This is what the Ecological Display Site looked like before we started working on it. It covers about four acres and slopes towards a seasonal tributary of Thompson Creek. It was released from horse pasture and fenced off just before the project began. (March 2009)

Some of the Dramatis Personae. From left to right: the BLM’s Jinx Fox; Lisa Bright, our Executive Director; Jeff McCusker, also of the BLM; and Philip Latasa, our Nursery Manager. The wheely thing that Jeff is holding is for measuring: you wheel it along and it tells you how far you’ve gone. (March 2008)

Plants and “tree tubes” set out for the initial planting. The tubes were fitted over the seedlings the day before planting, to prevent deer browsing overnight. You can see the new fence that surrounds the site. (April 2009)

Planting day arrives! The Sangha’s Nikki Oteyza orients a group of George Mason University students. (April 2009)

This initial planting is very light. It includes only about 175 trees, and no shrubs or herbaceous species. The goal is just to begin establishing canopy on those portions of the site that will be restored to forest. (April 2009)

The site dwarfs our planting! If you look carefully, you’ll probably be able to make out some of the flags that mark the different restoration areas. (April 2009)

An important function of our planting events is to draw children into restoration activities. Most kids seem to like their time in the field. (April 2009)

The site is too large to water entirely by hand, so we use Meadowood’s motorized “mule” to haul our buckets. (April 2009)

The first planting is complete. It’s sparse but it’s there! (April 2009)

With a little imagination, you should be able to make out three design features here. The clumps of tree tubes are tree areas; the depression that runs down the center of the photo is part of the “River of Grass” feature; and the open spaces will become woody oldfield. (April 2009)

A view of the River of Grass area, the focus of our second Ecological Display planting. This photo is shot looking upland from the lowest part of the feature, where a seasonal pool will be created. The River is a long, serpentine depression. It drains the site but it’s not a stream; most of the time it’s dry. To prepare it for planting, the soil has been “disked”—turned over with a kind of plow. (May 2009)

Environmental science students from Lake Braddock High School did most of this planting and, as usual, they did a great job. Here some of the students are converting the remnants of an old horse jump to a little stormwater retention pond—or maybe “pondlet” would be a better term. (May 2009)

Our plans call for a series of five to seven stone cobble checkdams across the River, to blunt the force of the substantial volume of run-off that surges through it during heavy rains. During this second planting, we assembled two of these dams. (May 2009)

The old horse-jump trench, just upstream from the first checkdam that we built, is widened and given a more natural slope. We’ll create similar depressions behind all the checkdams in the River. (May 2009)

The second checkdam is built. (May 2009)

The dams work! An overnight rain tests our work thus far and yields encouraging results. Some of the water is retained behind the dams and trickles through more slowly. But our stonework needs improvement; the run-off easily dislodges loose cobbles. (May 2009)

We also began work on the grass part of the River of Grass, by planting several species of native bunch grasses throughout. (May 2009)

These native grasses grow quite tall—from four to seven feet. Eventually, they will form a kind of narrow, serpentine prairie throughout the depression. (May 2009)

In addition to planting pots of the grasses, our volunteers sowed grass seed over the entire grass feature. Both the potted grasses and the seed are native, local-ecotype stock, collected from local natural areas. (May 2009)

A section of the River after the second planting. Still a work in progress but off to a great start! (May 2009)

The fall 2009 planting season opened with a volunteer event for Ernst & Young employees. The purpose of the event was to enrich the site’s forest areas with additional tree seedlings, set out here. (September 2009)

About 60 Ernst & Young employees participated. They put in about 220 trees, representing 11 species, and did a very careful, thorough job. (September 2009)

In addition to planting trees, the volunteers helped us augment the “River of Grass” planting that runs through the center of the site. Here, Lisa (on the right) works with a team installing more native grass plugs in the River. (September 2009)

