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Thank you for your interest in Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, a
site of National Capital Parks-East. This park preserves several
features of interest, including a cultural area of cultivated
waterlilies in open ponds, a wetland area including some of the original
marsh of Washington, DC, Anacostia River access at two points, a stream,
and athletic fields.

At the Burroughs Street entrance to Kenilworth Park are; acres of
athletic fields, a stream, a meadow, river access. The Kenilworth Park
area experienced significant change over time, going from a lush
rice/lotus marsh, to a dredge dump in the 1920s, to a garbage dump in
the 1950s, to a recreation area in the 1970s. Limitations in restoration
are easy to interpret here, as the cap on the dump is too thin to plant
trees, and the soil is too compacted to allow soil microbes to survive
drought. It is also a good place to discuss how ecologists of different
minds can disagree without being wrong, and how budget plays into public
decisions. Options for restoring this area include digging up the many
feet of old landfill and putting it \...where? Adding more dirt would
make the site less accessible to canoeists who use the park, but allow
for planting trees, which other people want. It\'s a good site to
discuss the ramifications of what we do today on the economy and health
of future generations. It is also a good place to demonstrate that there
may not be a right answer to questions society faces.

North of the Kenilworth Park entrance , on Anacostia Avenue, is the
Aquatic Gardens entrance. This entrance is where a visitor center,
picnic tables, and water fountains are located. There are

twelve acres of open ponds around the visitor center, a quarter mile
boardwalk trail that goes into the center of the wetland area, and a
river trail that goes almost a mile between the Anacostia River and
wetland bordering it.

This part of the park is where it is easiest to see the balance the
National Park Service tries to maintain between the man-made pond area
and the natural wetlands it depend on. It is a small model of what is
possible around the world.

The park as a whole reflects society, the damage done, the restoration
efforts, and social concepts of beauty. Some treasure the narrow strip
of original marsh that runs along two sides of the ponds, for the
history, biological diversity, and cultural associations. Others value
the summer ponds of flamboyant flowers and migratory egrets. Both have
intrinsic beauty, but most visitors prefer one or the other. Others come
only for athletic competitions, and may never notice they are in a
National Park.

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# Hours of operation, directions on getting here

The park is open from 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving,
December 25 and January 1. To get the park from Route 295 north of Route
50 or Route 50, go south on Kenilworth Avenue (Route 295) to the Eastern
Avenue Exit. At the top of the exit ramp go straight through the light .
At the second street on the right (Douglas Street) make a right. At the
end of Douglas make a right to get to the Aquatic Gardens entrance and a
left to get to the Kenilworth Park entrance.

From Route 295 south of Route 50. head north on Route 295 to the Eastern
Avenue Exit. At the top of the ramp, in the first lane on the left, make
a U-turn to the left. Continue two blocks to Douglas Street. Make a
right onto Douglas Street. At the end of Douglas make a right to get to
the Aquatic Gardens entrance and a left to get to the Kenilworth Park
entrance.

**Facilities available**

At the Kenilworth Park entrance there is a playground and picnic shelter
at one end of the park and a portable toilet in summer at the other end
of the park.

At the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens entrance are; a visitor center with
bathrooms, water fountain, and a few picnic tables.

Within a mile of the park are two fast food restaurants and gas stations
with snacks.

**Things to see by season***: birding* is an ever changing activity with
the migratory changes occurring around March and November.

: *wetland* and watershed studies can be done through the year, but icy
conditions may cause trails to be closed

: *wildflowers* usually bloom in April in the marsh. Some bloom in June
and August as well

: *waterlilies* will begin blooming in late May and continue until a
hard frost.

**Areas of the park to explore:** Kenilworth Park entrance has a meadow,
athletic fields, playground, and river access. Kenilworth Aquatic
Gardens entrance has a 1/4 mile boardwalk, 7/10 mile trail between the
Anacostia River and marsh, pond area, visitor center with bathrooms, and
water fountains. There are no vending machines in the park.

**For everyone\'s welfare**: Leave rocks, plants, and animals where they
are. Watch for muskrat holes as you walk, and poison ivy. A flyer on
recognizing poison ivy is available at the visitor center as well as
trail guides and a park brochure.

**Ideas for connecting to classroom lessons**

**Habitat**: The park has several varieties of habitat including shallow
ponds, seasonal pools, swampy islands, and marshes that are tidal and
along the river. While we usually think of habitat in terms of plants or
wildlife, the park also lends itself to considering human habitat. What
do we need to survive? In the remnant marsh ancient people found all
they needed to survive for thousands of years. From the cattail alone,
came food all year long, medicine, and makings for many household items
including beds, shingles, baskets, fishing nets and light. Today,
wetlands are still part of human habitat, providing nursery areas for
many commercially important fish species, flood control for those along
rivers, and cleaning water we depend on globally. Were the soil not
contaminated, we could even harvest the northern wild rice that grows
here. Anyone who has helped themselves to cranberry sauce on their
turkey has been eating a wetland food. Have your students consider how
they would provide for their habitat needs including energy sources,
transportation, and objects for trade out of the many habitats of the
park.

