Volume 29 Issue 4, Fall 2024

by BJ Lecrone

Imagine a meadow where you gaze upon tall grasses and a mixture of colorful native wildflowers blowing in the breeze. Birds are flying about looking for insects and caterpillars thriving within that native plant meadow. As this wild landscape transitions throughout the summer, you’ll also notice birds enjoying the seeds of the spent flowers.

That type of natural beauty is what was envisioned for the Harrison Street Meadow in Leesburg. A native plant meadow beside the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail has great potential to be all that along this well-traveled corridor. Why not fulfill the dream to care for a section of land and create a beautiful native space and provide better habitat for wildlife in this urban area? Shouldn’t that be easy? We thought so.

Volunteers spread out to work among the tall grasses in the meadow in June. The unrelenting abundance of non-native tall grasses at the site is one of the meadow restoration’s biggest obstacles. Photo by BJ Lecrone.

This labor of love began in 2018, with high expectations that the local community, bicyclists, and walkers would enjoy a thriving habitat that used to be nothing but a stretch of mowed grass. Fast forward to today: After a six-year investment of volunteer time and over 3,000 plants, we have begun to realize that we are not seeing the type of ecosystem that we had envisioned. Therefore, we are taking a respite to regroup and research new approaches for the future.

The numerous reasons for this change include pressure from invasive plants in the surrounding area, including non-native grasses that have a stronghold in that meadow; lack of volunteer work during the COVID-19 pandemic; long-term heat stresses; and drought. We are now discussing ideas with partners such as Sustainability Matters, which supports restoration projects along the W&OD trails; the Clifton Institute and Earth Sangha, which have experience with grasslands restoration; the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority; and Loudoun County and Leesburg government contacts.

A main concern with the Harrison Street Meadow is that Tall Fescue and other non-native grasses grow densely early, then fall over and smother the native plants trying to survive alongside them — a common problem with many habitat restoration projects. This is one reason we need to revise the plan for this area.

Although the COVID pandemic conditions of 2020 were an early setback, our volunteers have spent many hours in every other year of the project cutting back flowering non-natives, including Chicory, Spotted Knapweed, and Wild Lettuce, and some of the non-native grasses (especially in the dry section). This work was important and beneficial because it meant fewer seeds falling into the seedbank — which already contains enough previous years’ seeds to continue sprouting for years to come.

Of the flowering native plants added to the Harrison Street meadow in the last six years, some still survive at the site — including Evening Primrose (top) and Purple Coneflower (an American native though not a local one). bottom. Photos by BJ Lecrone.

The seed bank is an important factor, but that is in addition to the root systems of grasses that already exist. That’s the biggest problem, especially firmly established non-native Tall Fescue, Giant Foxtail, and orchard grasses. Without taking the time to eradicate their overbearing abundance, it has been very hard to get ahead.

Native grasses typically form 70% of a meadow. Over the years, we have planted more than 11 types of native grasses at the Harrison Street site, including both Big (Andropogon gerardii Vitman) and Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Purple Love Grass (Eragrostis spectabilis). (Plant NOVA Natives has a great list of native grasses.)

In addition, over 30 types of beautiful flowering forbs were planted at the site, and some are still surviving, mostly in the section that maintains more moisture than the upper dry side.

Many native butterfly species have been recorded at this site, including Monarchs, Common Buckeyes, Eastern Tailed Blues, various skippers and sulphurs, and everything in between. Transverse-banded Flower Fly, Fraternal Potter Wasp, Common Eastern Bumble Bee, Spotted Orb Weaver, and Goldenrod Soldier Beetle are only a small sampling of the native insects recorded here.

The Leesburg Garden Club donated informational signs that are located along the trail so that people can read about the plants and wildlife in this area. In the future, we would like to host additional educational opportunities to help the local community understand the value and benefits that this meadow area can bring to both the wildlife and the people who enjoy this part of the W&OD Trail.

We plan to continue to transition the beauty of this location. Please stay tuned for future plans.

BJ Lecrone is a Wildlife Sanctuary Program Ambassador and a Virginia Master Naturalist.

The post Weeds, Weather, and Other Woes: Meadow Restoration Project Pauses as Plans Are Revised appeared first on Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy.