River levels this week

We captured the change in the smallest of the three channels on the river this week.

A holiday tree display for naturalists

Blue catfish downstream in the tidal Potomac River

Brian Schmidt catching invasive Blue catfish on the lower Potomac in Arlington County, Virginia.

Wool - a renewable resource from a lawnmower

Potomac River Partnership Information Exchange.

Brent Walls of the Upper Potomac Riverkeeper speaking to a full house (over 50 people) at the Potomac Watershed Partnership in Shephardstown.

Fun with City Friends

Female Ginkgo Trees?

We'll pay you $0.10 for every ginkgo seed you collect for us (same with chestnuts if you can ID the Chestnut tree or collect some leaves).

Producing female G. biloba trees is one of our four big tree projects at the Wood House Research Farm. This photo from Blandy Farm yesterday is (like so many things at Blandy Farm) my model of success with ginkgoes some day.

Ginkgoes at Blandy Farm at the Virginia State Arboretum near Boyce, Virginia.

The form, color and unique leaf shape are just a few reasons why we're working to maintain the Ginkgo gene pool here in Hampshire County. Literally (and taxonomically), there is no tree quite like it, and there hasn't been for probably millions of years. There is only one other group of trees that have free-swimming sperm.

As street trees they are stunning, but the seeds from the female trees smell like a whole kindergarten class all vomited in the same spot.  So planners began buying only male trees, which nurseries produced largely by cuttings (one strategy for cloning).  That means a disease could be advantaged by this narrow gene pool and wipe out all trees in a city.

First Frost of 2015 - October 18

First frost on October 18 this year at 39.5, -78.6    600ft.       29F (-2C).

At the Wood House - October 18, 2015

Fall is here, summer is over.

We'll certainly miss the interesting folks who float down the South Branch in tubes, canoes and kayaks.

Predicted vs. actual streamflow - early October storms

NOAA river forecast model algorithms seem to include an understandable conservative prediction.  This was predicted last Thursday (10/01):

The actual gauge readings almost a week later appear below:

Welcome to exploring the South Branch of the Potomac

The South branch of the Potomac River begins in the highlands of Virginia and joins the North Branch of the Potomac River near the West Virginia / Maryland border near Oldtown, MD.