FODMers welcomed Superintendent Jennifer Madello to Dyke Marsh on June 5, 2025. She is a career National Park Service employee who became the superintendent of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in December 2024.
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In May 2025, FODMers joined our “sister” groups and a number of government agencies at two events:
On the April 12, 2025, tree walk, led by Jim McGlone, an arborist and forester, FODMers and friends studied tree bark, buds, flowers, stems, limbs, leaves, structure, size and more – all things trees.
On March 24, 2025, FODM volunteers planted 50 native black willow (Sali nigra) tree stakes in Dyke Marsh, phase two of a project to help stem erosion and stabilize the tidal zone of the wetland. In 2024, FODMers planted 150 willow tree stakes.
It was billed as a mega-trash cleanup and it lived up to its name – all 2,505 pounds of it.
They are rather nondescript, sedentary mollusks with hinged shells, but they are important. Mussels are nature’s “cleanup crew” and can help clean up the Potomac River’s water quality, FODMers learned at their February 23, 2025, meeting.
