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Programs at Green Spring Gardens, Feb. 14th and 16th

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The Balanced Garden: How to meld beautiful and sustainable native plants with favorites from around the world
Saturday, Feb 16, 2019 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Green Spring Gardens 4603 Green Spring Road Alexandria VA
Registration: (703) 642-5173 or online at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/parktakes Code: 986.B59A

Butterflies and Blossoms, or Larval Host Plants and the Lepidoptera that Eat Them
Thursday, February 14, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Green Spring Gardens, 4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria VA

No reservations are necessary for this talk.
Virginia Native Plant Society programs are free and open to the public.

Margaret Chatham will discuss butterflies, caterpillars, and larval host plants.

Beautiful butterflies and lovely blossoms are all the result of trying to make a living. The plants need someone to pollinate them, but at the same time need to limit the number of caterpillars and other insects that can eat them. The butterflies and caterpillars need to avoid being eaten long enough to lay eggs for the next generation. Learn which natives to plant to nurture more than just monarchs.

2010 was a good year for butterfly photographs in our area. Margaret Chatham took a lot of pictures that year. Then she wanted to know who they were and what they ate. No year since has offered her quite as many butterflies, but every season brings something new, so now she wants to share them.

Margaret is a devoted Fraser Preserve Volunteer Visitation Committee Member who removes invasive barberry shrubs in winter and wavyleaf grass in summer and knows the preserve intimately. She is also editor of the VNPS Potowmack News newsletter, a volunteer at the VNPS propagation beds at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, and an Arlington Regional Master Naturalist.

Regional Native Plant Guides Available Online

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The Virginia Native Plant Society now offers online ordering of three Virginia Regional Native Plant Guides on their website and more guides will be available soon. Print versions are available for Northern Virginia, Virginia’s Capital Region, and the Piedmont Region. PDF versions are available for all but the Piedmont Natives guide. Read more about all the Virginia Native Plant Guides.

How Plants Move: A Talk by Charles Smith

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Thursday, January 10, 2019

7:30 – 9:00 pm

Green Spring Gardens

4603 Green Spring Road

Alexandria, VA 22312

VNPS programs are free and open to the public.

No reservations are necessary for lectures

Please join us for a talk by Charles Smith, to kick off our lecture series again this year.  Charles explores the ways plants disperse across land and water and discusses reproductive strategies, niche exploitation, plant community composition and what the future may look like considering the fragmented condition of our landscape and climate change.

Charles is a native of Arlington, VA, and a naturalist and ecologist with 25 years of experience working primarily in natural resource management, including the Fairfax County Park Authority and five years with Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority.   He is currently branch chief of Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division, focusing on stream and natural area restoration.  Charles is a US Army veteran; board member of Virginia Native Plant Society, Prince William Wildflower Society and Prince William Conservation Alliance; and member of Friends of the Potomac River Refuges.  He is a popular VNPS speaker and has served as an instructor for three chapters of the Virginia Master Naturalists.

VNPS Annual Winter Solstice Field Trip, 23 December

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Chapman State Park, MD (driving directions and more information here)

Sunday, 23 December 2018

10 am – 4 pm

Please join the Virginia Native Plant Society for this annual winter tradition to celebrate the beginning of the winter season at Chapman Forest (Chapman State Park, MD) with its spectacular scenery and remarkable diversity of native plants, wildlife, and natural communities! Leaders will be Rod Simmons, Bonnie Bick, Mary Farrah, and Robin Firth.

This year they will visit the old-age forest section from the low river terrace and extensive Water-willow Shrublands along the Potomac River to the marl cliffs and ravines near Glymont. This section of the park is a fascinating and regionally unique meeting ground for plants with a primary range in the inner Piedmont and mountains and those of the Coastal Plain. Before participating, be sure to read Rod’s description of the old-age forest at Chapman.

The Winter Solstice Field Trip is free and open to non-members. Registration is not required.  For additional information, contact Anne DeNovo at [email protected].

Marion Lobstein presents the Flora of Virginia App

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Photo: Barbara J. Saffir (c)

Sunday, November 11, 2018
1 – 4 PM

Green Spring Gardens
4603 Green Spring Road
Alexandria, VA 22312

Everything wonderful from the print version of Flora of Virginia can now fit in your pocket and make you feel like a pro in the woods. The app, for Android and iOS devices, features an easy-to-use Graphic Key, in addition to the traditional dichotomous keys. Species descriptions include photographs, and many include a botanical illustration.

Marion Blois Lobstein is Professor Emeritus of NVCC, where she taught botany, general biology, microbiology, and other courses over her thirty-seven-year teaching career.  For many years she conducted tours and taught classes for the Smithsonian Resident Associates Program.  Her academic degrees Include a BSEd (Biology) from W. Carolina Univ., MAT from UNC-Chapel Hill, and MS in Biology from George Mason Univ.  She is co-author of Finding Wildflowers in the Washington-Baltimore Area.  Marion serves on the Board of Directors of the Foundation of the Flora of Virginia Project and is a former Board Member of the Foundation of the State Arboretum. Marion is a founding and active member of the Virginia Native Plant Society.

Virginia Native Plant Society  programs are free and open to the public. Prior to the talk, VPNS will conduct the business of their annual meeting, voting for chapter officers and approving the 2019 budget.

