February 2025 Update
Our streams and wetlands can thrive with our help. Please see the article at the bottom of this update and share as widely as possible.
Save some trees - participate in Invasive Species Awareness Week, Feb 22-March 1
The national invasive species awareness week is only Feb 24-28, but we saw no reason to avoid weekends and hereby declare it to be longer! Here are some suggestions for participating.
Tree Rescuers
Distribute door hangers to your neighbors to alert them to trees at risk from invasive vines on their properties
Volunteer as a Fairfax County Park Authority Tree Rescuer to clip those vines in their parks
Become a City of Fairfax Forest Rescuer (first training Feb 27)
Advocacy
Pitch in
Invasive plant removal events happen all year. February is actually a great time of year to do this work.
Take a training. See this calendar for some of the events across Virginia.
Talk to your boss
Can your company adopt one of our parks to save it from the onslaught of invasive plants?
Help “sell” native plants - label them in participating garden centers
Dedicated volunteers are putting red stickers and hang tags on native plants at 23 garden centers around Northern Virginia. Ideally each garden center will have at least three volunteers for best coverage, so we need a whole lot of people to help with this! Email plantnovanatives@gmail.com for details.
Volunteers needed for one-time events:
Can you stand at a table and chat with people about why native plants are important? We need volunteers to do that at various events, starting on 4/16 in the City of Fairfax, 4/26 at Sully Plantation, and 5/10 on Mason Neck. More will be posted as we receive the invitations. Sign up here.
Social media aficionados needed:
Our Facebook Page more or less runs itself, but it would be better with a dedicated manager or two.
Want to create original content for our social media? We’d love your help!
Email plantnovanatives@gmail.com if you are interested in either or both.
Upcoming events:
Tuesday, February 11, 7 PM Tree Selection and Small Trees. Jim McGlone. Virtual talk. Register here.
Saturday, February 22, 9:1503:00 - Virginia Society of Landscape Designers Winter Forum, Warrenton.
Saturday, February 22, 8:30-12:00 - Rain Garden Workshop - Virtually or Lubber Run Community Center in Arlington - Details here.
Thursday, February 27 - NVSWCD Seedling Sale opens, with pick-up dates on 3/28 and 3/29 in Falls Church. Details will be updated on this website soon. These sell out fast, so plan to place your order early on the 27th.
Sunday, March 9, 12:30-3:00 PM Doug Tallamy in person @ Mount Vernon Unitarian Church. Bring a friend who hasn’t already heard the message! Space is limited - register here.
March Date TBD - How to build a rain garden - see the actual work in progress. Culpeper. Details here.
VDOF Urban Forestry grants are available for tree planting projects. Applications accepted on a rolling basis until December 1, 2025. Details here.
Partner of the month: This month Plant NOVA Natives is pleased to highlight two local groups of the Sierra Club Virginia Chapter - The Great Falls Group covering Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, and Fauquier counties, and the Potomac River Group covering Arlington and the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. Like all Sierra Club groups, our local partners are grassroots, non-partisan advocacy organizations that promote clean air, clean water, clean energy, smart growth, open space conservation, workable climate solutions, and more. Together, they mobilize 6,000 local volunteers and donors to take action and speak out for a cleaner environment across our region.
Report your native tree and shrub plantings
Please help Northern Virginia meet its tree-planting obligations by reporting your tree and shrub plantings here. So far 17,450 have been reported!
Report your tree rescues
Millions of trees in Northern Virginia are at risk from invasive non-native vines. You can help by saving them on your own land or by volunteering on public land. (Plant NOVA Natives/Plant NOVA Trees only does educational outreach, so all this work is done under the auspices of our partnering organizations or other landowners.). So far, 16,724 tree rescues have been reported in Northern Virginia. Please add your report here.
Next Steering Committee meeting – March 13, 10am-noon via videoconferencing. All are welcome. Check our Event Calendar for future meetings.
This month’s newsletter articles to share. For social media, please use this link.
Clean Water and Native Plants
If your property contains a stream, pond, or any sort of wetland, whether its flow is permanent or intermittent in nature, this article is especially for you! Anyone can directly enhance water quality, and in turn benefit the health of the animal, plant, and human communities that depend upon it, by using native plants to fill the “riparian buffer” adjacent to a water feature. The word “riparian” comes from a Latin word meaning “bank.” A riparian buffer protects the wetland from runoff from developed areas, including turfgrass lawns.
If the riparian buffer already contains natural vegetation, you should first control any invasive plants found there.You should also avoid adding any new species, native or otherwise, that will disturb the existing plant community. You may need a waiver from your County to remove existing vegetation and to plant new plants within 100 feet of a stream, shore, or wetland. Maps of these “Resource Protection Areas” can be found here. If the area is currently landscaped or mowed, you may be able to add native plants without a waiver, but you should still check with your county or municipal government.
To figure out if the plants that are present are native or invasive, you can use a free app such as iNaturalist or a subscription-based app such as PictureThis to help you with the identification. You can also invite a volunteer from the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance Wildlife Sanctuary Program to walk the site with you.
Healthy riparian buffers with native plants are beautiful to see and fun to explore. They support a wide diversity of life and create peaceful and inviting landscapes that draw us in to enjoy and connect with the nature they support.
Riparian buffers are also the natural defenders of stream banks. They help stabilize the soil and control soil erosion. This is due to their capacity to slow down and absorb stormwater runoff that would otherwise erode the banks of streams and rivers and fill the Chesapeake Bay with excessive silt. Due to riparian buffer degradation and excessive runoff across Northern Virginia, a massive quantity of silt from our streams and rivers now reaches the Chesapeake where it clogs the gills of wildlife, smothers eggs, buries aquatic insect habitats, and interferes with the production of oxygen by aquatic plants. Anything we do that successfully holds soil will benefit the Bay. Riparian buffers also act as filters that trap pollutants. This protects aquatic life from harmful contaminants and keeps them out of our water supply. Native trees provide the leaves that feed aquatic insects, and their shade lowers the water temperatures, making the environment more hospitable for life. As the earth warms, planting and protecting native plants on riparian borders will become increasingly urgent.
Ideally a riparian buffer should be at least 100 feet wide, but don’t let that discourage you, as a buffer of any size is helpful. Try to pick combinations of native plants that would naturally occur along waterways in your region. This will increase the odds of creating a balanced healthy habitat that continues to grow and thrive. Please refer to the resources on the Plant NOVA Natives website to help you select your plants.
Riparian buffers formed naturally on undisturbed land, holding soil, cooling water, filtering pollutants, and supporting life. It is humans who have disturbed them. Our work now is to take a moment to pause and wonder at the interdependence of land, water, native plants, and animals. Regardless of the other forces at work to degrade our environment, we still have the power to rebuild essential habitats on the lands we control.
