October 2022

By Emily Gianfortoni, VMN volunteer, Riverine Chapter

Riverine Chapter VMN 
Establishment and the Early Years of the Chapter

Beginnings: In 2006 Colleen Calderwood, Hanover County Cooperative Extension Agent at the time, recruited four Hanover Master Gardeners and Kathleen Ogilvy from the local Virginia Department of Forestry office to attend a training and orientation session for the new volunteer Virginia Master Naturalist Program. Held at Douthat State Park in May of 2006, the training session was designed to explain the program’s goals and how to organize a local Virginia Master Naturalist Chapter.
 
As stated in its mission, “The Virginia Master Naturalist Program is a statewide corps of volunteers providing education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. Interested Virginians become Master Naturalists through training and volunteer service.” Because of the diversity of natural areas, resources, and needs in the state, the VMN volunteer program required each local chapter to design its own training and projects within general state guidelines. This flexibility also required more time and organizational efforts for members of the self-run chapters.
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At the close of the Douthat training, the six recruits chose the name Riverine for our new chapter in recognition of the importance of the various rivers in central Virginia to our region. (As the only chapter in central Virginia, Riverine initially included members from Richmond City, Hanover, Henrico, Chesterfield, Goochland, New Kent and several other counties.)  The six who attended the training formed a Local Coordinating Committee (LCC), as required by the state organization, and were responsible for adapting by-laws from a provided sample that would govern the chapter; organizing a training program; and recruiting members. 

Riverine Chapter: Planning and First Training Class in 2007
The most important and time-consuming work for the LCC was recruiting members and organizing a training program for the chapter. Two different training models were outlined at the Douthat Conference: 1) a systems approach, and 2) an “ologies” perspective. The first looked at different ecological systems such as forests, streams, and coastal systems. The second focused on organisms in ecological systems such as mammals, birds, plants, amphibians, etc. In the end the Riverine LCC followed the hybrid model that began with basic ecological principles and geology, followed by aquatic systems, forests, wetlands, coastal systems, and urban/suburban systems. Mammals was also taught by Lou Verner in that first class. Our instructors from the state natural resource agencies were very generous from the beginning in donating their time to instruct our classes. Many including Lou Verner (DWR), David Spears (State Geologist from DMME), Carl Hershner (VIMS), and Bill Shanabruch taught Riverine classes from the beginning (until retirement or after).

Recruiting trainees for the program turned out to be the easiest task. By the end of 2006 before the first class was to start in January of 2007 at the Hanover Department of Social Services conference room (known as the DSS), approximately 36 people had applied for the training. Because of limited space four people had to be turned down, and the 32 remaining applicants crowded into the room that comfortably held 24. The 2007 training class ran from January through March.
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An important part of training required 10 hours of field training. One of the first was stream monitoring for water quality using macroinvertebrates as an indicator.

​Following the class completion, members were required to volunteer for 40 hours on approved projects and attend 8 hours of advanced training to become certified as Virginia Master Naturalists. This entailed finding and organizing volunteer projects. One of the earliest projects, RAS Kids, was a project in partnership with Richmond Audubon Society (RAS). Volunteers led Richmond City children on outdoor excursions to James River Park and other local parks. A grant to RAS enabled them to hire buses to transport the children to parks. 
Another early education project was a two-hour workshop on bats organized by six Riverine members in response to a request from Henrico County. The program stressed the importance of protecting bats and dispelled myths associated with bats. Following the presentation attendees were offered the chance to make a bat house from kits put together by the Riverine volunteers.
Riverine volunteers helped staff education booths at the Virginia State Fair for our sponsoring agencies (DOF, DCR and DWR).  Our first citizen science project was Wildlife Mapping. Lou Verner (DWR) provided the advanced training. We kept paper records of sightings but reported them online.
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In December of 2007 Riverine Chapter held its first annual meeting, approved the by-laws drafted by the LCC and elected the first slate of officers. With the election of officers for the first Riverine Board of Directors, the LCC was disbanded, and Riverine became an official chapter of the VMN. Four members of the 2007 training class, Nick Conklin, Kathleen Ogilvy, Mary Ellen Stohr, and Emily Gianfortoni, continue as Riverine members.

