Helen Avalynne Tawes Garden
Gets New Wood Duck Nest Box
Built by Maret School Students

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Cliff Brown, Executive Director of MWDI, with assistance from DNR staff Jay Myers and Linda Wiley, removed two old non-functional boxes that had become overgrown with vegetation and installed a new box in the wetland pond in the Helen Avalynne Tawes Garden on September 15, 2010.

The box was assembled by The Maret School's Upper School students as one of several they made in conjunction with their 2009 Community Service Day. "It's small but excellent habitat and we're hopeful its get utilized," stated Cliff Brown, who added that situating one wood duck nest box in this size of habitat meets Best Practices for Wood Duck Nest Box installations.

Helen Avalynne Tawes Garden is nestled amid state government office buildings that include the headquarters of the Department of Natural Resources. The garden is named in honor of Mrs. J. Millard Tawes, a former first lady of Maryland. She and Governor Tawes were the state’s gracious hosts from 1959-1967.

Representations of the state’s various geographic areas are featured in this five-acre garden. They include a Western Maryland forest, a streamside environment and an Eastern Shore peninsula. In addition, the barrier-free garden contains pleasant ponds; a raised planter with plants of varied textures, tastes and fragrances; and many cultivated plantings. Prior to construction of the Tawes State Office Building in the early 1970's, the garden site was a flat cinder lot.

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