On May 10, 2017, Rod Simmons spoke to an enthusiastic audience of 60 and explored the geology of the Washington area and how it gives rise to diverse natural communities, calling the Washington-Baltimore region “the most geologically and floristically diverse area in the eastern United States.”  Rod is the Natural Resource Manager and Plant Ecologist for the city of Alexandria. 

He told the group that Dyke Marsh, Four Mile Run and the wetland at Featherstone National Wildlife Refuge are all local tidal, freshwater marshes and that tidal, freshwater marshes are globally rare. In the photo at left, geologist Tony Fleming surveys bedrock outcrops for the Alexandria Geologic Atlas (photo by R.H. Simmons).

This quarterly program of the Friends of Dyke Marsh was cosponsored by the Friends of Huntley Meadows Park, the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, the Friends of Little Hunting Creek, the Four Mile Run Conservatory Foundation and the Friends of Mason Neck State Park.

Here is the text of his power point presentation: Forest Communities and Geology of Washington