A walk around Oakland Mills

   

     Last week a group of Columbia residents participated in the last of the village walks done by Ned Tillman in conjunction with the Columbia Association.  

   It is surprising what is hidden in our neighborhoods.  I had no idea that a family cemetery of 6 graves of the George Cooke family from the 1850's was neatly hidden behind the Village Center.



   We walked along some of the new path that connects Blandair Park and the Howard County General Hospital.  The map above shows the route of the new path and the symbol below is a symbol shown along the route.

   As our community has developed some of the barriers to capture storm runoff have been removed. As shown below homeowners may not realize the damage they do when they mow their lawns right down to a stream.  The streams pay the price for this homeowner wanting to expand their lawn with the stream bank erosion shown below.

 

      One positive action to control this storm runoff is the building of rain gardens like the one shown above at the Meeting House Interfaith Center in Oakland Mills.  This one was built by young people who were paid by a grant.  The sign below describes the Clean Howard program that is building the rain gardens.

   

What we have in Columbia is a mixture of old and new trees planted around the time of Columbia's development.  The picture below shows the older taller Black Gum tree surrounded by newer trees.

   This time of the year the large yellow leaves of the Paw Paw tree clearly stands out as show above.

   We may not realize it but beneath the ground in our area is granite.  Occasionally like shown above and below the soil is washed away with erosion and this granite can be seen.

 

   Look for more information about next year's walks that will be advertised by the Columbia Association.

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