On Saturday, July 6, our stream team did the summer sampling for benthic macroinvertebrates in the Little Falls Creek. Planaria were the star of the show accounting for more than a third of the organisms we found. Small Minnow mayflies were also found in abundance. We found nine different species in all, giving the creek BIBI score of 2.1 which puts it in the very low Fair category.
Fecal Bacteria Testing Starts with a big FAIL
It’s the second week of our summer fecal bacteria testing program and all three creeks in the watershed have failed to meet the MD Standards for Safe Water Play. This is the second week in a row that the sites on the Willett Branch have failed; The Little Falls site below Mass Avenue failed again. And the Minnehaha creek site has shown serious fecal pollution for the past two weeks. This is the first year that we have tested the Minnehaha Branch.
Spring Bird Count, Norwood Park
Summer News from Norwood Park Aboriculture Project
Lighting Bugs, Summer Bird Count, iNaturalist workshop, DIY mosquito management, and more. Learn more about what is going on in Norwood Park and the Norwood Park Arboriculture Project HERE.
Salt Testing Shows Toxic Levels Continue into Spring
Snow plow painted by LFWA volunteers to raise public awareness of the threat road salt presents to aquatic life. Plow designed by Toby Kathan.
Volunteers testing creeks in the Little Falls watershed found that salt readings in area creeks spiked to toxic levels after snow storms, but they did not always return to safe levels after the events. April readings showed that chronic toxicity (over 230 parts per million) remains in 3 locations on the Little Falls Branch - by the Somerset Pool, by the Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park, and by Westbrook Elementary School. Chronic toxicity means that the habitat of the aquatic life that depends on fresh water is compromised to the point where they cannot survive.
Results from April 2025 Salt testing show chronic toxicity is still a problem at three locations along the Little Falls Branch despite the fact that the last snow event was over a month ago.
Since December 2024, trained LFWA volunteers have tested 8 sites along the Minnehaha, Little Falls and Willett Branch creeks before and after snow storms as well as once a month in the warmer months. The data shows that we have a serious salt pollution problem in the watershed. Most of our sites experienced spikes to levels of over 860 PPM after snow events. Chloride is naturally present in the environment. Chloride concentrations between 1 and 100 ppm (mg/L) are “normal” in most freshwater waterways. But levels over 230 PPM are considered chronic toxicity as aquatic organisms cannot tolerance this much salt for more than a few days. Levels over 860 are considered acute toxicity as the organisms can only survive for several hours at this level.
Read our report on the state of Salt in the watershed HERE.
Problems with Salt Pollution
High levels of salt also have inverse impact on human health, contamination our drinking water. And there are costs to infrastructure. Chloride can corrode metal, concrete, bridges, vehicles, drainage systems, highway fixtures and drinking water pipes. Izaak Walton league estimates that the long term costs associated with salt pollution effects on the infrastructure will cost between $16 - $66 billion a year, if we continue to use salt at the current rate.
There is also a concern about salt in the water comes from local waterways. WSSC, which treats drinking water for Montgomery County has seen an alarming rise in the salinity of the Potomac River - a 41% increase in the past 30 years. “WSSC Water closely monitors the water entering our Potomac and Patuxent Water Filtration Plants. Over the past 30 years, the average salt levels (sodium and chloride are the two components of salt) have been steadily increasing. The levels peak in the winter months and are higher in years where we experience more winter weather events. Because there is no economically feasible way to remove salt during filtration, higher levels end up in the drinking water.” https://www.wsscwater.com/saltwise
For an excellent review of the concerns about salt pollution, there is this article from the Izaak Walton Salt Watch program.
LFWA Salt testing program
Salt testing sites in the Little Falls watershed.
LFWA has been testing four streams in our watershed for salt pollution since 2021. We have one site on the Glenbrook tributary, one site on the Willett Branch, one site on the Minnehaha creek and 5 sites long the Little Falls Branch.
The most up-to-date readings can be found HERE along with information about our salt testing program.
thank you
Thank you to Woody Stanley and our salt volunteers for their hard work on documenting the problem of road salt in the watershed.
This program is run in partnership with Izaak Walton Salt Watch.
Ameletid minnow mayfly found in Spring monitoring
LFWA Celebrates 17 years of Stewardship with Gala Event
March 9 was our birthday and we celebrated with music, dinner, birthday cake and special recognition for super volunteers.
Maryland State Delegate Marc Korman joined us as our key note speaker and delivered a talk on recent environmental bills in Annapolis. Korman was also honored with a LFWA Bacteria Monitoring Team t-shirt in recognition of his role in helping to solve the fecal bacteria problem on the Willett Branch.
Five super volunteers were recognized for their many hours of service. These volunteers had the most hours of any volunteers who are not in a leadership position. Julie Steinberg is one of LFWA first volunteers, showing up in our data base in 2009. She has volunteered 99 hours. Colette Cowey is another long time member and volunteer joining LFWA in 2012 or maybe earilier. She has 156 hours hours. Averill Simone was the youngest volunteer to be recognized. She joined LFWA in 2022 and has already volunteered 82 hours at 42 events. Sally Winthrop joined LFWA in 2021 and has volunteered at 60 events for a total of 90 hours. Emily Cordas also has 90 hours participating in 77 events since joining LFWA in 2020.
