Solitaire Court Stream Restoration
Despite our best efforts, Gaithersburg City is proceeding with the Solitaire Court “stream restoration” which will decimate 3+ acres of native woodland, including the removal of trees large enough to require a variance to cut, as well as all the interrelated plants that formed this woodland community. Please visit our FB page to look back retrospectively on our efforts. We spoke out in defense of the woods at the City variance hearing to cut the larger trees, many 100+ years old. We obtained a permit to remove small native plants from the area to plant them nearby in areas not yet “restored”. With about a dozen volunteers we moved plants over several weeks, though of course we could only transplant a very small fraction of the plants, and only small perennials. Our permit was in mid-summer so it is uncertain how many plants will survive but it was worth trying. We also testified at several City Council meetings requesting simple modifications of the plan which would mitigate harm but the City voted to proceed without requiring modifications.
If you’d like to learn more, contact Deby or Merikay. We’ll periodically post photos of the area and have made something of a video/photo record of what has been lost. We hope very much that the City will honor its commitment to see that “no harm is done” to wildlife in the area during and as a result of this project. Also, we continue to be concerned about invasive plants in the large area of disturbed soil. We were told that within 2 - 3 years you would not be able to see that anything had been done as trees grow back in no time. Since we know many of the trees took more than 100 years to grow we are skeptical of this claim but will be happily surprised if it is true. Or even if a healthy wetland ecosystem is created as a replacement for the woods. Since one of the rationales behind this stream restoration is a reduction in sediment and nutrients flowing into Clopper Lake, we look forward to seeing projected benefits, particularly with measurements of before/during/after.
