- Email: dylan.choate@tnc.org
-
Follow
ANNUAL EVENTS
-
Help us restore habitat at Nassawango Creek Preserve by planting Atlantic white cedar seedlings.
This volunteer opportunity is in partnership with the National Aquarium Conservation Team (ACT!) and the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
The planting is part of an ongoing restoration effort through the National Aquarium’s Wetland Nursery Program, which encourages students in Worcester and Somerset counties to become environmental stewards through hands-on opportunities to care for trees in a nursery pond on their school grounds.
Nassawango Creek Preserve is located on Maryland's Eastern Shore, approximately 2.5 hours from Washington/Baltimore.
-
Each year TNC takes part in the Anacostia Watershed Society's Earth Day Cleanup.
Join thousands of volunteers to help stop pollution and restore the Anacostia River by cleaning up sites along the river in Washington, DC and in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. -
TNC partner, Turner Station Conservation Teams, is leading an Earth Day cleanup of the Turner Station Community. Join us from 7 a.m. to noon at Turner Station Park, 23 Rayme Road, Dundalk, Maryland 21222.
-
Help us replant several thousand locally sourced red spruce seedlings at Cranesville Swamp Preserve.
Red spruce (Picea rubens) once covered thousands of acres in western Maryland. Logging and subsequent wildfires at the turn of the 20th century drastically reduced its range. It's estimated that in the Central Appalachians as much as 90% of the original red spruce forest is now gone.
You can help us change that statistic—one seedling at a time.
This volunteer opportunity takes place over two days; volunteers are welcome to join for one day or both.
-
Held over four days, the City Nature Challenge is a community science event that encourages people to discover and document the biodiversity of our urban spaces. What began in 2016 as a friendly challenge between Los Angeles and San Francisco has now grown to an international event.
You don't have to join an organized outing to be a part of the City Nature Challenge. Explore your neighborhood parks—or even your own backyard. There's nature all around you!
-
Each year since 2016, the Virginia Chapter has partnered with Fairfax County Park Authority in Northern Virginia to host a Chesapeake Bay watershed cleanup.
The goal of the cleanup is to keep trash and debris out of waterways that flow into the bay.While the scale of the 2021 cleanup was reduced due to Covid-19, TNC implemented safety measures—including limiting group sizes, social distancing and mask wearing—to ensure that we could once again partner with the Fairfax County Park Authority for this annual event.
Over 3 workdays, 303 volunteers gave 625 hours of service across 11 Fairfax County parks, removing 2.5 tons of trash along miles of stream, shoreline, roadways and trails.
While the numbers are impressive, it’s the stories that make this effort successful, too. Many volunteers express how the cleanup impacted their children and how it “opened their eyes” to some of the environmental challenges we face. We also get a lot of people asking how they can continue to make a difference.
-
Join us on October 6th as we conduct bay “maintenance” by removing invading gums and maples that have moved in to the wetland at Jackson Lane, threatening to shade out the sun-loving native plants, many of which are state- and globally rare.
This volunteer day will consist of using loppers and hand saws to cut back saplings and small trees. This is a great opportunity to experience a unique Delmarva bay habitat at a preserve that is typically only open for scientific research.NOTE: Crescent Preserve is approximately 2 hours from Baltimore/DC.
-
Join fellow TNC supporters over a cup of tea or coffee as we work to hand-address nearly 500 holiday card envelopes in preparation for the season! The event is hosted each year in the DC metro area.
In addition to participating in these events, assistance may also be needed in these areas:
- Volunteer Photography/Videography: Take pictures and/or video throughout the year for use in the Maryland/DC chapter's publications, website and social media.
- Social Media: Share posts from the chapter's Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts with your personal networks to help spread the word about our work across the region.
Planting Red Spruce at Cranesville
The City Nature Challenge
Which city on Earth has the most nature and the most engaged residents? The City Nature Challenge—an international community science effort to discover and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe—aims to find out!
Explore Your World
The City Nature Challenge encourages people to discover and document the biodiversity of our urban spaces. What began in 2016 as a friendly challenge between Los Angeles and San Francisco has now grown to an international event!
There are still many ways to look for nature in your home or backyard. Discover the plants that are growing on their own and the insects and pollinators that live in and around our homes and yards. You never know what you mind find!
How to Find Insects
Insects are probably some of the easiest organisms to find in and around our homes, since they’re abundant and incredibly diverse! But where should you look to find them? What can you use to catch them?
These sites provide some guidance on how to find and temporarily hold insects. Be sure to release them after you've posted your observation on iNaturalist!
Moth Lighting
Setting up a light and a sheet to attract moths is a simple and easy way to bring more nature into your backyard. Photographing moths on the sheet is easy, and you’ll definitely attract other flying insects as well!
Science Friday has a great set of instructions for observing moths, and the California Center for Natural History has instructions for building your own moth light to attract a wider variety of moths.
Get Involved
It’s easy to get involved using the iNaturalist app (free on the App Store and Google Play). Just take a picture of a plant or animal and upload it to the app. Any observations made in the Baltimore or Washington, DC metro challenge areas will count during the four-day challenge.
Download
Volunteers in Action
Each year since 2016, the Virginia Chapter has partnered with Fairfax County Park Authority in Northern Virginia to host a Chesapeake Bay watershed cleanup.
While COVID-19 impacted the scale of recent years' cleanups, volunteers were still able to make a big impact. In 2022, 507 volunteers worked across 16 Fairfax County parks, giving 1,026 hours to collect 463 bags of trash—estimated to weigh 3.5 tons!
The most common items found during our cleanups include plastic bottles and bags, cans, cigarette butts, styrofoam and glass bottles.
Collectively from 2017-2022 (minus 2020 due to COVID), 3,211 volunteers cleaned more than 150 miles of stream, shoreline and trails, removing 23.5 tons of trash from more than 25 parks and locations, giving 7,648 hours of service.
While the numbers are impressive, it’s the stories that make this effort successful, too. Many volunteers express how the cleanup impacted their children and how it opened their eyes to some of the environmental challenges we face. We also get a lot of people asking how they can continue to make a difference.
Watershed Cleanup Through the Years
The annual watershed cleanup event is a popular event for families and offers an opportunity to give back to nature and the community.
We Can’t Save Nature Without You
Sign up to receive monthly conservation news and updates from Maryland/DC. Get a preview of Maryland/DC's Nature News email.
