By Sue Dingwell The Potomac Overlook Park Native Shade Garden is growing up! ARMN members have been carefully tending this little niche, encouraging the natives, discouraging the weeds, and doing battle royale with the deer. This is the garden’s second spring. Volunteers were greeted on Tuesday, April 23 with colorful blooms and vigorous green shootsContinue reading “Potomac Overlook Park Native Shade Garden’s Second Spring”
Category Archives: Focus Service Projects
Homeowners save wildlife by creating a green network across Northern Virginia
By Leigh Pickering In the past month, seven local properties have joined the ranks of homeowners creating a green network for wildlife in Arlington and Alexandria. This critical work is intended to blunt the impact of habitat loss in our area by providing small sanctuaries desperately needed for the survival of wildlife in our increasinglyContinue reading “Homeowners save wildlife by creating a green network across Northern Virginia”
Woodfrogs at Potomac Overlook Regional Park
By Joanne Hutton If you had been out volunteering with Meet Me on a Sunday on this glorious afternoon, you too might have enjoyed the chorus of woodfrogs spawning at the pond and in vernal pools. Thanks to Sherry McDonald for the great shot and for throwing herself into the Master Naturalist enterprise with wholeContinue reading “Woodfrogs at Potomac Overlook Regional Park”
Seed Cleaning Begins
By Rodney Olsen On Monday, Feb. 4, master naturalists and sundry others gathered at Long Branch Nature Center for the first Earth Sangha seed cleaning of the winter season. Fourteen people in all enjoyed conversing while preparing Common milkweed, Deertongue grass, and Virginia wild rye seeds for spring planting. For those of you who wishContinue reading “Seed Cleaning Begins”
ARMN sponsors third annual seed-cleaning extravaganza
By Rodney Olsen On Feb. 4, Feb. 11, and Feb. 25, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, at Long Branch Nature Center, ARMN will sponsor the equivalent of a quilting bee or a barn-raising. THE EXTRAORDINARY THIRD ANNUAL EARTH SANGHA SEED-CLEANING EXTRAVAGANZA Please join the Monday gatherings of Master Naturalists for this vital service inContinue reading “ARMN sponsors third annual seed-cleaning extravaganza”
Join ARMN for MLK National Day of Service events
Throughout the year, ARMN volunteers contribute to a myriad of service activities that benefit our neighborhoods and communities. For Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, ARMN inivites you to join our dedicated volunteers to honor Dr. King’s legacy by participating in two of our focus service projects to restore habitat in Barcroft Park and in Tuckahoe Park. Barcroft Park January 19th at 9:30 am Our main focus will be to clear ivy off the trees so that IPC (Invasive Plant Control), Arlington County’s contractor, willContinue reading “Join ARMN for MLK National Day of Service events”
Rod Simmons on ecological restoration
By Monique Wong How useful is the idea of planting on public lands as a part of ecological restoration? How do we create a solid conservation agenda for a natural area that is degraded in various ways? How do we know that we are getting it right? What are the pitfalls of using cultivars? What are theContinue reading “Rod Simmons on ecological restoration”
Autumn 2012 Invasive Work in Barcroft Park
By Jim Hurley Master Naturalists continued our work improving the quality of the natural areas in Barcroft Park, with three three-hour work sessions on great-weather Saturdays in September, October and November. Our mission for all three sessions was cutting English Ivy from trees in heavily infested areas of the park. As noted in previous posts,Continue reading “Autumn 2012 Invasive Work in Barcroft Park”
Barcroft Park Focus Project Update
By Jim Hurley It is now early September, 2012, following the extreme extended heat wave in the Washington DC region, and a walk around Barcroft Park will reveal whole swaths of brown, dead plants at ground level, and many dead tree stems, still upright, listing, or lying on their sides, leaves crisping. It wasn’t theContinue reading “Barcroft Park Focus Project Update”
ARMN Invasive Plant Species Education Volunteer Opportunities Intersect at PORP
By John Bernard Several endeavors by Arlington Regional Master Naturalist (ARMN) on education of invasive plant species and alternatives converge at Potomac Overlook Regional Park (PORP). One is the ARMN Audubon at Home (AAH) focus summer project which had its kick off meeting on June 24 at ARMN’s native plant garden after “Meet Me OnContinue reading “ARMN Invasive Plant Species Education Volunteer Opportunities Intersect at PORP”