Have your say on the new Development Concept Plan for Shepherd Parkway

Ward 8 Woods (formerly known as the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway) has been advocating for improvements to Shepherd Parkway since 2011. Now, National Capital Parks-East is creating new Development Concept Plan for Shepherd Parkway, and there's a critically important public meeting this week. If you care about the future of the park, please attend! Wednesday, July 10  6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Bellevue Neighborhood Library 115 Atlantic Street SW Washington, DC 20032  In addition, please submit comment online here. The official comment period ends July 26.

Ward 8 Woods is advocating for:    New signage to identify the parkway, interpret its historical and natural significance, and discourage dumping   Hiking trails along the full-length of the Parkway, with connections to adjoining streets and existing trails within Oxon Cove and Oxon Run.   A year-round schedule of free NPS-sponsored public programs such as live music, environmental and historical presentations   Enhanced dumping enforcement in critical areas   NPS support for the removal and control of invasive species

Ward 8 Woods project clears 55 tons of trash

https://www.wusa9.com/video/news/ward-8-woods-project-clears-55-tons-of-trash/65-210697fe-1188-4d6f-a98b-8e53871e7d0d

'Ward 8 Woods' project clears 55 tons of trash

Washington, DC-  Ward 8 Woods, a new environmental justice initiative sponsored by the nonprofit Anacostia Coordinating Council, has removed more than of 55 tons of trash from wooded parkland since it began in July 2018.  Five Ward 8 residents who were  unemployed or underemployed and faced barriers- such as criminal records, disability, or lack of education or work history- were hired as Park Stewards to take on the epic task of undoing decades of illegal dumping and littering, and growth of invasives species.   

During a typical three hours shift, the crew removes an average of 1,000 pounds of trash.  Robert Carpenter, 32, a father of four who lives in Garfield Heights, serves as the crew’s foreman. “I like that I can clean-up and protect the environment where I live. I’m not in Maryland or Virginia cleaning up their neighborhoods. I’ve been living in Ward 8 my entire life. As I kid I played in these woods.”

Ward 8 may be Washington, DC’s least affluent , but it’s also one of the greenest: interspersed with its residential neighborhoods are more than 500 acres of forested parkland. These include Ft. Stanton Park, Suitland Parkway, and Oxon Run Parkway, all under the jurisdiction of National Capital Parks-East, and Suitland Parkway, controlled by the DC Department of Transportation. Within these “Ward 8 Woods” are streams large and small, massive old trees, a rare magnolia bog, commanding views across the city, and the remains of Civil War fortifications and World War II era military training facilities. Urban forests filter pollution from the air and water, lower summer temperatures, and act as a buffer between neighborhoods and highways.  

Sadly, the same systemic racism, disinvestment, and neglect that  have made poverty and crime widespread in Ward 8 have also taken their toll on the land. In recent decades  millions of pounds of trash - including tires, car parts, furniture, appliances and construction materials- have been dumped in the woods. As if this were not enough, invasive vines from other parts of the world have grown run roughshod over the forest  ecosystem, outcompeting native plants and  strangling trees.  The parks also lack hiking trails, signage, other features common to parklands in more affluent parts of the District. 

“Given the racial and class disparities in DC, it's no coincidence that the parklands in Ward 8 have been abused and neglected.  It’s wrong.  We can and must do better,” said  Art Slater, Director of Operations for the Anacostia Coordinating Council and business manager for Ward 8 Woods. 

For Ward 8 Woods project manager Nathan Harrington, the effort is an expansion of the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway, which he created in 2011 at the urging of longtime Ward 8 civic leader Philip Pannell. A former Prince George’s County Public Schools teacher and Congress Height resident since 2009, Harrington had led close to 100 volunteers clean-ups events in park but was troubled by the lack of involvement by residents. “Volunteers were coming from all over the DMV, but residents were always asking if we were hiring, and the answer was always no.” 

In 2018, Harrington joined with the Anacostia Coordinating Council and obtained grants from the DC Office of Planning and DC Department of Energy and the Environment (DOEE) to finally begin paying residents to clean-up their own communities. Ward 8 Woods recently obtained additional funding from DOEE, the Environment Anacostia Park and Community Collaborative and the Tomberg  Family Philanthropies of California.

Harrington and five board members are working to establish the Ward 8 Woods Conservancy as an independent nonprofit organization with a mission to use the restoration of the land as a vehicle for the healing and empowerment residents. Although there are many existing environmental groups in the District, there’s a void when it comes to the forests in Ward 8. Future plans include design and the construction of a network of hiking trails to rival those of Rock Creek Park and education and recreation programs for all ages.  

