Dyke Marsh and Beyond

U.S. Geological Survey Board Rejects Locals’ Names for Dyke Marsh Islands

Officials’ and advocates’ choices rebuffed.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Board of Geographic Names has given four unnamed islands in the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve official names — Angel, Bird, Coconut and Dyke Island — rejecting suggestions from Rep. Jim Moran, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the Friends of Dyke Marsh (FODM). They had requested that the islands be named Osprey, Marsh Wren, Kingbird and Cormorant Islands. The USGS Board accepted names recommended by the scientists who prepared the 2010 study documenting the severe erosion occurring in Dyke Marsh and entered the new names into the Geographic Names Information System, the official repository. Commenting on the decision, Congressman Moran said, "Dyke Marsh is one of Northern Virginia's treasured …

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

Dyke Marsh Is Ablaze in Color

Fall walk delights as Hurricane Sandy made its way north.

As Hurricane Sandy churned up the East Coast Saturday, meteorologist Barry Sperling spotted a sunbow, a rainbow-like circle shimmering around the sun. “It’s a sign that it will rain within 12 hours,” he told the group on a fall colors walk in the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve.  “Also called a ‘halo,’ the sunbow is the refraction of light through a cirrostratus cloud." Pat Salamone, a Friends of Dyke Marsh (FODM) board member, led 15 people on a two-hour morning foray along the Haul Road, the main pedestrian trail in the preserve, and pointed out the brilliant colors bursting out all around and varied tones of vegetation heading into winter’s quiescence. The star-shaped yellow leaves of the sweetgum tree and the orangey leaves of the …

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

Fall Bird Migration Is in Full Swing

Friends of Dyke Marsh learn facts and hazards of migration.

It may seem quiet outside these late summer nights, but there’s a lot going on in the skies. Millions of birds are migrating south day and night.  On Wednesday night, 75 people turned out to hear Alicia King of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Migratory Bird Program offer insights into the mysteries of bird migration. The program was sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh and the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia. The Mount Vernon area is prime territory for the fall and spring migration because of the diversity of habitat, from wetlands to woodlands to the river. In mid-September, the numbers of neotropical species and dabbling ducks traveling through are on the rise. Shorebirds have been passing through since August. Migration is …

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

Local Volunteers Tackle Invasive Plants along the Parkway

Invasives can impair ecological health.

On most Thursday mornings along the Mount Vernon segment of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, or GMWP, local “weed warriors” whack and pull invasive or non-native plants. They are trying to control plants like English ivy, bamboo, bush honeysuckle and garlic mustard. The National Park Service estimates that many parks and nature preserves in Virginia typically have between 25 and 34 percent non-native plants. Non-native plants can be called “invasives,” “aliens,” “exotics” or “non-indigenous plants.” Generally, they are plants introduced both intentionally and accidentally into an area far from their native habitat, and they often cause ecological and economic harm.  Invasive plants have few controls or lack natural controls such an …

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

Dyke Marsh Islands May Get Names

Recommendations differ.

What’s in a name? We may find out later this year when four, as-yet unnamed islands in the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve may get official names. Most Northern Virginia landlubbers probably don’t realize there are four islands in the preserve without official names. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names, part of the U.S. Geological Survey, or USGS, may change that. USGS scientists have proposed that the islands be named Angel, Bird, Coconut and Dyke Islands. The Potomac Riverkeeper supports these proposals. The U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries “have no objection to the proposed names,” according to the Board’s executive secretary, Lou Yost. The Friends of Dyke …

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

Bald Eagle Young Have Fledged

Bald eagles are an "incredible success story,” says scientist.

The parents have an empty nest. Literally. “Our” 2012 bald eagle kids are grown up and mostly gone, though some are hanging around the nest, as is their wont. There were three known, active bald eagle nests in the northern Mount Vernon area this spring where adults raised young. In the last week, observers who monitor the nests say that this year’s young appear to have fledged. For the past several years, two bald eagle pairs have nested along the Potomac River in the Mount Vernon area. And for the first time, another pair built their nuptial lair at the seemingly inhospitable intersection of Route 1 and the Capital Beltway on the top of a metal utility tower. Bald eagles that hatch in April in this area usually can fly and leave the nest …

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Patch Takes: Your Comments

Our Patch readers respond to news of the week.

Here's a quick round-up of what Patch readers have said recently in the comments sections of our articles: One Comment Can Net $500 for Mother Nature I am so impressed with the work of Earth Sangha, This group maintains a nursery of native plants and uses them to restore critical areas of public land from which invasive species have been removed. -Patricia Kobor You can nominate a local environmental organization for a $500 donation here. Garden Center Proposal for North Hill Rejected New App Allows Users to Report Crimes Do you think there aren't crimes in Fairfax County? What this offers is another way for people who are aware of crimes going on (possibly even family or friends of a criminal) to report them anonymously.  Also, sometimes …

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

Enraptured by Raptors

Birds of prey captivate onlookers of all ages

Raptors commanded rapt attention Saturday morning as around 150 people stopped by the bike path at Belle Haven Park to marvel at these birds of prey.  Some people lingered, bedazzled, for two hours. The three-tent event was sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh, the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia and the U.S. National Park Service. Kent Knowles and Gabby Hrycyshuyn of the Raptor Conservancy displayed a barred owl, Eastern screech owl, peregrine falcon-merlin hybrid, red-shouldered hawk and red-tailed hawk, birds they had rehabilitated from injuries. The Conservancy gets around 240 orphaned and injured birds a year, nurses them and releases around half of the adults and 95 percent of chicks. The rest cannot survive on their own in the wild…

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Dyke Marsh and Beyond

New Plants Documented Along GW Parkway

Fifteen plants likely rare in Virginia.

A new National Park Service plant survey of the George Washington Memorial Parkway has documented 298 new vascular plants in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., bringing the known plants of the parkway to 1,313 taxa, representing 1,284 species. Seventeen may be the first records for Virginia, and 21 are the first records for Fairfax County.   The survey includes trees, shrubs, vines, herbaceous plants, grasses, sedges, rushes and others. In the Mount Vernon area, it includes plants in the Belle Haven picnic area, Fort Hunt Park, the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve and other sites along the parkway. Brent Steury, NPS natural resources program manager and Mount Vernon resident, published the survey in Banisteria, the journal of the …

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Belle View Elementary to Host Spring Garden Day

Students and volunteers will prepare school's outdoor classroom for spring on Saturday.

Belle View Elementary School will truly go green this St. Patrick's Day, when it hosts its Spring Garden Day. Belle View students and community volunteers will join forces to plant, prune, and weed in order to prepare the school's outdoor classroom for spring. Volunteers will help complete a wetland project by constructing a vernal pool near the rain garden. They will be assisted by Boy Scout Will VanOrden as part of his Eagle Scout project. According to teacher and coordinator Carolyn Bush, the vernal pool will help collect runoff water and provide a habitat for frogs and salamanders. "We'll also be planting native plants and ferns," Bush said. Friends of Dyke Marsh and local Boy Scouts will participate in the cleanup. The planting will …

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