The ultimate goal of community representatives is to help rid their neighborhoods of at least the worst infestations of invasive plants and to expand biodiversity by encouraging the planting of natives.
Some tactics you could consider
Get out the word
- Newsletters
- Either write or adapt articles to distribute to community members/
- Social media
- Use NextDoor.com to reach neighbors who may have no previous interest.
- Facebook groups can encourage conversation.
- MeetUp allows you to post events (for adults) and recruit volunteers.
- Social events
- Piggy-back on other events that draw a lot of people to set up a table. Or have a block party with a potluck, entertainment for the kids, and a fun environmental-related theme. Put up big, friendly signs pointing out invasive and native plants along the road leading to the party.
Door hangers/Tree counts
Distribute door hangers to residents who have a tree at risk from invasive vines on their property while counting the number of affected trees. This data will be added to a map and will allow you to measure your progress over the years.
Order brochures to give out at events
Collect email addresses
- Email addresses are like gold to community organizers. (Be sure to keep them secure, and always use Blind Copy when emailing groups of people.) There are many potential opportunities to ask people for permission to email them, from going door to door as part of a project, to registering people for events.
Work with scout troops
Parents of scouts love to have guests who can lead kids in badge-earning activities such as distributing the Tree Rescuer door hangers, or painting cute mosquito buckets and creating a Pollinator Pathway, or coming up with their own plan for educating the community about invasive plants.
- Relevant girl-scout badges
- BSA badges: Environmental Science, Sustainability, Fish and WIldlife Management, Forestry, Soil and Water Conservation.
Work with sports coaches
- Would the athletes who use a playing field help rescue the trees that surround it?
Invite a buddy!
- Your best bet for making progress is to recruit at least one other person to work with you as a team. Give yourself an official title, such as “Dogwood Heights Tree Rescuers.”
Consider a long-term strategy
- What would it take to rescue the trees and to control all of at least the most severe infestations in your neighborhood? Public awareness is a crucial first step, but it will not be the only thing needed.
Team up with neighboring community representatives
- Together you can come up with a strategy for your whole community, including residential, commercial, and public property.
Organize invasive removal events
- See our safety policy if anyone is volunteering under the Fairfax Tree Rescuers PRISM name.
Survey the area for other invasive plants
- You can do this informally, or use our mapping software. If you need help identifying the plants, we can send an experienced volunteer.
Figure out who owns the land
- Which invasive plants are on residential land, rights of way, commercial property, parks, etc? You can figure this out on the Fairfax JADE map (or use HuntStand or similar software that also provides a mobile app to see boundary lines as well as property ownership.) You could approach the owners or managers of commercial property and ask them to have their landscape maintenance companies to remove invasive vines.
Share tools
- Start a tool library
Adopt rights of way
- VDOT allows volunteers to work in the right of way (or pay someone to do it) with a permit. See details here.
Adopt parks
- Form a FCPA Tree Rescuer team.
- Survey the park for any severe infestations using our mapping software.
- Raise money to pay for professional contractors.
Talk to commercial landowners
- Encourage them to have their landscape crews include invasive plant control in their contracts. Volunteers are available to show their landscape crews what to do. Or offer to have neighborhood volunteers do some of the work.
Use Little Free Libraries
- Stock them with tree rescuer brochures. Click here to request materials
Put up signs
- One HOA puts up signs along the trails of its common areas, encouraging people to pull up certain invasive plants as they walk.
- Put up signs in work areas. See example.
Create a Pollinator Pathway
- To broaden the conversation beyond invasive plant management (or to ease your neighbors into stewardship mode), you could start a Pollinator Pathway.
Think big!
Ultimately, the hope is to get at least the tree-killing invasive vines and the worst of the other invasive plant infestations under control throughout the county. So when you see such infestations in your area, please figure out who owns the property - you might find all sorts of surprises - so your community can make a long-term plan. For example, there are little parks and VDOT rights of way tucked into all sorts of unexpected places that are essentially abandoned land.
Reach out to neighboring communities - If they don’t have a community rep, it would be great to get someone to do that.
For residents of community associations
Join FIRA
Ask the president of your community association or civic association to sign the community up for the Fairfax Invasive Removal Alliance, which does advocacy on behalf of communities.
Join the Board, and/or make your team an official Board committee.
Develop recommended plant lists for private property and mandatory policies to never plant invasive plants on common land.
Hold “barn-raising” events
Team up with other communities to have volunteer training/workday events on each other’s common properties.
Apply for incentive grants (when available) for invasive plant management on common land.
Area Representatives
Area Representatives help the Community Representatives collaborate and strategize about how to reach and assist all the landowners in the area where invasive plants are problematic.
Picking priority areas
As you start to plan on a community-wide scale, you’ll need to think about which areas to prioritize first. New Hampshire’s Picking our Battles document may give you some ideas.
Invite local groups to participate
Garden clubs, Rotaries, Kiwanis, etc., etc. may have members who could mobilize their organizations.
Strategize with park staff
Most parks are unstaffed, but the others afford an opportunity for collaboration.