[MAIPC] Success Story at ANS Woodend Nature Sanctuary

[Marc Imlay]

Nature for All - Creating a Thriving

 

Natural Oasis at Woodend

 

by Alison Pearce, Director of Restoration

 

You spoke, we heard you, and we agree 100%! During our master planning
process for Woodend Nature Sanctuary, surveys clearly showed that habitat
restoration is the top priority for our members. Thanks to your input, we
have set to work on plans to create a thriving natural oasis here at
Woodend. 

 

Over the past 50 years, our sanctuary has suffered the loss of many plant
and animal species. The increase in pavement in our neighborhood changed
water flow, and Woodend's small stream has become a deeply-eroded stormwater
gully. To address runoff that was flowing from Woodend into our neighbors'
yards and Rock Creek, ANS installed an enormous rain garden at our north
boundary and will add a second smaller rain garden along the driveway this
year. We are also designing a stream restoration project that will heal
eroded stream banks, improve the condition of our pond, create wildlife
habitat, recharge groundwater, and further reduce sediment flushing into
Rock Creek. 

 

Local forest health has declined precipitously in recent decades, primarily
because the deer population has dramatically increased. Deer will eat most
anything, but they dine on native plants first, especially young seedlings.
This has allowed exotic weeds to become dominant at Woodend. Our
preschoolers call these invasive plants "friends that do not share" because
they provide little support for wildlife. More alarming still, the deer have
eaten almost all of Woodend's tree seedlings, threatening the very existence
of a future forest. 

 

In an effort to reverse the decaying deer damage and to restore habitat for
other wildlife, including groundnesting birds, butterflies, bees, small
mammals, and amphibians, like marbled salamanders, we have erected a fence
around 33 acres of Woodend. Despite the fence, several deer have been able
to re-enter the sanctuary, surprising all the experts. Thanks to our
dedicated volunteers, we have been able to gently move the deer off the
sanctuary. As of this writing (fingers crossed!) there are no deer on the
sanctuary. 

 

But we are watchful for their return, thanks to the donation and loan of 15
wildlife cameras that we are using to monitor the sanctuary. To ensure that
we do everything in our power to restore habitat in the near term, ANS has
convened a panel of deer management experts to help us solve deer re-entry
problems and recommend solutions for keeping deer out of Woodend. This new
Restoration Advisory Panel will present their recommendations to our Board
of Directors in June. We are determined to begin restoration plantings in
earnest by fall of 2018. 

 

And the great news is that our habitat restoration is just a part of our
larger revitalization of Woodend. Time in nature is important for everyone,
and we want our headquarters to be an oasis for people and wildlife. That is
why we are launching our Nature for All project that will include a
wheelchairaccessible trail, a nature play space, and interpretive signs and
information that will inspire our community to understand and protect
nature. We hope you'll get involved! 

 

Sign up to be on our restoration team at www.anshome.org/volunteer
<http://www.anshome.org/volunteer> . 

 

Donate a tree for Woodend restoration at https://anshome.org/plant-a-tree.

 

See photos of red-shouldered Hawk and false sunflower by Gregg Patterson and
MaryAnn Daly

 

spring2018naturalistquarterly.pdf page 4

 



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