Riverine Grows: 2008-2009 

Our chapter continued to grow with 28 people in the 2008 class and 22 in the 2009 class. Perhaps because of the 2008 recession the 2009 class had the smallest number of applicants in our history.
Our projects continued to grow. Through the RAS Kids program our volunteers continued to introduce hundreds of city children to the outdoors. The Riverine Education/Outreach Committee introduced its first education booth highlighting plants for butterfly gardening at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Fest. 

​Education booths continued to be one of the most successful endeavors in the early years of the Chapter. Members Nick Conklin and Mary Ellen Stohr created a spinning wheel with photos of wildlife and information cards about each animal. This game was a big draw for kids at our booths for many years.

​Other events where our booths appeared during the first years of the Chapter included the Hanover Tomato Festival, Henrico Harvest Festival, and Virginia Garden Festival at the Science Museum of VA. Booth themes centered around providing information about Virginia’s wildlife including creating habitat for wildlife and gardening for butterflies and pollinators. The chapter invested in a canopy, backdrops, and better signage for our booths.

​Riverine members volunteered with the Science Museum to create a Bayscape native plant garden in 2009. They also worked at Virginia House designing and planting a native habitat garden. Unfortunately, neither of these gardens still exists.

​Reflections on the Chapter’s Early Years

Riverine was one of the first VMN chapters established in the state, and the structure of the program was much looser. We had to invent many things as we went along. While there were general guidelines from the state organization, we had great leeway in how we organized our training, how we chose members of the training classes, how we chose our projects, and how strictly we enforced recording of volunteer hours. 

There was both a cost and a benefit from this looser structure. Here are some of the challenges and successes we faced as an organization in the early years.

1. Retention of Members. Except for the first training class in which we had to turn away a few applicants, we accepted almost all applicants to our training classes. Our classes were full every year and the trainees were uniformly enthusiastic about the program and anxious to volunteer. However, many of them did not fully understand the necessity of completing all of the class requirements including the 40 volunteer hours on approved projects within the year. People who did not become fully certified in that timeframe were more likely to drop out within a year or two. On the plus side, the relative freedom from structure of the early years fostered a great deal of enthusiasm, variety, and creativity in our projects. 
2. Recording Hours. This was a huge issue before online recording of hours was initiated. The paperwork entailed, especially for the membership chair, was daunting. Those who were not used to recording volunteer hours had a difficult time understanding the importance to the program of documenting hours. Each member was required to record volunteer and training hours on paper sheets and to submit them to the membership committee by the end of the year for the annual report. Needless to say, few membership chairs signed on for a second year of duty.  VMS, the first online timekeeping system, and now Better Impact have been a vast improvement over the earlier paper chaos.
3. Training New Members. One of the strengths of our program from the beginning was the outstanding instructors we were able to engage for our training classes. Many of them who taught our classes during the first year in 2007 continued to teach them year after year even after retirement. Some of those who gave up a long evening and sometimes traveled a significant distance every year to teach a Riverine class include Lou Verner (Ecology and Mammals); Bill Shanabruch (Aquatic Systems); David Spears (Geology); Carl Hershner (Coastal and Estuarine Systems); and many others who came back almost as many years. 
4. Friends and Like-minded Colleagues. In addition to the many worthwhile projects in which Riverine members have been engaged over the years, fellowship with like-minded members has been the most rewarding personal experience. People we may never have met in our regular lives have become friends and people to share our passion for the natural world.

Current Riverine Members from the First Four Classes
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Nick Conklin (2007)
Emily Gianfortoni (2007)
Kathleen Ogilvy (2007)
Mary Ellen Stohr (2007)
Cheryl Vosburg (2008)
Rod Allen (2009)
Sheila Barnett (2009)
Holly Hartley (2009)
Diane Jadlowski (2009)
Laura Greenleaf (2010)
Kitty Hardt (2010)
Nancy Kitchens (2010)
Catharine Tucker (2010)

Each year, previously certified VMN volunteers who complete another 40 hours of approved volunteer service and 8 hours of approved continuing education earn a unique recertification pin for that year.  In many years, we have held a contest to choose the artwork for the pin; we are fortunate to have many VMN volunteers with artistic talent! We decided the 2023 recertification pin would be a mammal species of some kind, and we invited VMN volunteers to submit their mammal artwork. The winning artwork was selected based on input from the VMN program staff, wildlife experts from our sponsoring agencies, and volunteers in our Golden Circle.

We received a tremendous number of excellent submissions, and here we share all the artwork we received, including the winning Virginia opossum picture by Deborah Humphries in the Historic Rivers Chapter. 

