Encourage the Teens in Your Life to Work With Fairfax County to Protect the Environment

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The Fairfax County Environmental Quality Advisory Council (EQAC) is pleased to announce the opening of the application period for its student member term running from July 2021 through June 2022. EQAC comprises of one citizen representative from each of nine magisterial districts, four at‑large members, and one student representative. Each member is appointed by the Board of Supervisors to serve a three-year term, except the student member, who serves during her or his junior or senior year of high school.

EQAC’s primary function is to make recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for improving environmental protection and enhancement. During monthly meetings, issues such as water quality, air quality, land use, transportation, solid waste, noise, ecological resources, climate change, energy, hazardous materials, visual and light pollution, and environmental stewardship are investigated. In addition, EQAC holds a public comment meeting each year, typically in January, to obtain input from the community on issues of environmental concern.

The Annual Report on the Environment, which is prepared by EQAC, provides information on the status of various environmental resources and issues and is designed to aid the Board of Supervisors in setting its environmental agenda and priorities. EQAC prepares the Annual Report on the Environment with contributions from different agencies.

The council generally meets on the second Wednesday of each month, starting at 7:15 p.m. The student member application is open to all interested high school sophomores and juniors who are in good standing. Eligible public school, private school, parochial, and homeschooled students are encouraged to apply.

If you are currently a sophomore or junior in good standing and would be interested in serving in this capacity during your junior or senior year, please download and complete the application linked below. All applications must be received via email to [email protected] by 11:59 PM on Friday, May 14, 2021.

Download application

In the Time of the Wood Thrush

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Article and feature photo by Stacey Remick-Simkins

In 2017, I was heartbroken.

There are such delights found in birdsong that often people listen for a particular song at particular times to mark new beginnings, new lives and new seasons. Such is the song of the Wood Thrush for me. I had come to anticipate their fluty and enchanting melody as a way to usher in the joy and beginnings of life that comes with a verdant Virginia summer.

This summer, though, I would be heartbroken by the absence of their song. I had failed to hear them at all that spring anywhere that I hiked. So, one June morning, I ventured out to Manassas National Battlefield Park to conduct a summer bird survey with a long- time birding partner. We covered a standard range of forests and open grasslands as we had done in previous years only to discover that there were no Wood Thrush songs to hear. They were heart-rendingly absent.

I would soon learn that their habitats were being destroyed systematically around the world leaving them bereft and endangered. I feared that I would have to learn to accept that I may never hear them again.

Hope arrives in 2020.

During the summer of 2020 the Wood Thrush has appeared everywhere, including St. Peter’s in the Woods forest. When I conducted a survey in June 2020, I was overwhelmed to hear a Wood Thrush singing within feet of me. It was hidden well, foraging and likely gathering food for a nest and/or young. This thrush had found the SPW forest to be a safe and good place to set down roots. The 7-acres was deemed by at least one to provide the sustenance and safety that can be counted on.

Keeping this forest a place of sanctuary for those such as the Wood Thrush is practicing a stewardship that is critical. That one Wood Thrush in our forest could tip the balance in saving the lives of those that migrate here. Next year, we may have another couple of them settling in for the summer to create new life that once again may be able to survive because there was that small safe place in our forest for them to shelter in.

Preserving and stewarding this sanctuary is a primary project for St. Peter’s and I am proud to be one helping to monitor and build a database so that we may see how effective our practices of sustaining long-term conservation are. Several of us who attend St. Peter’s are Fairfax Chapter Master Naturalists. We work towards maintaining the native plant balance with the birds and continue our own data collection. Knowing that a Wood Thrush found our small haven a place to safely breed and forage was a great moment of excitement and hope.

They remain endangered and threatened by continued assaults on the forests all around them. Their migrations are threatened as are the forests that they return to in South America. St. Peter’s Sanctuary forest will remain a place for hope where we can be thankful for the chance to steward the gifts of our small sanctuary of wilderness.

For more on the Wood Thrush
https://www.birdnote.org/show/wood-thrush-and-eastern-forests
https://www.birdnote.org/show/henry-david-thoreau-and-wood-thrush

FMNs: Service hours under St. Peter’s In the Woods Wildlife Sanctuary & Programs (Wildlife Surveys, Activity S266)

Native Plant Sales, Spring 2021

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Photo by Barbara J. Saffir (c)

Native plants help baby songbirds, butterflies, our ecosystem and support clean water. They need no fertilizer, no extra watering once they are established, no pesticides and no lawn mowing.

Virginia Native Plant Society maintains a list here.

Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy is having theirs April 10th.

RESTORE THE EARTH: A Discussion of the Interconnections and Relationships Between Humans and Natural Processes, NVCC Green Festival, March 24th

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Wednesday, March 24, 2021
10 am – 3 pm
Zoom; free and open to the public
More information and registration here.

Keynote and Q&A

10:15 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
Keynote Speaker – Dr. Wallace Nichols
How Being Near, In, On, or Underwater Can Make you Happier,
Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do

11:15 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Q&A Group Session with Attendees and Students

Afternoon Sessions

12:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Beekeeping In Virginia – Martha Kiene
EAS Master Beekeeper, President – Virginia State Beekeeping
Association

1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Sustainable Food, Farming & Forests – Hala Elbarmil
Greenhouse and Gardens Coordinator, GMU
Examples of Restoration and Natural Connection in an Urban Setting

2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Leave No Trace – Nancy Chamberlain
Former NOVA Professor, Current GMU Professor
Leave No Trace Principles and How Individuals Interact with Nature
and the Environment

Planting in Pots for Easy Butterfly Viewing

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Photo and article by Plant NOVA Natives

Some of us are deeply into gardening, but the rest of us are content with plopping a few flowers into a pot and calling it a day. This explains a lot of the popularity of annuals, most of which end up in containers and are switched out when they fade. Their colors brighten up our decks and balconies all summer, but their value in most cases is only visual. Native perennial flowers, by contrast, not only look beautiful but actually support butterflies and other life.

