Whether you joined the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) for garden workdays at RiverSmart schools, vegetation surveys with National Links Trust, freshwater mussel restoration, or habitat restoration this past month, we're grateful you have been pushing through the summer heat with us to make strides in our restoration of the Anacostia River!

August Highlights:

• 25 square feet of native wetland plants were planted in the wetlands at Dueling Creek, the original riverbed of the Anacostia River. Species planted include bulrush, arrow arum, soft brush, and pickerel weed. Volunteers from July's Wetbed Workday will be happy to learn that we planted a whole wetbed's worth of plants! Thank you for helping us to prepare the plants for planting! Also, shoutout to our volunteers for braving the steep trails and mud while wearing waders to find these plants a new home!
   
• Wild rice is booming in Kingman Lake! AWS's wild rice restoration began in the early 2000's and we've seen the most wild rice coverage at Kingman Lake at Langston Golf Course this year. Thank you to the volunteers who joined us to bag viable wild rice seedheads this August! Interested in coming back out to help us collect the bags, which will be full of seeds? Join us on September 7th (see in upcoming events below). The seed collected in the bags will be used for propagation in the Anacostia River in the spring of 2023 through mudballing (seeding) and the production of seedlings that will be transplanted in the river once they reach a suitable size.
   
• "I spy with my little eye...porcelain berry!" While not the only invasive vine we have encountered, volunteers have helped us to both identify invasive plants like porcelain berry during our vegetation surveys with National Links Trust and helped us to rescue trees along the Northwest Branch and Bladensburg riverside area of the Anacostia from invasive plants over the past month. Experienced or new to plant ID? iNaturalist is a great free app to help you document or get acquainted with the plants AND other species living in the watershed. 
   
• Mussel-ing through the mud - Volunteers continued to brave the August heat, in waders and very mucky mud conditions, to assist AWS with a wild freshwater mussel survey at Kenilworth Lake. We found 15 wild freshwater mussels and 1 tagged mussel, C638 (tagged and released by AWS in June), of 6 different species during our timed 1-hour survey. There are 8 species of freshwater mussels living in the Anacostia River. A big thank you to the volunteers that also helped us to monitor our freshwater mussels living in floating baskets at Joint-Base Anacostia Bolling and the Bladensburg Waterfront Park! Interested in joining mussel events this September? Check out our upcoming events below!

A special shoutout to Soul Trak Outdoors, Howard University, University of Maryland, Croydon Creek Nature Center, and EESI, for bringing volunteer teams out in August to help with our restoration projects! Interested in bringing a group out, too? You can submit a group volunteer request by clicking here.