We asked each artist to describe why they thought the mammal they chose should be the focal species for the pin. Deborah wrote, “I think the Virginia Opossum is one of the most unique and hardest working mammals we have. They help maintain a healthy eco-system by consuming up to 90% of the ticks trying to feed on them. Additionally the are also catching and eating cockroaches, rats and mice. They eat snails and slugs and overripe fruit and berries in the garden. They are resistant to snake venom and actually prey on snakes including venomous species like copperheads and rattlesnakes in addition to consuming dead animals of all types. All this and more as they are North America’s only marsupial, so their cool factor is above and beyond other mammals. Much like master naturalists! Much of my information came from the National Wildlife Federation blog post about opossums.”

Thank you to all the volunteers who participated! It is so much fun to see your creativity and passion!

Click on the images below to see each submission for the 2023 VMN recertification pin artwork. The artist name and the species are listed in each caption.

Merrimac Farm Volunteers Tom Ligon and Shea Megale Earn the Water Quality Special Team Award

–Submitted by Tom Ligon, VMN Merrimac Farm Chapter
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Shea and I have a route of 22 chemical water quality monitoring sites that we test monthly. We use the Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District (PWSWCD) YSI Pro DSS probes. We monitor both county sites and a number for David Ek, the City of Manassas stormwater manager (but really an environmentalist). The PWSWCD just won national honors for the scope of their volunteer program. They started with one probe and are now up to three to handle the demand. They also have a very active benthic macroinvertebrates monitoring program, plus stewardship volunteer activities, and Merrimac Farm VMN provides many of the volunteers.

Apparently, 22 sites every month is a lot? We were both awarded the Water Quality Special Team Award from the PWSWCD, recognizing “dedication and continued commitment in keeping Prince William County beautiful!”

Shea handles data recording and is my safety backup for more difficult sites. She’s able to get close enough to some of our sites to handle the probe herself. She recently led a nature hike in Cub Run Park in which she demonstrated that she is able to ford some streams (there are several concrete-bottomed fords in Cub Run). We believe Shea is the only VMN in a motorized wheelchair, but we could use more like her. 

​Pocahontas Chapter Reaches New Audiences at Bright Hope Butterfly Garden
–Submitted by Lesha Berkel, VMN Pocahontas Chapter

In September, Pocahontas Chapter VMNs led a group from Jacob’s Chance for several activities at Pocahontas State Park’s Bright Hope butterfly garden. Earlier in the summer, Brooke Hsieh from Jacob’s Chance contacted Pocahontas State Park staff about coordinating a butterfly walk for several young adults with diverse abilities and their families, and Bright Hope was a perfect fit. The group toured the garden, participated in a scavenger hunt and created a butterfly art project. VMN Outreach & Education coordinator Pam Camblin organized the event for VMN volunteers who received great feedback from Jacob’s Chance staff and families for their coordination as well as their empathy in working with all who participated. Pocahontas VMNs look forward to hosting the group again in the future.
 
The Bright Hope butterfly garden was established seven years ago by VMN Jennifer Ambs as a citizen science project for the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. Volunteers gather weekly from April through October to collect long-term data on larval monarch populations and milkweed habitat. The project focuses on monarch distribution and abundance during the breeding season.
 
Jacob’s Chance programs are open to all youth and young adults who can benefit, from 5-35 years old without regard for diagnosis, income or ability level. Programs are operated with a focus on inclusion, where volunteers (called “buddies”) without disabilities play alongside those with diverse abilities. Programs are adapted to meet the needs of each player or participant to foster understanding and accepting of diversity in physical, intellectual, and developmental abilities.

Chapter Outreach Chair Creates Award-Winning Chapter Newsletter
–Submitted by Mary Beth Yarbrough, VMN Shenandoah Chapter
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I’d like to recognize Tim Koppenhaver, the Outreach Chair for the Shenandoah Chapter of VMN. Since completing his basic training in 2019, Tim has expertly published our chapter’s excellent quarterly newsletter, the Saw-Whet. The newsletter was recently awarded second prize for the Excellent-in-Craft annual award by the Virginia Outdoor Writers  Association (VOWA). The Virginia Outdoor Writers Association is a coalition of writer
s, photographers, and video/film producers who inform through various media on the out-of-doors and its enjoyment.  Through this association, memb strive to improve in their craft and increase their knowledge and understanding of the outdoors. 

