FMN Joe Gorney Environmental Excellence 2023

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On September 13th, the Fairfax County Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination (OEEC) announced the recipients of the 2023 Environmental Excellence Awards. The September Board of Supervisor’s newsletter referenced that since 2000, Fairfax County has issued the Environmental Excellence Awards to recognize county residents, county employees, businesses, and organizations who demonstrate extraordinary leadership within the community and exceptional dedication to the preservation and enhancement of the county’s natural resources. This year’s winners include a high school senior working on environmental stewardship, a small business reducing waste, a condo association safeguarding green spaces for its residents, and three county employees advancing sustainability practices.

FMN Joe Gorney was one of the three winners in the County Employee Category.

 Joe’s award profile stated that he is a Planner with the Department of Planning and Development, Environment and Development Review Branch. He works collaboratively with other county agencies on a diverse range of environmental review topics, working to create a sustainable future for residents and employees. He was the staff lead for the Environmental Plan guidance update for the Reston planning study, designating Reston as “biophilic” community.

With FMN Joe is a past President and currently teaches the “Personal Stewardship for the Land” module for FMN Basic Training Cohorts. He was part of a team that monitored 36 bluebird boxes at Twin Lakes for several years. He also helped establish the golf course as an Invasive Management Area (IMA) site and has now transitioned to IMA site leadership duties.

Joe Gorney and colleague Carley Aubrey working at Herrity Center – photo courtesy of Joe Gorney

In 2023 he has already volunteered over 40 hours in several categories on various Projects. In addition to the IMA site leadership role at Twin Lakes, he has been busy designing a couple of native plantings (see cover photo) at the Fairfax County Government Center (GC). He said, “We’ve already removed invasives around the GC Memorial area, which is an ongoing management process, and planted the area with natives. We’re also investigating planting 48 native trees around the GC Ellipse, which may happen in mid-October. I’m also inventorying landscape invasives around the GC, which are to be removed and replaced with natives, and designing other native tree plantings to the east of the GC. In addition to invasive pulls at the GC Memorial area, I’ve helped organize and participate in invasive pulls at the Herrity Building.” Joe also found time to be active on Audubon Home Ambassador projects and support FMN board with occasional admin duties.

Please join us in congratulating Joe on his well earned 2023 Environmental Excellence Award.

Photo: By Jo Doumbia, FMN Culmore Teens Summer Program 2023

Fairfax Master Naturalists in the Summer – Culmore Teens Summer Nature Program

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Article and photos by FMN Jo Doumbia, FMN Outreach Committee Chair

As the warmth of summer fades, I find myself reflecting on the amazing journey 20 teens from the disadvantaged area of Culmore went through this summer as they participated in the Teens Summer Nature Camp. The camp itself was made possible via the combined energies and commitment of many sponsors with several dedicated Fairfax Master Naturalist (FMN) volunteers providing program support and guidance.

With hands-on support by FCPA, the Second Story Program at the Culmore Community Center, and the assistance FMN volunteers, we conducted nature related activities at Colvin Run, Hidden Oaks Nature Center, and Riverbend Park. We helped this youth group establish lasting positive connections with nature through activities such as orienteering, geocaching, reptile feeding, green careers discussion, and kayaking.

It was truly delightful to witness the high level of engagement on the part of the teens across the different summer activities. Their questions, comments, and concerns were right-on and not much different than those of many FMNers when first introduced to new or unknown concepts. The Culmore teens, along with the Second Story leadership, extend heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to the FMN volunteers.

Photo: By Jo Doumbia, FMN Culmore Teens Summer Program 2023

Photo: By Jo Doumbia, FMN Culmore Teens Summer Program 2023

It is very rewarding just to realize the possibilities for volunteer programs like FMN, to share their enthusiasm, experience, and knowledge with those communities that have limited or no access to natural resource educational opportunities. For the Culmore teens and the FMN volunteers, this summer’s successful outreach experience just may be the beginning of more enriching educational experiences.

