It's actually going to happen. Springhouse Run is to be stripped of its invasives, freed from its stone lined channel, reinvented with natural meanders, and replanted with wetland plants of local provenance. It's an energetic plan and includes replacing Springhouse Pond with a bog/marsh. I'm pretty sure Heart Pond disappears too; it never was much of a pond. Over the last month or so, Joan has been on quite a few seed collecting trips with Philip, Joe, and or volunteers. It seems like she's been to Beltsville every Monday for a month. I hear snippets of what's been collected and I'm excited about the project. The collected seeds have been stored in the headhouse; today Joan, Joe, and the Tuesday volunteers assessed and cleaned. Ultimately they need to produce some incredible number of plants. I don't remember what it is but Chris Carley did some calculations and I think it'll take 1,000 volunteers a month to do all the planting....well maybe that's an exaggeration but the actual figures were staggering. Apparently we'll be creating a temporary nursery area to handle the volume. That'll be good because it seems that just over the horizon there is a similar restoration planned for Hickey Run, which, though not channelized, is a bit longer. Good stuff to look forward to!
