Photo: Lindsay Clark, THINK Global School via Flickr
Joan Haffey
In November 2020, ASNV became part of an Upton Hill Regional Park support team that has worked together to improve both habitat restoration and activities welcoming to underserved groups.
Stag antler rubbing, Joan Haffey
Work by the partnership includes the Black and Latin/Hispanic Bird and Nature Walk series that continues in various forms. In its latest iteration, children from Falls Church’s Culmore Branch of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington come repeatedly to the park to learn about nature, meet live animals, and explore the park’s wooded areas. The photo at right shows one of the participants identifying correctly a stag antler rubbing at the park. Partners for this series include NOVA Parks, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)/Arlington, Arlington Regional Master Naturalists (ARMN), and ASNV.
Last spring, Paul Gilbert, NOVA Parks Director, and various Arlington County leaders presided over a public ceremony where volunteer walk leaders and supporters from all partner agencies won NOVA Parks awards for their efforts. In a separate ceremony on December 8, 2022, Paul Gilbert presented a new award to Evan McGurrin, Park Manager, acknowledging the NOVA Parks employee making the most notable contribution to achievement of the agency’s five-year strategic plan. You can read about the partnership and the event here and in a separate article in the Sun Gazette.
Under the able leadership of McGurrin and Jill Barker, ARMN Park Steward, ASNV also participates actively in habitat restoration in the park, with ASNV board members taking part in regular invasive plant removals and donating native plants for the restoration. ASNV also provided the park one of its conservation grants. Other partners in the restoration have included ARMN members and youth from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, among others.
ASNV has begun discussions with Upton Hill Regional Park to develop even more connections with the surrounding community for projects both within the park and, potentially, on adjoining properties to expand and improve native habitat for the benefit of native birds and other wildlife. We will report regularly on progress in these efforts in the future. Stay tuned!