Do a Treemendous 20th Service Activity in 2025!

April 1, 2025

Throughout 2025, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Virginia Master Naturalist program. We’ll be having special events and communications to highlight some longstanding volunteers and projects. We also are celebrating with a statewide volunteer service theme of trees and forests (Treemendous 20th!) You can learn more about our plans from the recording of our January 2025 webinar.

We encourage every VMN volunteer to do at least one service activity in 2025 that relates to and benefits trees and/or forests across Virginia. At the end of the year, we would like to report our collective positive impact. We hope to have measurable positive impacts such as increasing tree canopy cover, improving forest health, increasing public knowledge and appreciation of forest resources, increasing Virginians’ skills related to tree identification and care, and improving knowledge and data related to forests for use by natural resource managers and scientists.

How to Report

Report your Treemendous 20th tree or forest focused service activities as you normally would in Better Impact, attributed to the correct activity for your chapter. To help us more easily identify your Treemendous 20th hours entries, please put #Treemendous20th (spelled and written just like that!) in the description field when you enter hours into Better Impact for any activity that relates to trees and forests. You can also enter #Treemendous20th for continuing education hours you do that relate to trees or forests.

We also encourage volunteers to put any measurable impacts into the “impact” field in Better Impact when reporting their hours. Examples could include number of trees planted, quantity of invasive plants removed or size of area cleared of invasive plants, evaluation results from educational programs, or pounds of acorns collected.

Example Service Activities

Here are examples of potential activities that fit into our statewide project theme. This is not an exhaustive list! You may have other service activities that you do that are directly related to trees and forests.

Education and Outreach

Become a Project Learning Tree educator and lead PLT activities for youth
Become a Project Learning Tree facilitator and train other educators in the PLT curriculum. Activity Proposal Form and template available in Better Impact.
Lead an interpretive walk for the public focused on trees, forest ecology, or urban forestry. Need some help planning a walk? Virginia Department of Forestry’s Conservation Education Coordinator Ellen Powell has created this handy guide to leading a tree walk.
Give a talk about trees or forests for a local community group, 4-H club, or other group
Establish new tree identification trails in publicly accessible areas, such as schools, libraries, or parks. Need some help getting tree tags? Virginia Department of Forestry’s Conservation Education Coordinator Ellen Powell has some extras!
Have a tree or forest-themed table at a public event (such as Earth Day)
Hold an educational event for Arbor Day

Science

Assist with the Virginia Department of Forestry Beech Leaf Disease survey. Activity Proposal Form, template, link to training webinar, link to survey form all available in Better Impact.
Assist with the Virginia Department of Forestry survey for outlying populations of wavyleaf grass. Activity Proposal Form and template available in Better Impact.
Conduct surveys for invasive plants at Virginia Department of Forestry State Forest properties using WildSpotter. Activity Proposal Form and template available in Better Impact.
Assist your community with tree canopy surveys

Stewardship

Conduct a tree planting project on public lands
Help manage invasive plants in forests on public lands (Please don’t count invasive plant management in meadow or demonstration garden habitats for the #Treemendous20th, although these certainly still may be approved service.)
Collect acorns and other tree seeds for the Virginia Department of Forestry nurseries. Activity Proposal Form and template available in Better Impact.