by Ethan Goffman
Sligo Creek runs like a precious green band through the middle of Takoma Park, but the stream and valley have plenty of problems—including pollution, litter, invasive species and continued urban development.
It is a good thing, then, that the creek has some dedicated friends looking out for its wellbeing. These stewards--the Friends of Sligo Creek—clean up litter, fight invasive species that damage ecosystems, and work to educate the public about ecological health.
Sally Gagne, the organization’s first president and still a board member, explains that “every creek needs watchguards. Stewards, you might say.” Individuals with intimate knowledge of local conditions are essential to ecological health. A unique feature of the Friends of Sligo Creek is providing individual stewards responsible for each section of the creek, each approximately one mile in length. “Every stream, particularly every urban stream, needs a friends group,” states Robert Boone, President of The Anacostia Watershed Society.
“There are so many little things that a steward is knowledgeable about, that only he can see and take care of,” explains Clair Garman, who oversees Sligo Creek from Maple to Piney Branch. For instance, this past fall Garman organized an event to cut down vines overrunning a grove of trees planted several years ago.
Garman joined Friends of Sligo Creek in 2001 after taking early retirement from his job as a computer trainer. Currently, he manages an online environment as Friends of Sligo Creek webmaster, as well as cleaning and monitoring an outdoor creek environment. He is eagerly following the progress of a beaver that seems to have moved into his section of the creek, although the creature has not yet been spotted.
Even before she became a steward, Marty Ittner had long been an observer of the creek in her daily walks with her dog. While the influx of garbage was evident, she was not at the time aware of the ecological dangers posed by invasive plants. She was concerned enough, however, to take part in the Friends’ annual Sweep the Creek day. When the opportunity arose to become a steward for the New Hampshire to Maple stretch of the creek, it fit naturally into Ittner’s lifestyle.
Ittner and Garman, along with Sligo Creek’s other stewards, work diligently to remove the garbage that appears daily in their sections. Litter is the most prominent concern of Friends of Sligo Creek, and, in its first two years, their September Sweep the Creek event has drawn several hundred volunteers, who rid the stream of plastic wrapping, newspapers, old tires, smashed beer bottles, and the other detritus.
“The battle of cleaning up the trash in the creek is never ending because people litter in their neighborhoods and then it washes down,” explains Garman. Stormwater flow is particularly severe, enhanced by such human activities as the cutting down of trees, and the presence of parking lots, rooftops, and other structures. Erosion is one result, while the sediment washed by these unnatural floods clogs fishes’ gills and damages their skin.
Solutions to excessive stormwater flow involve a wide community effort. Friends of Sligo Creek tries to make an impact through educational programs, such as persuading homeowners to add rainbarrels or raingardens to their properties, decreasing runoff. Garman also points to a project to add a water garden to the “enormous parking lot at Takoma Middle School.”
The presence of invasive plants signals another crucial way in which humans have inadvertently harmed the environment. Dense growths of English Ivy and Japanese Honeysuckle strangle trees and hillsides all along Sligo Creek. Bamboo shoots propagate mercilessly. Garman explains that, “these plants clog and crowd out all of the regular, native species,” killing trees and destroying the root systems that prevent erosion. Ittner recalls a friend’s remark that knowing the harm caused by invasive species “has ruined my nature walks forever.” Such knowledge, however, is valuable; Ittner recently freed a tree choked by Porcelain Berry and has noticed that, “slowly but surely, like an old lady, it is standing up.”
Beyond the constant struggle to remove invasive plants, the stewards of Sligo Creek work to replant species native to the area. Gagne believes that “you should try to keep your stock as native as possible, and as local.” Beyond providing historical continuity, this allows a synchronicity among species. Boone explains that: “In a true ecological niche everything contributes to mutual survival and sustainability. Plants don’t feed birds and contribute to niche health when you have nothing but invasives.”
Invasive plants are only one of several threats to Sligo Creek. Sewage, particularly that containing fecal matter, degrades water quality, harming aquatic species. Water quality is also degraded by the numerous chemicals, from cleaning products and fertilizer among other products, swept into the creek by stormwater. Fish are one key indicator of aquatic health. According to Gagne there are currently at least 11 species of fish in Sligo Creek, up from three species in 1988 but far below from historical highs of over 50 species.
“The best way to know how polluted your creek is,” Gagne explains, “is to keep records on the types of aquatic organisms.” In Sligo Creek, according to Garman, water quality varies from fair to poor, not surprising for such an urban area. Creek water quality is especially precarious because the area sewage system flows directly under the creek. In October of 2003, for instance, an exposed sewer line was discovered spewing raw sewage into a Sligo Creek tributary near Takoma Park. The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) depends upon vigilant citizens to report such leaks.
How effective are such actions? Boone states that “WSSC is not taking care of the system; there is no monitoring.” Friends of the Creek is working to enhance water quality monitoring at specific sites. Beyond monitoring, a process known as ‘insituforming’, which reinforces old pipes with epoxy and fiberglass, helps prevent sewage leakage.
In 1989 and the early ‘90s, the WSSC undertook a program of instituforming, drainage, and other improvements that Gagne and Boone agree were extremely beneficial. Visitors to Sligo Creek will note bank areas reinforced with riprap, a kind of wall of large rocks placed to prevent erosion. The three reservoirs visible near Dennis Avenue are also a result of this program.
Yet more needs to be done, particularly with the aging sewer system. Boone is especially worried about “pipes rising above the creek bed, in the open air- caused by accelerated runoff undercutting buried pipes.” According to Gagne, “Ultimately WSSC will have to face the fact that new pipes will have to be laid.” Yet chronic funding shortages make this unlikely.
To fully care for Sligo Creek, then, requires government intervention. It also requires the multiple individual efforts organized by Friends of Sligo Creek. “Stewardship,” Ittner explains, “is just a piece of the bigger puzzle.” Yet it is an important piece. “If you do something small in your own neighborhood,” Ittner adds, “you feel as though you’re making a contribution.” And Garman exclaims about Takoma Park, “one of the beautiful things about our whole area is the fact that within a few blocks of a densely populated area you can be in the woods.”
In its first three years, Friends of Sligo Creek has learned an enormous amount about the creek and put their organizational structure in place. As she ends her term as president, Gagne explains that, “We’re at a point where we’re poised to do a lot. In the next three years I expect we'll accomplish major improvements in the park, from removing vines, to persuading people to direct more stormwater runoff into their own yardsoil, to getting the Creek to support fifteen species of fish. . . . It's exciting to contemplate.”
To find out more, check the Friends of Sligo Creek website at: http://www.fosc.org
If you are interested in supporting monitoring programs to reduce human coliform in creeks, contact the Anacostia Watershed Society at: http://www.anacostiaws.org
