2026 Rock Creek Park Urgent Needs
Restoring Nature. Connecting People. Inspiring Stewardship.
Rock Creek is more than a park. It is our community’s backyard. As the official nonprofit partner of Rock Creek Park, Rock Creek Conservancy works alongside the National Park Service to protect and restore the forests, streams, trails, wildlife habitat, and historic landscapes that make this treasured urban park a place of connection, discovery, and joy.
Each year, the Conservancy collaborates closely with the National Park Service to identify high-impact projects and urgent needs across the park. These initiatives restore natural and cultural resources, expand environmental education opportunities, create meaningful experiences for youth and volunteers, and enhance access to recreation and the outdoors. Together, these efforts help ensure that Rock Creek’s watershed thrives for all people, today and for generations to come, while inspiring deeper connections to nature, stewardship, and community.
Your Support Makes This Work Possible
Together, these projects support healthier forests, cleaner water, safer and more welcoming public spaces, meaningful youth employment, and expanded opportunities for environmental education, joyful recreation, and connection with nature.
Your support helps to advance high-impact, high-need projects and emerging priorities across Rock Creek Park. This collaboration helps accelerate restoration and stewardship efforts across forests, trails, and streams that make Rock Creek our community’s backyard and connect people throughout the watershed.
Restore Native Vegetation Habitat Around the Nature Center
Project Goal: Restore native forest habitat and create an environmental education site
Funding Need: $40,000
The area surrounding the Nature Center includes a rich diversity of native canopy trees, but invasive plant species have taken over much of the understory and ground layer. Within the site, important native plant communities remain, including paw-paw groves, ferns, native grasses, and spring wildflowers that support wildlife habitat and contribute to the ecological health of Rock Creek.
This project will restore the landscape through invasive plant removal, native species planting, and ongoing stewardship led by park staff and trained volunteers. These efforts will improve forest health, strengthen biodiversity, and support a more resilient watershed. The restored area will also serve as a welcoming outdoor classroom and demonstration site for environmental education, where visitors of all ages can experience hands-on learning about forest restoration, wildlife habitat, and the role of healthy ecosystems in supporting both nature and joyful recreation in Rock Creek Park.
Rock Creek Conservation Corps (RC3) Forest & Trail Restoration Initiative
Project Goal: Empower youth leaders while restoring critical trails and forest habitat
Funding Need: $150,000
Now entering its 11th year, the Rock Creek Conservation Corps (RC3) creates paid summer conservation jobs for high school students from Washington, DC and Montgomery County while advancing hands-on restoration across Rock Creek Park. The program brings together people-powered stewardship and environmental education, connecting young people directly to the care of their community’s backyard.
Building on more than a decade of successful forest restoration work, RC3 will expand its impact with a third youth crew dedicated to trail rehabilitation and stewardship. Together, youth crews will work in some of the park’s most heavily used and ecologically significant areas, including Glover Archbold, Whitehaven, Battery Kemble, Fort Slocum, and Reservation 339.
Corps members will remove invasive plant species, restore native forest habitat, repair damaged trail surfaces, stabilize erosion, and close and rehabilitate unauthorized social trails. These efforts improve ecological health while also enhancing safe, accessible, and enjoyable recreational opportunities for the thousands of people who walk, run, bike, and explore Rock Creek Park each year.
In addition to restoring land, RC3 invests in people. Youth participants gain paid work experience, environmental education, leadership development, and a deeper connection to public lands and conservation careers. Support for RC3 provides youth stipends, tools, training, supplies, and field supervision, strengthening both the health of Rock Creek Park and the next generation of environmental stewards, community leaders, and lifelong park users.
Old Stone House Garden Revitalization & Visitor Engagement Exhibit
Project Goal: Revitalize a historic garden into a vibrant outdoor learning and gathering space
Funding Need: $28,000
The historic landscape surrounding the Old Stone House in Georgetown will be revitalized to create a more welcoming and accessible outdoor space where visitors can explore, learn, gather, and enjoy nature in the heart of the city.
The project will restore the Colonial Herb and Kitchen Garden with historically appropriate plantings while enhancing the Pollinator Grove and Native Plant Garden to strengthen ecological value, support wildlife, and create a more vibrant visitor experience. These improvements connect cultural history with urban biodiversity and watershed health, strengthening the site’s role as both a historic landscape and a living ecosystem.
New interpretive signage, educational exhibits, and QR code-enabled digital content will invite visitors of all ages to engage in self-guided exploration of the site’s history, evolving landscape, and role in environmental stewardship today. This demonstration garden will function as an outdoor classroom, interpretive space, and community gathering area, expanding opportunities for environmental education, and hands-on learning, while enriching public connection to one of Georgetown’s most significant historic landscapes.