The continued success of programs like this, which I hope to be the first of many, depends on the sustained interest and willingness of knowledgeable volunteers. With a solid volunteer base we can help establish and support educational outreach experiences for natural resource stewardship in underserved and disadvantage communities. One of the most important connections these young people made was to realize the relationship between themselves and nature. They found enjoyment and strength through their summer journeys and experiences which may help them become better stewards of the planet.

As a follow up, and per request of the teens, we look forward to possibly offering a once-a-month nature outing. Be on the lookout for invitations to volunteer.

In closing, I want to express profound gratitude for our volunteers’ incredible support. In particular to Kim Munshower, JaneEllen Saums, Rob Warren, Jerry Nissley, and Whitney Redding, as well as to Suzanne Holland from the Hidden Oaks Nature Center.

Jerry Nissley

FCPA Is Hiring Roving Naturalists for Fall and Spring Programs

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Photo: By FMN Jerry Nissley, Hidden Oaks Nature Center

FCPA is hiring Roving Naturalists for fall and spring programs. See the job details below and send a resume to [email protected]

If you would rather volunteer than work for FCPA we have opportunities to support this program as a volunteer as well.  Click this link to sign up as a volunteer https://volunteer.fairfaxcounty.gov/custom/1380/#/opp_details/188975

 

Position Title: Roving Park Naturalist

ROVING PARK Naturalist is responsible for teaching children Environmental Education and historical programs. Rovers work with Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and the general public. Position is under the general direction of the Manager of Education and Outreach and the specific program directors at work sites. Some program research, planning, and development may be required.

Job Description: Roving Park Naturalist (Rovers) teach a wide variety of education programs. Main duties include Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) for 7th grade FCPS. Other duties include 4th grade MWEE offered at various elementary schools which focuses on invasive plants. Rovers will also lead programs, teach camps, work events and other activities with scout groups and the general public. Uniform shirts and name tags provided.

Location: Work will require travel to various Fairfax County Park Authority sites/schools. Occasionally attend outreach events and staff a booth as a representative of FCPA and interact with the public to inform them of FCPA resources and programs.

Qualifications: Applicants should have some course work in nature/history, education, interpretation, or outdoor recreation. These would be beneficial but are not required. Applicants should have the ability to work with all age groups. Communicate effectively both orally and in writing. Be able to walk long distances over various types of terrain and stand for long periods of time.
 
Salary: Starting at $14 to $18 hr. based on experience, no benefits. This position cannot exceed 980 hours per calendar year.

Hours: Weekday mornings (8:30m-1:30pm) Sept-Oct and April-May is required. Training offered in spring and fall semesters. After the 7th grade MWEE program is completed, additional work may be available afternoons, weekends and evenings.

To Apply: Applicants should send a current resume and cover letter to: [email protected] OR

Fairfax County Park Authority Suite 936
12055 Government Center Parkway Fairfax, VA. 22035
Resource Management Division Education & Outreach

Necessary Special Requirements: 

  • The appointee to this position will be required to complete a criminal background check to the satisfaction of the employer.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or visit us online.

Reasonable accommodations are available to persons with disabilities during application and/or interview processes per the Americans with Disabilities Act. Contact 703-324-4900 for assistance. TTY 703-222-7314. EEO/AA/TTY. 

Fairfax County Park Authority prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetics, political affiliation, or military status in the recruitment, selection, and hiring of its workforce.  

 

 

Tammy Schwab
Manager, Education & Outreach
Resource Management Division
Fairfax County Park Authority
12055 Government Center Parkway
Phone (703) 324-8750

What’s For Dinner? Reconnecting Our Food With Our Climate

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Photo: SERC

Tuesday, October 24, 2023
7 pm
Zoom, hosted by Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)
Register here.

