Selections From RA's eNews

WEED WARRIORS PROJECTS – June-July, 2011

Our native trees, ferns and wildflowers are under attack by invasive exotic plants like English Ivy, Japanese Honeysuckle and Bamboo. We need warriors like you to join us in rescuing Reston’s beautiful parkland from these aggressive plants. These fast-growing, invasive plants escape from people’s yards and seriously threaten local ecosystems, taking away vital food and habitat from already stressed wildlife populations. Please spend a couple hours in our parkland protecting our forests every fourth Saturday of each month as we help restore Reston’s forests to their natural state.

For all projects:
Children under 13 must be supervised by an adult.
Please wear long sleeves and long pants if you are allergic to poison ivy. RA will provide tools, gloves, snacks and water. To volunteer, contact Ha Brock, RA community outreach specialist at habrock@reston.org or by phone at 703-435-7986. www.facebook.com/VolunteerReston

Each season, we need at least one volunteer to help us monitor two sites in Reston. If you are interested, join our volunteer monitors’ e-mail distribution list for notices of upcoming monitoring dates. E-mail bpetty@reston.org with the message, “add me to the stream monitors list” and you will begin receiving e-mails.

RENEWABLE ENERGY WORKSHOP
June 28, 2011. Free.
Reston Association Headquarters, 12001 Sunrise Valley Drive.
7 p.m.-9 p.m. Guest speaker: Ivy Main, Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter.
Virginia has opportunities to harness clean, renewable energy to meet its growing demand for electricity and to replace its older, polluting coal-fired generating plants. This slide show presentation explores the opportunities and barriers to bringing solar and wind energy to Virginia consumers, and describes an aggressive campaign to build enough offshore wind capacity off our coast to power 700,000 homes by the end of the decade.
RSVP: Arlene@reston.org or call 703-435-6503

BUTTERFLY CLASS
Thursday, June 30, 2011
7-8:30 p.m.
Sign up by June 27, 2011
Location: Walker Nature Education Center, 11450 Glade Drive.
$5/person (Free for count participants)
To sign up, call (703) 476-9689 or e-mail naturecenter@reston.org.

BUTTERFLY COUNT
Saturday, July 2, 2011
9:30 a.m.-12:45
Sign up by June 29, 2011
Location: Walker Nature Education Center, 11450 Glade Drive.
Free. To sign up, call (703) 476-9689 or e-mail naturecenter@reston.org.
Discover the colorful and diverse lives of Reston’s “flying flowers.” The butterfly class will focus on the basic identification and life cycles of our local butterflies. Through a combination of field guides, handouts and a Power Point presentation, learn how to identify Reston’s common butterflies, and get a basic introduction to their life history. Join staff and volunteers for the annual Butterfly Count through Reston’s natural areas. Meet fellow butterfly lovers, learn tips on identification and have fun while helping to collect important information on our fluttering friends.

STREAM MONITORING
Summer monitoring session is July 1-Aug. 31.

Reston Association is in need of volunteers to assist with stream monitoring at several locations throughout Reston during all seasons. If you are willing to learn, can work with a partner, enjoy data collection, insect identification, and are interested in the health of Reston’s streams, this is the job for you. Volunteering consists of four monitoring sessions of 3-4 hours each for a total of 12-16 hours per year. Training and practice are required and a two-year commitment is encouraged.

TOUR OF RESTON’S COMMUNITY GARDEN PLOTS
Saturday, July 9, 12:30-3 p.m.
Reston Museum
703-709-7700; restonmuseum@gmail.com.
Meet at Reston Museum at 12:30 p.m. to join a tour of community garden plots and hear inside stories from Claudia Thompson-Deahl, RA Environmental Resources Manager. There are 270 garden plots, in four locations, many of which go back to the earliest days of Reston. Join a carpool to a few prime spots for a firsthand look at what Reston gardeners have in the ground and hopefully pick up a few gardening tips to take home. Naturalist Thompson-Deahl will also be available to sign copies of Nature of Reston, for which she wrote the text to accompany a series of superb full-color photographs of Reston’s natural areas by Charles A. Veatch.

At least eight (and probably more) Hickory Cluster residents (including myself) maintain a community garden plot.  This is an awesome RA program. If you are at all interested in gardening, check it out! -Sara

RESTORE THE NATURAL AREAS
Saturday, July 23
The Weed Warriors will pull Japanese Stiltgrass and English Ivy that has spread throughout the natural area in south Reston. Japanese Stiltgrass threatens the native understory. The only chance native plants have is the protection provided by the Weed Warriors. We need as many hands as possible to remove this aggressive grass. Please meet at the natural area on Running Cedar Road, just past Foxcroft Way, next to 11425 Running Cedar Road. Look for the RA truck.

IPAD 2 RAFFLE BENEFITS COMMUNITY

Win the new iPad 2 and help your community at the same time. Tickets are $10. Proceeds go to "Friends of Reston" for projects such as camp scholarships, green building initiatives and environmental education. The drawing will be July 11, 2011 at 5 p.m. You do not need to be present to win. A maximum of 500 tickets will be sold. For further details and online ticket sales, go to ipad2.eventbrite.com.

FREE WOOD CHIPS
Free wood chips are available Monday-Friday at Reston Association’s Central Services Facility, 12250 Sunset Hills Road, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The supply is currently unlimited.