Native Arboretum: Volunteering, Visiting, and Driving Directions
Volunteering or Visiting
Our Native Arboretum project is located at the Marie Butler Leven Preserve, a property of the Fairfax County Park Authority. The Preserve is a public park, open to all, seven days a week, during daylight hours.
If you would like to help create the Native Arboretum, we could really use your help. Most of our work at the Preserve involves the removal of invasive alien plants and the planting of native species. We also do a little trail maintenance and trash pick-up. 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 volunteer work at the Preserve, view the slide shows listed in the links panel of the Native Arboretum page, or look at the Native Arboretum 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.
One note of caution: We hope that you’ll want to help us clear invasives, but please do not do this on a “freelance” basis! Please do not remove any vegetation from the Preserve, or any park, on your own. Such actions are usually illegal and may have negative consequences, even when the vegetation in question is invasive. (Hard to believe, we know, but true. Ask us and we’ll tell you all about it.) In sum: Always get permission first!
Driving Directions
The Marie Butler Leven Preserve is in McLean, Virginia. The street address is 1501 Kirby Road. (See the ADC Northern Virginia Map Book, map 5526, square G2.) If you’re coming from the Beltway, exit on Route 66 East; from 66, take the first exit, to Leesburg Pike (Route 7); turn left on Leesburg Pike, then almost immediately after the underpass, turn right onto Idylwood Road (695). Just stay on Idylwood, which becomes Kirby Road after the intersection with Great Falls Street. Stay on Kirby; once you have passed the stop sign at Chesterbrook Road, the Preserve is about half a mile up on the right. View the Preserve’s location on Google Maps.