Berrywood Residents Plant Trees At Cattail Creek For Earth Day

By Maya Pottiger

On Earth Day, community members of all ages gathered at Cattail Creek in the Berrywood community. Their goal was to plant native and pollinator-friendly plants along the creek, which was the final phase of a large-scale restoration project that ultimately took six years to complete.

The project was led by Bob Royer and Molly LaChapelle, both Berrywood residents. Royer is a volunteer water quality monitor for the Magothy River Association, and LaChapelle became a Master Watershed Steward to help tackle the project.

With deteriorating water quality in Cattail Creek, the project became a necessity.

The project followed a three-phase plan. The first phase was creating the regenerative stream channel. This was achieved by raising the stream bed, which helped slow down the stream flow and reduce erosion. The second phase was removing the bulkhead along the marina and replacing it with a living shoreline.

On Earth Day, the community got to participate in the final phase, which was planting carefully chosen native plants to combat runoff.

“I always said from a technical standpoint, what we did was connect the stream with the floodplain, which hadn’t been done in years,” Royer said. “The most important thing now is we have reconnected the stream back to the community.”

The community planting drew more than 100 people throughout the day, including District 5 Councilwoman Amanda Fiedler and Stephen Schatz, a deputy chief of staff to Governor Larry Hogan.

PHOTO GALLERY: Berrywood Celebrates Earth Day On Cattail Creek

The restoration construction started in October 2018. It was made possible by grants from the “Watershed Stewards Academy in league with the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources,” said Royer, who is also a member of the Berrywood Watershed Committee. Underwood & Associates took charge of the design and construction of the restoration.

In all, the grants totaled just under $1 million.

Underwood & Associates finished all of the major construction by December 2018. The goal was to finish the project by February, which is when yellow perch spawn on the creek and construction is prohibited.

Now, families are using the spot as a nature park, according to Royer.

“We want to bring people’s attention to the environment, and this is the perfect showcase for demonstrating that,” Royer said.

Some of the proposed plants include American cranberry (which is where Berrywood gets its name), blueberry, bald cypress, sweetbay magnolia, American holly and redhead grass.

“We'd like to use this as a flagship program to start this off, and then move forward to increase the water quality going up the Cattail Creek watershed, but also use it as a leading example for other neighborhoods to do the same in their area,” Royer said. “If we can do this one stream at a time in other areas, then the [Chesapeake Bay]'s health will approve dramatically.”