parks

Rock Creek Conservancy Seeks Volunteers for Extreme Cleanup on April 6

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user afagen

From a press release:

The fifth annual Rock Creek Extreme Cleanup will take place on Saturday, April 6, from 9 am to 12 pm. Rock Creek Conservancy is seeking volunteers to remove trash and debris at over 70 locations along Rock Creek in Washington, DC, and Montgomery County, MD. Click here for a map of cleanup locations and signup information.

The three-hour cleanup will bring together kids, families, and adults of all ages to pick up litter from the creek and woodlands.

“People love Rock Creek and are really eager to be involved,” according to Conservancy Executive Director, Beth Mullin. “They can make a difference right here, and it’s a fun way for kids and adults to be outside and give back to their community. Our parks are now visibly and measurably cleaner, but they still need a spring cleaning.”

People interested in volunteering can find a cleanup location and sign up at the Rock Creek Conservancy website, rockcreekconservancy.org.

During each of the past four years, volunteers have fanned out in parks bordering the 33-mile length of Rock Creek and collected over 2,500 bags of litter and tons of assorted junk, including a Canadian flag on a flagpole, a parking meter full of coins, and a Vespa motorbike. During the Rock Creek Extreme Cleanup, volunteers carrying colorful trash bags can be seen for miles in Rock Creek parks.

Rock Creek Park Begins “Deer Reduction Operations”

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

We last spoke about the debate on dealing with deer in DC in early Feb. From the National Park Service via MPD:

Rock Creek Park Superintendent Tara Morrison announced today that several temporary night-time road closures will be in effect from March 27-30, 2013 to provide for visitor safety during white-tailed deer reduction efforts in the park. The Rock Creek Park White-tailed Deer Management Plan calls for reducing the density of deer to support long-term protection, preservation and restoration of native vegetation and to allow for forest regeneration.

“Implementing the White-tailed Deer Management Plan is a critical step toward ensuring the forest is able to support native plants and animals found in Rock Creek Park in a sustainable manner for this and future generations,” said Superintendent Morrison. “Safety is our top priority and we will conduct management actions in the safest manner possible.”

Numerous safety measures will be in place to protect park visitors and neighbors. Highly trained sharpshooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working under the direction of National Park Service resource management specialists and in coordination with the U.S. Park Police and local law enforcement, will conduct reduction actions at night when the park is normally closed. The management plan calls for using active herd reduction efforts during the next three years to reduce the deer density from over 70 per square mile today to 15-20 per square mile. Once the herd size is at a healthy level, management efforts will work to maintain a sustainable deer population.

Over the last 20 years, an overabundant white-tailed deer population has negatively impacted Rock Creek Park. Their numbers have grown so large that they are eating nearly all the tree seedlings and preventing Rock Creek Park’s forest from growing. Reducing the size of the population will reduce pressure from deer browsing, allowing for a healthy diverse forest that supports native vegetation and other wildlife.

The following road closures will be in effect from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., March 27-30 when sharpshooting is underway: Beach Drive north of Broad Branch Road, Ross Drive, Wise Road, Grant Road, Sherrill Drive, Joyce Road, Morrow Drive, and Bingham Road, NW.

The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates and the English Premier League soccer club Manchester City building new Soccer Field in Adams Morgan

By Prince Of Petworth

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Photo by PoPville flickr user mayhemnsuz

Well this is pretty awesome. Thanks to a reader for sending from the Friends of Marie Reed School & Park:

The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, and the English Premier League soccer club Manchester City, have agreed to build a new soccer pitch in the park adjacent to Marie Reed Elementary School. The work will be done through Manchester City Football Club’s US-based non-for-profit City Soccer in the Community. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend a 10-15 minute presentation at 7PM on March 27th inside Marie Reed Elementary School. Work will begin on the field on April 2nd.

The Marie Reed field is located behind the tennis courts at 18th Street and Wyoming Avenue, NW.

City Kids – Rock Creek Park Nature Center – “Creature Feature”

By Prince Of Petworth

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City Kids is written by Takoma, DC resident Caroline. Caroline previously wrote about The Building Museum.

Rock Creek Park has endless opportunities for activities for all ages. The Rock Creek Park Nature Center, tucked just south of Military Rd, has a small gift shop, planetarium, and a large exhibit of local plant and animal species. Rangers and volunteers at the nature center conduct a variety of free programs on the ecosystems found in the park and night sky watching.

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Every Friday afternoon, visitors of all ages can watch and help rangers feed the captive animals who live at the nature center. Three varieties of turtle and two snakes live in aquariums. A group of about five parents with kids ages 1 to 7 watched a yellow-orange corn snake strike, squeeze, and unhinge its jaw to swallow a mouse. The kids preschool age and up got the most out of the “eeewww” factor, although the little ones also enjoyed the display. Littler ones also enjoyed the large collection of taxidermy animals.

