Posts

Two Earth Sangha Native Plant Conservation Internships, Deadline January 5, 2025

/in /by

Earth Sangha’s Native Plant Conservation Internship:

Available Positions: 2

Summary:

Assist the Earth Sangha in the day-to-day operations of the Wild Plant Nursery. Our nursery is the region’s only exclusively local ecotype native plant nursery. Engage in restoration activities on field sites including invasives removal and native plantings. Learn about Northern Virginia’s native flora, horticultural skills, and become part of a grassroots effort to conserve and restore our native plants and their habitats.

​Responsibilities and Duties:

  • Assist in the supervision of nursery volunteers of all ages and backgrounds

  • Receive training on basic day-to-day nursery and greenhouse operations in order to independently complete tasks including: identification of native plants, watering, sowing seed, making divisions, repotting, identifying and correcting nutritional deficiencies, basic maintenance tasks, and cleaning/organization tasks.

  • Assist with other operations at the Wild Plant Nursery, as necessary

  • Remove invasives on restoration sites

  • Opportunities for field work at other sites throughout the region including plant identification, and seed collection.

​Minimum Qualifications:

  • Reliable transportation to and from Wild Plant Nursery (Springfield, VA) and various restoration sites in Northern Virginia

  • Good communication and interpersonal skills

  • Interest in native plants and their conservation

  • Be able to work outdoors for extended periods of time

  • Be able to perform physical tasks such as lifting heavy objects (up to 50 lbs), bending, kneeling or stooping, or other manual labor tasks

  • Relevant education or job experience a plus, but not necessary

​Compensation and other information:

  • Our “full season” internships are term-limited positions, running February through December with a schedule of about 20 hours a week.

  • Internship positions pay $18 an hour.

  • Internship positions are eligible for comprehensive health insurance coverage.​

​If you’re interested in applying, please email a CV and optional cover letter to Maddie Bright at [email protected] by January 5th.

Autumn 2024 Native Plant Sales

/in , /by

Photo: Courtesy of Plant NOVA Natives

Arlington Native Plants & Edibles;

September: Saturdays 11 :00 AM-3:00 PM; Sundays 11:00 AM-2:00 PM
925 N. Madison St., Arlington
Email [email protected] to request a specific plant.

​
Green Spring Gardens

First Wednesdays, April through October, 10:00 AM- 1:00 PM 
Virginia Native Plant Societysells natives at their plot behind the visitor’s center at Green Spring Gardens. Check here for details.https://vnps.org/potowmack/plant-sale/

VNPS Potowmack Chapter Monthly Native Plant Sale

Wednesday, September 4, and October 2: 10:00 AM–1:00 PM

VNPS Potowmack Chapter plant sales are held on the first Wednesday of the month, April through October, at the propagation beds across the driveway behind the Horticulture Center at Green Spring Gardens, 4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria, VA 22312.

https://vnps.org/potowmack/plant-sale/


​The Clifton Institute

Saturday, September 21: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM

The Clifton Institute
6712 Blantyre Road, Warrenton, VA
The Clifton Insitute Fall Native Plant Sale


Master Gardeners of Prince William Spring Sale

Saturday, Sept 7: 9:00 AM – noon

St. Benedict Monastery
9535 Linton Hall Rd, Bristow, VA

Cash or check only
includes both native and non-native plants.
​https://mgpw.org/plant-sales/.

​

Loudoun Native Plant Sale

Saturday, September 7: 9:00 AM-2:00 PM

Morven Park
17195 Southern Planter Ln, Leesburg, VA 

11:00 am presentation: Native Plants for Beginners
This popular presentation will include plant suggestions for a variety of settings. We’ll have plants on hand to take a look at, along with photos of mature plants in native garden settings. Then you can look around at what the nurseries have available.

Plants by Watermark Woods, Hill House Native Nursery, Nature by Design, Seven Bends Nursery

https://loudounwildlife.org/event/fall-native-plant-sale/

​

Town of Vienna Fall Native Plant Sale

Saturday, September 14: 8:00 AM – Noon

Town of Vienna Community Center
120 Cherry St. SE, Vienna

​Plants by Hill House Native Nursery

​

Northern Alexandria Native Plant Sale

Saturday, September 28: 9:00 AM–2:00 PM
The Church of St. Clement, 1701 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302

www.northernalexandrianativeplantsale.org/

​

Fall Festival and Native Plant Sale

Saturday, October 5: 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Christ Church, 7600 Ox Rd, Fairfax Station

https://www.facebook.com/events/1047062647147219/?rdid=3iDnPZbm5sMPqlPd 

 

Earth Sangha’s Fall Open House & Plant Sale on October 6th

Sunday, October 6th, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM at the
Wild Plant Nursery

The Wild Plant Nursery is located at 6100 Cloud Dr. Springfield, VA 22150 (The Cloud Dr. entrance of Grove Point Park.
Behind the garden plots.)