Our food systems have become increasingly fragile in the face of climate change, ongoing conflicts and the long-tail of the COVID-19 pandemic. More frequent—and more intense—extreme events challenge food production, storage and transportation. At the same time, how we grow, process, package and transport our food often harms the environment, further accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss. Fixing this requires bridging the gap between food policies and climate policies. Join Dr. Jessica Fanzo for a look at sustainable food practices for a hotter, more turbulent world. Fanzo directs the Food for Humanity Initiative at the Columbia University Climate School. In this talk, she’ll reveal the must-do actions to nourish 9.7 billion people by 2050.

The Mysterious Migrations of Cownose Rays, webinar September 19th

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Photo: SERC

Tuesday, September 19, 2023
7 pm
Zoom, hosted by SERC

Register here.

Cownose rays are enigmatic, and sometimes controversial, summertime inhabitants of Chesapeake Bay. Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s Fisheries Conservation Lab has been tagging cownose rays and tracking their long-distance migrations since 2014. On Sept. 19 Dr. Matt Ogburn, head of the Fisheries Conservation Lab, will reveal some of the discoveries from this 9-year tracking effort. Their studies have uncovered the rays’ overwintering habitat, documented the different migration patterns of males and females, and revealed the environmental cues that help rays know when to start migrating. These findings are helping support conservation and management of this often misunderstood and overlooked stingray.

This webinar will be recorded! Closed captioning will be available during the live event and on the recording. By signing up on Zoom, you’ll be able to join live and receive a link to the recording approximately one week after it airs.

National Public Lands Day, September 23rd

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For 30 years, National Public Lands Day has mobilized volunteers of all ages to engage in a celebration of service and stewardship of America’s public lands. The event is the largest single-day national volunteer effort to preserve, restore, improve and enjoy America’s public lands.

Fairfax County Park Authority invites you to be a part of their celebration of National Public Lands Day by taking part in any of a wide selection of service activities to protect the natural, cultural and recreational resources of our treasured park system!

Check out their list of service opportunities by location that day.

Science in Your Watershed

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Feature photo: The Mighty Potomac on June 2, 2018

Article, photo and images provided by FMN Stephen Tzikas

A watershed is a common geographic area that drains all streams and rivers into a common outlet, like a bay.  The Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District has a macroinvertebrate stream monitoring program that helps protect our watersheds:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/soil-water-conservation/volunteer-stream-monitoring

Getting to know your watershed is like getting to know your neighborhood.  Our local Potomac Watershed is part of the Chesapeake Watershed, which is part of the Mid-Atlantic Watershed, and which is part of the Eastern Watershed.  A principal river of a basin is a river that drains directly into the ocean.  Our Atlantic Seaboard Basin includes the Hudson River, Delaware River, Susquehanna River, our local Potomac River, and the Savannah River.  Your watershed’s information can be found at this USGS website which contains many USGS links:

https://water.usgs.gov/wsc/map_index.html

You can visit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website, type in your zip code, and get a local map of your watershed: https://www.epa.gov/waterdata/hows-my-waterway.  For example, my Reston home location is part of the local Difficult Run watershed.

Illustration by author:  Local Watershed Generated by the EPA website per input of the 20191 zip code. Notice the drainage pattern. Depending on a location’s geology, drainage patterns can be dendritic, trellis-like, rectangular, or radial.

The website provides physical, chemical and biological water quality factors from its monitoring locations.  In Fairfax County, drinking water comes from two major sources: the Occoquan Reservoir and Potomac River.  Fairfax Water operates both the Corbalis and Griffith treatment plants, where water undergoes a series of treatments.  In recent years, new emerging contaminants have become a concern in drinking water. You can help protect the drinking water quality in Fairfax County by preventing water pollution and reducing runoff.  For example, don’t flush expired pharmaceuticals in the toilet, and keep car wash suds out of the storm drains.

By visiting the USGS water data website, more interesting data can be gleaned: https://waterdata.usgs.gov. I used this site to compare historical information to an unusually high level of water in the Potomac River following a large rain event.  The unusual event took place on June 2, 2018, the day I took a geological excursion to Great Falls Park with Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC).