Over the course of the 2009 growing season, the River of Grass has begun to coalesce. You can see it here, as the fuzzy-looking yellow serpentine feature in the middle of the frame. The River is composed of native grasses; the grasses on either side are alien; our aim is gradually to displace them with native plantings. (September 2009)

In addition to planting, Ernst & Young volunteers helped us collect seed from a nearby stand of oak, beech, and hickory. Here, volunteers are collecting acorns from a couple of southern red oaks (Quercus falcata) growing right beside the site. We will grow the seed out for additional plantings at Meadowood. (September 2009)

The event concluded—as most of our events do—with a picnic. The people in the background are announcing an award for the volunteers who managed to get themselves dirtiest. Hard work always gives people an opportunity to take a little bit of the site back with them! (September 2009)

Several volunteer groups came out to break ground in one of the woody old-field sections. (Woody oldfield is a valuable habitat type; it’s meadow on its way back to forest. We are trying to create several patches of it here.) The volunteers turned the soil, loosening up the exotic fescue, to prepare for direct-sowing of assorted natives. (October 2009)

Dozens of bags of acorns and hickory nuts, representing six or eight different species, were distributed throughout the site—sparsely in the woody old-field sections and more densely in the forest sections. We hope that direct sowing will lessen the time, energy, and resources spent on growing and planting seedlings. (October 2009)

A group of students from Lake Braddock processed seeds of several shrubs and small trees, including devil’s walkingstick (Aralia spinosa) and smooth sumac (Rhus glabra). We are trying to create a shrub buffer along the edges of the “River of Grass.” (October 2009)

After turning the soil and sowing, volunteers walked bales of straw up the site and spread it out over the seed. (October 2009)

A view of the site from the highest vantage point. Volunteers walked the entire site, replacing bird nets that had come off the tree tubes. Bird nets prevent birds from trying to nest inside the tree tubes, an enterprise that usually ends badly for both bird and seedling. The tree tubes themselves prevent the seedlings from being eaten by deer. (October 2009)

We put in a small planting of shrubs along the River of Grass. (October 2009)

Nikki inspects the little stormwater retention pond at the base of the River of Grass. Meadowood staff are excavating it so that it can accommodate more of the runoff that it receives. Our site drains about 12 acres. (April 2010)

The pond’s current conditions were already good enough for these tadpoles of American toad (Bufo americanus). We hope that when construction is complete, the pond will be used by a variety of amphibian species. (April 2010)

A chestnut oak seedling (Quercus prinus), almost certainly the result of our direct-sowing efforts last October. We only found a few seedlings. Of course we had hoped for more but, for now at least, the alien fescue grass is still just too tough to sow into. (April 2010)

The Ecological Display Site in spring. Plenty of fescue, but many of our seedlings are still alive and well in their tree tubes! (May 2010)

An energetic group of volunteers from AOL gave our site a big boost during a field day in May. Here, they are constructing wire cages to better protect trees that have grown above their tree tubes. (The deer have been chewing on quite a few of our saplings.) AOL volunteers installed about 100 of these wire cages. (May 2010)

The AOL volunteers also moved about 10 large and very heavy logs onto the site, using just a rope and their own strength. The logs will help slow runoff and improve habitat. (May 2010)

And there they go! In order to log onto our site, so to speak, the AOL people built momentum by running as fast as they could with log in tow. This was something to see. (May 2010)

More excavation around the little storm pond. Meadowood’s Jeff McCusker surveys the latest efforts in late winter. The excavation is almost complete. (February 2011)

Working around the excavation, Lisa and Nikki sowed about 12 pounds of seed from seven species of native grasses. The grasses should help control erosion and begin the formation of a little wet meadow around the pond. Later, we’ll add some native forbs (that is, herbaceous plants that aren’t grasses). (February 2011)

Seeds meet soil! A close-up of the sowing around the pond. Most of what you see here is broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus), a common—and therefore important—native grass. (February 2011)

We covered the seeds with straw and got a good, warm rain later that day. So far, so good! (February 2011)