Brandymore Castle has benefitted from 642 hours of volunteer work as of Nov. 1 this year by missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Those hours total 16 weeks of work, or the equivalent of one full-time employee working four months.

Community service like this is part of the obligation of LDS missionaries, but some choose to help in food banks, thrift shops, or refugee relief instead of braving the briars and brambles of a hilly forest. As weed wranglers, the Sisters and Elders have been guided by Park Stewards, themselves volunteers trained by Arlington Regional Master Naturalists, Tree Stewards of Arlington and Alexandria, or Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia. 

At the Castle, they have removed hundreds of pounds of invasive plants that prevent native plants from growing, stowed seeds and debris in bright orange bags to keep bad plants from spreading, wrestled gnarly roots out of the ground to clear areas for new native plants, and sown seeds that we hope will sprout in spring to help feed caterpillars, moths, butterflies, bees, and birds.

Their work has been a tremendous asset to some Arlington parks, as this article and photos illustrate. View some of their work at Brandymore Castle here.

LINKS for above references:

https://armn.org/2021/10/19/on-going-lds-volunteering-having-a-huge-impact-in-five-arlington-parks/

https://friendsofbrandymorecastle.org/media/files/BC_Restoration_Plantings.pdf

Author: Jo Allen
Published on: Nov 09, 2021, 10:06 AM