Little Falls Watershed Alliance celebrated 18 years of stewardship at their birthday party, Sunday March 8. The festivities include volunteer recognition, a talk on native bees, as well as food and music by the Little Falls Ramblers.
Special volunteer recognition went to Jack Deutsch and Bobby Pestronk for their effort in habitat restoration and water quality monitoring. Our salt monitoring team was recognized for their efforts this year in testing our local waterways for road salt pollution. County Executive Marc Elrich, in his last term, was thanked for his contributions to the environment.
Jack Deutsch is one of LFWA’s first volunteers, helping to construct the meadow at Westbrook Elementary School in 2010. In 2016, he joined the team of volunteers who transformed the paper road between Wakefield and Yorktown in Green Acres to a native plant sanctuary. Most recently, he is a regular in two local parks, working to remove non-native invasives and restore native plants.
While he has only been a member since 2022, Bobby Pestronk contributed over 100 hours as the eyes and ears of the Little Falls Branch in Friendship Heights keeping watch over the creek where it runs through the Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park. In the summer, he does fecal bacteria testing in this popular park, and in the winter, he keeps track of the salt pollution. And in 2024, he formed a neighborhood group to removed non-native invasives from the Park. The group meets once a month and has cleared more than 2 acres from weeds that were crowding out the native plants.
Exploring native bees, beneficial insects, pollinator-friendly planting, and how each of us can help Maryland’s 400+ bee species thrive was the focus of our key note speaker, Maureen Jais-Mick’s fascination talk. Highlighting the importance of saving native was a perfect fit for our habitat restoration work. Maureen’s handout with resources is HERE.
The annual party is also our annual membership meeting. We are happy to welcome Peter Chessick and Lisa Marcus to the board, and sad to lose Karen Thornton, who served as president for the past four years. Karen has moved to Rhode Island, so our lose is their gain. George Wyeth is our new president, and Lisa Marcus has taken over as treasurer. John Drake remains as Vice president; Sara Robinson remains as secretary. Meet the Board HERE.
Thank you to David Batson and friends for their music. As the lead of the Little Falls Ramblers, David has been entertaining at LFWA events since 2011 when we celebrated Norwood park with a party and clean-up. Thank you also to Maurie Kathan for organizing the food set-up, serving and clean-up. Not only is Maurie competent in all things food, but they are a former board member. Thank you to David Kathan for his opening slide show. Thank you to Sarah Morse for her baking talents and providing the yummy desserts. Woody Stanley made the Salt movie (with the help of AI) which will be available for public viewing on our website soon.
And finally, thank you to the Westmoreland Church for allowing us to use their beautiful social hall, again.