The flux of the Potomac River on June 2, 2018 was 25,000 cubic feet per second as recorded at Little Falls dam and pumping station. River flux is controlled both by precipitation and the size of the watershed. Flux affects erosion rates. When a path of a river narrows the velocity rises, and there is more erosion by 3 types of stream loads. Dissolved load is comprised of invisible minerals carried to the ocean, where through evaporation and concentration, the ocean receives its high salt content. The suspended load carries the coarser sands and requires a faster velocity.  The competence of a river is the maximum particle size that it can transport, and the thalweg is the line of lowest elevation within a watercourse. As one walks toward a thalweg, the brushing of sand particles upon the leg will be stronger. The bed load rolls along a river bottom, and these carry the largest and heaviest materials. The Appalachian Mountains feed these three loads through erosion.

The mountains now average about 3,500 feet in height, but were up to 20,000 feet at peak height some 200-300+ million years (Myr) ago. These higher mountains had a steeper gradient 100 Myr ago. The velocity was higher, as well as cut down, and so too the erosion. As a river cuts down, mass wasting can fill in through rock falls on the sides. In 100 Myr the Potomac River will be flatter and wider with a lower gradient. This is compounded by rising sea levels by melting polar region ice.  During the entire time of our NVCC geologic hike through Great Falls Park we did not change elevation.  But there was a cut down from upstream (where we stood on the shoreline) to downstream of the river (where it was a gorge). Another type of river dynamic is headward erosion. Downstream waterfalls push rocks off causing the waterfall to slowly move upstream. In floods the competency goes down and larger particles settle as the river covers a wider area.

Pro Illustration extracted by author:  Gage Height Potomac on June 2, 2018.  This illustration shows the gage height during the heavy water flows on June 2, 2018. Date marked by blue square.

Also visit the National Water Dashboard link at https://waterdata.usgs.gov and go to Potomac River near Washington, DC Little

Falls Pump Station, by zooming in on the map.  Select that pump station and click the site page link on that new page.  Find the legacy real-time page link and select it.  At this link location one can search on specific parameters, such as gage height, for a date rage.  Gage height is the height of the water in the stream above a reference point. Notice how large Gage Height was on June 2, 2018 during my geological excursion.

2022 Report Updates Status of Reston’s Environmental Attributes

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Photo: Provided by Northern Virginia Aerials, Reston

Article provided by Master Gardener intern/Master Naturalist Robin Duska

Ever wonder about how to measure the effects of development on the environment?
In 2017, Reston’s Environmental Advisory Committee set out to establish one approach: A baseline against which the desirability and effect of changes resulting from development or other causes could be assessed. Today, as Reston, like much of Fairfax County, accommodates ever higher population densities, it strives to maintain elements of its natural areas, water features, woodlands, and open spaces that give its residents a sense of well-being, benefit the economy, and provide a host of critically important ecological services.

The 2022 Reston Association State of the Environment Report (RASER) addresses 23 specific natural resources or environmental topics, to include many that may be of particular interest to Master Naturalists such as Streams, Stormwater, Urban Forests, Landscaping & Urban Agriculture, Birds, Wildlife Management Issues, and Light Pollution. Although Reston-focused, many of the data apply more generally to Fairfax County.

For each topic, Background information on the subject is provided, followed by a description of Existing Conditions in Reston. Conclusions are then drawn using colored traffic light icons to indicate whether the overall condition of the topic is considered good (green), fair (yellow), poor (red), or undetermined (black). RASER’s separate 2022 Report Card & Recommendations document provides a list of recommendations to better protect or improve upon Reston’s environmental conditions. It also annually
tracks the progress made on implementing previous RASER recommendations and is briefed each year to Reston’s Board of Directors. Given Reston is a census-designated area rather than a town, the Board is Reston’s decision-making body.

