Volume 30 Issue 1, Winter 2025

by Kim Strader, Volunteer Coordinator

“I love nature. I love to be outdoors. The loss of flora and fauna due to overconstruction, ignorance, and apathy concerns me,” said Sheryl Weitzel on her application to become a Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy volunteer in March 2022. “What better way to preserve the beauty — and ensure the continuity — of nature than to volunteer where I live?” True to her written words, Sheryl immediately began volunteering the following month.

Sheryl Weitzel helps out at JK Black Oak.
Photo by Gerco Hoogeweg

Her first volunteer commitment was to be a bluebird monitor on one of our nest box trails in Brambleton, where she remains on the monitoring team today. Since 2022, the 13 nest boxes on this trail have fledged 76 Eastern Bluebirds, 44 Tree Swallows, nine house wrens, and five chickadees.

Sheryl also started volunteering with Loudoun Wildlife’s Native Plant Sale in the spring of 2022. She is one of the few volunteers who arrive bright and early at 6:30 am to help unload the trucks and then stays for the first volunteer shift that ends at noon. After helping the plant nurseries unload and set up their sales areas, she always assists at the Watermark Woods plant sale booth. Additionally, Sheryl volunteers every June to help prepare plants the day before the Milkweed Sale we hold with Northwest Federal Credit Union.

In June 2023, Sheryl began volunteering at the JK Black Oak Wildlife Sanctuary workdays, where she helps with various habitat restoration projects by removing invasive plants. In November, she helped spread wood chips around a newly planted area and cut seed heads from goldenrods to slow the spread of this abundant native plant. When the team was only able to cut half of the seed heads, Sheryl offered to come back in a few days to finish the job.

Sheryl is a joy to work with and is always willing to do what is needed for any project. She is dependable, reliable, and always smiling. To date, Sheryl has volunteered a total of 117.75 hours with us, proving her love of nature and the outdoors and her desire to help protect, preserve, and restore wildlife habitat throughout her community. We thank Sheryl for helping to create a Loudoun where people and wildlife thrive together.

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