Most plants that are native to our area will overwinter in a pot, thus saving us the trouble of replanting year after year. Although none of them will bloom for the entire growing season, they provide interest as they develop. It is easy to get continuous color by planting several species that bloom at different times.

Once blooming begins, the parade of associated pollinators is fascinating. Being able to view the flowers up close on a deck or balcony reveals the variety of critters that you might not notice from afar, from tiny metallic-blue bees to the whole range of butterflies. There are four hundred species of native bees in Virginia, none of which will sting you as they forage for food. Butterflies range in size from the tiny Least Skipper to the classic Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. With luck, you may even see a Monarch Butterfly, especially if you plant any of a number of the several local milkweed species. The milkweed Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is particularly ornamental and just the right size for container gardening. Just as Monarch caterpillars require milkweed to survive, every other butterfly has its preferred host plant with which it evolved. This is why adopting locally native plants is so important. The annuals sold in garden centers are not native and thus do not help butterflies complete their life cycles.

Birds also enjoy native plants in containers, as much as they would if planted in a garden. The seeds of Black-eyed Susan and other Rudbeckias are particularly popular with goldfinches. Of course, you will only see them if you allow the seed heads to remain. The shapes and colors of the dead stalks of native plants add a lot of interest to an otherwise barren deck in winter. You can also draw in hummingbirds when you use the red-flowered plants such as Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) that they prefer.

Shade is no obstacle to container gardening with native plants. Particularly pleasing is the native Bleeding Heart (Dicentra eximia). The lacy, slightly bluish foliage is beautiful by itself, and blooms keep coming from April to the first frost.

You can learn all about container gardening with native plants on the Plant NOVA Natives website. The soil used in containers is designed to have good drainage, which means you can start planting earlier in the spring than in the rest of the garden, where working the wet soil would lead to harmful compaction.

33rd Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, April 10th

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The Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup has become a decisive catalyst for progress that ignites people’s interest and passion for the environment and community action. The largest regional event of its kind, the Cleanup provides a transforming experience that engages residents and community leaders and generates momentum for change. The Potomac River Watershed Cleanup has grown from a small shoreline cleanup at Piscataway National Park to a watershed wide network. What started as a few cleanup events along the Potomac River is now a regional event spanning Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

Learn more here.

NVSWCD Green Breakfast: Fairfax County’s Watershed Monitoring Programs, March 13th

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Saturday, March 13, 2021
9 am
Free
Speaker: Shannon Curtis, Watershed Assessment Branch Chief, Fairfax County DPWES-Stormwater Planning Division
Registration required. (Registration password is green, if needed.)

Fairfax County has some of the most robust watershed monitoring and watershed management programs in the nation. These are a culmination of a long history in Fairfax of investing in environmental protections through progressive policies and programs.

The county’s long-term stream monitoring programs meet state and federal regulations and support the Board of Supervisors’ Environmental Vision by providing an ongoing evaluation of the streams, which over time can be used to determine changes or trends in the conditions of the waterways, provide insight into why these trends are occurring, and ultimately be used to make sound management decisions such as targeted restoration approaches and land use decisions. 

Spend Saturday morning, from the comforts and safety of home, while hearing from Mr. Shannon Curtis, Chief of Fairfax County’s Watershed Assessment Branch, and learning more about the watersheds in Fairfax County, the legacy of progressive efforts to protect water quality, and about several of the ongoing water quality monitoring programs – including what the data is telling us, and some of the ways it is being used to protect and improve our environment. 

VASWCD Photo Contest, deadline July 30th

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Photo by Landon Martin on Unsplash

The Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District is committed to conservation of natural resources through stewardship and education programs and they want to see it through your eyes. The theme this year is “Conservation through the Local Lens.” Capture those vibrant moments and express what conservation looks like through your lens! The contest is open from February 1 – July 30, 2021. To learn more about the contest, please click here to download Rules & Judging. You can submit up to 10 photos. Click here to submit your photos.

All photographs must be taken within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Photographs taken outside the state of Virginia will be disqualified.

View the 2020 winners here.

Bird Migration 2020 Brings Some Welcome Surprises, VSO recorded webinar

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Photo by Barth Bailey on Unsplash

Watch the webinar here.

Zoom lecture by Dr. Jerry Via, former Virginia Tech assistant dean. This has been an interesting year with the migration of so many winter finches. What are influences which result in the irruptions of finches and other species? Some species such as Rufous Hummingbirds seem to be off course, but are they lost? What does new monitoring technology teach us about some of the mysteries of migration, such as trans-oceanic migrants?

Brought to you by Virginia Society of Ornithology.

The Southeast’s Diverse Flora: Discoveries, Conservation & Identification with Alan Weakley webinar, April 8th

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Red Maple (Acer rubrum) ; photo by Margaret Chatham

Thursday, April 8, 2021
7:30 – 9 pm
Register here.

Alan Weakley is a plant taxonomist, community ecologist, and conservationist specializing in the Southeastern United States. He holds a B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. from Duke University. He has worked as botanist and ecologist for the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, and as regional and chief ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and NatureServe. He is currently Director of the University of North Carolina Herbarium, a department of the N.C. Botanical Garden, and teaches as adjunct faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill and at the Highlands Biological Station.

Dr. Weakly is author of the Flora of the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic States, and co-author (with Chris Ludwig and Johnny Townsend) of the Flora of Virginia, which has received five awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Award for Conservation.

Hosted by Virginia Native Plant Society, Potowmack Chapter.