​In addition to managing the chapter’s Outreach events, Tim has set a personal goal  to visit one hundred Nature Conservancy (TNC) properties by the time he’s sixty, and publishes a blog on his visits. For decades, TNC has worked globally to preserve exquisitely unique, pristine, and beautiful locations around the world. The Shenandoah Chapter is quite proud of Tim!

James River Chapter Recognizes Three Enthusiastic Volunteers

–Submitted by Maudie Miller, VMN James River Chapter

Ellen Smyth
Ellen Smyth did her Basic Training in 2019 and has had a particularly busy volunteer year in 2022.  She has maintained a table at the Powhatan County Public Library to teach child patrons about native fishes of Virginia.  Each month, she provides a color picture of a common VA fish with a short story of that fish and 100 coloring pages, so a child can take home a sheet
and color it in.  A new fish is chosen and displayed each month.  There is a prominent James River Master Naturalist placard on the table, so great outreach for us!! Ellen’s biggest project this year involved conceiving and organizing an event in collaboration with the Powhatan Library’s summer reading program for children.  This was titled “Nature from the Ground Up” and involved eight tables manned by James River Chapter volunteers, including Soils, Worms, Insects, Animal Clothes, Plants, Trees, and Bird Songs (this was a short walk through the woods to an amphitheater on the library grounds, where our very talented volunteer was able to broadcast bird songs and even got some birds to respond!)  We had over 70 attendees, including parents and children.  Additionally, the chapter donated several youth nature books to the library.  This was a huge project but Ellen’s organizational skills made it very smooth and successful.

Ellen also organized the Butterfly Count activity, in collaboration with NABA, involving 13 volunteers, including two children.

AND, her enthusiasm must be felt at home, as her husband Bill Smyth completed his James River Master Naturalists basic training in Fall of 2021.  Our chapter is very lucky to have them both!!
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Bruce Behringer​
Bruce Behringer has been a James River Chapter member since 2019.  Last year he collected acorns for the VA Department of 
Forestry Acorn and Seed Collection Project as a solo activity.

This year he expanded this into a chapter project by setting up a Continuing Education evening at the local library.  This consisted of talks by two foresters, and a  YouTube video from “15 minutes in the Forest” series, on how the DOF state nursery uses our acorns to grow tree saplings. He also collected acorns from the different trees and created handouts with pictures of tree leaves of several species and their corresponding acorns,  to guide our collection efforts.

On October 8, Bruce supervised volunteers at Powhatan State Park  to collect acorns, and others collected in their yards and neighborhoods for a total of three counties.  175 pounds of acorns from 10 different species were delivered to the Dept of Forestry!

Bruce has also agreed to chair an AdHoc Committee on Partners, exploring ways to develop and enhance our collaborations with community partners.  He has experience facilitating such collaborations in his  professional role in healthcare, and we look forward to this upcoming work.

Ros Reilly
​Ros Reilly, her daughter in law Sarah Reilly, and her 14year old grandson Sam Reilly were all in our training class in Fall 2021. It was really cool to have three generations in our class!!  Since then, Ros has been a very active volunteer.  This spring, she recruited 7 JRMN volunteers and arranged online and field training, so that they became certified as Save Our Streams monitors. This group monitors streams in Powh
atan and Goochland Counties twice a year to identify and count benthic
macroinvertebrates, a valuable measure of stream health. 

In July, Ros had a fabulous table for a collaborative project with the Powhatan County Public Library as part of their summer reading program for children.  Our exhibit was titled “Nature from the Ground Up” and included tables on soils, worms, insects, plants, animal clothes, trees and birdsongs. Ros’ table was a highlight and looked very professional.  She sewed a 6 foot long worm , complete with a clitellum or egg sac  and casts/scat.   Her poster was beautifully done, and she even had a bin of worms and soil from her home vermicomposter!! The kids loved it!

Ros is currently applying for a volunteer position with the Xerces Society, doing outreach and education about invertebrate species. Her experience, knowledge and passion are well suited to this new endeavor. ​​

Southern Piedmont Volunteer Goes Above and Beyond for the Adopt-a-Trail Project

In August our newest chapter, the Southern Piedmont Chapter, graduated 17 VMNs from its first Basic Training course. The entire class is already doing exemplary work across the expansive, “Southside” region comprising Mecklenburg, Halifax, Brunswick, Charlotte, and Lunenburg Counties. Newly minted volunteers regularly support all three of Southside Virginia’s State Parks as well as the US Army Corps of Engineers which manages the John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir, a 50,000-acre lake surrounded by 55,000 acres of beautiful, protected shoreline. The chapter also partnered with DWR and adopted the Christanna Loop of the Virginia Bird and Wildlife Trail (VBWT) as a group project. 

