The Eyes of Paint Branch - Fall 2001 Newsletter
Volume: 7 Issue: 2

Rainy Walk Reveals the Biological Diversity of the Paint Branch Mainstem ...
...and ongoing challenges



A steady downpour revealed more than it concealed from the dozen area residents who donned their best raingear and accompanied local botanist John Parrish on a five-hour walk, sponsored by Eyes of Paint Branch, through the Mainstem section of the Paint Branch on May 26, 2001.

The group got an immediate lesson on the importance of stormwater management in the first few steps of the walk, which began behind the Paint Branch Apartments on April Lane in White Oak. The complex was built before contemporary regulations for reducing urbanization impact on our local streams were issued. When the complex was built, no provisions were made for reducing stormwater runoff velocity from the parking lots. Instead, a single pipe directs rain, debris and silt down a wooded slope behind the apartments. The water gushing from this pipe has carved a huge ravine through the slope, toppling large trees such as oaks and tulip poplars and washing away shrubs, groundcover, topsoil and subsoil, exposing layers of cobbles and sediment all the way down to the solid bedrock that underlies the entire area. It was obvious to all the participants that unless measures are taken to address the problem, this unnatural waterfall will continue to erode the slope, ultimately threatening not only the health of the stream, but the foundations of the apartment houses as well.

The hikers observed very similar problems in several other locations as they walked downstream. As the group approached the perimeter fence marking the boundary between parkland and the former Navy Surface Warfare Center in White Oak, they discovered a dramatic, winding ravine. Following it to its source, the group found the problem began in an abandoned parking lot, where a single 4-1/2” pipe diverted rainwater into the park. Bob Ferraro, Eyes of Paint Branch President, and David Dunmire, the organization’s Action Chair, noted that this was a clear opportunity where basic remediation work on the government’s property, such as the construction of a shaded, vegetated swale or containment pond with accompanying sediment traps, could easily correct the problem. It will take a long time, however, before the damage already inflicted on this section of the woods and stream will fade.

Later, below the property owned by a sand and gravel operation located off Cherry Hill Lane, runoff overwhelmed a small natural cataract. In contrast to the normally cool, clear waters of the Paint Branch, the runoff was an opaque coffee color due to the vast amounts of suspended sand it carried from the gravel works. John Parrish explained how the excessive flow, with its warmer temperatures and extra silt, was destroying the habitat the area normally provides for frogs and other amphibians.

But not everything the group observed on their rainy-day walk was negative, as many of the characteristics that make the Paint Branch a healthy and inviting stream ecosystem were also on display. Beautiful rock outcrops covered with lichen, mosses and rockcap polypody (“many footed” in Latin), a distinctive type of fern which only grows in shallow, rocky soil, line this section of the Little Paint Branch Gorge. John Parrish simplified the mysteries of fern identification for the eager group, who learned to distinguish between fourteen separate species, including two - Silvery Glade Fern and Interrupted Fern — which are rarely found in Montgomery County. The lush expanses of ferns were punctuated by what one walker described as the “tropical looking” leaves of skunk cabbages, and along the margins of the stream itself were beaches of quartz and quartzite cobbles with rich deposits of mica schist. On a sunny summer day, dozens of Tiger Swallowtail butterflies can be found there, lapping up nutrients, salts and water.

Along the upland slopes, thickets of mountain laurel, with their bell-like pinkish-white flowers, shiny leaves and twisted branches predominate. The songs of the Wood Thrush and Red-eyed vireo delighted the participants throughout the morning, and the musty, almost skunk-like scent markings left by a red fox were detected at several points along the stream. The group saw box turtles lurking amidst Virginia creeper, while Indian cucumber and even the single leaf of a young showy orchis plant were noted with interest. The human history of the Paint Branch was also in evidence; old glass bottles dating back to 1932 and a rusted license plate found amidst other debris spoke silently of the small, historically African American communities once scattered throughout this part of the watershed.

Later this Fall, Eyes of Paint Branch will be offering a repeart journey through this scenic and informative section of the Paint Branch, which like all the group's meetings and walks, are open to the general public. See the calendar of events else where in this newsletter for dates and times.