Earth Day Fairfax Festival (formerly Springfest), April 25th–CANCELED!

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Sully Historic Site
3650 Historic Sully Way, Chantilly VA
Saturday, 25 April 2020
10am – 4pm
Parking $10 per car

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, so come out to celebrate at the Sully Historic Site! There will be a fun day packed with entertainment, activities, food vendors, Touch-A-Truck, prizes, and more! Learn more about how we can all support our event theme of “Healthy People – Healthy Planet” and all that Fairfax County is doing to support environmental sustainability.

Volunteers needed!

Download the flyer.

NOVA Green Festival 2020, April 15th–CANCELED!

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NOVA Annandale Campus
Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center (CE Building)
8333 Little River Turnpike, Annandale VA
Wednesday, 15 April 2020
9am – 3pm

The theme for this year’s event is “Waste and its impact on habitats.” The purpose of NOVA’s Annual Green Festival is to increase both the college and local community awareness of regional, national and global environmental issues and provide information regarding ways that individuals can help preserve the environment. Participants at this community event will include faculty, staff, students and local community members. While the target audience is high school and college students, the event is free and open to the public.

The festival will be a combination of presentations, panel discussions, interactive demonstrations and informational displays. It will help the audience to recognize ways to conserve resources, promote change and make difference as individuals.

Get the full schedule here.

Downloadable and printable flyer here.

Spring Orientation, Spring & Summer Internships, and Volunteer Opportunities at Riverbend Park

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Spring is around the corner! Check out the many opportunities available at Riverbend Park. Park staff and volunteer coordinator Valeria Espinosa hope you can join them for any of these projects and events!

Spring & Summer Natural Resource Internships (18+)  

Interested in working for the Resource Management Division? Apply to the NEW internship program and get hands-on experience working alongside Natural Resources Manager, Rita Peralta. Applications accepted now until filled. 

Sign up here: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/184394

Contact: [email protected] 

Spring Volunteer Orientation: Preserving Our Parks! 

Saturday 3/14 | 9:00 AM | 8814 Jeffery Road, Great Falls, VA 22066 

Riverbend has many exciting projects in store and several positions available. Come learn about theprograms and get started on a field project or training right away! 

SIGN UP: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/185556  

Invasive Removal Team! 

Join the Invasive Removal team and help lead the effort to reduce the spread of invasive plants at Riverbend Park. Volunteers can join monthly removal events, Adopt-a-Spot, and/or assist with field surveying and monitoring. Scheduling is flexible! If you are interested contact Valeria and sign up for orientation on 3/14. 

GET INVOLVED! [email protected]  

Invasive Removal Days: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/184647  

Teaching Docent! (18+) 

Interested in Northern Virginia’s natural resources and heritage? Become a Teaching Docent and share your passion for the outdoors through Riverbend’s school programs involving history, nature, and science. Don’t worry, they will train you! 

SIGN UP: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/179279 

Resource Naturalist!

If you are interested in monthly/bi-monthly volunteering at Riverbend Park and/or Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, join our Resource Management Team! Become a Resource Naturalist and get involved in Wildlife surveys, Wildflower Surveys, Field Surveys, Trail Restoration, Invasive Control, Planting projects, and more! 

SIGN UP: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/179280  

Trail Work Days! 

SIGN UP: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/185491 

ESLI Volunteer Coordinator (18+) 

Looking for organization leadership experience? The Environmental Student Leadership Initiative (ESLI) is seeking a lead coordinator to work with high school student leaders on managing this environmental education organization. 

APPLY HERE: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/185533

Riverbend Gardener! 

Support our gardens at Riverbend Park! Volunteer 2-3 times a month and help our native gardens thrive.  

SIGN UP: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/184766 

Bluebell Festival! April 11th 

SIGN UP: https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/180932 

For more opportunities CLICK HERE!  

Questions? Email Valeria at [email protected]

Science Fair Judges Needed, Mar. 25th

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New School of Northern Virginia
9431 Silver King Ct. Fairfax, VA (off Pickett Road near Rt. 50)
Wednesday, 25 March 2020
4:30 – 7:30pm
Dinner provided

The New School of Northern Virginia is seeking volunteer judges for their annual Science Fest. They would appreciate your valuable feedback for their students’ projects! They have several biology and environmental science-based research projects and original experiments. A science background is helpful. In addition to the satisfaction of helping the science education community, judges will receive a certificate of appreciation and a casual catered dinner (Baja Fresh).

Sign up here.

Master naturalists: Service hour credit is available using code E152: Science Fair Judge at Fairfax County Science Fairs. Participants please make a note where your service occurred

Spring Warblers, Mar. 30th and April 1st–CANCELED! All ASNV programs through April 30th are canceled or rescheduled

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Alexandria Country Day School
2400 Russell Road, Alexandria VA
Monday, 30 March and Wednesday, 1 April 2020
7 – 9:30 pm
$40 ASNV members; $45 nonmembers

Get ready for spring by learning about the largest and most colorful family of birds who visit the Washington area. Presented by Audubon Society of Northern Virginia.

Class 1 – Plumage and Behavior (March 30th)
Learn about the appearance and behavior of the 30+ species of wood warblers who visit during the spring.

