Join neighbors, friends and other environmentalist for a morning of tree planting and trail maintenance on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Clifton.
The Clifton Betterment Association barn property, located just north of the railroad and Popes Head Creek on Main Street, is the site of the tree planting. This event will be fun for the whole family, with jobs for every skill level. Starbucks will provide coffee in the morning, and lunch will be provided by CBA. Participants are encouraged to bring shovels, clippers and gloves.
Sponsored by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, Clifton Betterment Association, Starbucks, Audubon Naturalist Society, Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, and the Clifton Horse Society, this event will involve planting 150 native trees, and 100 native bushes along the stream banks as a riparian buffer to provide wildlife habitat and improve the stream's water quality. Volunteers will also work on trail maintenance of the trail that runs both along the CBA property and the land recently purchased by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, just East of the CBA land.
Popes Head Creek is an important waterway because it is a major tributary to the Occoquan River, which provides drinking water to 750,000 residents of Fairfax County, and is a sub-watershed to the Chesapeake Bay.
In May of 2003 the CBA property was placed under a perpetual conservation easement held by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust. In June of 2003 the Trust purchased almost nine acres just east of the CBA property along Popes Head Creek. This land will be jointly owned by the Trust and the Town of Clifton and used as a public park. These properties and the event on Sept. 13 are all part of a larger initiative to promote land conservation in the Occoquan watershed. Grant funding for this event comes from both a Starbucks Make Your Mark Grant, and a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund.
The rain Date for this event will be Sunday, Sept. 14 at the same time. RSVP to Michelle Stein at mcampau@erols.com