Earth Sangha Wild Plant Nursery Workdays

/in , /by

Photo: Earth Sangha

Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays
9 am – 12 noon
6100 Cloud Drive, Springfield VA
Register here.

Earth Sangha propagates local ecotype native plants for sale and distribution in Northern Virginia.  They are a non-profit and rely heavily on volunteers to keep their plants growing.  They have plenty of repotting to do, in addition to weeding, watering and labeling.  With the summer heat in full effect, summer workdays wrap up at noon rather than 1 pm.

Earth Sangha June Work Days

/in , /by

Photo: Earth Sangha

Wild Plant Nursery, 6100 Cloud Drive, Springfield VA

Mason District Park, 6621 Columbia Pike, Annandale VA

Register to volunteer here.

Wild Plant Nursery Workdays: Every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday from 9am-1pm at the Wild Plant Nursery. Earth Sangha still has plenty of repotting to do! Plus, the usual weeding and labeling. The Wild Plant Nursery will be closed on June 19th in honor of Juneteenth.

Mason District Workday: Friday, June 21st, from 9am to Noon. Help them continue their progress as they tackle yet more wineberry, bittersweet, and other invasive vines! They’ll meet by the tennis courts.

June “Big Day” at the Wild Plant Nursery: Join them for their monthly Big Day for community, service, and plants on June 23rd! We will be doing some summer cleaning, laying mulch on the paths, reorganize the nursery after a busy spring, all while having good food and conversation.

Earth Sangha Needs Volunteers in May

/in , /by

Mason District Park                                                                                                                             Earth Sangha Wild Plant Nursery
6621 Columbia Pike, Annandale VA 22003                                                                                   6100 Cloud Drive, Springfield VA 22150

Register to volunteer here.

Native Planting at Mason District Park: 

Saturday, May 18th from 9am to 1pm
Join Earth Sangha for another “Big Day” of native plants, community, good snacks, and volunteering! They’ll take a look at their progress since their last Big Day and continue their work removing invasives and planting natives! Their focus at Mason District Park is restoring the canopy and understory woodies, but they’ll also bring some herbaceous plants. They’ll provide all tools and gloves. Please bring your own water and wear sturdy shoes.

Invasives Removal at Mason District Park:

Friday, May 24th, from 9am to Noon. The invasives don’t stop so neither do they!

Wild Plant Nursery Workdays:

Every Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday from 9am to 1pm. They have lots of repotting to do before Summer hits! Join in and get your hands dirty. It’s a great way to learn about your local native plants and meet new friends.

Earth Sangha’s Spring Open House and Native Plant Sale, May 5th

/in , /by

Image: Courtesy of Earth Sangha

Sunday, May 5th, 2024
9:00AM – 1:00PM

Earth Sangha Wild Plant Nursery
6100 Cloud Dr.
Springfield, VA 22150

 

About the Wild Plant Nursery

The Wild Plant Nursery is a unique resource for ecological restoration in the greater Washington, DC, area. Established in 2001 in Springfield, Virginia, under an agreement with the Fairfax County Park Authority, the nursery is the region’s most comprehensive source of local, wild native-plant material (“local ecotypes”). The use of local ecotypes is a standard best practice in ecological restoration because that helps to safeguard genetic diversity and local adaptation in the species planted. The nursery is currently working with about 340 species, some uncommon or rare in the wild in this region. For many of these species, their nursery is the DC area’s only source of production — local ecotype or otherwise. All plants are grown from seed (or spores) that they themselves collect, from over 50 local natural areas. (They collect only with permission.) The nursery serves their own planting programs, as well as those of area governments, schools, businesses, and other conservation nonprofits. They rely on volunteers to run the nursery! To join them, check the Volunteer page for our Field Schedule. Please note that their nursery and office addresses are different. The Wild Plant Nursery is located at 6100 Cloud Dr. in Grove Point Park (formerly known as Franconia Park), Springfield. Our office is located in Annandale but is not open for plant sales.

Earth Sangha’s Wild Plant Nursery Species List

 

 

 

Sangha Stewards Applications Open Now!

/in , /by

Image courtesy of Earth Sangha

Sangha Stewards Application here.

Earth Sangha is excited to announce that they’re opening applications for their Sangha Steward program! The Sangha Stewards is a way for volunteers looking for more independent and technical work to join them at their nursery, field sites, and office to help them manage more complex tasks and receive extra training.

Sangha Stewards will be invited to work more closely with their staff and to join their monthly staff training sessions (they’ll have snacks!). Days and times are more flexible and they’re looking to work with their Stewards to develop their skills and what sort of work they’re most interested in.