**Diversity of species and adaptation**: On most days, if the ponds are
not frozen, the birds in the area provide a good lesson on diversity and
adaptation. Geese normally eat grass, but in winter their long necks let
them reach the underwater algae that covers the pond bottoms. The noisy
kingfisher has a sharp beak and ability to spot small fish in the ponds
and dive in after them. Bald eagle and osprey use their talons the same
way here. The many birch trees and alders have tiny seed that finches
and sparrows can pry out and eat with their wedge shaped beaks.
Cardinals and others have beaks that can pull the fruit off berries that
grow at the edge of the ponds and marsh. We have raptors that fly over,
and if lucky, or using binoculars, one can see their hooked beaks and
talons suitable for hunting small mammals that live in the park. A visit
may include spotting egrets and herons, long legged, long billed birds
suited for standing and stalking in water. Watch for the little green
heron, a bird that walks across waterlily leaves to get its prey. What
other special adaptations can you see in animals that live in the park?
It will depend on how observant your group is, and a bit of luck.

**Society and the Environment**: The concept of a sustainable society
can be seen in how the Nacotchtanke used the remnant marsh, and in
efforts of the National Park Service to preserve it and restoring
wetlands to clean water and prevent floods, and maintain

biodiversity. What is really needed to survive, and what costs are there
to living in a throw-away society?

Consider Kenilworth Park, an ancient marsh that filled in when trees
protecting the soil of the Anacostia River watershed were cut. The soil
built up in the river stopped people from using the river as a low cost
transportation avenue to Bladensburg. Businesses there had to depend on
roads that were expensive to build. The horses that pulled wagons along
those roads were expensive to keep and meant people had to have land
cleared for pasture, increasing the soil erosion. The cars we use today
contribute to both air and water pollution, which has to be cleaned up.

In the 1920s there was so much soil in the river, the river was dredged
and the water logged soil dumped on wetlands filling them in. As the
wetlands were filled in, ducks and fish in the wetlands that people used
to eat no longer had a place to live and could not survive.

At Kenilworth Park, the land was used for a city dump from the 1950s
until the 1960s. The dump would be set on fire at night causing smoke to
blow over people\'s homes. The land was covered with soil after the dump
closed, and now is athletic fields.

Today, there is a restored wetland area in the park, but only 30 acres
of what was once miles of marsh and swamp. The government could not
afford to do more.

A remnant of the original marsh was saved, with over 30 native species
of plants and only two exotic species. Which area would give you the
most options for food, the man-made marsh with about 10 species of
plants, or the remnant marsh? Comparing areas of the park can you
determine which is the most diverse?

The Nacotchtanke lived in the area for thousands of years, and the land
was little changed from their civilization. In the last 400 years we
have made decisions that have changed the land many times. What do your
students want for their future habitat? Will there be more wetlands
filled in, and what will the cost be to their grandchildren?

**Characteristics of Living Things**

Around the park you will find insects in the water, ground, and air. How
are they different from the water, air, and ground? Flowers may be
blooming when you come. Can we see them moving on their own? What about
flowers that open and close each day? Is that a characteristic of a
living thing? If plants don\'t get watered what happens to them? Can
something die if it\'s not living? There are likely to be birds in the
park. What characteristics do they share with insects and flowers? Do
they all need water? Do they all reproduce themselves? Do they all move
on their own to some extent? If you come on a sunny, summer day you may
see tiny bubbles coming up from the center of lotus leaves. This is the
plant breathing. They share this characteristic with insects and birds.

**Hydrology of Wetlands**

Timing your visit for the change in tides opens the door for a lesson in
how a slight change in water depth can create a big difference in
habitat. As you look to the right of the ponds from the visitor center,
there is a swampy area of trees that tolerate damp soil. A beaver dam
near the end of the woods is backing water up, flooding the trees that
used to grow in damp soil, but die in wet soil. Below the beaver dam are
channels the beaver built that stay flooded longer allowing fish to
survive the tidal changes. The rest of the area is a mud flat, devoid of
plant and animal life. As one continues counter clockwise around the
ponds, the next habitat encountered is part of the original marsh, an
area subject to tides of up to three feet, and the first to flood and
last to drain as the tides change. Notice the lack of trees for all but
the man made fringe areas. The rest is annual woody plants and
herbaceous plants. In winter it looks like empty mud, but below the
surface are tough tubers of nuphar, typha, peltandra, and other plants
that grow in summer.

Continuing around the ponds one comes to an area of shrubby plants
sitting on patches of raised dirt. Here is a transition zone between the
herbaceous and tree areas. These bushes have roots shallow enough to
survive on the small patches of damp earth, and trapping leaves, expand
the dry ground, and raise them above the water level. Notice the tides
are not as deep here as the area around the beaver dam. Keep walking
toward the visitor center and you will begin to find trees, not happy to
be in so much water, but surviving. The further upland one moves from
the river, the more aerobic bacteria can live in the soil, and the more
likely trees will survive. Each zone of the wetland just walked was
created with less than a 6 inch change in tide from deepest to
shallowest.

**[Puzzles for students to solve]{.underline}**: In what ways is the
park like a mirror of society?

What role do they each play in the changes that are occurring in the
park?

In what way is each student like the park?

Is there an area that reflects their personality better than others?

What would they like people a hundred years from now to know about the
park and what they saw today?

What would they like their parents to know about the park?