Partner Spotlight: Plant NOVA Natives

This month, we interviewed Margaret Fisher, a familiar and inspiring voice in the Northern Virginia conservation community. Margaret has been involved with Plant NOVA Natives for nearly 10 years and has also been a longtime partner and collaborator with Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT). Many in our community may recognize her from a previous NVCT feature highlighting her property and her neighbor’s, which she conserved prior to their sale. In this interview, Margaret reflects on the origins and growth of Plant NOVA Natives, her path into native plant advocacy, and how partnerships—like the one between Plant NOVA Natives and NVCT—have helped amplify ecosystem restoration efforts across the region. 

1. How long have you worked for Plant Nova Natives? How did that journey begin? 

Margaret has been with Plant NOVA Natives for about 10 years. She recounted how the organization started.  

“It started around 2012, from a gathering of leaders of several local environmentally oriented organizations, which included the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, Fairfax Master Naturalists, Virginia Native Plant Society, Potomac chapter, Northern Virginia Bird Alliance, and a couple of others. Virginia Coastal Zone Management, most importantly. Virginia Whitmer works for the Virginia Coastal Zone Management, a state organization funded by NOAA, which has created an “Eastern Shore native plants” campaign. So, “Plant the Eastern Shore”, that had already gotten going, and Northern Virginia was the second region. And now, the entire state has a native plant campaign. The idea was that it would be a collective, active Action Movement, where organizations with similar long-term goals work together on a common theme to get out a joint message and amplify each other's messages. Our first project was creating the native plant guide. And that actually took a couple of years to get it all written and into print. And once they had it in print, they started distributing it, then kind of sat back and asked themselves, 'What next?' They wanted to continue and expand outreach. So I happened along at that time and got recruited to help lead their general outreach about native plants. And that was about 10 years ago, so that's when I joined the campaign.” 

 

2. What inspired you to join this organization? 

“My Quaker meeting (Herndon Friends Meeting) had started the Student Peace Awards, which give awards to youth who promote peace. We wanted to raise funds for a gift for the awardee and were thinking of ways to do so. And one thing we thought of was that everyone donates their recipes, and we make a cookbook. And you've seen that sort of thing as a way, but then we had the idea: well, why don't we have everybody donate their gardening ideas, and we'll make a gardening book just for Northern Virginia. So we started gathering people's little gardening tips.  At the time, my son gave me the book “Bringing Nature Home”.It was so inspirational to me at the time; it changed the book we wrote about gardening in Northern Virginia to be largely about environmentally friendly gardening. Not long after that, I was listening to NPR, and somebody had called in and talked about “bee safe neighborhoods”, which is a program that they had started in Colorado, where you get as many neighbors as you can to promise not to use insecticides on their property, like spraying for mosquitoes. I thought, well, that's a great idea. So I started bicycling around my neighborhood and collecting promises from 110 people that they wouldn't use pesticides. And we made a map, had a block party, and made a big deal. At that point, it was Audubon Society meeting of some sort, and somehow the topic came up, and I explained what I was doing, and someone who was on the steering committee at plant Nova natives happened to be there, and he came over to me and said "You want to lead our outreach?"” 

 From there, Margaret became the outreach lead and has been ever since!  

3. In your own words, what does Plant NOVA natives do for Northern Virginians?  

“The original idea was that we would be helping coordinate the efforts of the partnering organizations on this messaging, and we continue to have that role to help, like publicizing what they're doing and helping them get together to work together when appropriate. We also have the role of doing our own outreach to the public about the value of native plants. We provide resources for others, such as the labeling program in garden centers.” This program has Plant NOVA Native volunteers place red stickers on native plants at participating nurseries to make them easier for customers to identify.  “Most people get their plants from conventional garden centers or big box stores, and most people will not have necessarily done research on native plants. So we try to make it easier for them. We aim to identify the barriers people face when trying to plant natives.” 

4. How did the partnership with NVCT happen?  

“Seven or eight years ago, we decided that we really wanted to invite all the environmental organizations and agencies into the partnership, and we started having an annual meeting for representatives of those partnering organizations, and basically, I send invitations to any organization I can think of. That's how NVCT got involved. Matt came to one of our meetings, and we’ve been partners ever since!” 

5. What are some of the positive impacts you’ve seen from Plant NOVA Native’s work?  

“Mostly anecdotal, but a little bit of statistical data showing that the sales of native plants have gone up. The owners of the garden centers we work with say sales have increased significantly. A professional survey company conducted a survey this year to compare with a previous one and see whether progress was being made, and there was very clear evidence that progress is being made in awareness of native plants. Gardening magazines are another little bellwether of this when we started this. That has changed completely. You can't pick up a gardening magazine now without at least one article about plants and habitat, habitat gardening, and if anyone's talking about an invasive plant, there'll usually be some editorial notes saying, "but watch out, this is invasive in some states." So now, how much credit can Plant NOVA Natives take for the growth in native plant awareness? It'salways hard to tell, but we know there is a change happening, people are starting to care.” 

 

6. What can individuals do to support ecosystem restoration in their communities? 

“Definitely can the mosquito spray. That is critical because if you attract pollinators or other insects to your property, only to kill them off with insecticide, then you have not done the ecosystem a favor. We want people to understand that there are so many alternatives to just killing everything on their property, and understand that they're not just killing mosquitoes. They’re killing everything else.” 

7. What are some exciting projects Plant NOVA Natives has on the horizon? 

“About five years ago, we started sort of a sub campaign, Plant Nova Trees, which promotes the use of native trees. And it became pretty clear after a while that although planting native trees is essential, it can't keep pace with the loss of trees. And one reason for that loss of trees we could potentially control is invasive species, particularly the terrible vine problem. So we started the tree rescuer program. People take door hangers around to their neighbors, and while they're at it, they count how many trees they can see that are threatened by invasive vines. We extrapolate the data we've collected, which comes to about 3 million trees in Northern Virginia at risk. And of course, if we wait another decade or two, it'll be 6 million, you know, so trying to get a handle on that is really critical, and that is what led us to start a spin-off.” 

Margaret described that Fairfax Tree Rescuers PRISM is the organization on which this new Tree Rescuers branch is based, where volunteers identify at-risk trees and dispatch “tree rescuers” (more volunteers!) to help remove the vines.  

8. What’s the most rewarding part of working in ecosystem restoration for you personally? 

“Getting to know hundreds of people who are dedicated to this mission. They always want to help, are generous with their knowledge, never say no, and want to work for this mission” 

 Margaret’s work exemplifies the power of sustained commitment, collaboration, and grassroots outreach. Through her leadership at Plant NOVA Natives and her ongoing involvement with NVCT, she has helped connect organizations, neighbors, and individuals around a shared mission to restore and protect local ecosystems. As challenges like invasive species and tree loss continue to grow, Margaret’s optimism and dedication remind us that progress is possible when people come together with knowledge, trust, and a willingness to act.