Conservation Blog
Biodiversity & Habitats
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Montgomery County’s BYO-Bag Bill
February 12th, 2025 Update On February 11th, 2025, Montgomery County Council passed Bill 24-24, Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) Bill. Nature Forward has been working with Councilmembers since last summer to ensure that Montgomery County passed a bill that protects our waterways and our most vulnerable communities. Thanks to our members and supporters, we sent 121 letters… Read more
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For the Love of Muck and Macroinvertebrates: A Former Camper Returns to Conduct Research on Woodend’s Restored Pond
By Meg Jarvis I’m Meg Jarvis (they/them), and this past summer I surveyed the aquatic macroinvertebrate populations in Woodend Sanctuary’s recently restored pond. I attend university in Brighton, England, but I grew up just around the corner from Woodend. I went to camp there throughout my childhood and, when I aged out of camp, I… Read more
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National Park Service Decision of the Rock Creek Golf Course Rehabilitation Sidesteps Environmental Concerns
Written By Nature Forward Volunteers, Anne Cottingham and Christine Powell. Last September the National Park Service (NPS), in cooperation with the National Links Trust, issued an Environmental Assessment (EA) evaluating the impacts of a proposed rehabilitation of the Rock Creek Park Golf Course. The RCP golf course, which opened in 1923, occupies about 100 acres in… Read more
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Virginia’s General Assembly: some wins and a long road
How did the 2024 General Assembly go? In this year’s General Assembly, Nature Forward selected a handful of bills to track dealing with natural resources / trees, solar energy, and data centers (read our prior blog post for bills and details). While there were some wins on the bills we tracked, overall, Virginia has a… Read more
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Woodend Reports: Spotting the Lanternflies
By Grace Dho In 2014, Lycorma delicatula was recorded in the US for the first time just outside of Philadelphia. In 2022, it had its own skit on Saturday Night Live. Lycorma delicatula, otherwise referred to as the spotted lanternfly (SLF), has become one of the most well-known invasive species on the East Coast. With… Read more
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Woodend Reports: Marching into Stream Monitoring
Grace Dho As we enter springtime and warmer weather, one can find natural clues all around us that the seasons are changing. At Woodend, some of the first signs of spring can be found in and along our restored streams. We begin to hear the chorus of spring peepers on late February evenings, see the… Read more
