to Watts Branch Restoration ()

the
View from
Marvin Gaye Park sparks an
environmental transformation
WATTS BRANCH
Dennis Chestnut of Washington
Parks & People shows Earth Day
volunteers what trash looks like.
Photo: Andrew Lightman
by John R. Wennersten
W
atts Branch, one of the few uncovered and unpiped tributaries of the Anacostia River, starts
in Capitol Heights and continues into the
District. It flows through several economically
distressed communities in the far northeast
section of the District into Marvin Gaye Park.
Beginning at 63rd St. NE, Marvin Gaye Park winds 1.5 miles
along Watts Branch through what Washington Park authorities
call “arguably the longest continuous African-American community in the country.” According to Steve Coleman, administrator
of Washington Parks and People programs, there have been black
landowners in this section of northeast DC, since the original
patentees settled Maryland under the jurisdiction of England’s
King Charles II in 1696.
The Transformation of Watts Branch
Until recently, residents were unwilling to wade in Watts
Branch stream in Anacostia. They feared tramping on drug needles. Watts Branch was the site of a heroin market where DC
officials were reluctant to enter without an armed police escort.
The watershed was strewn with garbage and trash. Trucks came
in broad daylight and illegally tipped concrete, landfill and other
debris from construction sites around the city.
Times have changed, however, and the citizens of Ward 7 are
now making positive efforts to improve Watts Branch in terms
of water quality, rubbish, storm water erosion, and recreational
opportunities. “Watts Branch is a whole lot cleaner and safer than
it used to be,” says Rebecca Stamps, a local community leader.
“Gangs have taken their crime somewhere else because we are
using our park. Kids play here, ride their bikes and relax with movies in summer at the outdoor amphitheater. We also have a mayor
who knows where Watts Branch is,” she adds.
Basically, the people and kids of Watts Branch fought to
30 H East of the River | May 2009
retake their watershed from the drug lords, dumpers and other
villains. The families of Ward Seven got fed up with the killings
and heroin. They realized that by restoring Watts Branch as a civil
place for families and children, they were not merely participating in the luxury of enviro-restoration. They were reclaiming their
home place.
The bottom line to the story of Watts Branch has been a decade-long 50,000 volunteer effort organized by Washington Parks
and People to build Marvin Gaye Park and restore Watts Branch.
According to Steve Coleman of Washington Parks and People,
“it was the kids of Ward 7 who dreamed the impossible dream
of a sane home place for Watts Branch.” Working with Steve
Coleman, scores of young middle school and high school kids got
permission from the DC government to set up a Saturday Fruit
and Vegetable market at Watts Branch Park. They set up their
stands early, long before the drug lords got their heroin market
into operation. The kids intimidated the thugs. And a swelling
throng of shoppers forced the drug lords to seek a new area. Adds
Steve Coleman, kids and “oldsters” who remembered better times
in the area worked in tandem to reclaim an area that the DC
government had given up on.
Dennis Chestnut of Washington
Parks & People addresses
Earth Day Volunteers.
Photo by Andrew Lightman
Making a reality of the “invisible park”
Not so long ago everybody seemed to write off Watts Branch
except the kids. They had what Coleman calls “the invisible park
in their heads,” a perception of what Watts Branch should look
like. By removing trash and cutting out invasive plants, volunteers
opened up the sight lines for the environmental vision and a “visible
park” began to emerge. Changing the name of Watts Branch Park
to Marvin Gaye Park was a masterful political and environmental
stroke. Gaye once sang in a nightclub that is now the Community
Center of Washington Parks and People. Volunteers began to imagine the park as a center for song and entertainment. They constructed a makeshift amphitheater on a hillside for talent shows for kids
and adults from Ward 7 and the dream started to become reality.
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Coleman and his corps of kids and adults pulled
five million pounds of trash and 13,000 hypodermic
needles out of the stream and opened up a two-mile
trail leading down to the Anacostia River. Public programming of events and activities in Watts Branch
is still a struggle, says Steve Coleman. Funds for the
watershed park’s upkeep have been scarce, save for
the efforts of volunteer organizations. Councilman
Yvette Alexander of Ward 7 notes that what has
happened to Watts Branch has been “almost magical. We want this park to be used by all the citizens
of the District, not just Ward 7.”