Christopher Williams, a young father from Garfield Heights, emphasized the scale of the work ahead. “This is really great work we’re doing. People need to see it. There’s enough work for us to stay busy for years.” 

The Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway is now Ward 8 Woods

Since 2011, the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway has mobilized over 2,000 volunteers, removed over 50,000 pounds of trash from the park, and put improvement of the park on the agenda of National Park Service and DC government officials. 

As great as that is, there is still way too much trash, too many invasive species, no trails, no programs, and little signage. And, there are three other large chunks of forested parkland in Ward 8- Oxon Run Parkay, Suitland Parkway,  and Ft. Stanton Park- and they all suffer from the same problems. 

In July 2018, the Anacostia Coordinating Council obtained grant funding to give all four parks the kind of long-overdue TLC that Shepherd Parkway has received, and the Ward 8 Woods project was born. 

The work do be done is so vast and we've decided to incorporate Ward 8 Woods as a new, permanent nonprofit organization.   The work of the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway will continue as part of this new entity. 

Our crew of six Park Stewards are working two days a week throughout the winter,  removing trash and invasives species from all four areas. 

Please consider a donation to our GoFundMe campaign so that we can add more work hours and get more done. A little goes a long way:

$15 pays for one Park Steward to work one hour, during which time they will remove an average of 120 pounds of trash from the woods $45 pays for one Steward to work a 3-hour shift, removing an average of 460 pounds of trash. $90 pays for two Stewards to work a three hours shift. $225 pays for all five stewards to work a three hours shift and remove nearly a ton of trash. 

We also welcome volunteers to join us on the job whenever we are working. Contact Nathan at nbharrington@yahoo.com for the schedule. 

Ward 8 Woods project accelerates pace of clean-up

This spring, the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway and the Anacostia Coordinating Council secured grants from the DC Office of Planning and DC Department of Energy and the Environment.

The resulting project, christened Ward 8 Woods, works to reverse decades of neglect by employing Ward 8 residents to remove trash and invasives species from the extensive but underappreciated wooded areas in Ward 8.

Nathan Harrington, founder and chair of the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway, serves as project manager and crew leader. 

One month in, our Park Stewards have accomplished a lot:

-Removed nearly 4,000 pounds of trash from Ft. Stanton Park

-Removed over 3,000 pounds of trash from Shepherd Parkway

-Removed 2,000 pounds from Oxon Run Parkway

-Filled 356 large trash bag.

-Cut invasive vines from over 120 trees

Stewards have braved DC's summer heat and humidity, scrambled up and down muddy slopes, crawled through brambles, hauled long-abandoned carpets and lock-boxes, and sawed through vines ten inches thick.

We will continue working 20 hours a week through the end of September, after which our schedule will slow down and continue until March 2019.

Want to be a part of the action? The crew works most weekdays from 10 am to 2 pm, and volunteers are always welcome to join. Send up as message for details and meeting locations.

In addition to paying the Stewards a fair wage of $15 an hour, the project requires funds for tools, outreach materials, Gatorade and snacks.

Want to support this challenging and long-overdue work? Please consider a donation of any amount to the Anacostia Coordinating Council.

Foam Ban Blues in Ward 8

Since January 1, 2016, it has been illegal in the District of Columbia to sell prepared food in a foam containers. The mayor and Council passed the ban at the urging of environmentalists because foam is bad news for the environment for many reasons.

Your coffee should always be served in a paper cup, and your chicken wings with mumbo sauce in a paper of plastic box. Paper and plastic are  recyclable, unlike Styrofoam. 

Two and a half years later, the DC Department of Energy an the Environment (DOEE) claims an 85% compliance, but what I've seen suggests that the rate in Ward 8 is much lower.

Foam  tends to be slightly cheaper and customers are used to it, so some business owners disregard the law. This foam ends up on our streets and in our streams, where is breaks down into millions of tiny pieces and poisons animals that eat them.

DOEE's enforcement strategy depends mostly on tips from citizens. Carryouts and food trucks are unlikely to be visited by inspectors unless a customer reports their use of foam to DOEE.

This is where you come in. Any time you are given a foam food container, or see someone else leaving a carryout food truck with one, report it to DOEE.  Reports can also be made over the phone or online using 311.

Only with active citizen engagement will the foam ban fulfill its intended goal of a   cleaner environment.

Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway Wins $20,000 DOEE Grant!

Huge news:

The Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway, with the Anacostia Coordinating Council as our fiscal sponsor, has been chosen by the DC Department of Energy and the Environment to receive a Community Stormwater Solutions Grant. We're calling our project Engaging Ward 8 Residents in Ward 8 Woodland Restoration, or "Ward 8 Woods"  for short. It will run from June 30, 2018 to June 30, 2019. 