They have four categories for Sangha Stewards:

Nursery and Propagation: While they already do a lot of potting up, they frequently have species that need a little bit more detailed care: perhaps it’s a tray with mixed species, maybe they have delicate seedlings that need to be teased apart, or they need someone with a keen eye and a steady hand to remove weeds among rare or sensitive native plants. Or maybe you just want to relax and help them hand water through the summer. This is work that can be done independently or as part of our regular volunteer days.

Building and Infrastructure: They always have a backlog of maintenance and construction tasks at the nursery, whether it’s adjusting irrigation lines or helping them build more oak and hickory rodent exclosures. If you’re handy with tools, they could use the help here!

Invasives and Field Sites: The invasives never sleep, so they could use an extra set of eyes and hands out at some of their field sites. This could mean checking sites periodically for Early Detection Rapid Response species or even doing a little bit of independent pulling or helping them lead volunteers at their field days. They’ll make sure to familiarize you with their sites and train you on the species and areas they’re looking to target. Keeping invasive vines off their Habitat Refuges will be one of their top priorities.

Office: For those of you who would rather be inside, they do need periodic help at their office. It may not be as frequent as the other categories, but printing labels and helping them organize their Acorn newsletter mailings would be a big help!

If you’re interested in joining, they’ve put together a Google Form you can fill out (see link above) and Michaelanne will be in touch soon. (If you have any questions, please see the volunteer page of our website or email Michaelanne at [email protected].) As they’re beginning this program, they’re going to limit the number of spots; as they grow, if folks are interested, they can open up this opportunity to more people.

FMN Quarterly Chapter Meeting featuring a Presentation by Matt Bright, Executive Director of Earth Sangha, March 20th

/in , /by

Photo: Matt and Maeve, Provided by Matt Bright, Executive Director of Earth Sangha

Curious about the Fairfax Master Naturalist Program?

Our Quarterly Chapter meeting will be held on Monday, March 20, 2023 at 7 pm via Zoom. It will consist of a short business meeting followed by a presentation by Matt Bright, Executive Director of Earth Sangha. The title of his presentation is: The human footprint on our landscapes: What legacies of overexploitation teach us about our ability to restore and protect our natural areas. 

Please contact the Fairfax Master Naturalists at [email protected] for more information.

Matt will be speaking about the positive role we can have on the lands and waters around us.  He feels we need to rethink our current relationship to degraded natural areas from passive observers to hands-on stewards, and that the Northern Virginia region is a perfect place to begin making this transition since we’re so lucky on so many fronts: well-studied plant communities, a robust community of conservationists both professional and amateur, supportive parks systems, and access to plants and funding to make things happen, among other things.

Bio: 

Matt Bright serves as the Executive Director at the Earth Sangha where he has worked full-time since 2011 and where he grew up as the son of co-founders Lisa and Chris Bright. Matt enjoys teaching about native plants, how they grow in the wild, and how we can best protect them. He wrote and compiled the Earth Sangha’s Native Plant Compendium (www.earthsangha.org/compendium) to help explain how native plants occur in the wild in Northern Virginia and how we can use that information to restore them, and teaches regularly for the Arlington Regional Master Naturalist chapter. The Earth Sangha is a local non-profit dedicated to native plant conservation and restoration both in the DC area and abroad. Our keystone project is our Wild Plant Nursery located at the Cloud Drive entrance to Franconia Park in Springfield where we host regular volunteer workdays that are open to everyone regardless of experience.

Record one CE hour under Continuing Education – FMN: Chapter Meeting Presentations.

Earth Sangha Seeks Conservation Interns

/in /by

Earth Sangha is looking for two 2023 Full Season Native Plant Conservation Interns to assist at the Wild Plant Nursery and on restoration sites. Interns will assist in the day-to-day operations of the region’s only exclusively local ecotype native plant nursery and engage in restoration activities on field sites including invasives removal and native plantings. Learn about Northern Virginia’s native flora, horticultural skills, and become part of a grassroots effort to conserve and restore our native plants and their habitats. Our full season internships are term-limited positions, running January through December with a schedule of about 20 hours a week. Internship positions pay $16 an hour. Internship positions are eligible for comprehensive health insurance coverage. See https://www.earthsangha.org/staff for more information.

Earth Sangha Nursery Workdays in November

/in , /by

Photo:  Earth Sangha

Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays
9 am – Noon
6100 Cloud Dr, Springfield, VA 22150
Sign up here.

Help the Earth Sangha team with fall season tasks. They need help with potting, weeding, sowing seeds and winterizing. They’ll provide tools and gloves. Please dress for the weather, wear sturdy shoes, and bring your own water. If you arrive late, please call Sarah at 580-583-8065.