RASER is designed to complement the information Fairfax County’s Environmental Quality Advisory Council reports in its Annual Report on the Environment. Master Naturalists can access RASER here to read the lengthy full report, an executive summary of its conclusions, or individual chapters such as those listed above as well as the Report Card & Recommendations. Other Reston-produced environmental information is available here, including a 2021 report on best management practices for
invasive plants and Reston’s Biophilic Pledge.

The RASER project team co-led by Master Naturalist Doug Britt and Master Gardener intern/Master Naturalist Robin Duska, will welcome additional volunteers to produce the 2024 edition of RASER. Reston residents can also volunteer to serve on Reston’s Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC). To volunteer for either or both, please contact EAC’s Doug Britt at [email protected] or Surekha Sridhar at [email protected].

 

Image: Courtesy of The Clifton Institute

Mushroom Walk, October 14th

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Saturday, October 14, 2023
2:00 – 4:00 PM

FREE

The Clifton Institute
6712 Blantyre Rd
Warrenton, VA 20187

Registration is REQUIRED.

 

Come to the Clifton Institute for a  fung-tastic afternoon with friends at the Mycological Association of Washington, DC to learn about mushrooms! This program will include a presentation on mushroom biology and identification followed by a walk where we’ll see how many species we can find.

Age: Adults and children accompanied by an adult.

Weather policy: Date and time subject to change dependent on weather. Please check your email for updates on the morning of the event.

 

The Corporate World Embraces Native Plants

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Article and photo by Plant NOVA Natives

Most corporate properties have pretty “standard” landscaping, meaning the plants do very little if anything to support the local ecosystem. More and more, though, we are seeing innovative landscape designs on commercial properties that demonstrate the potential for corporations to be leaders in the effort to save the natural world, starting on their own land. While they are at it, they are creating beautiful and welcoming spaces for their clients and employees.

One example of this approach is the work done at the recently-opened Kaiser Permanente medical centers in Springfield and Woodbridge (Caton Hill). Both properties are richly landscaped with trees, shrubs, grasses and perennials that are almost entirely native to Northern Virginia. (The few exceptions are non-invasive.)

According to Alton Millwood, director of Planning, Design and Construction at Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic, “The landscape design at Caton Hill Medical Center focused on allowing the natural environment to be a part of the community’s wellness plan. There is an abundance of research showing that exposure to nature can lower our heart rate, alleviate mental distress, speed recovery rates, and even alleviate symptoms of mental disorders. This is why Kaiser Permanente felt it was important to keep natural woodland areas on the project site and invite people into those space with trails and areas to sit and relax. Additionally, the native plants used on the site help to create a healthier environment by providing food and habitat for birds and other wildlife, conserving water, and reducing noise and pollution associated with mowing. It only made sense that if we were going to involve the natural environment for our own health that we would do what we could to improve the health of the environment.”

Another goal of the project was to help Northern Virginia region meet its stormwater goals to protect the local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. The planting beds and the rooftop meadow decrease the amount of runoff from impervious surfaces. Design considerations included using a variety of native plant species to provide four-season interest, using low-maintenance plants that will not require long-term watering, and choosing species that will grow to the appropriate size for their locations so that important sight lines remain open and safe.

The reaction of employees and patients alike has been extremely positive. “Many members and staff have taken advantage of the outside seating, walked through the Gardens and Health Park to immerse themselves in nature and its healing benefits, and observed the rooftop meadow flowers in full bloom, with birds and pollinators busy in their tasks.”

Asked what would be his advice to other corporations, Alton replied, “Using sustainable design practices such as planting native plants is good for people and the environment – it is a win-win. For corporations, sustainable design can impact their bottom line, too. Native plants are more likely to live long and thrive in our environment. They require less maintenance, less fertilizer and pesticides, and less water. All this adds up to savings for the owner. Hiring a like-minded design professionals can help you create places like Caton Hill Medical Center that help benefit our community and the local ecosystem.”

More photos of this and other corporate or small business landscaping projects can be found on the Commercial Landscaping page on the Plant NOVA Natives website.