Photo: Mary Frase, star volunteer, Bill Browning
Joan Haffey
Mary Frase, who comes from several generations of family gardeners, tells anyone who asks her about her volunteering, “I grew up playing in the dirt and I still like to play there.” She turned this love into an extraordinary commitment to native habitat. Walking in the National Arboretum in 2012, she discovered the native plant garden and has volunteered there since. An Arlington Master Gardener (certified in 2012) and a Fairfax Master Naturalist (2013) with over 2,500 hours of service, she tried various community education and native planting programs before gravitating to what she loves: getting her hands in the dirt.
Mary Frase, photo by Bill Browning
She has educated home owners as an Audubon at Home ambassador and worked on Plant NOVA Natives projects and in several school gardens. Volunteering now includes multiple community support efforts with her church, monitoring bluebird trails, kayak river cleanups, and regular work in two demonstration gardens and the Earth Sangha plant nursery. She rescues native plants from areas immediately threatened by habitat loss and replants them, with permission, in suitable habitat. She regularly supports invasives removal at multiple parks, including the Nature Conservancy’s Fraser Preserve in Great Falls, and plants natives with Earth Sangha and Arlington County. “It is satisfying to pull weeds and invasives and to teach others to do the same.”
For over eight years, Mary has teamed with Bill Browning, the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists’ Park Steward at Powhatan Springs Skate Park, to restore that park’s natural areas. Mary both digs in herself and helps Bill guide efforts through her deep knowledge of plants. As Powhatan Springs moved towards a maintenance level, Bill and Mary expanded to creek-side habitat connecting Powhatan Springs Skate Park and Upton Hill Regional Park, which has a similar successful restoration effort led by ARMN Park Steward Jill Barker.
Stretch Our Parks yard sign
ASNV is helping expand this long-term habitat restoration project as its first Stretch Our Parks collaboration. The project embodies ASNV’s aims to extend park ecological benefits and healthy habitats into surrounding neighborhoods while engaging communities in support of their parks. The project has already added two private properties, the Dominion Hills Area Recreation Association east of Powhatan Springs and the Lockwood/Elmwood affordable senior housing complex adjacent to Upton Hill.
Mary, no surprise, is now a mainstay in these efforts, and she was glad to share with me (and you), some lessons she has learned as a volunteer gardener and habitat restorer:
“You don’t need to have special skills or be a member of any group to join habitat restoration efforts.” If you join a volunteer session for an invasive removal or native planting session, you will get guidance. Mary learned about native plants by doing field work over the past 12 years and by researching what she didn’t know.
“If you want to choose this as a regular volunteer effort, you can opt for one project, or you can try a variety and see what appeals most to you.” Over time, Mary found that she preferred “hands on” restoration and understood that management positions did not appeal to her.
“Restoration is a long-term commitment.” Even restored properties require maintenance to avoid resurgence of invasives. For long-term success, a program, not just the project leader, can adopt the park, to ensure continuing support. We also need to use our imagination to engage the next generation in supporting our projects—young people in the 30s and 40s, at the apex of family and work responsibilities.
So, if you can volunteer a lot, or only a little, Mary and the other naturalist volunteers in northern Virginia will welcome you and help you find out what your interests are. As Mary says, “Do what you can do. Everyone can help and every little bit helps. I turned 81 this month and as long as I can do this, I will. I encourage others to do the same.”
View upcoming volunteer opportunities here.