Sixty volunteers at Difficult Run Stream Valley Park, in Oaken, remove bags of invasive plants and trash to promote water quality and native plant life
Keileb, 13, and Endrik, 9, Elliott, volunteer at the native plant nursery Earth Sangha with their dad, Mike, who says, “Working here is fun and we like their mission. The boys really like digging in the dirt.”Earth Day celebrations large and small sprang up across Fairfax County last weekend. While there were large and well publicized events drawing hundreds, such as Earth Day Fairfax 2024, some were small special efforts to acknowledge care for the environment. Others were merely business as usual, as volunteers who see every day as Earth Day showed up for the on-going environmental projects they support often with their time and work effort.
For all, the day of special recognition was an opportunity to think a little more than usual about the impacts of human activity on our planet and local environment. Some picked up trash from public parks. Others removed non-native invasive plants which can out-compete native plants, damaging the local ecosystem. Other volunteers ensured the continuation of healthy native plants by nurturing them in native plant nurseries. And volunteers cleaned up watersheds to protect water habitats in local lakes and streams, and their downstream rivers and bays.
To keep our natural environment in your mind all year, find Fairfax County energy initiatives, such as: Zero Waste Program, Environment Vision, Carbon Neutral Counties Declaration, and community driven greenhouse gas emission reduction, at https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/environment-energy-coordination/policies-and-initiatives.
For environment-related volunteer opportunities throughout the year, consider helping at the Fairfax County Park Authority, Soil and Water Conservation District, NOVA Parks, Mason Neck State Park, and Earth Sangha:
• https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/volunteer
• https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/soil-water-conservation/volunteering
• https://www.novaparks.com/donate-volunteer
• https://friendsofmasonneckstateparkinc.wildapricot.org/page-1769083