Our goal is to drastically reduce the burden of trash and invasive specie not only in Shepherd Parkway, but in 

the other three large wooded areas in the Ward 8 as well: Oxon Run Parkway, Suitland Parkway, and Fort Stanton Park. We'll hold at least one clean-up each month at each of the four parks, with the goal of removing at least 50,000 pounds of trash and cutting invasives vines from 300 trees.

After dedicating thousands of hours of unpaid work to Shepherd Parkway over the past seven years, Committee Chair Nathan Harrington will manage the project and work an average of 15 hours a week. Art Slater, Director of Operations for the Anacostia Coordinating Council, will help manage the grant, and other members of the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway will play an advisory role.  We'll be working closely with our colleagues at National-Capital Parks-East. 

Over the course of June, we’ll be interviewing for four Park Steward positions. Candidates must be Ward 8 residents who are unemployed or underemployed and face barriers to employment. Park Stewards will each be paid for 80 hours of work and training over the course of the year.  

We’ll be walking streets and knocking on doors to recruit volunteers, and gather information about how residents use the parks and what changes they’d like to see. With our partners at the Trash Free Potomac Watershed Initiative we’ll be spreading the message to “Take Care of Your Trash” by not littering or dumping.

Our project is part of the Year of the Anacostia, a watershed-wide initiative to celebrate and restore the Anacostia River.

We invite all Ward 8 residents, nonprofits, businesses, churches and schools to join us as volunteers and collaborators for a healthier and more beautiful environment.

Please Like and Follow the new Facebook page for Ward 8 Woods to stay abreast of developments.

Come out and be heard as part of the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit Agreement

In 2015, the National Park Service (NPS) lost a fight with the General Service Administration (GSA) and was forced to hand over eight acres of Shepherd Parkway to make way for an access road leading from 295 onto the new U.S. Homeland Security campus at St. Elizabeths.  Under federal environmental law, the GSA must pay NPS  "mitigation" funds to compensate for the lost of parkland. 

Throughout 2016, National Capital Parks-East (NACE) refused to tell us how much they were getting in mitigation or how they planned to use it. We filed a Freedom of Information Act request and learned that NACE had received around $500,000 and earmarked it for improvements to the heavily used area of Shepherd Parkway near the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Avenues, which they refer to as Parkland.     

When we met with the new superintendent Tara Morrison in early 2017,  she told us that before using mitigation funds to spruce up the park, they would contracting with the Department of Sociology at Howard University to conduct a study of who uses the park, what it means to them, and what they would like to see there.   

Yesterday we received the following announcement of a public meeting to get input from residents. 

Although the notice is short, this is our chance to be heard. Please register and attend if you are able.

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TELL US ABOUT YOUR PARK

Through the Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit Agreement (CESU), the Howard University Department of Sociology and the National Park Service are seeking a better understanding of the resources and experiences of neighbors and visitors of Parkland, a unit of Shepherd Parkway.

Please join us for an intimate community conversation about Shepherd Park/Malcolm X, including activities that occur or that you would like to see at the park, facilities, safety, and the significance of the park to you, the community and the neighborhood.

Monday, March 26, 2018
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Bellevue/William O. Lockridge Library
115 Atlantic St SW
Washington, DC 20032

A4, A2, and W1 buses run near the library

*Food and refreshments provided*

To register, please visit http://bit.ly/2CiOTcQ.

**Must be 18 years of age or older

**Must be a DC resident or business owner in a zip code near the park. The park is located on the corner of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Avenues, SE.

For more information contact Naomi Adams at naomi.adams@bison.howard.edu or (708) 846-1943.

Mud season

Our region has been in a serious drought for several months, but Saturday, February 10 was a wet one. Ten brave volunteers braved the rain and mud to clean-up one of Shepherd Parkway's most egregious dumping sites. Across from 411 Lebaum Steet, at a spot where the drop off is especially precipitous and close to the curb, someone a few months ago dumped what looked to be the contents of an entire apartment: sofas, mattresses, lamps, vacuum cleaners, TVs, clothing, and much, much more.  

Moving all of this up to the street required repelling backward down the treacherous slope while holding on to a rope tied to a post at the top, wrestling the items while fighting to maintain one's footing, and passing them up from one person to the next.

As the noon hour progressed, the rain grew heavier, and portions of the hill turned to mudslides. If any of us had had any sense at all, we would have quit an hour earlier. Some did. But for others it was exhilarating,  like being a kids again playing in the mud.

