Northwood News ♦ April 2010

Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail Project Continues

By Jennifer Chambers, PATC

Last fall, Northwood High School and the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) were awarded a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant to restore 15 acres adjacent to the school owned by the Md. State Highway Administration.  As a first step, 60 volunteers, 32 of them Northwood students, removed 10,580 pounds of trash from the property in November [see the story in the February 2010 issue, page 11].

On 7 March 2010, 25 volunteers, students, and trail managers constructed a trail that begins behind the high school tennis courts and continues north, connecting with the Northwest Branch Trail.  The trail benefits Northwood’s Cross Country team and the Academy of Technology, Environment, and System Sciences, in addition to both adjoining neighborhoods, Northwood Four Corners and Kemp Mill.  Interpretive signs will be located along the trail to educate trail users about vernal pools, trash and its impact on streams, riparian buffer zones, and ways citizens can improve the health of the watershed.

On 25 April 2010, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., a community work day is planned for neighbors and students to volunteer to clean-up trash, remove invasive plant species, and plant native plants to create a meadow.  Project coordinators and interns want to engage students and neighbors in this restoration project to create ownership of and pride in the property to instill stewardship of the wooded corridor that connects Northwest Branch and Sligo Creek Parks.  This land drains directly into Northwest Branch and the Chesapeake Bay watershed; therefore, the stewardship of this land will improve the health of both.

To celebrate the restoration project’s completion, on 5 June 2010, National Trails Day, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., the five partnering organizations — Northwood, PATC, SHA, Friends of Sligo Creek, and Neighbors of Northwest Branch — will open the Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail with a ribbon cutting ceremony and a 5K community fun run and walk.

The partnering organizations look forward to engaging students and the community in this project to restore a once unmaintained property to a beautiful meadow and wooded corridor that is healthy for the watershed and its inhabitants and an asset to Northwood High School and the surrounding community.

For more information about the project or to volunteer, please contact the project coordinators:  Jennifer Chambers, PATC, at [contact details redacted], or Erol Miller, NHS, at [contact details redacted].   ■