Husband and wife team Clyde and Donna Wilson volunteered to lead the chapter’s participation in the VBWT Adopt-a-Trail project, and their dedication and commitment have been extraordinary. Donna works full-time and still managed to log over 75 hours supporting VBWT.  Clyde went even further. Recently retired, he was able to immerse himself in the project. In addition to logging over 160 hours of eBirding, Clyde put in over 375 hours directly supporting the VBWT.  Clyde personally visited all 11 spots on the Christanna Loop and met with every site owner for an initial visit. He walked all the trails on each site to assess safety, trail condition, and ensure the information on DWR’s website is up-to-date and accurate, and of course, he recorded an eBird trip at each spot. Clyde was the perfect person for the job because in addition to being a passionate birder, he’s the consummate “people person.” It had been so long since the Christanna spots were last assessed that in several cases Clyde had to do some sleuthing just to find the site owners—and then remind them that their property is part of the VBWT. He met some interesting local characters and introduced them to the VMN program as well as reminding them about their role as VBWT site owners. In one case, Clyde discovered the reason a spot had no eBird observations was because the gates were closed in the early morning (prime birding time) and an admission fee was charged upon entering the grounds. Clyde convinced the site owner to open the gates earlier and waive the admission fee for birders.

​After the initial visits on the Christanna loop, Clyde and Donna introduced their fellow Basic Trainees to birding. They gave a presentation on how the VBWT project works and an introduction to the eBird app. Their goal was to support new birders and ensure that the VBWT project includes the entire chapter, including both experienced and novice birders. 

Clyde emphasizes, “We’ve discovered some interesting birds as a result of making it a point to visit these seldom visited spots. Adopting the VBWT loops is important work. Without the VBWT, birders wouldn’t know these places exist, so this is important in terms of citizen science and in terms of introducing people to nature in general.” 

Clyde’s passion for birds and his commitment to the VBWT is boundless. The Christanna Loop is one of 3 VBWT loops within the Southern Piedmont area that had not been inspected, assessed, or updated since at least 2007. After assessing and updating the Christanna Loop, Clyde volunteered to visit spots of the unadopted Dan River and Staunton River Loops. Although the Southern Piedmont Chapter is still too new and too small to formally adopt multiple loops, Clyde wanted to make sure they are safe and accessible. To date, he has visited all 20 stops on the Dan and Staunton River Loops and has forwarded suggestions for removing spots that are no longer open to the public and adding spots that offer excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing. Clyde hopes that as the Southern Piedmont Chapter grows, members will want to adopt an additional VBWT Loop or two.

DWR’s Meagan Thomas oversees the VBWT Adopt-a-Trail project. She says of Clyde, “Clyde’s participation in the Adopt-a-Trail project has been truly invaluable to DWR’s work to update, maintain, and promote the Virginia Bird and Wildlife Trail. His passion for birding is contagious and he has already recruited numerous volunteers to work on the project with him as well as utilized the chapter’s adopted loop to introduce the local community to the wonderful world of birding. The sheer number of hours he has contributed to the project relative to the length of time he has been participating is absolutely astounding. Not only has he demonstrated a commitment to assessing the loop that his chapter has adopted, but his work to evaluate the surrounding un-adopted loops has made him a real asset to this project. Thanks to Clyde, wildlife viewers in the Southern Piedmont have up-to-date information about the best viewing opportunities the area has to offer!”

Old Rag Chapter is Back in the Saddle Again

By Charlene Uhl, VMN Old Rag Chapter

The pandemic had an impact on so much of our society’s activities. Regular events like local farmers’ markets and festivals were cancelled. Celebrations of important dates were not held or were conducted virtually. Community activities – particularly for children – didn’t happen. Now that we hopefully have turned the corner on this time of “hunkering in place”, volunteer organizations like Master Naturalist chapters are finding ways to share our message about nature and everyone can help to protect and support it. 