When we finally quit, our clothes were soaked to the skin and caked in mud. Over 1,000 pounds of household items were sitting by the curb, ready to be picked up.

Whatever caused all those possessions (many of them usable) to be dumped in the woods, it wasn't good. Can we talk about the connections between economic justice and environmental justice?

Trash in the woods are, for the most park, a consequence of poverty. Evictions- in which the human right to housing is violated for monetary gain- are common in Ward 8. When folks are evicted, and have nowhere to put their belongings, they end up on our streets for all to see, a literal airing of dirty laundry. Perhaps throwing them down the hill into the woods is an attempted avoid at least that indignity. When people are in crisis, their basic needs unmet, consideration for others and the planet becomes impossible.

Healing our natural ecosystems requires that we simultaneously heal our social fabric.Only when we stop treating people as expendable will we stop treating the land as expendable.

Historic graffiti carved in beech bark

In the five years I've been frequenting Shepherd Parkway, I've always admired its thousands of beech trees.

All over the United States, the smooth, light grey bark of beech trees have often been an irresistible target for those wishing to immortalize their walk in the woods by carving their names for future generations of hikers see. As the tree grows, the carving expands and stretches out like the words on a balloon.

Growing up in Boy Scouts and going to Quaker church camp, I was always taught to "leave no trace" in nature; carving into the bark of a tree was a total no-no, a desecration on par with leaving trash or cutting trees down.   

But humans have always interacted with and altered nature, and the human history of a place like Shepherd Parkway is at least as important as the forest that is there now. The remains of the Fort Carroll and Fort Grebel earthworks are not considered a scar on the landscape; they are part of Washington's rich Civil War legacy.

On a recent walk through the wilds of Shepherd Parkway to scout out areas that still need to be cleaned of trash, I stopped to closely examine some the carvings, and realized for the first time their historical value.

To begin with, some of the carving are in places where it is surprising to find any sign of human presence. After walking for several minutes away from the nearest street, up and down steep ravines and through brambles, the city seems far away. There is no trail leading here, and I've been seen another soul out there.

But in decades past, I've heard, Congress Heights kids treated the park as their own Hundred Acre Wood.
They are the likely creators of these carvings, which look old.

Most are just names or initials, and some are not legible. Above is the oldest dated carving I've found so far, in a beautiful area between Malcolm X Avenue and Brothers Place.  It reads "A.R. Hudson 1920." That's 97 years ago, before any of us were born, and older than most houses in Congress Heights. The tree has grown a lot in that time, so the size of the words has probably more than doubled.

Nearby are several carvings from the 1950s, including "Hardy 1953" and "Pack 61 1953. Cub Scout pack, that it.

Hearts are a common motif, but this one (see left) is unusual. Instead of the lovers' names inside the heart, it appear to says "As it was right before God I'm C." What's your interpretation?

In a sad but unsurprising reminder the long history of violent white supremacy in our city, I also encountered a carving of a swastika and the word "Hitler." It looks to be least 40 year old, and could have been carved anytime since 1920, when the Nazis adopted the swastika (originally a Hindu sign of good luck ) as their symbol.

Most fascist vandalism is (thank God) removed immediately, but this one deep in the woods has remained, much like the hatred that it represents. 

Community clean-ups to continue every second Saturday in 2018

The last official volunteer opportunity of 2017 is Saturday, December 11 from 10:30 am to 1 pm.                                        Winter is a great time to clear our urban woodlands of trash and invasive species. They are easier to find when dense foliage is not covering everything, and there is little danger from ticks, bees, mosquitoes, or heat exhaustion.

We will celebrate and coming winter solstice and Christmas with hot chocolate.

While supplies last, all volunteers will receive a free Nalgene water bottle courtesy of REI! 

We meet at the benches across Malcolm X Avenue from 555 Newcomb Street SE, Washington, DC 20032. We work in rugged, wooded terrain, so volunteers should wear boots and clothes they will not mind getting dirty.  Gloves, bags, and water refills are provided.

Documentation of community service hours gladly provided upon request.   For more information contact Nathan Harrington at nbharrington@yahoo.com or 301-758-5892.

Community Clean-Ups will continue to be held at the same time and place every second Saturday of the month throughout 2018. The dates are:

January 13
February 10
March 10
April 14
May 12
June 9
July 14
August 11
September 8
October 13
November 10
December 8

Real Solutions for “Marion Barry Park”

The petition to fence off the heavily used portion of Shepherd Parkway along Martin Luther King Avenue (see my October 16 post) may be an expression of scapegoating and despair, but it is having a positive effect:  those already working to build hope and pride in the park are coming together, their passion and resolve renewed.  

