Clear Creeks Tree Planting: A Restoration Vision in Bird River

On the first two Saturdays in May, volunteers for the Clear Creeks Project can take part in a restoration vision by gathering to plant 350 trees across two acres of what was once a bustling construction quarry in Bird River.

Norm and Vicki Sines, the current owners of the twenty-two acre property that comprised the former sand and pea gravel quarry, say that the quarry once provided fill for building Maryland Route 702.

“[The quarry] was a big operation,” said Norm Sines.

And he should know. As a former owner of his own three-generation excavation company--one that he assumed from his father, ran with wife Vicki, and then conveyed to his sons--Norm estimates that the quarry excavated over a million cubic yards of material during its time.

But some ten years ago when the Sines’ first set eyes on the old quarry grounds, the landscape seemed nothing short of other-worldly.

“This looks like a desolate planet,” Norm recalls Vicki declaring as they beheld an accumulation of trash and scrap metal and an eroding 60 foot shear wall that had been languishing for decades.

“The ground was grey,” Vicki Sines said, “It looked like you landed on the moon.”

Flash forward a decade and that once foreboding expanse is now an emerging restoration landscape of clustered trees and small scattered ponds providing habitat for a nesting pair of geese; a community of snapping turtles; a clover field of song birds; and a singing chorus of spring peepers.

But what does it take to transform a derelict construction site into a living ecosystem?

Vision, perseverance, and a whole lot of dirt.

“It took north of 7,000 tandem dump truck loads to correct the slope,” Norm Sines said.

And it’s on that very slope where the upcoming community tree plantings will be held on May 2 and May 9 from 10:00 am-1:00 pm. The planting events are part of Clear Creeks: Our Water, Our Heritage, Our Pride, which is a grant-funded, community-based watershed restoration project that answers residents’ desire for improved water clarity in the creeks and rivers of the Bird River, Middle River and Tidal Gunpowder watersheds.

The Clear Creeks Project is coordinated by the Gunpowder Valley Conservancy (GVC), a local watershed restoration and land trust non-profit organization in Baltimore County, which also holds a conservation easement on Norm and Vicki’s property.

The former quarry is just part of the Sines’ 77.37 acre parcel, all of which was put into preservation prior to their purchase of the property. A conservation easement insures that a property can never be residentially developed and is monitored through annual site visits by the holding land trust.

According to Norm, the GVC’s visits to his property have proven beneficial to the restoration process. “Every time [the GVC] came, they were so helpful with providing information about different programs available and people to talk to,” he said.

Over the years, Norm has navigated a world of permits, plans, and paperwork; addressed issues of sediment control; and participated in various restoration projects in cooperation with state and federal agencies, including fortifying the five self-sustaining ponds of varying depths that now attract species of waterfowl, as well as the occasional muskrat or coyote.

“I built ponds before but never worked in this area of how to make a pond wildlife enhanced,” Norm Sines said.

Perhaps most important for the upcoming tree plantings however, Norm has been incorporating topsoil into the sandy expanse so that a greater variety of trees can grow. Tree roots help anchor soil, which in turn prevents erosion and slows down storm water runoff that clouds waterways. The native oaks that will be planted by GVC volunteers at the Saturday plantings will also help support and attract wildlife to the former quarry.

The Sines‘ hope that one day their property can become a nature park. And although Vicki was originally skeptical of Norm’s interest in purchasing the place, she also had faith in her husband’s vision, “He can look at something and see what it can be,” she said.

The community tree plantings are part of that ongoing process, a labor of love and shared vision of more restoration to come.

To join the process, contact Clear Creeks Project Manager Peggy Perry at pperry@gunpowderfalls.org or 410-692-0468 for May 2 and May 9 tree planting details and event registration. Volunteers are most welcome and always appreciated.

The Clear Creeks Project is made possible through funding from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, National Fish and Wildlife, Chesapeake Bay Trust, Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Sustainability, Baltimore Gas and Electric, and Gunpowder Valley Conservancy.