Soldiers Delight Featured During Maryland Science Week
The secretary of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources, Joshua Kurtz, is a keen preservationist and avid supporter of natural places with significant historical or scientific value in the state. As such, he mapped out a plan to visit ten of the most important sites during Maryland Science Week this year. Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area was on the schedule for Thursday, September 26. SDCI, the Friends Group for the habitat, was ready.
A steady downpour, which dumped more than an inch of rain over two hours that morning, began to taper off as we gathered in the visitor center auditorium at Soldiers Delight. Patapsco Valley State Park Assistant Manager Joe Vogelpohl led things off with an introduction describing the diverse populations of plant and animal species which make Soldiers Delight NEA the number one biodiversity site in the state -- and home to a globally rare ecosystem.
Once introductions were complete and the rain had stopped, Paula Becker, outreach biologist with DNR's Natural Heritage Program, led our entourage along the meandering Serpentine Trail. She stopped intermittently to describe the unique habitat and point out threats to its survival by invasive plants and animals.
Once we reached what is known as the serpentine barrens, Will Vincett, of the Maryland Geological Survey, gave a presentation about the unusual soil conditions that give rise to the unique flora and fauna that call the serpentine barrens home. Paula explained the critical importance of fire to the ecosystem and how its suppression, as surrounding development grew, resulted in an explosion of invasive vegetation encroaching on the grassland prairie and threatening to overtake its 40+ rare and endangered plant species. She described how the introduction of prescribed burns by the Natural Heritage Program has begun to bring invasive species under control and give the native plants here a fighting chance.
Joe then explained how the April 4, 2023 wildfire at Soldiers Delight, while frightening and much larger than a tightly-controlled prescribed burn would ever be, was a blessing in disguise for the habitat, as it burned away acres and acres of invasive greenbrier that blocked light and air circulation, preventing native grass seeds from sprouting. SDCI vice president Lynell Tobler remarked to the group that within a week of the wildfire, native grass shoots were seen sprouting robustly through the scorched soil.
Next, SDCI president Laura Van Scoyoc gave a presentation describing the history of SDCI, and how the Worthleys, the Fasties and other scientific-minded naturalists in the 1950s recognized the significance of the land and its botany and formed SDCI to work doggedly to get the area set aside as a conserve for scientific research and future generations of naturalists. Laura's talk touched on acquisition of the land and construction of the visitor center and how SDCI still works very hard, more than sixty years later, to conserve the land and keep invasive species at bay.
The group then hiked back to the Soldiers Delight visitor center, stopping at historic Red Dog Lodge long enough for Will Vincett to give a presentation about the importance of bedrock to the science of seismology. He noted that Soldiers Delight is one of only a few places in Maryland where a major seismograph can be located, due primarily to the fact that seismic waves, bands of energy that radiate outward from the source of an earthquake, travel further and more accurately through bedrock than soil. What better place to locate a seismograph, he said, than where the bedrock, in this case, serpentine bedrock, lies very close to the surface, topped by only a very shallow layer of dirt?
It was truly wonderful to see our beloved Soldiers Delight NEA get such rapt attention from government officials. Members of the Maryland Office of Communications took copious notes, shot numerous photos and gathered drone footage. They promised to compose a comprehensive article on their visit in about a month, which we will post here. It was a good day.
