted several moisture-loving plants (hibiscus, bonset, Joe-pye, swamp sunflower, marsh fern), around the new granite bench on the Waterford side (many dry shade plants) and on the hill on the north side of the buffer (plants will be purchased – ninebark, rose, short sumac).

The City has delivered more mulch. After the frost when the pokeberry, jewelweed and iron weed are gone we will clear around our plantings and paper and mulch. Our efforts of last winter made a huge difference this year. Thanks to all you worker bees!

	Scouts lending a hand
	Scouts lending a hand
	Misty morning
	Yellow wing-stemmed ironweed
	Jewelweed
	Aster
	Cranberry viburnum

Here are some pictures of the new benches and of a gorgeous cardinal flower in bloom at Meadowdale. The granite bench is on the Waterford side of the last bridge downstream. The stone bench is near the beech tree in the field in Waterford Park.

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