NDW Celebrates Earth Day With Activities Across the Region

Naval District Washington (NDW) installations are honoring Earth Day throughout out the month of April with stream cleanups, tree plantings, and other activities aimed at protecting the region’s waterways and the land-based ecosystems through which they run.

“We try to be good stewards, both balancing the military mission with the public relations of the community. Showing that we can balance the needs of the military with the environment,” said Laura LaBella, natural resources specialist at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River.

NAS Patuxent River sits where the Patuxent River empties into the Chesapeake Bay and recently completed a “living shoreline” project to stop shore erosion by laying out rocks, sand, and plant beds along a nearby shore area. For its efforts, St. Mary’s County will honor the installation with a Sustainability Award in a ceremony this Saturday, April 22—Earth Day—at Summerseat Farm in Mechanicsville.

The installation also hosted an Earth Day observance Thursday morning, April 20, at the Patuxent River Beach House. Volunteers from the Forrest Technology Center in Leonardtown gathered at the water to clean the beach and, elsewhere on the installation, they worked to clear the highly invasive Bradford Pear trees.

NAS Patuxent River Environmental staff and the Tech Center volunteers also staffed tables at the Beach House, where they gave students from three nearby schools—St. Michael’s School, Leonardtown Elementary, and Green Holly Elementary—presentations about nature and how the installation is protecting it. The students learned about the installation’s bee pollinator sites, bat conservation, stormwater management, recycling, and natural resources conservation efforts. In addition, the Port Operations boat that the installation uses to clean up chemical spills on the water was on display, with crew available to explain the boat’s operation.

“We have set up a strong active habitat management and outreach program,” LaBella said. “We work closely with the tenant commands and outside schools and organizations, as well.”

Naval Support Activity (NSA) Washington hosted a Spring Cleanup, on Wednesday, April 19. Volunteers collected thousands of pounds of used computer hardware, batteries, lightbulbs, and other used products from office buildings for recycling.

“Throughout the year, we get emails: ‘How do I dispose of this?’ ‘How do I get rid of that?’” said Justin Barlow, Environmental Program Director with Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Washington. “We’re keeping these electronics out of the landfills, keeping them out of waterways.”

NSA Washington will also participate in a volunteer stream cleanup, Clean the Bay Day, on Wednesday, April 26. Volunteers will clear litter from the Potomac River near the Naval Surface Warfare Center-Carderock Division in Bethesda.

The event was in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Jasmine Tyson, NSA Washington stormwater program manager, said that the keeping the Potomac clean benefits the Bay because all of the Potomac and other area rivers all flow into it.

“All of our installations are near water bodies that impact the Chesapeake Bay,” Tyson said. “DC, Maryland, Virginia, parts of Pennsylvania, all of those areas drain into the Chesapeake.”

Naval Support Activity (NSA) Annapolis personnel will team up Saturday with the Midshipmen Action Group to clear overgrown vegetation and clean up litter along the trails of the Greenbury Point Conservation Area, a nature preserve near Annapolis. NSA Annapolis Environmental Department personnel will also give nature conservation presentations to the public at the preserve’s Greenbury Point Nature Center.

NSA South Potomac held a volunteer event with the Dahlgren School on Thursday, April 20. Students from the school helped plant trees and pick up trash.

Another tree-planting project added 50 new trees to NSA Bethesda over the last few months to replace trees that were lost to development or adverse weather. The last five will be planted in front of the Walter Reed Medical Center on Friday, April 28, in an Arbor Day ceremony that is open to the public.

“This base is part of the community, and maintaining that tree canopy matters to the community. We’re making sure that we plant trees in order to keep that canopy in place,” said Jeremy Brooks, NSA Bethesda public affairs officer. “What’s important to them and to the county is important to us.”

Arbor Day is one of four environmental events happening at NSA Bethesda this week and next. The installation had a NAVFAC information fair on recycling and environmental programs Tuesday, April 18; on-base trash cleanup on Wednesday, April 19; and there will be an internal Earth Day observance Wednesday, April 26.