Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield
If you have participated in a Rock Creek Conservancy stream cleanup, you know the drill: Listen to a safety briefing, sign a waiver, grab gloves and a trash bag, and go! The leaders of these cleanups go through 90 minutes to two hours of training – that’s all. And the organization is hosting training sessions […]
Friends of Forest Hills Playground makes sure the park’s amenities remain safe and in good shape. The nonprofit organizes popular events like the summer concerts and Halloween Spooktacular. And the small but mighty board needs more hands to do everything they would like to do for the park and the neighborhood. They are meeting today […]
Our last major update on the Soapstone Valley sewer rehab project was in early August, when the public comment period on the environmental assessment closed. DC Water’s plan to reline the existing 110-year-old pipes is now in the National Park Service’s hands, and its blessing will come via a finding of no significant impact, or […]
by Marlene Berlin While hiking the Soapstone Trail in mid-December, I noticed a weathered plaster cast of an angel. It was sitting atop one of the many manhole covers that mark the location of the 110-year-old sewage pipe that winds through and about Soapstone Creek. I wondered who had placed it there and welcomed the […]
Rock Creek Conservancy has cleanups scheduled during Martin Luther King weekend and beyond, including invasive species removal at Melvin Hazen East, more invasives work on RCC’s “mini-oasis” project in Melvin Hazen West, and trash cleanup at Peirce Mill. For more events like these and other ways to enjoy the park, check Rock Creek Conservancy’s calendar.
by Marlene Berlin If there’s an upside to the cold wintry blast this week, it’s that the ponds in Broad Branch and Linnean Streams begin to ice over, and the patterns they create can be exquisite. The varied ice formations show how the water moves through these streams. Overnight freezes should enhance this ice show […]
The next few weeks bring opportunities to beautify and protect local parks and streams. One gives you an opportunity to add “warrior” to your title! And they all present a chance for students to knock out some service hours. Saturday, November 23 – Weed Warrior Training: Rock Creek Conservancy and the National Park Service will […]
by Marlene Berlin I went to explore our creeks after a storm dropped just under 1.5 inches of rain overnight Saturday and Sunday morning. Here’s what I found. After a long dry spell, it felt refreshing to be out on wet trails. Streamlets reappeared. And the sound of roaring water made a comeback. Rock Creek […]
by Marlene Berlin Summer in DC is not for the faint of heart. Especially in the relatively treeless heart of our city. Citizen scientists fanned out across DC and Baltimore over three days in August 2018 to measure temperatures throughout the city. Portland State University researchers then used their data to map out the “urban […]
by Marlene Berlin The daylighted Broad Branch stream is a nice place to walk and soak in the sights and sounds of nature. Or was, until wild overgrowth overtook the trail this summer. The trail is now walkable again. On the afternoon on September 17th, representatives of the District Department of Energy and the Environment […]
