Meadowood: Volunteering, Visiting, and Driving Directions
Volunteering or Visiting
The Meadowood Recreation Area is a property of the Bureau of Land Management – Eastern States. Meadowood’s recreation areas (but not its buildings) are open seven days a week year-round, from dawn to dusk. There are no admittance fees. All you have to do is show up!
Please consider volunteering with us at Meadowood. The property itself is beautiful and interesting—and we need all the help we can get. At the beginning of 2011, we launched a large-scale meadow restoration project for Meadowood, in collaboration with BLM staff. Meadow restoration is challenging and labor-intensive. We have forest restoration sites on the property as well. Our sites host a wide range of native plants and animals. Volunteering is a great way to learn about them—while working to improve their habitats.
Nearly all of our work at Meadowood involves the management of vegetation, both native and alien. We generally work on scheduled field days, which are listed in our DC-area field schedule. You can also sign up for Lisa’s e-mail list, which carries field announcements. To learn more about our work at Meadowood, read about Our Sites, view the slide shows listed in the links panel of the Meadowood page, or look at the Meadowood News. For general background on our volunteer work, take a look at the Volunteer page.
When you’re coming out to volunteer, please wear solid work shoes, rather than sandals or open-toed shoes. If it’s hot, light-weight long pants are usually a better choice than shorts. And please bring a bottle of drinking water and work gloves if you have them. (If not, we’ll supply.) We supply all tools.
In addition to our projects, you can also volunteer directly with Meadowood itself. Meadowood has a very small staff but a very big agenda, so our BLM colleagues are always looking for competent volunteers. They need people to help around the horse barn, to help build and maintain trails, and just generally to keep the place running smoothly. If you would like to volunteer directly with Meadowood, it’s best to call Meadowood’s office, at (703) 339-0410, during regular office hours. If you would like to volunteer on the Earth Sangha’s Meadowood sites, you can contact Lisa Bright, at info@earthsangha.org, or (703) 764-4830.
Driving Directions
The Meadowood Recreation Area lies along Gunston Road (Route 242), on the Mason Neck peninsula. The street address of the main entrance is 10406 Gunston Road. (See the ADC Northern Virginia Map Book, map 5993, square J3.) Take scenic and bucolic Route 1 to Lorton and turn east (left if you’re traveling south) onto Gunston Road. Stay on Gunston Road for about 2 miles; shortly after Gunston Elementary School, you’ll find the main entrance to Meadowood on your right. A large sign marks the entrance. Please drive slowly on the Meadowood entrance road—Meadowood is home to lots of horses! View Meadowood’s location on Google Maps.
Some of our sites are closer to Meadowood’s Belmont Blvd. office, rather than the main office. The street address of the Belmont Blvd. office is 10705 Belmont Blvd. (Route 601). (See the ADC Northern Virginia Map Book, map 5993, square G4.) To get there, stay on Gunston Road about 2 miles from the Route 1 intersection, just as if you were heading for the main office. Shortly after Gunston Elementary School, turn right onto Belmont Blvd. Stay on Route 601. The BLM office will be on your left, a little more than a mile from that turn. You’ll find a sign (also on the left) and a small parking lot. If the lot is full, you can park along the road.