Little Falls Watershed Alliance

06/04/2026

Less Lawn, More Life - Week 5 challenge is in. And it's know your invasives! https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aTU2lxju4zE BIG NEWS: We'll be on the TODAY Show on Wednesday June 10 talking about the campaign!

HAPPENING THIS WEEK IN LESS LAWN MORE LIFE

Challenge #5 is live -- LEARN YOUR INVASIVES! Hosted by Dr. Mhairi McFarlane of Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aTU2lxju4zE

Challenge #6 host reveal is up and in the toolkit: Murray Fisher, founder of Billion Oyster Project and Chief Naturalist of Wildr, hosting OBSERVE & TUNE IN, all about discovering the wonder right outside your door.

NEW IN THE WILDR PLACES APP

Invasives module on your Place -- see what invasive species to watch for on your property
Find nearby public places in Explore!

As always, please keep sharing and promoting the campaign! Here's your TOOLKIT. Anyone who joins starts at Challenge 1, so it's never too late to spread the word and grow the movement:)

Zoe
P.S. We need more Wildr Experts to rate our native plant recommendations. The Expert tool now also now includes the most common invasives for different ecoregions! See the heatmap below for the areas we have coverage gaps. Do you know people and orgs in these regions who are passionate about conservation and restoration? Please send them this link to apply: https://www.joinwildr.com/experts

Screenshot 2026-06-04 at 1.36.42 PM.png

Do you know what a cheap and satisfying form of therapy is? Invasiv...

05/14/2026

Thanks so much LFWA board member Emily Simone for leading this month's trash pick up. Our 26 volunteers picked up 11 bags of trash, 2 bags of recycling, a broom handle and a tire. Trash gets blown by the wind and flows with water, so it's naturally going to find it's way into our creek if we don't do something about it.

Come help out next month! We do a trash pick up the second Saturday of every month. LFWA.org/events

Montgomery Parks

05/14/2026

Hope to see some of you on the Capital Crescent Trail Saturday freeing trees from vines. It's satisfying work to see the trees freed from the invasives that are killing them.

Remove Strangling Vines from the Trees

05/13/2026

Less Lawn More Life is officially LIVE and it is KICKING!! https://www.lesslawnmorelife.com/ Join the free challenge: Plant natives and restore habitat right in your own yard.

Less Lawn More Life
More Nature. Now.
Nearly 3k live viewers for Robin Wall Kimmerer's INCREDIBLE kickoff, with 8k+ views since then (here's the recording if you missed it!)
Almost 23,000 participants have signed up so far and we have over 150 partners!!
Over 3.5k users are using the free Wildr Places app and Margaret Roach just featured it on her podcast, A Way to Garden. New features supporting weekly challenges (invasive species, wildlife observations, and more) will roll out over the coming weeks.
HAPPENING THIS WEEK: Challenge #2 ("Pick Your Spot", hosted by ) goes out tomorrow 5/14.
NEW IN THE TOOLKIT:
Robin Wall Kimmerer kickoff clip for socials
Challenge 1 & 2 videos and copy See less

Be part of a growing movement to transform lawns into life. Join the free 12-week Less Lawn More Life challenge and create a healthier, joyful yard.

05/12/2026

We got a workout this morning removing bamboo at the Westbrook ES habitat restoration. We are slowly working our way down the driveway at the school removing the non-native invasive. Take a look if you haven't had a chance. I was delighted to discover that there is a creek along the school property. Thank you to everyone who come out and to Page who started it all!

05/07/2026

It was a beautiful day for removing bush honeysuckle! Thank you to the Thursday crew for your continued efforts to restore the Willard Avenue Neighborhood Park. We can now see the creek! This is huge - there are benches along the walking path that face water now instead of a wall of non-native invasives. There are spice bushes free for the first time in decades to grow straight instead of in a zigzag as they try to fight off the vines. If you're in the area, take a peek. If you have time, join us next month for our last Thursday workday until the weather gets cooler. Montgomery Parks

05/05/2026

Here's a fun challenge. Less lawn also means less mowing and leaf blowing!

The National Pollinator Pathway is partnering this spring with the Less Lawn More Life Challenge, a free 12-week program to help people restore nature in their own backyards.

This exciting program guides participants through a step-by-step journey to turning their outdoor space into a thriving habitat, one small step at a time.

The challenge kicks off on May 7th with a live keynote from Robin Wall Kimmerer!

https://pollinator-pathway.org/so/a4PtFRX0b?languageTag=en&cid=bf0105f1-e782-456b-b1c5-fbfaafbbcfb4

04/26/2026

Happy Earth Day! Thank you to the volunteers who spent the morning freeing trees along the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda. We were so excited to find a sassafras sapling when the bush honeysuckle was removed! For most of the participants, it was their first time seeing this tree. It used to be everywhere, but I only know where three or four are along the trail. The deer don't like it that much, so keep your eye out for it. It has three different types of leaves - mittens, gloves and baby gloves! The root bark is the original root beer flavoring! The leaves are edible too and traditionally used to thicken gumbo. Thank you to the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail, our partners in this project. We're in our third year. When you walk from River Road to Bethesda on the trail, you'll see how much we've done. It's pretty impressive.
Montgomery Parks

04/22/2026

GreenFest is Saturday! Montgomery County GreenFest is the largest environmental festival in the county. To honor the 250th anniversary of Montgomery County (founded in 1776), this year’s theme centers on legacy and collective action. The festival will be at Germantown’s BlackRock Center for the Arts on Saturday, April 25, 11 am-4 pm. Free.

You’ll find an array of vendors, environmental nonprofits and eco-friendly businesses and learn about farm-fresh produce, local recycling options, and alternative energy. There will be activities for the kids and food trucks.

250 Actions today for a better tomorrow

04/21/2026

Little Falls Swim Club is getting plants today! You might think this is a landscaping project, but actually it's a storm water management project. Native plants are replacing the grass in the creek buffer. The deep roots of the native plants will help the rain water soak into the ground instead of running off the lawn into the creek and flooding it every time it rains. In addition, the fungi and bacteria in the ground will capture and clean up any pollutants keeping them out of the creek. The project is being funded by the Montgomery County Water Quality Protection Fund! Read about it on our website at https://www.lfwa.org/little-falls-swim-club-conservation-landscaping Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection