Rock Creek Sustainability
by Chris Weiss, Executive Director, DC Environmental Network
All metro Washington area environmentalists and others are welcome to our monthly brown-bag networking opportunity!
On January 5th at Noon at Global Green USA (1100 15th Street NW, 11th Floor), please join the DC Environmental Network and Rock Creek Conservancy for a discussion of the many issues facing Rock Creek. Rock Creek Conservancy Executive Director, Beth Mullin, will lead a discussion about your interest in or activities related to the park, and your ideas about how we can work together to take advantage of opportunities and promote sustainability for this vital green space in the heart of the DC metro area. Tara Morrison, Rock Creek Park Superintendent, will also be participating in the discussion. The Superintendent will give us updates on Rock Creek Park.
Please RSVP Here if you would like to attend this discussion.
Background:
“Location, location, location.” Rock Creek is a natural treasure, just a walk or metro ride away for millions of people, many of whom care deeply about the 5,000 acres of parkland that border the creek and its tributaries in DC and Montgomery County. This is both a threat and
an opportunity. The surrounding development creates a green island in a sea of pavement, subject to polluted runoff, sewage overflows, stream bank erosion, damage to fish and wildlife habitat, and invasive species, including vines that kill trees.
At the same time, there are wonderful opportunities for recreation, relaxation, education, community-based environmental stewardship, and engendering a love of nature and history in the next generation.
Rock Creek Conservancy (formerly FORCE–Friends of Rock Creek’s Environment) is dedicated to protecting and restoring Rock Creek and its waters, parks, and lands. Multiple agencies, non-governmental organizations, property owners, and groups—including many DC Environmental Network members–also have an interest in Rock Creek.
Beth’s Bio:
Beth first joined Friends of Rock Creek’s Environment (now Rock Creek Conservancy) as a volunteer working to protect her local creek, the Pinehurst Branch tributary of Rock Creek. She became the organization’s Executive Director in October 2007. She is an environmental attorney with a law degree from New York University and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She has worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Denver, and the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC.
Tara’s Bio:
Morrison comes to Rock Creek Park from the position of Superintendent of the NPS’ African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan, a site where free and enslaved Africans and African Americans were buried in a 6.6-acre site. Prior to her position as Superintendent, Morrison served for about two and one-half years as Management Assistant at the NPS’ Northeast 
Regional Office, leading the African Burial Assistance Project, coordinating communication with various NPS offices, the General Services Administration and the public regarding the development of a memorial and Interpretive Center at the Monument, including construction and curation of project collections. Before the African Burial Ground National Monument positions, Morrison served as Acting Assistant Superintendent at the NPS’ Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, NJ, where she reviewed and assisted in developing park-specific project requests, budget prioritization and recommendations for revision.
Morrison began her NPS career in 1998 as a Park Ranger at NPS’ Boston African American National Historic Site. Morrison joined the NPS’ National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program as the NPS’ Northeast Region Coordinator where she provided advice, subject matter expertise, and technical matter support toward the implementation of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Act.
Please RSVP Here if you would like to attend this discussion.