Tree Rescuers handbook

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Here is how it works.

 

Spot trees at risk, in your neighborhood or any public area.

1. Sign up to be a Tree Rescuer.

2. Obtain your door hangers.

3. Survey your community, looking for trees with invasive vines. You do NOT need to be able to identify the vines! Drop off a door hanger if

   • It's English Ivy (or Wintercreeper, which looks a lot like English Ivy on trees.)

   • It is tightly wrapped around and around a tree. Our native vines seldom behave that way.

   • The vines are way up in the canopy and smothering the tree. That can certainly happen with native vines, especially on shorter trees and shrubs, but identifying the plant is up to the landowner, not to you.
      

   • Do just familiarize yourself with what a big rope of native grape looks like, since it would be a shame if a homeowner cut that. In natural areas, you can sometimes be fooled by native grapes, Trumpet Creeper and Greenbrier which can be quite thick, but since our counts there are only rough anyway (and usually miss a lot of small trees), the occasional over-count is not a problem. Exact vine ID is only important for people who are about to cut a vine (Detailed ID instructions are here).

4. Count the total number of trees in your reporting area that are at significant risk*, but drop off a door hanger with the owner even if there is just a small amount of invasive vines, since early intervention is better!

5. Keep track of how many homeowners you have alerted and add that to your report. In residential areas, if you are counting and reporting trees, please be sure to also drop off the door hangers, because once we add a neighborhood to the map, no one else is going to be going there to alert the owners.

6. Designate chunks of land to report (see reporting forms above) such as all the properties within a block or in a community. Please keep separate records of residential and non-residential properties (business, right of way, park, community association land, and government land.) For the road right-of-ways, count the trees as part of the adjacent property if they can be safely accessed by the owner. If it would be unsafe for them to work there, or if that stretch of road has clearly been abandoned, count the trees separately as a road easement. (Don't bother with the limited access highways. We have a separate procedure for them.)

 

Some ways you can help at-risk trees:

• Leave a door hanger with the homeowner, business owner, or landlord. (Please be aware that it is illegal to put unstamped mail in mailboxes.)

• Talk with the Board of any community association about a plan of action for common open space.

  • Information to give them

  • Suggestions for how to work with them

  • Making a master plan

• Talk to the person in charge at libraries, schools and other government are

 

Other ways to participate:

• Start conversations on NextDoor.com or other local social media sites. Be sure and mention that it's only invasive vines that are a problem and that the native ones should not be cut! Take pictures of the problem or of successful tree rescues (but leave the houses out of the frame so as not to embarrass people).

• Help other communities that are in need of volunteers.

• If you have experience in vine ID, help new volunteers develop their skills.

• In addition to our counts, report infestations of specific invasive plants on non-residential land via the EDDmapS app. It is very easy to use.

• Volunteer with the parks. Most of them have procedures for you to volunteer to clip invasive vines. See these instructions for Fairfax County Parks and this list of contacts for other parks.