Several FODMers learned about native and non-native submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) of Dyke Marsh and the Potomac River on July 14, 2018, when Nancy Rybicki gave a tutorial and led a paddle. Dr. Rybicki is an aquatic plant ecologist and wetlands scientist, retired from the U.S. Geological Survey. In her 37 years of studying the vegetation of the Potomac River, she has correlated the presence of submerged aquatic vegetation with water quality.
On a beautiful, 82-degree, breezy July 7, 2018, 15 FODMers studied butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies and their host plants in the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve and Belle Haven Park.
It was a Needham’s skimmer (Libellula needhami) day. These showy dragonflies were whizzing around everywhere and eating midges, making for easy sightings. The males are bright reddish-orange and have a red face. The females are yellow and black. Both sexes and all ages have a black line on their abdomens and orange-tinted wings.
On June 9, 2018, Dyke Marsh members and friends learned about Potomac River wetland ecosystems and the interrelationships of plants, insects, birds and other biota, on a walk on the Preserve’s Haul Road trail led by Charles Smith, expert naturalist and Chief of Fairfax County’s Stormwater Planning Division, Watershed Projects Implementation Branch. He also discussed human intervention and how native Americans used some of the marsh plants.
On June 9, 2018, twenty volunteers and National Park Service staffers planted another 1,000 native plants on a cleared .65-acre site along the Haul Road trail. The site was previously overrun with non-native or invasive plants, like English ivy, mile-a-minute and stiltgrass.
A Summary of Comments Submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Proposed Belle Haven Floodwall and Levee
On August 29, 2022, the Friends of Dyke Marsh (FODM) submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACE or Corps), requesting all comments and any suggested alternatives submitted to the Corps, on their Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and EA [IFR/EA] (May 2022) for the proposed Belle Haven floodwall and levee.
Each numbered item below links to the document described.
2. Fairfax County comments, redacted
3. DC Coastal Public comments - 280 pages - redacted
4. Arlington County comments, redacted
5. U.S. Environmental Protction Agency comments, redacted
6. Fairfax County Park Authority comments, redacted
7. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Baltimore District comments, Part 1, asking question, redacted
8. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Baltimore District comments, Part 2, redacted
9. George Washington Memorial Parkway comments
10. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority comments
11. National Marine Fisheries Service, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office comments, redacted
12. National Park Service comments, redacted
13. Virginia Department of Environmental Quality comments, redacted
14. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources comments, redacted
The Friends of Dyke Marsh shared a table with the Friends of Huntley Meadows Park on June 16, 2018, at the annual Community Day in Gum Springs, a historically African-American community near the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve.
FODMers Catherine Noonan and Mary Luceri greeted many festival-goers and helped youngsters make colorful birds. T-Rex and his “friend” dropped by and entertained all. The event drew 32 vendors and organizations, elected officials, a steel drum band and many guests.
Keeping non-native, invasive plants out of the native plant restoration area along the Haul Road trail is a long-term challenge and efforts began on June 5, 2018, when ten volunteers participated in a training led by National Park Service (NPS) biologist Brent Steury. Brent stressed that the two priority plants to try to control are Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) and mile-a-minute (Polygonum perfoliatum). He urged volunteers to pull them out of the ground before they set seed. “If they set seed, we’ve lost,” he stressed.
There were three active bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) nests in the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve this year, 2018. We will soon report the number of eaglets that successfully fledged. During the week of June 4, “our” eagles, this year’s birds, left the nest. Many visitors enjoyed observing them, especially those nesting near the Haul Road trail.
In the spring of 2018, the combination of heavy rains, easterly winds and normal tidal fluctuations due to the moon’s and sun’s gravitational effect created flooding tides in the wetlands of the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve. Visitors saw mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and crustaceans foraging on or near the shores and tidal guts. Some altered some of their foraging patterns, moving to the trails or higher ground than they normally use. Observers saw abundant land snails climbing cattails and other marsh vegetation.
Dyke Marsh visitors have had some good skink sightings this spring 2018. A skink is a type of lizard, typically shiny and with short or no limbs. Most skinks have tapering tails that they can shed if predators grab them and they usually can regenerate the lost part of the tail. Skinks move quickly.
Virginia has nine native lizard species, according to Alonso Abugattas, Arlington County Natural Resources Manager. Six of these species are likely in the Washington, D.C., region. “All lizards native to Virginia in the genus Plestiodon have bright blue tails as juveniles/subadults,” according to the Virginia Herpetological Society’s website.
On May 9, 2018, 20 dedicated volunteers and National Park Service (NPS) staffers planted around 1,500 native trees and plants on .65 acres on the west side of the Haul Road trail in Dyke Marsh. Among others, the group planted spicebush and winterberry; trees included sycamore, tulip tree, cottonwood, maples and black gum; "phorbs" included wing stem, pyeweed, tick-trefoil and moonflower vine plus grasses such as deer-tongue, Virginia rye and riverside rye.
