Fifty-two enthusiastic volunteers came out on January 19, 2026, for the Martin Luther King Day of Service Trash Cleanup in Dyke Marsh and along the Potomac River shoreline.

On October 22, 2025, Alison Zak urged her Zoom audience of 77 to “reframe their thinking that beavers are pests.” She explained that beavers (Castor canadensis) improve water quality, restore freshwater systems, protect wetlands, enhance groundwater recharge and increase biodiversity.

On August 29, 2025, NPS staffers installed a new wayside on the boardwalk explaining the stone breakwater and sills in the south marsh visible from the boardwalk.  

January’s snow, sleet, ice and many sub-freezing days left Dyke Marsh with packed snow and ice and a white glaze, sparkly in the sunshine.

The Northern Virginia Bird Alliance’s July 2025 newsletter puts a spotlight on the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, its history and natural resources in an article by FODM President, Glenda Booth.

Every year, from spring to fall, dedicated FODM volunteers conduct butterfly, dragonfly and damselfly surveys, compiling the number of each species observed. These keen observers also track other insects, birds and plants.

FODMers welcomed Superintendent Jennifer Madello to Dyke Marsh on June 5, 2025. She is a career National Park Service employee who became the superintendent of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in December 2024.

In May 2025, FODMers joined our “sister” groups and a number of government agencies at two events:

On the April 12, 2025, tree walk, led by Jim McGlone, an arborist and forester, FODMers and friends studied tree bark, buds, flowers, stems, limbs, leaves, structure, size and more – all things trees.

On March 24, 2025, FODM volunteers planted 50 native black willow (Sali nigra) tree stakes in Dyke Marsh, phase two of a project to help stem erosion and stabilize the tidal zone of the wetland. In 2024, FODMers planted 150 willow tree stakes.

It was billed as a mega-trash cleanup and it lived up to its name – all 2,505 pounds of it.

They are rather nondescript, sedentary mollusks with hinged shells, but they are important. Mussels are nature’s “cleanup crew” and can help clean up the Potomac River’s water quality, FODMers learned at their February 23, 2025, meeting.