The Old Rag Master Naturalist chapter is getting its groove back as our members are identifying community events where we can host a table, display information and talk to folks about the importance of nature, the natural world and what each person can do to support healthy habitats. Here are four events where ORMN volunteers shared this important message:

Farmers markets have always been a wonderful opportunity to get our message out. The Greene County Farmers Market is held weekly throughout the summer. Two of our members – Judith Stevens, a newly certified ORMN member and Grace Cangialosi, an experienced Master Naturalist since 2012, manned a booth every other week throughout the summer season. They worked closely with the local Extension Service, which provided information for distribution, free giveaways, and other items. Important information was posted on our display boards, which were changed regularly. There was an education focus every week (i.e., invasive plants with focus on Bradford Pear, identification and importance of local watersheds, backyard conservation efforts and weather and climate change). Sign-up sheets made sure that those who stopped by got a follow-up email encouraging them to connect to our website. A major bonus from this effort was we received applications from several Greene County residents for ORMN’s 2023 Basic Training Class.

Madison County’s Taste of the Mountains, a favorite one-day festival that draws people from all over the state, has not held for several years. So when it was announced that this major county event was going to occur this summer, ORMN member Dee Dee Lyons immediately secured a booth and recruited members to meet and greet visitors throughout the day. ORMN representatives included our President Barry Buschow; our Vice President Tom Dreier and his wife Frances, also an ORMN member; and Connie McCabe and Rob Bannister, two newly certified members.  Again the opportunities to share timely information (notably the spread of the Spotted Lanternfly) as well as engage with the community were goals that were clearly achieved.

Montpelier’s Constitution Day celebration gave ORMN an opportunity to really focus on the threat that the Spotted Lanternfly poses to agricultural crops and Virginia’s vineyards across a broad audience from Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC and others. Adam Downing, County Extension Agent for our area, provided banners, literature, samples of Spotted Lanternfly and other eye-catching displays that drew in 49 visitors during the 5-hour event. An enthusiastic group of four newly certified ORMN members – Cathy Crain, Beth and Dave Perrow, and Sue Weis – manned the tables and interacted with visitors.

And last and definitely not least, ORMN co-sponsored FOWL Fest. FOWL (Friends of Wildlife at the Lake) was the brain child of a group of concerned citizens at a gated community in Orange County who responded to the trapping and killing of foxes in their neighborhood. FOWL’s first year culminated with the FOWL Fest – a family-friendly festival that featured the importance and value of wildlife in Virginia. Deanne Lawrence, a FOWL member as well as a newly certified ORMN member, reached out to ORMN to help produce the event. Representatives from several Virginia agencies brought information and live animals to help educate the community about wildlife and its importance. The ORMN booth featured information on the Spotted Lanternfly (can never over-emphasize how nasty this insect is!) and was manned by Barry Buschow, Tom Dreier, Bruce Bowman, and Sue Weis along with  Judith Stevens in the kids’ room. This family-friendly event was attended by community members and many others from the surrounding region. The plan is to have FOWL Fest be an annual event celebrating Virginia’s wildlife and how we each can help to support the habitats they need.

Rivanna Chapter Volun
teers Provide Nature Experiences for Young Children

By Carolyn Long and Jill Watt, VMN Rivanna Chapter

The Little Nature Explorers’ main purpose is to provide positive nature experiences for preschool-aged children. Jill Watt collaborated with Marjie Giuliano, another Rivanna Master Naturalist, to develop this program after attending a similar program at Ivy Creek Natural Area in Charlottesville where she discovered that her four-year-old daughter loved nature.

Jill moved to the Charlottesville area from Georgia in 2017 with her 3 children while her husband was deployed in Korea in the Army. She soon became a Charlottesville Area Tree Steward and a Rivanna Master Naturalist. Jill is currently pursuing a master’s degree in biology. When the program at Ivy Creek was paused due to the COVID pandemic in 2020, Jill and Marjie decided to start a nature program in Charlottesville for young children that would reach a more diverse population. 

The Little Nature Explorers sessions are 6 weeks in length and offered through the Charlottesville Park and Recreation Department. The first session was held in the fall of 2021 with more sessions in the spring and fall of 2022. The advantages of offering the program through the city parks department include the use of various green spaces with trails, pavilions, and bathrooms in walkable neighborhoods. The program also receives free advertising through the city parks website. The free sessions usually have 12 to 14 children aged 2 to 5 plus younger siblings and at least one caregiver. A core group of volunteers designs the program each week with a leader and several helpers in attendance. 

