We’ll witness and study the winter magnificence of the island’s trees and soak up the wide open vistas across the Potomac River before the trees leaf out. Of course, we’ll keep our eyes open for wood ducks, great blue herons, belted kingfishers, early-returned ospreys and bald eagles.

Melanie will demonstrate ways that you can connect with nature despite limited mobility due to Covid restrictions and/or health issues. And she will introduce the popular practice of “forest bathing,” based on the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku. 

We’re delighted that the author of the award-winning book, A Year in Rock Creek Park and the critically acclaimed, City of Trees, will offer her 15th year of ANS nature walks in the country’s oldest urban national park. Under her expert guidance, you will witness the annual floral miracle of Virginia bluebells, spring beauties, and trout lilies in the floodplain forest, while the leaves of tulip tree and American beech begin to spill from their buds.

We’ll witness the miracle of budbreak among the island’s remarkable trees and see the floodplain forest come alive with Virginia bluebells, spring beauties, trout lilies, cut-leafed toothwort and wild ginger. Of course, we’ll keep our eyes open for wood ducks, great blue herons, belted kingfishers, ospreys and bald eagles.

Enjoy a socially distanced morning walk on a natural oasis in the Potomac with Melanie Choukas-Bradley, the author of the new book Finding Solace at Theodore Roosevelt Island. The nearly 2-mile path follows the island’s shore and moves deep into the swamp and tidal inlet along the boardwalk where willows, bald cypresses, and cattails frame views of Washington, D.C.

Melanie shares an overview of landscape’s fascinating mix of trees, wildflowers, birds, and other wildlife and highlights the island’s history and the legacy of the naturalist and conservationist president it memorializes. The morning also includes pauses for moments of guided forest bathing to quietly soak up the beauty of this wild island set against the capital city.