August 2026 Update
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- 5 min read
August 2026 Update
What can we plant in our yards to support butterflies? Please see the article at the bottom of this update and share as widely as possible.
Matching grants for conservation landscaping
Thanks to all who supported recent State funding for the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP). VCAP can help homeowners, businesses, and community institutions install conservation landscaping, permeable pavement, and rain gardens. Read more in the VCAP brochure. Contact your local Soil and Conservation District to obtain additional information.
Free trees for Fairfax groups
Fairfax County is currently accepting applications for its tree distribution program until Oct. 30. Any local community organization — from volunteer groups and civic associations to faith organizations and nonprofits — may participate.
Upcoming events (as relayed to us. Please direct questions to the organizers.)
September 5 - help remove invasive plants from Brentsville Courthouse. pgibbonsbackus@pwc.gov.org
Sept 13 - Veteran’s Park - Help maintain the recently planted saplings and remove invasives. alliance@pwconserve.org
September 19 - Leopold's Preserve Fall Festival supporting healthy ecosystems
September 20 - Green Spring Gardens - Intro to Native Plant Gardening Code HEI.TZV5
September 27 – Open House at JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary. Enjoy self-guided tours and learn about how this unique natural preserve is threatened by the Rt. 15 Lucketts bypass.
October 2026 - Fall Tree Rescue Extravaganza - Multiple volunteer tree rescue events will take place across Fairfax/Falls Church during the four weekends of October. Start planning yours now! Watch the Fairfax Tree Rescuers PRISM website for details.
Volunteer for native meadow plantings in Loudoun - Registration info and links are below:
Trailside Park, Ashburn: Saturday, October 3 at 10 a.m.
Claude Moore Park, Sterling: Monday, October 12 at 10 a.m.
Hampshire Park, Ashburn: Thursday, October 22 at 10 a.m.
Claude Moore Park, Sterling: Saturday, October 24 at 2 p.m.
We beat our tree rescue goal and didn’t notice!
We had set a goal (completely arbitrarily) of 20,000 tree rescue reports in Northern Virginia by the end of 2026. Turns out we met that goal before 2026 even began! So our new goal is 31,000 trees. Of course, these are only the ones that people knew to report. Lots and lots of good work is going on out there that hasn’t been tallied. We encourage people to report to help our communities evaluate whether progress is being made.
Breakdown by county.
Fairfax 22,237 tree rescues reported since Sept 2021
Prince William 1,089
Loudoun 318
Arlington 766
Breakdown by action.
24,634 Controlled non-native vines
49 Cut encircling root
483 Removed invasive non-native tree that displaces native trees
76 Transplanted to a safe location
18 Stopped it from being cut down
Report your native tree and shrub plantings
Please help Northern Virginia meet its canopy goals by reporting your native tree and shrub plantings here. So far 22,245 have been reported! Every native tree and shrub provides habitat, cooling, and stormwater capture.
Report your tree rescues
Millions of trees in Northern Virginia are at risk from invasive non-native vines. You can help by controlling them on your own land or by volunteering on public land. So far, 25,609 tree rescues have been reported in Northern Virginia. Please add your report here if you live anywhere except within the Fairfax County/Falls Church boundaries. In Fairfax/Falls Church, please report here instead.
Next Steering Committee meeting – September 3, 10am-noon via videoconferencing. All are welcome. Check our Event Calendar for future meetings.
This month’s newsletter articles to share. For social media, please use this link.
Butterflies Need Our Help
By Eileen Ellsworth
Butterflies are with us once again, moving softly and quietly across the landscape. They’ve been called flying flowers, floating poems, nature’s confetti, and many other appreciative metaphors. But words fall short every time. To see a butterfly is to be reminded at the heart level why we never give up on nature and love it so deeply.
As we know, habitat loss, pesticides, and climate change are driving steep declines in their population. The North American Butterfly Association reported a 22% overall decline in butterfly abundance across the contiguous United States between 2000 and 2020, a stark reminder of the urgency we need to bring to the situation.
Even in the face of such terrible loss, much can be done to improve their chances. Many butterflies still manage to lay their eggs and pass on their DNA to the next generation. This is happening even now in our own backyards, but only if they contain the required larval host plants.
Host plants produce leaves, flowers, or other biomass that butterfly larvae can eat. Most people don’t realize just how limited and species-specific the options are. Females must find and then lay their eggs upon a particular host plant, and there’s no room for error. The caterpillars hatch and immediately start eating the host plant for days or even weeks until it’s time to go into chrysalis. Their food supply and nutritional requirements are quite exact, something only a host plant can provide.
Remarkably, host plants don’t seem to mind all that munching. They may look a little worse for the wear, but next spring they re-emerge in full, ready for another brood of voracious butterfly larvae to descend. They’re clearly built for the taking.
We simply need more larval host plants in the ground to stabilize butterfly populations and reduce their decline, especially for the more uncommon species in Northern Virginia. To that end, below is a list containing the names of many local butterflies and their known host plants. The list is a modified version of one created by Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy (abundance varies between locations). This information allows you to target the less common species on the list for your host plant consideration.
Notice that many butterflies require tree species as larval host plants.
Abundant
Spicebush Swallowtail Spicebush, Sassafras
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Black Cherry
Clouded Sulphur Wild Blue Indigo
Orange Sulphur Partridge Pea
Pearl Crescent Aromatic Aster, New England Aster, Frost Aster
Relatively Common
Zebra Swallowtail Pawpaw
Gray Hairstreak Swamp Rose Mallow
Variegated Fritillary Purple Passionflower, Violets
Great Spangled Fritillary Violets
Question Mark Elms, Hackberry
Eastern Comma Elms
American and Painted Lady Field pussytoes, Joe-Pye Weed
Common Buckeye Carolina Wild Petunia
Hackberry Emperor Hackberry
Mourning Cloak Black WIllow
Red-spotted Purple Black Cherry, Serviceberry
Monarch Milkweeds (although this is much less often seen in the past few years)
Uncommon
Cloudless Sulphur Northern Wild Senna, Partridge Pea
Sleepy Orange Wild Sensitive Plant, Partridge Pea
Henry’s Elfin Redbud, American Holly
Eastern Pine Elfin Virginia and White Pines
White “M” Hairstreak Oaks
Coral Hairstreak Black Cherry, American Plum
Black Swallowtail Golden-Alexander
Meadow Fritillary Violets
Viceroy Black Willow
For a complete list of all Mid-Atlantic butterflies and their host plants, including the Skippers which this table entirely omits, pick up a copy of “Butterflies of the Mid-Atlantic” by Robert Blakney and Judy Gallagher from the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance website, then download a copy of Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s “Butterflies of Loudoun County,” for the corresponding abundance codes. Also, browse the butterfly page of the Plant NOVA Natives website for more ideas, resources, and general information about native plant support of butterfly populations.
