Rt. 50 Shoulder Restoration and Beautification Project Taking Shape!!
Thanks to the efforts of our hardy volunteers, we planted some 29 native species saplings last Saturday on the Rt. 50 shoulder. The cedar, sumac, holly, and redbuds should do well in the shoulder and overshadow the stakes in a few years.
A main problem in the interim, aside from keeping the trees watered, is to make sure the VDOT doesn’t mow them over. Ergo, the extra sized stakes to alert the crews to their presence (plus they are all Home Depot had on hand last week!). Earlier this week, three larger trees were installed, too, to give a little more immediate impact to the project.
In the spring, we will check if any saplings died and if so seek to replace them. But otherwise, next steps for the area include starting to remove some of the invasives from the overgrown area so existing trees can grow more freely. Next fall, we may do another round of tree plantings to augment the screening on the overgrown area as well as fill in any gaps on the grassy area. Sometime over the next year or two, Arlington County should be landscaping the Manchester Street end of the shoulder when the bus stop is moved to the east side of Manchester. Once that is done, we can evaluate what other steps we would like to pursue.
See the PowerPoint slide on our BMCA website blog for the location if you don’t know the area.