Saving our woods will take planning. Please see the short article at the bottom of this page and share it as widely as possible.
Upcoming event
· October 27, noon – Party at the Landfill. Everyone is invited to the I-66 transfer station in Fairfax to celebrate the installation of a pollinator meadow on top of the landfill. A pilot plot will be seeded this fall and more in the spring. Details and registration here.
Help us reach Spanish-speakers – leaflets
Can you print out a few copies of this leaflet and hand it to Spanish-speaking landscape professionals when you see them, or put it on their windshields? We would like to invite them to offer tree-rescuing as a service to homeowners, and to attend our winter conference which will be held in Spanish.
Thank you, Hilton International!
Volunteers from the Hilton corporate headquarters in McLean came out on a sunny October day to plant 120 native trees in Lewinsville Park. The first hour was spent clearing some of the invasive non-native Porcelain Berry which is blanketing the wooded areas. Support from our local corporations is going to be essential to the success of our regional native tree campaign. Can you bring these ideas for corporations to your place of employment?
Report your native tree and shrub plantings
Please help Virginia meet its tree-planting obligations by reporting your tree and shrub plantings here. So far 8340 have been reported!
Report your native tree rescues
Have you saved a tree from invasive vines, excess mulch, a contractor’s chain saw, or any other threat? Add your report here to the 4,397 trees already saved!
Next Steering Committee meeting – via videoconferencing – All are welcome. Thursday, November 3, 9:00am-11:00am. Check our Event Calendar for future meetings.
This month’s newsletter article to share – Please use this link for social media.
Keeping our wooded areas beautiful
If your community owns some wooded common land, or if you yourself own a wooded property, you may have noticed that the woods around here have been slowly changing, and not for the better. They may still look green, but the devil is in the details: much of that “green” is now made up of invasive non-native plants that damage the ecosystem and bring down the trees.
Natural wooded areas are a beautiful and invaluable resource for any landowner or community. Unlike most material assets, they appreciate over time. They capture stormwater and keep our basements from flooding. They provide soundproofing and a visual barrier between properties as well as a place for us to walk and enjoy nature. They block the wind and lower heating costs in the winter. And of course, they are the home to birds and other wondrous beings, who will need our help if their homes are not to completely disappear.
In the past, the woods managed themselves nicely. In present-day Northern Virginia, at least some care is needed to keep the woods from degrading, turning an asset into an increasingly expensive problem. It is wise to make a forest management plan that looks ahead for twenty or twenty-five years. You can do this on your own, or you can call in a consultant to help you evaluate the situation and map out solutions to any problems. Professional assistance is available, as are volunteers from various programs including Tree Stewards, Master Naturalists, and Audubon-at-Home ambassadors.
The two biggest threats to our woods are invasive non-native plants and browsing by deer. In many places, the deer have taken away everything except the mature trees and the invasive plants, not even leaving the seedlings that should be there to become the next generation of trees. Removing the invasives and protecting native plants from deer are the highest priority in most areas.
Some of our attempts to “improve” the woods may have the opposite effect. Woods do not need to be cleaned! The dead leaves and fallen trees are essential components of a healthy ecosystem. (Dumping extra leaves from your lawn damages that ecosystem, though.) Standing dead trees provide perches for birds of prey, nesting sites for songbirds, shelters for mammals, and food for thousands of species of insects. They are also becoming increasingly rare in our human-managed environment. Try to leave them standing, or if they pose a hazard, just cut off the top and leave as much as you can standing.
For information about how to manage your woods, and how to help your community develop a long-term plan, see the Plant NOVA Trees website.
