FT #4 - Howard's Branch
      Leaders: Keith Underwood (bogs@comcast.net) and Joe Berg (jberg@biohabitats.com)

Trip departs at 12:15 PM from the circular drive at the rear entrance to the Wardman Park Hotel
Anticipated return at 8:00 PM
Limited to 40 participants

Howard's Branch and stream enhancement project, located between the Downs and Sherwood Forest along the Severn River in Anne Arundel County, replaced what was once an invasive rice-cutgrass-infested, sediment-filled lacustrine basin with a 2-m deep incised channel with what is now a functioning Atlantic white cedar bog.  The site was designed to support the reintroduction of an Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) wetland by creating a seepage wetland supporting an Atlantic white cedar community in a degraded stream valley previously impounded for use as a drinking water reservoir.    Now, one can view pitcher plants, Sphagnum moss, maturing cedar trees and other plants propagated from the 10 remaining stands of the species on the western coastal plain of Maryland.  The 7-year old project has been successful and serves as an inspiration for similar projects and related applications.

Photos from Erik Michelsen and used with permission