SILVER SPRING, MD—Montgomery County’s parks will get a helping hand from hundreds of volunteers this National Public Lands Day, Saturday, September 27.
“We have group projects organized in several parks for National Public Lands Day,” said Department of Parks Volunteer Services Coordinator Jayne Hench. “The Sierra Club, the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail, the Little Falls Watershed Alliance and others are all lending a hand this year.”
This year’s National Public Lands Day volunteer projects in Montgomery County Parks include:
- Cabin John Stream Valley Park, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon, meet at Cabin John Local Park, 7401 MacArthur Boulevard, Cabin John. Montgomery County Sierra Club members with Montgomery Parks Weed Warrior volunteers will manually remove invasive plants in Cabin John Stream Valley Park to save the park’s majestic trees.
- Capital Crescent Trail, 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm, meet at the Capital Crescent Trail intersection with Little Falls Parkway. Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail members and Montgomery Parks will manually remove invasive plants from the trail, which is surrounded by large stately trees being threatened from the invasive vines surrounding them. Parking is available at the Bethesda Pool at 6300 Little Falls Parkway and Hillandale Road in Bethesda.
- Little Falls Stream Valley Park, 8:00 am – 10:00 am, meet at the gravel parking lot at the intersection of Little Falls Parkway and Massachusetts Avenue. Little Falls Watershed Alliance and Montgomery Parks Weed Warrior volunteers will manually remove invasive vines from Little Falls Stream Valley Park—home to many large native trees, Little Falls Stream and loved and enjoyed by many local residents.
- Rachel Carson Conservation Park, 9:00 am – 12:00 noon, meet at the gravel parking lot of Rachel Carson Conservation Park, 22201 Zion Road, Brookeville. Montgomery Parks Weed Warrior volunteers will manually remove invasive plants from the trails of this beautiful, large, pristine park.
- Brookside Nature Center, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm, 1400 Glenallen Avenue, Wheaton. Join park naturalists in planting native shrubs and closing off a trail near the nature center using natural debris. Reservations required at www.ParkPASS.org (Course #57019).
- Little Bennett Regional Park, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm, 23701 Frederick Road, Clarksburg. Montgomery Parks is renovating the county’s largest park this National Public Lands Day by constructing a section of the Froggy Hollow Trail leading from a newly constructed parking area at the park. Volunteers will help clear vegetation and debris with hand toppers, saws and rakes and some tread excavation with hand tools. Call the Parks Volunteer Services Office at 301-495-2504 to register to help.
- Sligo Creek, 9:00 am – 11:00 am. The Friends of Sligo Creek with Montgomery Parks is hosting the annual Fall Sweep the Creek volunteer cleanup for National Public Lands Day. Visit www.fosc.org for exact meeting locations. For those who can’t make it Saturday, there is also a Friends of Sligo Creek sponsored cleanup scheduled in Wheaton on Sunday, September 28, from 1:00 – 3:00 pm.
“All of these projects are Student Service Learning hour approved, for young people 14 and up still looking to rack up some volunteer hours,” added Hench. “We appreciate the support.”
For more on these and other volunteer opportunities in Montgomery County parks, visit www.ParksVolunteers.org or contact the Department of Parks Volunteer Services Office at 301-495-2504. For more on National Public Lands Day, see www.publiclandsday.org.
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Contact:
Kelli Holsendolph
Media Relations Manager
Montgomery County Department of Parks
301-650-2866