Class 2 – Vocalizations (April 1st)
Most warblers are heard before they are seen. Learn how to identify their vocalizations so that you will be better able to find them in the field.

Instructor: Bill Young is a writer who lives in Arlington. He is the author of “The Fascination of Birds: From the Albatross to the Yellowthroat” (Dover, 2014). He is the co-creator of the MPNature.com website, which contains information about birds, plants, and other aspects of the natural history at Monticello Park in Alexandria. Bill also makes nature videos, and his YouTube channel has had close to a half a million views.

Register here.

Fireflies: Hosting Nature’s Light Show into Your Garden, Mar. 23rd

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Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church (just off the combined Routes 50 and 29 in Fairfax)
3810 Meredith Drive, Fairfax, VA. 22030
Monday, 23 March 2020
7:30 pm

Lightning bugs (aka fireflies) are part of the magic of growing up in the eastern U.S., yet most people know very little about them. Nature education specialists Kris and Erik Mollenhauer have studied fireflies, seen “blue ghosts” and “synchronizing fireflies,” and explored some of the dark secrets of the Night Country. This program explores the “fairies of the night” and how we can create habitat in our gardens to keep them flashing for years to come.

BIO: Erik and Kris Mollenhauer are retired educators but committed volunteers. Erik taught high school science for 15 years, then worked as an educational program developer for 24 years. He developed a program with Costa Rica based on songbird migration as well as an international teacher exchange program that led groups to several countries, including Russia, Australia and Japan. For 5 years he helped National Geographic improve geography education in NJ schools; for 30 years, he’s used a portable planetarium to teach the night sky to people of all ages in the US, Canada, Russia and Japan.

Kris was an elementary school teacher for 14 years, then spent 12 years as a Reading Recovery teacher, teaching struggling students how to read. Working with the Monarch Teacher Network, the Mollenhauers have taught monarch butterfly workshops across the US and Canada for the past 20 years and guided groups to the winter monarch colonies in Mexico and California. They’ve also developed many educational projects together, including the East Coast Vulture Festival, the Mad Hatter’s Tree Party, the Gloucester County Bird Quest and, most recently, the Gloucester County Firefly Festival.

Green Breakfast: Three Things You Can Do to Change the World, Mar. 14th–CANCELLED!

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In an abundance of caution and uncertainty over the spread of COVID-19, this event is cancelled. The speaker will make her presentation at the July 11, 2020 Green Breakfast.

Brion’s Grille
10621 Braddock Rd, Fairfax, VA 22032
Saturday, 14 March 2020
Breakfast begins at 8:30 am, $10 at the door, cash preferred.
No prior registration required.

Ever wonder what you can do to make the biggest impact locally and globally? The scale of environmental issues can be overwhelming and make it difficult to convince ourselves that any changes we make will make a difference. How do our individual efforts contribute to a collective impact? Join Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District for a warm breakfast and hear from Jen Cole, Executive Director, Clean Fairfax, who will share three things you can do to reduce your local and global footprint, including ways of reducing dependency on disposable items.

Clean Fairfax began as a litter control task force in 1978, established by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to implement an anti-litter campaign. In 1985, the organization became a private nonprofit.

Funding for the program comes from statewide taxes provided by manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors of 15 product categories. As a recipient of a non-competitive state grant, Clean Fairfax Council educates the citizens of Fairfax County, Virginia on litter prevention and control, supports the county recycling program, discourages graffiti, promotes sustainability and provides environmental education to residents, businesses and students.

Breakfast includes an all-you-can eat hot buffet with fresh fruit and coffee, tea, orange juice or water. No prior registration required. If you have any questions, please contact the Northern Virginia Soil and Water at [email protected].

Gardening for Earth Renewal

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Article by Plant NOVA Natives staff

How does your garden renew the earth? Vegetable gardens, flower gardens, conventional landscaping and even container gardens can all contribute to a connected landscape that supports our local birds and butterflies. By restoring native plants and avoiding chemicals, together we can heal the damaged landscape we have created with our buildings, sterile lawn, and green-but ecologically-useless plants from other continents.

The wildlife of the East Coast evolved in concert with the complex mixture of trees and understory plants that covered most of the land in the past, plus smaller areas of meadows and wetlands. Turtles, birds, frogs and fireflies all suffer when those hundreds of species of plants are replaced by a monoculture of lawn and a few specimen shrubs. And biodiversity all but disappears when those few plants consist of species that were introduced from elsewhere, as is the case with turf grass (which is from Europe), Japanese Barberry, English Ivy, and many other commonly sold plants, some of which have become invasive and taken over our remaining natural areas.

The antidote is clear: plant more plants, and make sure they are native species! The first step is to look at any nearby natural area and figure out how your property might expand its habitat value and reduce the fragmentation that interferes with the movement of animals. Are you near woods? How about adding more trees and shade-loving shrubs and ground cover? After all, they say that shade gardens are the gardens of the future, because it will be too hot to want to spend much time in the sun! Or perhaps your yard receives your neighbor’s runoff which can be turned into an asset by deep-rooted plants that soak up the excess water and recreate a butterfly-filled meadow. Or perhaps you are lucky enough to have a lawn in full sun that could be used for a raised vegetable bed. Those vegetables are unlikely to be native plants, but the bed will absorb runoff much better than lawn, and you can improve your crop yields by adding a nearby sunny flower garden that draws in the pollinators.