The Little Nature Explorers provide age-appropriate information on a different nature topic each week through storytelling, songs, activities, art projects, and hikes or walks. Some of the topics include birds, animals, trees, seeds and nuts, signs and tracks, animal habitats, and bees. 

The program also promotes positive nature experiences for adult caregivers by providing information and answering their questions. Jill knows that parents have a huge impact on what their children like and dislike. When asked if there was a particular moment that was memorable, Jill described a regularly attending caregiver who was fearful of bugs and worms. Jill spoke privately to the caregiver about how important it was to not pass that fear on to the children. During a session on worms and their habitats, the caregiver held a live worm, and Jill was proud of their active participation without displaying fear.
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Jill hopes that both children and caregivers leave each session with new knowledge about nature and have a positive experience that will lead them to be good earth stewards. She hopes to enlist more volunteers so that the program can expand to other parks and areas in the city. The next session will be in the spring.

Tallying Terns (and Other Birds) on the Eastern Shore

–Submitted by Brenda Poist, VMN Eastern Shore Chapter
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​The Eastern Shore Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists (ESMN) would like to recognize Paul Anderson, Martina Coker, Joanne Laskowski and Maggie Long, all ESMN who along with Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory (CVWO) President, Brian Taber formed team Tallying Terns as part of the Kiptopeke Challenge (KC). The Challenge is a fun and friendly team birding competition where teams compete to identify the greatest number of bird species in a single day. The primary goals of the KC are to raise funds for the CVWO and to raise awareness of fall bird migration on the Eastern Shore and along the coastal plain of Virginia. Originally scheduled for October 1, Hurricane Ian’s approach resulted in the event being postponed until October 6 when Maggie Long and Brian Taber focused their bird identification over a 10-hour period by exploring the land, creeks, ocean, and bay areas of the southern tip of Northampton County. Starting at the Eastern Shore of Virginia Wildlife Refuge at first daylight and working their way north via Sunset Beach and Kiptopeke State Park, the team then crossed the peninsula to the town of Oyster followed by the Brinkley Preserve where their bird count ended.  During their birding marathon the Tallying Terns identified an impressive 106 individual bird species (list attached below). Please note that monetary donations are being accepted at the KC website until October 31. All funds raised are used to support CVWO’s field research and environmental education programs.

Birds identified by Tallying Terns, October 6, 2022:

Holston Rivers Volunteer Helps Discover Flower Flies on the Blue Ridge Parkway

VMN volunteers have been participating in several biodiversity surveys on the Blue Ridge Parkway, organized by the National Park Service’s Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center. The most recent effort has been a survey of flower flies (family Syrphidae), which are important pollinators of native plants. A significant section of the parkway remained unstudied, however, until this year, when Russ McDaniel of the Holston Rivers Chapter stepped up to the task. He visited the Fisher’s Peak Meadows and Groundhog Mountain areas of the parkway over the summer, collected flower flies (under an NPS collection permit), and delivered them to NPS scientist Paul Super for identification. Paul recently reported that Russ found twelve different flower fly species at his sites, including at least one species not previously identified for the Virginia section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

• Oblique Stripetail (Allograpta obliqua)
• Common Drone Fly (Eristalis tenax)
• Transverse-banded Drone Fly (Eristalis transversa)
• aphideater (Eupeodes americanus or pomus)–female; cannot be told apart
• Variable Duskyface (Melanostoma mellinum)
• ant fly (Microdon sp.)
• Black-striped Globetail (Sphaerophoria novaeangliae)
• Eastern Calligrapher (Toxomerus geminatus)
• Margined Calligrapher (Toxomerus marginatus)
• Maize Calligrapher (Toxomerus politus)
• Yellow-faced Swiftwing (Volucella facialis)–new for VA section of Parkway
• American Harlequin (Xanthogramma flavipes)

Congratulations to Russ, and well done on this citizen science effort!

​The Great Bluebird Rescue of 2022

By Camille Grabb and Leslie Fellows, with rescue details shared by Pam Narney
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John and Pam Narney, VMNs in the Northern Neck Chapter, deserve “Laurels” for their swift and effective handling of a bluebird nesting box crisis this past summer.  John has been the coordinator of the Bluebird activity for our chapter for a number of years, and Pam has been a monitor with him.  They are also avid Osprey supporters, having an Osprey platform off their property near Colonial Beach and observing, for many years, the osprey parents and young as they come and go.  Pam writes a blog about the ospreys throughout their season, presents osprey programs for local groups, and is known locally as “the Osprey Queen.” She has “OSPRY QN” on one license plate and “AVES” on the other. As Pam has says, “I love flyers; that’s why I married a helicopter pilot!”  It is also why she helped create the first Osprey Fest in Colonial Beach, now held annually.  Their part in what we’re calling “The Great Bluebird Rescue of 2022” shows their deep commitment to, and respect for, all of nature.

