Name the event and Kris is always there to help us talk about Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy.  Over the years she has been with us at the Native Plant Sales, Leesburg Flower and Garden Festivals, Annual Meetings, Bluemont Fairs, Appalachian Trail Festivals, and Milkweed Sales.

Having been a member since 2012, Kris is well versed in what we do and why we do it.  She says, “I am always happy to help Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy with their events because I learn a lot each time and the work of the LWC is so important. I have two grandsons, two great-nieces and four great-nephews, and I am very aware that how we treat our environment will affect their lives now and in the future.”

Kris’s favorite thing in nature is her own backyard which is Audubon at Home certified.  She lives on a ¾-acre lot bordering a golf course park with Tuscarora Creek running through the back half of her property. While part of her yard has ash trees that have succumbed to the Emerald Ash Borer, she also has “two spectacular twin oak trees between our house and the creek. Around these and on the other side of the creek we have left to grow wild, except when my husband, Bill, gets in there to pull out honeysuckle, Japanese Stiltgrass, and English Ivy, among other unwelcome plants. We have a row of milkweed in a sunny spot along the creek.”

Kris is glad that her neighbors have left their yards along the creek wild too, saying, “This provides a critter superhighway through the Country Club subdivision from neighboring subdivisions to the south, because in many places the creek runs underneath the roads.”  Kris gets to see mink, racoons, possums, squirrels, groundhogs, deer many kinds of birds including hawks and Great Blue Herons, and “we have our own personal chipmunk!” She tells us that “one year we were blessed with a Red Fox family that made use of the groundhog burrow under our shed. The three babies would come out and play in the backyard, while Mom watched and Dad went to the neighbor’s garden for zucchini!”

In closing Kris remarks, “It isn’t a lot of land, but we do what we can to provide the critters a healthy stream environment.”  Many thanks to Kris, and to all of our volunteers, for creating a place in Loudoun where people and wildlife thrive together.

Kris Dennen’s back yard.

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