Dragonfly Nature Programs is a small, locally owned business, working out of Holly Springs, NC. As an active community member and advocate for environmental stewardship, owner, Rachel Woods, enjoys making time for projects that positively impact the environment both locally & globally. Scroll down to learn more about the projects Rachel & Dragonfly Nature Programs has been involved with.
Community Trash Clean-Ups
The pandemic had us home in 2020, so my participation in the NCWF’s Trees4Trash clean-up was predominately a family affair! We raised over $200 for local tree plantings and took 3 trips to the landfill to clear out our truck of all the litter we collected, all within 3 miles of our home (and headquarters of Dragonfly).
In 2021, I decided to host 2 community clean-ups. We had 10 volunteers come out and collect several hundred pounds of trash. I was proud to see some of my current and former students join us!
NCSU Turtle Rescue Team Foster Parenting
Since 2016, Rachel has cared for nearly a dozen injured turtles, (mostly sliders and box turtles) to support the efforts of NCSU’s Turtle Rescue Team. This volunteer coalition sees that injured turtles (predominately hit by vehicles) are rehabbed, nourished and returned to where they are found.
Community Festivals
Each event we attend is an opportunity to see students outside of school, meet new people, connect with other environmental groups and educate the public. We have hosted booths at Harris Lake’s Longleaf Pine Festival, at Arbor Day events with We Pay it Forward and at the Town of Holly Springs’ Wild About Nature Day at Sugg Farm. We have finally matriculated enough students through our program, they now come back to work these events for us!
The Town of Holly Springs Tree Advisory Committee
The Tree Advisory Committee along with town council members at our first Arbor Day celebration where we planted 3 native serviceberry trees at Ting park. Rachel is second from the left.
Rachel Woods served as the chairperson for the Town of Holly Springs tree advisory committee from 2019-2022. The committee met monthly to advise the town about the importance of maintaining the urban forest in Holly Springs and expanding it. Their work included hosting tree care programs for residents, sponsoring tree giveaways, advising the town council on local tree ordinances and supporting street tree care.
You can also enjoy the Tree ID Hiking Trail we installed in 2021 at Bass Lake Park off of Bass Lake Road in Holly Springs.
Holly Springs NC became a Tree City USA in 2019.
Dragonfly Nature Programs participates in Citizen Science Projects
What is Citizen Science?
Citizen Science Projects utilize the time, expertise and energy of the general public who volunteer to collect data for various projects, both locally and worldwide. Since Rachel took ownership of Dragonfly in 2015, she has been actively involved in various projects. See below.
Nest Watch at Harris Lake County Park 2022-23
Rachel volunteered her time once a week during the spring and early summer of 2022 to watch 12 bird nesting boxes at her “home” park, Harris Lake. This absolutely wonderful park provides a natural buffer for wildlife and humans in our rapidly developing county and offers fantastic educational programming to the public. They also monitor wildlife species, maintaining dozens and dozens of bird nesting boxes onsite. This year Rachel monitored bluebird, screech owl and wood duck boxes. The weekly experience was a terrific excuse to bird and get outside while assisting an important cause.
The City Nature Challenge-Annually
Along with over 40,000 other people, Rachel logged pictures of wildlife into the iNaturalist app to help scientists log information about species diversity and abundance worldwide. Along with logging data, Rachel also helped to identify the photos of others through iNaturalist.
JCRA Pollinator Project
Over the summer 2017, Rachel volunteered for pollinator counts at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh to assist a graduate student's investigation. The study questioned whether native pollinators favored native plant species over the countless non-native varieties located around the grounds of the arboretum. Rachel and a small group of others sat out in the heat & sun on Saturday mornings to count the bees and beetles, butterflies and wasps. In exchange, Rachel met some really bright students, delightful volunteers and is getting much better at bee vs. fly vs. wasp identifications!
eMammal Triangle Area Camera Trap Project Spring 2016
Rachel & her eldest son set up 2, 3-week camera trap deployments this spring. One in their backyard, the second in a friend's backyard which has a stream and more acreage. The camera takes pictures of anything that moves in front of it (including wind blown trees) and will continue to take multiple pictures to get some quick time information. They then uploaded all the images to the project data base (over 1000!) after identifying the animals in every picture. Now their data is part of the eMammal data base, tracking mammal populations around the world!
If you have a project you think Dragonfly Nature Programs could be a part of, contact Rachel through email or on any of our social media accounts. Links for those accounts are below.