Fall Conference Sunday Field Trip: The Wilds of Beaverdam Creek (Beltsville)

Registration will open on 9/3. Conference participants do not need to register.

The large acidic seepage swamp is a short walk across an unused cornfield and through a patch of old-age Pitch Pine barrens forest. The vast wetland - drowned Pine Barrens Lowland Forest - is an ancestral beaver impoundment/wet meadow along the south branch of aptly named Beaverdam Creek on the East Farm, which emanates as the outflow of Powerline Bogs #1 and 2 and Pine Barrens Lowland Forest: Pinus rigida – Nyssa sylvatica / Clethra alnifolia – Eubotrys racemosus Forest (USNVC: CEGL006926). Global/State Ranks: G2G3/S2?. It is surrounded by old-age Pinus rigida forest and Pine Barrens Lowland Forest. We'll explore the globally endangered northern Pitch Pine sand barrens at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center at their southernmost extent in Maryland and discuss why these natural areas are so highly valued and in need of conservation. We will also see champion-sized Pitch Pine and other pine barrens trees.

Leader: Rod Simmons

Level of Difficulty: Easy to moderate, boots will be good, but no need for water boots because we will not be going into the swamp.

Rod Simmons is a plant ecologist, with a background in biology, geology, and ecology who has extensively surveyed the flora and natural communities of the mid-Atlantic region, especially the inner Coastal Plain and Piedmont of the greater Washington, D.C. area. He is a Research Associate with the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution; a member of the Virginia Botanical Associates; former contract botanist for National Park Service, NatureServe, and others; and works closely with the Virginia and Maryland Natural Heritage Programs. He is the author of numerous technical reports, papers, and articles, and has published in scientific journals. He is a member and a past president of the Botanical Society of Washington and serves on the boards of the Virginia Native Plant Society and Maryland Native Plant Society. He is a frequent lecturer and field trip leader for various organizations. He was the Natural Resource Manager and Plant Ecologist for the City of Alexandria, Virginia for nearly 30 years.

Event Co-Hosts: University of Maryland Extension Maryland Native Plants Program and University of Maryland School of Landscape Architecture

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS  REQUIRED. Limited to 25 people.

Directions will be included in registration confirmation.

      

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