One morning in June, two of us started our bluebird monitoring at Westmoreland State Park.  When we opened our first box, a mama bluebird flew out. Five eggs were in her nest, and that wasn’t all.  We quickly noticed that the box was infested with thousands of ants.  They were everywhere, including all throughout the nest strata.  There was no question that once the eggs hatched the babies would be killed within minutes, and it would be a painful death. Our initial gut reaction was to remove and destroy the nest, eggs and all. But first we decided to call John Narney, our Chapter Bluebird Coordinator, to see if he could give us any alternative.  John and wife Pam called Anne Little, of the Virginia Bluebird Society, to see if she had any suggestions.

She explained that the only likely way to save the babies was to carefully remove the eggs, discard the infested nest, brush all the ants out of the box, then cover the now empty box inside with diatomaceous eart
h, build a new nest, place it in the box, then place the eggs in the new nest.  John and Pam went to the park and quickly got to work. The eggs were carefully removed from the nest and placed on a towel. The nest and the ants were removed from the box and the box was thoroughly brushed. Pam crafted a new nest from pine straw!  

The following day, diatomaceous earth was sprinkled on the bottom of the box and around the base of the support pole to prevent the ants from returning.  Pam placed that nest in the box on top of the diatomaceous earth. The five eggs were gently placed in this new nest inside their box.  Almost immediately the parents returned.
Six days later we returned to check the box. Mama was there incubating an ant-free clutch of five eggs, which eventually successfully hatched and added 5 new bluebirds to the Westmoreland population.      
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And now we ALL realize what to do if we encounter an ant-infested bluebird box!

Volunteers Spot a Rare Plant 

While on a field session at the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge during the Virginia Master Naturalist Statewide Conference, several VMN volunteers spotted an interesting plant. It appeared to be some sort of orchid, and one volunteer uploaded a photo to iNaturalist. DCR Natural Heritage Chesapeake Bay Region Steward Zach Bradford saw the posting on iNaturalist and was able to identify it as the first verified Virginia occurrence of Habenaria repens, water-spider bog orchid. It’s a largely southern species (that ranges into South America) that has seemingly been inching towards that Virginia state line in recent decades, with the previous closest population about 15 miles to the south in NC. Zach then visited the population the following week and reports that it is small but shows clear evidence of reproduction. The occurrence is now listed in the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora (with an acknowledgement of the VMN volunteers’ involvement.) Due to the horticultural popularity of the species and the incredible ease in poaching from this very accessible population, the location information is deliberately vague.

Well done, Margaret Chatham (VMN Arlington Regional Chapter), David Gorsline (VMN Fairfax Chapter), and other VMN volunteers involved in this discovery! 

Historic Southside Finishes a Living Shoreline Demonstration

The Historic Southside Chapter finally put the finishing touches on a project chapter volunteers began helping with about twenty-one months ago.

In the early spring of 2021, a VIMS designed living shoreline was slated to be installed along an eroded section of Cypress Creek within Windsor Castle Park in Smithfield, VA.

Numerous volunteers from the Historic Southside Chapter put many hours helping with all phases of this project. For a history of the many hours volunteers contributed to this important project, visit the Nature in Windsor Castle Park site.

By Meagan Thomas, Watchable Wildlife Biologist, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources

If you are one of over two hundred Adopt-a-Trail (AAT) Volunteers, we at the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources want to reach out and extend a very sincere THANK YOU! This past year has been a doozy for all of us as DWR launched a major overhaul to the AAT project. We are so appreciative of all of our amazing volunteers for their patience throughout this transition and their dedication to help ensure that the Virginia Bird and Wildlife Trail remains a top guide to the wildlife viewing opportunities in Virginia.

Check out some of the amazing observations that volunteers have made during their visits to Bird and Wildlife Trail Sites in 2022. And if you want to learn more about the Adopt-a-Trail project and how you can participate, check out our project page on the VMN website.