FODMers Help Stabilize the Marsh

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.

Volunteers also put cages around the new trees to protect them from beavers. It was a drizzly but productive day.

This work was possible thanks to a Coastal Resilience and Trees Fund Grant from Wetlands Watch and the Virginia Outdoors Foundation.

The ready-to-plant stakes had buds or emerging leaves and white rootlets.   All photos by Glenda Booth

Volunteers scraped the bark down to the cambium layer for the bottom six inches of the stakes to encourage root growth, once they are in the ground.

David Joy helped carry the cages to the planting sites.

The group put in stakes in the hydric soil near the Haul Road Trail east of the “dogleg” turn.

They secured the cages with metal pins in the ground.

A black willow stake firmly in place, ready to grow.

The group saw evidence of beavers all around.

Even though FODMers and others had a trash cleanup two days before, trash seemed to be everywhere.