For years, local clergy and church volunteers have provided ministry, food, clothing, and other services to needy park users. The Park Service, Congress Heights Community Association, and others have held family-friendly events in the park, and conscientious park users make it their business to pick up the litter.  

And of course, the Committee to Restore Shepherd Parkway has removed hundreds of thousands of pounds of trash from the wooded areas of the park, including those adjacent to the picnic area. Park users have been friendly and appreciative towards our volunteers. Ellen Williams, our most loyal volunteer, got involved in 2015 after we invited her and others sitting in the park to join a clean-up.

In the photo above, more than 50 people gathered on October 17 for a financial empowerment workshop with real estate entrepreneur Jay Morrison. The park has also been the sight of Black Lives Matter protests and Art All Night.

None of these positive activities were even mentioned in the petition. 

On October 27, ANC 8C Commissioners Karen Lucas and Sharece Crawford convened a meeting at the RISE Center to bring together those working to attack the root causes the joblessness, addiction, and violence seen in the park. Many had never met and were unaware of the others’ efforts.

All were united in their embrace of those who some call “the people in the park” as our brothers and sisters, each with their own story, neighbors with as much claim to this space as us.

Commissioner Lucas drew applause then she broke it down: “The park will not close, because the park is not dangerous. Trees and grass are not dangerous. Tables and benches are not dangerous. Some dangerous things happen there, as they do throughout our community. Some people chose to fixate on the park, but it it’s really about our people.”

Those in attendance were also roused by the incisive, truth-telling words of Aiyi’nah Ford, Executive Director of the Future Foundation. Founded in 2012, the Foundation works to “empower and activate “future adults” (13-21 years of age) and their families with trauma-informed social justice advocacy, community organizing and resource development skills to improve their future.”

Ford spoke of GLBTQ youth seeking refuge in the park after being put out of their homes because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.  

The Rev. Dr. Nicole Johnson-Douglass of the Deliverance Temple A.M.E. Zion Church described how she leads Sunday worship services in the park every Sunday; afterwards they discuss the challenges residents are facing and help connect them with services. Contrary to the claims of some, those who enter the park with a humility and respect for those there, are welcomed, she said.    

Travis Dread-Hughes of the DC Department of Behavioral Health promoted the department’s Access HelpLine as a humane alternative to calling the police. One of the most comprehensive services of its kind in the United States, DC residents can call 888-793-4357, 24-hours a day, seven-day-a-week to speak with mental health professionals who can refer them to immediate help or ongoing care.

National Capital Parks-East Deputy Superintendent Ann Honious, a veteran of previous community discussions about Shepherd Parkway, spoke about the Rapid Ethnographic Assessment Program (REAP) being carried out by Howard University students in the park. “Instead of rushing in and doing something that looks nice but might turn out not to be what the community needs and wants, we are doing to take a long hard look at what this place means to people.”  

This comes as a disappointment for those impatient for long-overdue physical improvements, but it’s hard to argue with the need for changes to be sensitive to the uniqueness of Congress Heights.

Captain Green of the Park Police Anacostia Station, a Ward 8 native, spoke eloquently about his commitment to respecting the civil liberties and dignity of the citizens. He alluded to “broke windows policing,” in which people of color are stopped by police and often criminally charged for minor “quality of life offenses” and concluded “That’s not going to happen on my watch.”  Echoing Mr. Dread-Hughes, he argued that involving police should be a community’s last resort, not the first.  

He acknowledged the problem of understaffing- four officers on duty at any given time, covering 4,000 acres of federal parkland from the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to Piscataway Park. Still, he said his department is committed to maintaining a presence at Shepherd Parkway.  “Just because you don’t see our cruisers parked there all day, or our officers marking arrests in the park, doesn’t mean we aren’t working it make it safer.”

Other panelists included Ward 8 State Board of Education representative Markus Batchelor and Saleem Adolfo of the Black United Fund, which works to “serve critical needs of special populations; and that promote community based problem solving.”   

The meeting could have continued all night, but when the building’s closing time arrived, all departed energized, promising to increase dialogue and coordination.

Perhaps the most important take-way was articulated by Aiyi’nah Ford, who referenced the Rev. Jesse Jackson: The tools to heal and build up our communities already exist within our communities. We need not, and cannot, wait for a government agency to rescue us.

  

P.S.

As noted in previous posts, the area under discussion comprises less than one percent Shepherd Parkway’s 197 acres and really needs a name of its own. The idea of naming it for Marion Barry -who toward the end of his life lived a few blocks away- seems be gaining momentum.