It doesn’t matter whether you want to change or to keep the general appearance of your property – if you prefer, you can achieve the same general look by simply substituting native plants for introduced ones. What we should change is our understanding of how our land functions. You need not settle for a yard that is an empty hole in the map that excludes its natural residents. Rather, your home can become part of what Doug Tallamy, in his newly-released Nature’s Best Hope, is calling our future “Homegrown National Park.” If enough of us make some relatively easy changes to our yard practices, we can knit together our properties into a thriving environment where people and nature live in harmony. Now, in this time of trouble, we can renew the Earth. Find out how at www.plantnovanatives.org/gardening-for-earth-renewal.

Huntley Meadows: Preserving Native Plants, program April 9th–CANCELED!

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Photo: Barbara J. Saffir (c)

Green Spring Gardens
4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria
Thursday, 9 April 2020
7:30 – 9pm

David Lawlor will discuss the recent Natural Resource Management activities at Huntley Meadows Park including the newly revised Natural Resource Management Plan based on Natural Vegetation Communities found in the park. He will review the quality and types of Huntley Meadows Park Natural Vegetation Communities, as well as the monitoring and protection efforts for the rare plant communities and rare plants found in the park. David will also speak about the surveys and research being conducted at HMP to enhance the understanding of the ecosystems being protected.

David Lawlor is a native of Fairfax County growing up in Annandale, VA. He graduated with a B.S. in Biology from George Mason University. David has over 20 years of experience in the field of Natural Resource Management planning and implementation. David worked as the Fairfax County Assistant Wildlife Biologist for six years and has been the Natural Resource Manager at Huntley Meadows for over 15 years.

Presented by Virginia Native Plant Society, Potowmack Chapter.
Lecture is free and open to the public.

Outreach and communication internship with Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. Deadline March 8

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Project: Changing Landscapes Initiative

Project Description

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) is offering an internship in outreach and communication as part of the Changing Landscapes Initiative (CLI). CLI’s mission is to combine scientific rigor with community wisdom to help secure a vibrant and healthy future for people and wildlife. The goal is to provide local land use planners with insights into the potential future of the region as informed by conservation science. In this way, CLI provides relevant information for supporting strategic decision making that balances the diverse needs of people and the environment that supports them.

Apply here

Learning Objectives

In this internship, the selected intern will learn, expand, and refine skills essential for community outreach—including event planning, logistics, and conservation communication—by assisting with the execution of CLI’s communications strategy and preparation of stakeholder meetings throughout late spring/summer. The intern will gain first-hand insight into how science is communicated, especially in the context of influencing policy. They will have the opportunity to meet individuals from a variety of NGOs and government agencies and learn how these different groups interact with each other. The intern will also be able to improve their skills in public speaking, writing and design by contributing to outreach communications materials and presentations. The intern’s work/schedule will be active and diverse, ranging from digital to intrapersonal communications requiring travel.

Skill Building Opportunities

Interns will have the opportunity to learn and develop skills and experience in community outreach by:

  • Communicating with a network of current project stakeholders
  • Searching for new stakeholders and integrating them into the project network
  • Collaborating in the coordination of meetings, including developing presentation materials and keeping meeting minutes
  • Helping draft and define communications strategy to inform stakeholders and the public about project initiatives and results
  • Seeking out opportunities to share project initiatives and results with NGOs and academic organizations
  • Traveling for intrapersonal partnership-building meetings with communications lead
  • Aid with development and public delivery of presentations with the communications lead
  • Helping prepare status reports, documenting ongoing activities, current schedule trend, challenges, events, and project requirements 

Who Should Apply

Interns with the following will benefit the most from this opportunity:

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills with strong interpersonal skills to engage effectively with internal team members and external stakeholders
  • Organized and self-motivated individuals, able to handle tight deadlines with strong multi-tasking and prioritizing abilities.
  • Independent and team-oriented experience for a collaborative project
  • Adaptable to a dynamic environment and its challenges with a flexible personality and strong problem-solving skills
  • Working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications and computer proficiency
  • Project management certification or previous experience in program management and communications
  • Strong strategic thinking and planning skills
  • Ability to work independently and remotely
  • Experience working effectively with both governmental agencies and private parties
  • Experience using database and/or visual graphics software (Access, Publisher, InDesign)

Stipend

$1500 per month.

Terms Of Appointment

6-month full time (40 hrs/wk) internship. Internship will consist of remote digital work, in-person meetings, and at times weekly travel within Virginia and D.C. Anticipated start date in April 2020.

Requirements

Valid driver’s license

Location 

The Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute is located at the north entrance of the Shenandoah National Park about 60 miles west of Washington, D.C., in Front Royal, VA.

Often, the intern will travel to other parts of Northwestern Virginia, Washington D.C. or the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, MD for meetings.

Application Deadline

March 8, 2020 11pm EST

Apply here