All results / Stories / Glenda C. Booth
Our Very Necessary Insects in Mount Vernon
Advice: cut lawns in half, plant native plants and trees, remove invasive plants, minimize use of pesticides, reduce light pollution.
Insects
The Potomac River Is Healing, but Problems Remain
River groups hope to open beaches for swimming along the Potomac.
River groups hope to open beaches for swimming along the Potomac.
Flying Squirrels, Our Nocturnal Neighbors
Flying squirrels
New Law Could Help Save Turtles
Wild turtles need protection; enjoy them by seeing them, but leave them be.
From scratchy ancient petroglyphs to the children’s book heroine, Myrtle the turtle, to fictional superheroes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, turtles have long fascinated people.
Snakeheads Are Thriving in Area Waters
Snakeheads taste like a tender pork chop, some say.
They lurk in the murky, sluggish shallows, their elongated bodies and splotchy, brown skin camouflaged in the shoreline’s woody detritus and dense vegetation.
Rarely-seen Spoonbills Draw Fans to Huntley Meadows Park
Their flat, six-to-seven-inch, spatula-like bills look like long-handled spoons swishing back and forth in the Huntley Meadows Park wetland.
Study Highlights Pandemic’s Food Insecurity
The coronavirus pandemic exacerbated inequities, especially food insecurity, for many families along Fairfax County’s U.S. 1 corridor, concluded the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, a nonprofit based at Woodlawn Estate.
Snakes — Misunderstood and Mistreated All Too Often
Working diligently in her home office recently, Anita Drummond was jolted from her project when she spotted an eastern rat snake slithering down a nearby tree and through the leaf litter in her Tauxemont backyard.
Trashing Mother Earth
Not only is trash polluting and unsightly, it is harmful, even lethal, to wildlife.
On April 10, 82 volunteers hauled 126 bags of trash out of Little Hunting Creek and 46 volunteers collected 55 bags of trash in Dyke Marsh and along the Potomac River just south of Alexandria.
Fairfax County’s Streams Are in Trouble
82 percent of Fairfax County’s streams were in very poor, poor or fair condition biologically in 2020.
Five volunteers spent Friday morning jabbing a long-handled mesh net into a stream bottom, scraping the streambanks, scooping up submerged woody debris and rubbing smooth round rocks in the stream’s riffles.
Go Green, Go Native
Mow less, mow high, grow more, choose nature.
The manicured lawn may be an iconic symbol of the American suburbs, but lawns have ecological downsides, and there are alternatives, Tami Sheiffer told members of the Friends of Mason Neck at a March 7 Zoom meeting titled “Mow Less, Grow More.”