Fall Festival

This year's fall festival was our most attended to date! We had 300+ people come to celebrate fall by exploring the preserve, buying goodies from vendors, and winning fun prizes from our raffle!

For the kiddos, face paint and fall festival passports were a hit! Attendees were encouraged to visit every booth to receive a sticker for their passport. Once the passport was filled, they could collect their prize: a free native plant!

Bull Run Mountains Conservancy Executive Director and Master Naturalist,Michael Kieffer, returned to lead guided hikes on the preserve.

This year, hikers saw a bald eagle, little green heron, snowy egret, woolly bear caterpillar, and "flutterbys," as Michael calls them.

All in all, this was our best fall fest yet! A huge thanks to our sponsors and co-hosts, White House Farm Foundation and Leopold's Preserve!

Kayak Cleanup!

This past weekend, we held a kayak cleanup at our Hunting Creek preserve and collected 48 bags of trash in total!

The hardest item to pull out of the water was a large bean bag that took two kayaks to tow (one was a two-seater kayak with two people!) and 4 people to haul onto land!

A few of the other items we collected: a traffic cone, a soccer ball, a suitcase, and a lawn chair pillow!

Conservation Explored

The Potomac River Is America’s Most Endangered River. Here’s What We Can Do About It.

This year, American Rivers named the Potomac River the most endangered river in America. The designation came in April, following a January sewer collapse that released 240 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac.

For NVCT, this designation is a call to action. For all of us, it means recognizing that the health of the Potomac is connected to the health of the place we call home. Read more to learn about our conservation work in the middle Potomac region and how you can get involved!

Lore of the Land

Newly Protected Property in King George County - Every Acre Matters!

NVCT has placed 89 acres of undeveloped forest in King George County, just outside Fredericksburg, under a conservation easement!

This property reminded us how important each and every property we protect is. Adding more protected patches in the region creates a connected habitat network.

Read more to find out what's unique about this newly protected property!

Saving Nearby Nature

Partner Spotlight: Sustain Fairfax

This month’s Nearby Nature Network webinar featured “Sustain Fairfax,” a web platform that helps you reduce your personal carbon footprint, build community connections, and save money! This web-based platform is free to join and open to all Fairfax County residents.

Before the webinar, we interviewed members of the Sustain Fairfax team to learn how the platform came to be and how people can make the most of it. Read more to find out just how impactful this platform is and how you could utilize it to save money, win prizes, and create a greener Fairfax!