The woods is a sacred place, in part because it is a piece of little disturbed nature with functions that are part of the ecosystem, part of god's living earth and thus sacred. It is also so because of what we humans imbue it with; memories, presence of schools with children, the promise of community mobilization, of discussions across generation and races. These things also make it sacred. We must be mindful of this richness and import.

-from the Green Team minutes

Restoration

A seven acre wooded area with the remains of a virgin growth forest rests in the middle of Takoma Park, between Piney Branch Elementary School and the Takoma Park Middle School, and downhill from Ritchie Ave. A stream, which runs all year long, is buried in a stormwater pipe running down the valley. A group called the Green Team is interested in bringing this stream back to the surface, and restoring the woods to a better state of health. This woods [which we're calling Takoma Woods for now] has a number of large trees, but is severely damaged by trash, landfill and invasive plants. Local residents have been trying to clean up the Ritchie Ravine area of the woods and they have been telling stories about the way things used to be. Local businesses have supplied food for the clean-up crews and the parks department has donated gloves.

-from the Green Team minutes

Flora of Takoma Woods

According to the book Woody Plants of Maryland, the native greenbriar has berries which are "eaten by a wide variety of species including wood duck, ruffed grouse, wild turkey, fish crow, black bear, opossum, raccoon, squirrel, and numerous species of song birds, especially the cat bird, mocking bird, robin and thrushes." It goes on to mention that "tangles of greenbriar vines furnish protective cover for rabbits and other small wildlife; the stems and leaves are browsed by deer."

History

We seem to have no name for the stream bed that occupies the Green Team. Last weekend I spent several hours walking the stream bed with Dorothy Barnes, the historian of Historic Takoma. She has lived in Takoma Park since about 1930 and has many personal recollections that make her a first source in investigating anything historic in Takoma. Using some old maps we were successful in tracing the path of Brashear's Run that prior to the 20th century drained the forest that is now northern Takoma Park and eastern Silver Spring.

The stream bed of the Green Team is the northern branch of that stream. Pronounced "BRAY shears", it was named for a family that lived in the area. I expect to investigate the source of the name this winter. Probably the easiest way to describe Brashear's Run is to start at its mouth, where it dumps into Sligo Creek. Walk from the corner of Maple Ave and Sligo Creek Parkway towards New Hampshire Ave. The stone bridge about 100 feet up Sligo Parkway crosses Brashear's Run as it joins Sligo Creek. In fact the last few hundred feet of Brashear's Run are all that currently still exist. If you leave Sligo Parkway and walk up along Brashear's Run, you quickly come upon the gaping end of the culvert that now carries the water that formerly ran down Brashear's Run. The culvert discharge is covered with a grating and there is a large, not very pristine, pool into which the culvert water flows.

Walk from the culvert pool through the parking lot of the purple trimmed apartment building along Maple and along Maple to the corner of Maple and Ritchie. The main part of Brashear's Run came down along what is now Maple Ave. The branch of Brashear's Run that interests the GreenTeam entered the main part of the run here at the corner of Maple and Ritchie.

Dorothy Barnes remembers that, during the 30s, there was a building that housed both Public Works and the Police Department and stood at the corner closest to the Park Ritchie. She recalls that the north branch of Brashear's Run ran behind that building. One can still see the channel of that branch and follow it up past the Park Ritchie to the stream bed of our interest.

To follow the main branch of Brashear's Run, walk up Maple Ave from the intersection with Ritchie. At the corner of Lee and Maple, angle to the right through the parking lot of Piney Branch Elementary School and through the parking lot of the Municipal Building and across the library grounds. Cross Philadelphia Ave onto Cedar. From here one would need a helicopter to follow the bed of the run through backyards. A short way up Cedar the stream bed turns right and heads through property lots across Birch and Holly. The most obvious place to view the bed here is where it crosses Piney Branch Rd. As you drive towards DC on Piney Branch from EW Highway, you cross the old bed of Brashear's Run about halfway to Eastern Ave as Piney Branch dips down into a low wooded spot. The ADC map of Metro Washington, DC, shows Brashear Ave off Baltimore Ave in the Takoma Park neighborhood on the Silver Spring side of Piney Branch. Dorothy and I were unable to find any trace of that street, but perhaps someone in the area can locate it. A map of this area dated 1860 shows Brashear's Run clearly, although it is not named. The stream is shown as originating in the high ground upon which Montgomery College currently is located. All that remains above ground of Brashear's Run is the GreenTeam stream bed and the culvert discharge at Sligo Creek.

- Dan Robinson.