Lingering Problems and Viable Greenspace
Although Watts Branch is no longer “the Wild,
Wild East,” there are crime pockets along the watershed. “Drugs are still a problem, just more hidden,”
reports John Peacock, a Division Ave. resident. But for
observant citizens like Rebecca Stamps, the neighborhoods around Watts Branch are safer than they were.
Watts Branch no longer endures the “perfect storm” of
government ambivalence, aggressive polluters, crime,
and lack of public dialogue. Jim Collier, a retired DC
Health Department official, regularly prowls Watts
Branch in gumboots with a clipboard. “The biological
contamination of Watts Branch through sewage is not
anywhere near as bad as it was ten years ago,” he says.
“But the trash is worse because of plastic bags.” Collier,
however, is surprised at how many people will seek him
out when he is down in the stream-bed to tell him how
much they care for Watts Branch and the Anacostia.
“The watershed is still transitioning,” says Dennis Chestnut of Groundwork Anacostia, DC. “Out
of debris, garbage and landfill, local residents have
created something of value.” Watts Branch and
Marvin Gaye Park have become a “viable green
space vital for community stabilization and civic
pride,” Chestnut points out. “A restoration project
like Watts Branch can create jobs and we can use
environmental restoration to improve the quality of
life for our kids.”
Green Outreach and Watts Branch
Last month Mayor Fenty announced that a
major green outreach program involving hundreds
of school age children will take place this summer
in the District. The “Mayor’s Conservation Corps”
will provide kids with jobs to clean up parks and
stage community events to help raise environmental
consciousness. Specifically, around 200 youths are
slated to work in the Watts Branch tributary to help
the waters run clean and unobstructed by sediment
piles and rubbish. This will all be part of the mayor’s
“Green Summer Program” funded in part by President Obama’s federal stimulus package. This summer some 27 different funding sources in the District government will be brought to bear on Watt’s
Branch and other areas “to help green Washington.”
According to District Director of the Environment,
George Hawkins, “This is all part of our effort to
rescue the city as a green space. We have to believe in
our city as the suburbs are no longer something we
Some of the young people, who demanded a better Watts Branch Park. Photo by Washington Parks & People.
32 H East of the River | May 2009
can believe in. We must also now recognize the economic impact of green programs in our neighborhood through jobs and other revitalization efforts.”
Recently the DC Department of the Environment reported the beginning of a $5 million stream
banks revitalization program for Watts Branch. The
District will stabilize, regrade, and replant some 1.9
miles of Watts Branch to strengthen and beautify
the stream bank. This will be a showcase, George
Hawkins says, one of the largest stream bank stabilization programs in the United States that is all
of one piece. “Green summer,” he notes, “is the start
at a new effort at community outreach. We want
schools, organizations and interested individuals to
check our web site at www.Green.DC.gov. We are
more than willing to send our people out to talk to
community groups about our new green initiatives
for Watts Branch,” says Hawkins.
Towards the Future
One major environmental fact emerges when you
walk the Watts Branch Trail into Kenilworth Park.
With the exception of the national mall, there is more
green park space east of the Anacostia River than in
any other part of the District. If Washington is to be
a glorious national green showcase, it will be because
of the Anacostia River and Watts Branch. Says Yvette
Alexander, “I still have a very strong hope of one day
seeing a clean, crystal blue Anacostia River.”
For more information go to www.Green.DC.gov H
Two young volunteers try on wading boots for size. Photo by Andrew Lightman
Sousa Middle School
Where Excellence is the Standard
ENROLL TODAY! Quality School | Safe & Structured Environment
Openings available for students entering
6th, 7th & 8th grade next year Fall 2009
Open Enrollment Period: Starts April 1st
Prospective parents are welcome to
stop by anytime to meet the principal,
teachers and for a school tour.
Principal - Dwan Jordon
Our Mission is to provide the highest quality education in an atmosphere that nurtures the individual
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Our Vision is to help prepare our students for a
technologically based society by developing the
students’ higher order thinking skills through the
use of performance based instruction that is infused with the arts and technology.
Call or vist the web to learn more.
Sousa Middle School
3650 Ely Place SE
Washington, DC 20019
202-729-3260
Website: https://sites.google.com/
a/dc.gov/sousa-middle-school/
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