by Marlene Berlin I’ve been sounding the alarm for a while now, and I’ll say it again: Don’t let your children, your dogs, or yourself swim, wade, play, or otherwise come into contact with the waters of Rock Creek and tributaries including Soapstone, Reservation 630, and Broad Branch. On a good day, they are polluted […]
Save the trees! At three local parks, volunteers are doing that and more – by attacking invasive weeds.
One day over Martin Luther King weekend, a few expert Weed Warriors and a large number of less-experienced volunteers gathered in the wooded area behind the Politics and Prose parking lot to pick up trash and free dozens of trees from invasive English ivy. And whether they realized it or not, they played a role […]
Rock Creek Conservancy: Protecting a DC oasis – and the “lungs” of the city
by Mark Moran Rock Creek Park is an oasis in the city, in more ways than one. “One of my greatest pleasures is to go alone into the peaceful setting at Reservation 630 West in Rock Creek Park, planning for volunteers who will help with the removal of invasive plants that will allow native plants […]
Neighborhood in the News: New neighborhood leaders take on effort to rename the park now called Reservation 630
For decades, the park south of Tilden Street, bisected by Connecticut Avenue, was Melvin Hazen Park. Then, in 2017, Neil Flanagan wrote for the Washington City Paper about Hazen’s long-ago efforts to wipe a Black neighborhood in Tenleytown off the map. DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rock Creek Conservancy and ANC 3F started pushing the […]
Rock Creek Park deer hunt under way for tenth season
If your travels take you through Rock Creek Park after dark, you might encounter road closures from now until the end of March. That’s because the park’s annual “deer management” operation is now under way. In simpler terms, it’s a deer hunt. During the first one, which occurred over a few nights in 2013, sharpshooters […]
It’s the end of the trail for “Melvin Hazen” trail
The National Park Service announced Wednesday that it would remove Melvin Hazen’s name from the Rock Creek tributary and trail bisected by Connecticut Avenue, as well as the community garden on Sedgwick Street NW. The park was named sometime in the 1940s for Melvin C. Hazen, who was a DC Commissioner when he died in […]
MLK weekend events include Peirce Mill, Melvin Hazen and Trail 9 cleanups
For the 12th year in a row, volunteers will spend the Martin Luther King holiday weekend sprucing up Rock Creek Park and its tributaries. Rock Creek Conservancy and the National Park Service are hosting several trash and invasive species removal events from Saturday, January 15th through Monday, January 17th. Volunteers will be picking up trash […]
Rock Creek Park deer management under way through March
The National Park Service begins a new Rock Creek Park “deer management” season at sundown, and its efforts to curb the park’s whitetail deer population will continue through March 2022. The hunters are U.S. Department of Agriculture biologists, which the Park Service says are also highly trained firearms experts. They are equipped with infrared heat […]
Round up invasive weeds at the first Rock Creek “Weed Wrangle” on Sept. 25
Saddle up, pardners. Volunteers are being deputized to round up some weedy invaders in and around Rock Creek Park. On Saturday, September 25th (which is also National Public Lands Day), the National Capital Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM) and Rock Creek Conservancy are leading their first “Weed Wrangle,” during which volunteers will remove […]
A more colorful Connecticut Ave. and an easier trek on the Melvin Hazen trail after weekend volunteer work
Volunteers were busy in our neighborhood on Saturday. Van Ness Main Street: “Thank you to yesterday’s wonderful volunteers for helping us plant flowering pollinators in front of the small businesses along Connecticut Ave!” You’ll have more opportunities to pitch in over the next few weekends. Pollinator-friendly plantings are happening every Saturday and Sunday afternoon (weather […]