 

 

Habitat Network, Citizen Science talk, October 4th

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Green Spring Gardens
4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria, VA 22312

Thursday, 4 October 2018
7:30 – 9 pm

Meet Megan Whatton and learn about her work with Habitat Network, which is creating a movement to transform yards and urban landscapes to functional diverse habitat to support wildlife and connect people to nature in communities around the world.  It is a collaboration between The Nature Conservancy and Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The Network is powered by YardMap, a citizen science mapping tool used to capture data about ecologically relevant practices and to search for local information when planning for and improving a yard, school, or other greenspace.

Megan is the Habitat Network Project Manager for The Nature

Conservancy, where she works with scientists, partners, private landowners, citizen scientists and volunteers to re-imagine their properties and urban properties as habitat for the benefit of wildlife and people. Megan has an M.S. Degree in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University.

Sponsored by the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS).  All VNPS programs are free and open to the public.   Continuing education credit for master naturalists!

 

Join Matt Bright for a Conservation Walk at Marie Butler Leven Preserve

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Marie Butler Leven Preserve offers 20 acres of rich woodlands and meadows that are being managed step-by-step into a virtual library of plants native to the greater Washington, D.C. area. This visit to the Preserve will be split between a walk through the preserve and helping with management of invasives and planting of natives. The walk will pass by a partially restored meadow with a mix of native forbs and grasses as well as remnant turf grasses, and down the wooded slopes towards Pimmit Run to a small seepage-fed wetland. Volunteers will be given a tour of restoration efforts of the park as well as native flora of note.  The group will be working on removing Vinca from an area where it threatens native populations of Phlox divaricata and Erythronium americanum.

Be prepared! Given the work, come with sturdy shoes, appropriate clothing for avoiding ticks, and gloves if you prefer. Also sunscreen, bug spray, and drinking water. Gloves and tools will be provided.

Matt Bright is Conservation Manager at the Earth Sangha, where he has worked full-time since 2011 on plant propagation, conservation, and restoration here in Northern Virginia and in the rural Dominican Republic. He lives on site at Marie Butler Leven Preserve with his wife Katherine Isaacson, who is the Outreach and Development Coordinator also at the Earth Sangha. Matt is a Certified Horticulturist with the Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, a member of the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) and an instructor for the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists. Before joining the Sangha full-time, Matt attended Kenyon College in Ohio, where he also worked as a volunteer firefighter.

Sponsored by VNPS, this program is free and open to the public. However, space is limited so please click here to REGISTER.

To CANCEL your registration or ask a QUESTION, please email [email protected].

Marie Butler Leven Preserve

1501 Kirby Lane, McLean VA  22101

Saturday, May 26th

1.00 -3.00 pm

Grasses: the good, the bad, and the just plain ugly, 12 July

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Botanist and grass enthusiast Sarah Chamberlain speaks on the grasses of the Mid-Atlantic region: natives useful for growing in your yard, naturalized non-natives, and the invasive exotics that pose a threat to native landscapes; how to tell who’s who, and what we know about how to get rid of the bad actors.

Arlington Central Library
1015 N Quincy St, Arlington, VA 22201
Thursday, 12 July 2018
7.30-9.00 pm

Sponsored by the Virginia Native Plant Society. This program is free and open to the public.

Cranberry Lake Film and Talk

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Cranberry Lake is a 17-minute documentary about forest ecology students taking immersive field courses in the Adirondacks.  The film explores the connection between experiential learning and environmental stewardship.

After the feature presentation Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS) Potowmack Chapter president Alan Ford will moderate a Question and Answer session about the challenges, issues, and solutions to native forest, streams, wetlands, and wildlife conservation in the greater D.C. region.

Zoya Baker is an award-winning filmmaker and animator based in New York City. Her work includes films, documentaries, commercials, and television shows. Zoya received a BFA in Film & Television at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is currently pursuing an MFA at Hunter College Integrated Media Arts program.

Green Spring Gardens
4603 Green Spring Road
Alexandria, VA 22312
Thursday, 14 June 2018
7.30 pm – 9.00 pm

Sponsored by the Virginia Native Plant Society (VNPS).  VNPS programs are free and open to the public.

Come hear Robert K. Musil speak about Rachel Carson’s legacy, 8 May

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Tuesday, 8 May, 7.30 – 9.00 pm
Green Spring Gardens, 4603 Green Spring Road, Alexandria VA

Dr. Robert K. Musil discusses his book Rachel Carson and Her Sisters: Extraordinary Women Who Have Shaped America’s Environment and his explorations of nature throughout the nation’s capital, which resulted in his latest book, Washington in Spring: A Nature Journal for a Changing Climate.

Musil followed in the footsteps of nature writers and explorers from Captain John Smith through John Burroughs, Elliott Coues, Louis Halle and Rachel Carson — carefully noting the gradual shift in phenology and species with the progression of global warming in greater Washington. Musil will also sign copies of his books available for sale immediately after his talk.

Dr. Musil is President and CEO of the Rachel Carson Council, Inc. and former Executive Director and CEO, Physicians for Social Responsibility, 1985 Nobel Peace Prize organization.

Brought to you by the Virginia Native Plant Society, Potowmack Chapter.  Learn more.