Thanks to over 40 volunteers, National Park Service staff, three grants and many generous donors, in 2018 and 2019, the Friends of Dyke Marsh and partners cleared this .065-acre area and planted over 4,000 native trees and plants, a project designed restore degraded habitat and support native wildlife. We estimate that around 80 percent of the plants and trees have survived.

Why Plant Native Plants?

“Plants and animals evolve together to create unique natural communities, weaving a complex web of interrelationships,” according to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

University of Delaware entomologist Douglas Tallamy offers this in his book, Bringing Nature Home: “When a plant is transported to an area of the world that contains plants, animals and diseases with which it has never before interacted, the coevolutionary constraints that kept it in check at home are gone, as are the ecological links that made that plant a contributing member of its ecosystem.”

We welcome volunteers and can train you to identify around five target invasive plants and the control methods.

For more information on native plants, visit Plant NOVA Natives at www.plantnovanative.org and the Virginia Native Plant Society at www.vnps.org.