by Patricia Davies
Last Friday a small group of neighbors, escorted by Marlene Berlin, set off to explore the almost-completed Broad Branch stream restoration project.
Marjorie Rachlin and I had not visited the area before, so we were curious to see the work that had been done, and fortunate to have such a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide! Ellen Malcolm had participated in the earlier tour given by the project’s head, Steve Saari from the District Department of the Environment, but was interested in seeing what progress had been made since that time. For a detailed explanation of the Broad Branch stream restoration project, please see Marlene Berlin’s write up for the Forest Hills Connection dated May 5th.
I was rather surprised when Marlene said that the project was almost finished, because to an obsessive compulsive tidy person like me, there seemed to still be an awful lot of tree branches and other debris around, as well as pools of dirty standing water. However, when Marlene explained about bioretention, and I could see for myself the clear water already flowing in and out of the pools of water, it all seemed to make sense.
I was impressed by the huge amount of work that had been carried out, including the planting of hundreds of trees and shrubs. In fact there was someone planting trees while we were there – on the July 4 holiday! We also enjoyed sitting in the shade of the trees for a while, on very comfortable tree trunk benches, watching the birds and the beautiful dragonflies which are already very busy eating the mosquitos!
So don’t delay – head down to Broad Branch Stream and check it out very soon. If you hurry you might just catch a last glimpse of the ducklings before they are fully grown and leave Mama Duck to live independently!
Ducklings video by Marlene Berlin
Broad Branch Stream video and all photographs by Patricia Davies