Advocacy Proposals

Create a vigorous public education campaign, actively engaging Fairfax County residents

Presently, several non-profit organizations in Northern Virginia are the major source of information on invasive plants and also those native to the Mid-Atlantic.  We are recommending that the County take a leadership role in public outreach to the general public about why native plants are so integral to a vibrant ecosystem and how invasive plants undermine and outcompete native plants.  We are aware of the Invasive Plant as well as the Native Plants list on the DCR and Fairfax County website.  However, more active outreach needs to be done, and urgently!

For example, Supervisors and District Councils could collectively recommend 1-2 native plants and/or highlight a nasty invasive in their newsletter each month and on their respective websites. 

The BOS could also distribute flyers, brochures, and booklets emphasizing the importance of native plants in homeowners’ gardens and the importance and means of eradicating invasive plants.

Develop the needed workforce and leverage volunteer labor

With the exception of one County employee and a subcontractor paid to treat invasives in the Fairfax County Park Authority, the County currently relies on volunteers to remove invasives in county parks, clip vines in VDOT rights-of-way, while also removing invasives on their own property, regional parks, HOA common areas, schools and places of worship.

We are urging Fairfax County BOS to develop or reassign the existing workforce.  For example, the workers hired for Operation Stream Shield are periodically paid to remove invasives under the guidance of a volunteer or IMA leader.  The OSS workers could be assigned full-time jobs to remove invasives while continuing to work under an IMA leader.  Another option would be for the BOS to work with individual towns and communities to divert some of their grounds maintenance crew to invasive removal.  

A dedicated workforce will hasten the removal of invasives faster than just our volunteers alone.  The invasives are spreading faster than can be managed by volunteers.

After the newly-developed workforce clears  land of invasives, volunteers can then maintain the site from any new invasive plant growth.

Collaborate with public entities such as VDOT, railroads, etc.

The rights-of-way of VDOT and railroads are commonly found infested with invasives and serve as a source of new seeds and berries to areas already cleared of invasives.  If Fairfax County collaborates with VDOT and the railroads— the VA Passenger Rail Authority and the VA Department of Rail and Public Transportation—to remove and treat invasive plants in these rights-of way, it will be easier for volunteers to maintain cleared lands and for homeowners not to get their private land infested with invasive plants from the public lands.

Advocate for needed legislative changes at the state level

FIRA is strongly urging legislation to ban the sale of invasive plants.  Non-natives and Invasives such as English Ivy, Butterfly bush, Burning bush, Japanese barberry, vinca  and Japanese pachysandra are still being sold in Fairfax County and throughout the state.  Despite these plants being clearly identified by Fairfax County in their published booklet (see below) as invasive and needing to be removed, they are still being sold in big box stores and nurseries here. Volunteers spend countless hours removing them, only to have them propagated and planted elsewhere.

See an invasive control booklet here.

Encouraging nurseries to move away from the sale of invasive plants and boost native alternatives

Native plant nurseries are doing a booming business. The VA Native Plant Society Facebook group has grown from approximately 8,000 followers in 2019 to over 89,000 today, highlighting the interest in native plants.  Big box stores and nurseries will continue to do good business if they transition away from non-native invasive plants due to the high demand for native plants. Plant NOVA Natives volunteers are helping by attaching a red ‘native plant’ sticker to native plants in select nurseries.

Native Plant Nurseries: Check out Plant Nova Natives

Funding For Invasives Removal 

Innovative funding sources are needed, and we have some suggestions:

  1. The BOS could create a matching fund program and/or an incentive program to encourage businesses to use a portion of their Community and Social Responsibility (CSR) funds toward invasive removal and the planting of native plants instead.  Plant NOVA Trees has had some success with collaborating with businesses in invasive removal. See Plant NOVA Trees’ list here.
  2. The BOS could create a matching fund program and/or an incentive program for private property owners and communities to address their common open space, which will help homeowners deal with the high cost of repeated treatment and removal of invasives. Loudoun County has had some success with this. Scroll down to page 4 to see the line item in the end of the 2023 Loudoun County budget: here.