Continues after the jump. (more…)

Biking around Town Vol. 4 – Laps in Rock Creek Park

By Prince Of Petworth

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRide

Biking around Town is written by Josh Nadas (@dcliterate), a daily bike commuter & avid rider who works for the National Park Service, and lives in Mount Pleasant.

Sometimes, you need to get out and sweat without going too far from your house. It’s for this reason that I came up with this route – it’s relatively close to my home, and I can get a workout without having to go too far. Everyone needs a route like this. While this one is mine, I’m going to work on finding similar ones around the city. The total distance covered on the map is 10 miles, but if you count loops from beach drive and ridge road, that distance is shorter. Once you get into the park, it’s pretty easy to make more loops than one if you like.

The ride starts out headed down Harvard street, which is a fun downhill. However, there is a light at the bottom of the hill. If you are going to the right (which is the mapped direction) you should be okay. If you were going straight to get to the zoo, I don’t think cars have great visibility coming from the other way, so keep your head up. Also, even on the weekends a lot of this route is on roads where there are cars. It many cases there are not a lot of cars, but it’s good to be aware.

Continues after the jump. (more…)

The Debate on Dealing with Deer in DC

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

The following has been circulating on all the neighborhood listservs:

I am proud to be one of five local plaintiffs in a lawsuit opposing the National Park Service’s barbaric plan to kill deer in Rock Creek Park. The plan is on hold until the lawsuit is heard in court. Please see the email below and voice your support for our work by signing our petition at the link provided below.

You can stay up-to-date on the latest developments by joining us on Facebook and Twitter.

1) An excellent opinion piece promoting contraception for the Rock Creek Park deer was published in the Feb. 3, 2013 edition of The Washington Post by two eminent scientists in the field of wildlife population control. It can be read here:

2) A petition asking the National Park Service to use only non-lethal methods, including contraception, to control the deer population in Rock Creek National Park has been posted on Change.Org

We hope you will sign it and forward it on to others in the area, across the country, and around the world.

You can also type in a message as to why you support the petition. You’re not required to leave a comment, however.

The petition is written for:

– those who think that humans should strive to live in peaceful co-existence with the beautiful wildlife in our midst.

– those who think that the future of wildlife population control is the use of fertility-control agents — not death and destruction without end.

– those who oppose the National Park Service’s plan to terrorize and brutalize our wonderful Rock Creek Park deer.

Ignoring federal law and its own rules — and for the first time in the 123-year history of the park — the National Park Service has ordered the killing of animals who live in Rock Creek Park. The Park Service plans to kill half of the park’s 314 deer in the first year of a multi-year killing program.

These gentle animals, who have never before been harassed or hunted, will be shot with bullets and arrows after being lured to piles of grain, apples, and hay; others will be killed after capturing them with nets and shooting them in the head with penetrating captive-bolt guns, or by being bled to death.

To those who think this is wrong — we hope you will sign the petition.

On the Takoma listserv one resident left the following response:

How do you feel about the idea deer having to wander further afield in search of food and get hit by cars?

Or slowly starve to death as they continue to wipe out all the foliage in Rock Creek Park due to their over-population?

What are you proposing to do about that? Contraception for the deer is a great idea for long-term over-population, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the deer — which are NOT native to the area — which are already there and causing problems to both the park and the surrounding neighborhoods.

The 5pm Post – From the Events Calendar, PoP Picks…

By Prince Of Petworth

Canal Park Grand Opening:

Canal Park
M St SE & 2nd St SE
Friday, November 16th, 2012
10:30am – Sat 10:00pm | FREE!

Grand opening weekend will kick off with a performance by the String Poets at 10:30 am and a grand opening ceremony at 11:00 am with remarks by U.S. Representative Eleanore Holmes Norton, Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmember Tommy Wells, and other honored guests. The launch of the interactive light cube will take place at dusk.

The ice skating rink will officially open at noon on Friday with free skating from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm. After 2:00 pm, skate rental is $3; admission is $8 for adults and $7 for children, seniors, and military. Come watch ice performances at the top of every hour for several hours on Friday and Saturday. Many activities and performances will take place on Saturday, including music by The Singing Lizard, John Henry and Justin Traywick; face painting and recycled art by SCRAP DC; and fitness classes and a kids obstacle course provided by Results Gym.

See all of tonight’s and the week’s events here.  To add your event, click the events tab up top and then click “add an event”.  You can add concerts, museum/gallery exhibits, fundraisers, sporting events, bike rides etc. You can add anything you think will be of interest to PoPville.

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