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Below, we have listed the volunteers (alphabetically, by chapter) who have achieved these milestones between January and June 2022.  The list is based on information in our Better Impact volunteer management system.   

These volunteers have done extraordinary levels of service! We want to particularly acknowledge the achievements of Marion Jordan, Susan McSwain, Nancy Barnhart, Adrienne Frank, and Larry Lewis, all new members of the VMN Golden Circle based on their contributions of more than 5,000 hours of service each.  In addition, Bob Toner has hit 10,000 hours–quite an achievement!

Thank you to Tiffany Brown, VMN Program Assistant, for compiling these lists!

50 years ago, Congress passed banner legislation designed to protect our nation’s ocean and coasts. The 1972 National Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) shaped our past 50 years and will continue to shape the future.

The versatility of the CZMA, administered by NOAA, provides for the management of the nation’s coastal resources. It outlines the National Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program to balance competing land and water issues through state coastal management programs, such as the Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program.  

The Virginia CZM Program, established in 1986, is a network of state agencies and local governments led by DEQ that administer the enforceable laws and regulations that protect our air and water quality and coastal habitats.  Read more about the coastal resiliency, restoration and conservation efforts of the Virginia CZM Program being funded through the CZMA.  Visit https://www.deq.virginia.gov/coasts.

This federal and state partnership approach works.

But it also needs you.  Please help raise awareness about all that our ocean and coasts do for us.  Share the 50 ways (and more!) Virginians can show their love for our ocean and coast. There are many actions, big and small, from which to choose when at home and work, out and about, volunteering, in the garden, on vacation, at play, and in school and volunteering!
 
More Resources
50 ways to love your Ocean and Coasts video 
50 ways to love your ocean and coasts webpage
50 years of ocean and coast legislation webpage
50 years of accomplishments and successes administering ocean and coastal conservation policy webpage
Prevent Balloon Litter Campaign
Plant Virginia Natives Initiative

I was looking around at my yard on April 15th of this year, and thinking: “I’m ready.  My native plant gardens have matured enough that I am ready to show them to people, and hopefully inspire them to plant more natives.  I’m going to schedule an open house and see what happens.”  I picked a date of Saturday, May 7th for the first annual Native Plant Garden Open House.  I had no idea if people would be interested.

I posted the event in various places on Facebook, and emailed friends and family.  I contacted local  chapters of the VMN, Virginia Native Plant Society, and master gardeners.  Suddenly, I had people I don’t even know saying, “Wow, I want to open up my gardens, too! Can I be a host?”  I ended up having five host gardens.  I made flyers with the addresses of each garden, the year the native garden was established, and brief descriptions.  Part of an example description: “Paths curve through shady areas where woodland phlox, wild geranium, Jacob’s ladder, and bloodroot grow along with trillium and many ferns.”  

The gardens were all far apart – none were closer than a 20 minute drive.  None of us have mature gardens.  Mine was the oldest, established in 2017.  The weather forecast was gloomy, and on the day of the event it was about 60 degrees and drizzling.  Would anyone come?  Yes!  I had 54 very enthusiastic people come during the 9am to noon open house.  Some were fellow master naturalists, some were from the Virginia Native Plant Society.  Some just heard about it somehow. Other than about 5 people, I had never met them before.  People asked a lot of the same questions: “What is this plant?”  “Where did you buy it?” and “Are you going to do this again next year?  This is great!  Please do it again!”

I’ve been learning about screening potential hosts.  People who say “I think some of my plants are probably native” are not a good fit!  I screen hosts by saying I want them to be able to identify the vast majority of the plants in their gardens, and to be able to say if they are native or non-native.  If people have plants on the invasive species list in their yards, I am asking that they have a plan for removal, such as “We’re slowly decreasing this patch of English Ivy, and cutting it off the tree trunks.”  So far, this has worked, and people have decided for themselves that they would not be right for it. 

It has been a very rewarding experience for me and a lot of other people.  It was really not much work, and my only cost was about $5.00 getting paper flyers printed.  Each host set up their own open house.  They decided whether to have ID signs for plants, educational flyers, free native plants, etc.  I’m hoping this article inspires other VMNs to start their own native plant garden open houses!

Contest Guidelines

• The artwork must be original artwork created and submitted by a currently enrolled VMN volunteer.
• Please limit submissions to one submission per volunteer.
• The artwork may be a drawing, painting, or photograph, but it must be submitted as a digital file, such as a PDF, JPG, PNG, or GIF file.
• The artwork must be of a non-marine mammal species that is considered native to Virginia. Below, we have provided the names of the non-marine mammals on the most current, official List of Native & Naturalized Fauna of Virginia, provided by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.  Naturalized species are marked with an asterisk and do not meet the qualification of “native” for the purposes of our artwork contest.
• The artwork should not be of a bat species, for the simple reason that we had a bat pin in 2011 featuring the Virginia Big-eared Bat, which is Virginia’s State Bat.
• We greatly prefer artwork that allows us to create a pin in the shape of the mammal, rather than having to be an oval or rectangular pin. Keep this preference in mind when creating your artwork, and imagine a pin cut in the shape of the animal. Pins cannot easily have very finely detailed edges, so it is helpful if the animal’s shape is a smoother line.  See the frog, turtle, and oyster pins on our recertification pin artwork history page as examples of artwork that were easily converted to pins. 

To Submit Your Artwork for the Contest
If you want to submit your artwork for the contest, please complete the online contest survey no later than 5:00 pm on Friday, August 19. You will be asked to provide your name, email, VMN chapter, 1-2 sentences about why you think that mammal species should be featured, and your permission to use the artwork. Have your digital artwork file ready; you will be need to upload it within the survey.

Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources List of Native and Naturalized Fauna of Virginia – Mammals (Non-Marine)
April 2022
*denotes naturalized species that would not qualify for this recertification pin contest