Super Volunteers 2025 with LFWA Director Sarah Morse: from left: Sally Winthrop, Emily Cordas, Averill Simone, Sarah Morse, Julie Steinberg, Colette Cowey.
LFWA board members, from left: Emily Simone, Sara Robinson, Karen Thornton, Jack Sobel, George Wyeth and Mikel Moore. Not pictured is John Drake.
The evening ended with the election of a new board. We are happy to have Karen Thornton back as President, John Drake is Vice President, George Wyeth continues as Treasurer and Sara Robinson is our long time Secretary. Emily Simone, Jack Sobel, and Mikel Moore comprise the rest of the board. Board member Josie Gabel has retired. We are grateful for her service and leadership.
thank yous
Thank you to Pete Papageorge for the fabulous music and to Westmoreland Church for use of their beautiful space. To Julie and Karen for helping serve the food. To Keith for the delicious bread, to Sarah Morse for the delicious birthday cake and desserts, to everyone who put away tables and chairs at the end, and, of course, to all the volunteers who make LFWA possible. We cannot do it without you.
LFWA Volunteers Make a Difference for Native Plants
LFWA Weed Warriors finishing up a work day along the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda Chevy Chase area. Volunteers spent more than 450 hours saving trees along the trail in 2024. This on-going monthly event is done in partnership with the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail.
Native plants can breath easy thanks to the efforts of 584 Weed Warrior volunteers who work in parks in the Little Falls watershed removing non-native invasive plants. Watershed volunteers freed more than 1,200 trees and put in 1,784 hours to remove bush honeysuckle, porcelainberry vines, English ivy and other plants that are threatening our native trees and shrubs.
Little Falls Watershed Alliance Executive Director Sarah Morse leads the pack for the second year for the most hours recorded by a Weed Warrior supervisor. Weed Warrior supervisors have special training and are allowed to lead community workdays that are open to the public. Sarah led 32 workdays on Park land in 2024 supervising 1,056 man hours. Sarah also leads workdays on State Highway land, in DC Parks, and in the Montgomery County Public Schools Forest Conservation Land for a total of 49 events in 2024.
Weed Warrior Supervisor Celia Martin also had an impressive year, leading 25 events in the Little Falls watershed for 603 supervisor hours. Celia’s team focused on removing bamboo along Massachusetts Avenue to save the native trees and planting encroaching on the Falmouth Habitat project.
We also have 26 Certified Weed Warriors working in the Little Falls watershed. Certified Weed Warriors have attended the Montgomery Parks Weed Warrior training and are allowed to work unsupervised in the Parks. More about how you can become a certified Weed Warrior is HERE.
What did the Little Falls Weed Warriors do?
According to the Parks data, we freed 1,217 trees from strangling vines and smothering bushes.
LFWA Volunteer using a weed wrench to pull out bush honeysuckle.
Our most popular plant to conquer was porcelain-berry vines, followed by English ivy, and then bush honeysuckle. We also removed oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, creeping euonymus, garlic mustard (in the spring), wine berry, winged euonymus, leatherleaf mahonia, Japanese knotweed, mile-a-minute, Italian arum, bamboo, privet, multi-flora rose, chocolate vine, pachysandra, and more.
where did we work?
Sarah works primarily along the Capital Crescent Trail and in the Little Falls Stream Valley Park above River Road. Celia hosts her work days below Massachusetts Avenue in the lower part of the Little Falls Stream Valley Park, in Westmoreland Hills Local Park and along the Capital Crescent Trail. But we have other certified weed warriors working at sites all over the watershed.
According to Park data, work sites in the Little Falls Watershed by the number of hours are:
LFWA Weed Warriors finishing up a day of non-native weed removal at Norwood Park in Bethesda.
Boundary Park NCA: 24 hours
Capital Crescent Trail: 460 hours
Little Falls SVU 1 (South of River Rd): 429 hours
Little Falls SVU 2 (North of River Rd): 486 hours
Norwood LP: 100 hours
Westmoreland Hills LP: 45 hours
Western Grove Urban Park: 71 hours
Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park: 130 hours
Join the Mission - Get Certified, Participate in a community event
It’s against Montgomery Parks rules and regulations to remove plant material from a park unless authorized. That’s where the Weed Warrior Program comes in. By training and certifying citizens to remove non-native invasives from parkland, Montgomery County has a robust program that allows residents to help save our forests.
Sign-up for an Event: You can join one of our community workdays by visiting our events page and registering. We provide all necessary tools and gloves as well as instructions. Our workdays are open to everyone, but students under 14 must be accompanied by a supervising adult. No experience or previous training necessary.
Book a Private Event: We host dozens of workdays for office groups, civic groups, scouts, or just any group looking to make a difference. We provide tools, gloves, and a supervisors, you provide manpower. These days are arranged at mutually convenient times. Contact us at info@LFWA.org for more information.
Become a Certified Weed Warrior: Montgomery County certification program trains individuals to identify and remove non-native invasives. After receiving their “green card”, the weed warriors can work anywhere in the Park system without supervision. There is online training as well as in person training days. More information HERE.
Winter Stream Monitoring Nets 8 Species
After cancelling once because of the bitter cold, the LFWA stream team was out monitoring the Little Falls Branch last week, February 22. The weather cooperated - sunny and 41 degrees and the team was able to complete the task. They were excited to find a crane fly larva and a narrow winged damsel fly larva along with 6 other species despite the high salt levels seen this winter.