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About the Contest

This year, we held our fifth Virginia Master Naturalist photo contest, and the first in digital format.  Digital Photography is where it is at today and a very important tool for VMNs. Our hope was that this new format would encourage and make it easier for chapters to enter the contest and also offer an opportunity for a few digital lessons to be learned. And, we felt it would have a much smaller ecological footprint than frames, mats, packing and printing!

This year’s contest categories were “Virginia Flora, Fauna, and Other Species”, “Virginia Landscapes and Habitats”, and “Virginia Master Naturalists in Action”.  We received 48 entries from 16 different VMN chapters across the state.  Each chapter could submit only one photo per category, and chapters were allowed to design their own processes for choosing which photos to send.  Many chapters hold their own internal photo contest, often having members vote to choose the submissions.

The 2017 contest was coordinated by Marie Majarov, who is a talented nature writer and photographer herself, as well as a member of our VMN-Shenandoah Chapter.  Marie did an excellent job bringing everyone into the digital age, creating a guide for saving and labeling digital photos properly and offering one-on-one help along the way to anyone who needed it.  She also assembled an impressive team of judges.  

The contest winners were announced on September 15, 2017 at our statewide conference.  Winners received lovely certificates (again, thanks to Marie Majarov), as well as bragging rights and the opportunity for many more folks to see their fantastic photos.  Marie and the judges all congratulated everyone who submitted photos, whether just to the local chapter contests or to the statewide contests as well.  The judges mentioned that in many cases, the decisions were hard!

Contest Judges

Sally Mills, Editor Virginia Wildlife Magazine
Sally is rounding out ten years as the editor of Virginia Wildlife magazine and overseeing the other print publications for the Department of Game & Inland Fisheries. In that capacity, she works with some of Virginia’s finest writers and wildlife photographers.  Prior to that, she worked with the Virginia Sea Grant Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, another one of our sponsors! There she directed communication efforts for the Advisory Services Program. She wrote, edited, and designed the quarterly Virginia Marine Resource Bulletin.  In her spare time, Sally enjoys kayaking, hiking, fishing, photography, music, beekeeping and fly-fishing

Lynda Richardson, Art Director Virginia Wildlife Magazine
Lynda Richardson, Art Director for DGIF’s Virginia Wildlife Magazine creates the beautiful layouts that grace the magazine pages. She is also a nationally renowned freelance wildlife & environmental photojournalist with over 30 year’s experience. Lynda has been published in numerous prestigious magazines such as the Smithsonian magazine, National and International Wildlife magazines, The Nature Conservancy and National Geographic. Her photography has enabled Lynda to travel the globe to multiple countries in Africa, Central and South America, as well as to Cuba, Mexico, Poland, Belarus, and throughout the United States.  She has sold thousands of images worldwide.

Ed Felker – Virginia Landscapes and Habitats Category
Ed Felker is a graphic designer, photographer, write and outdoorsman. His writing and photography have been featured in Virginia Sportsman magazine, Virginia Wildlife magazine and other fine publications. Ed can most often be found outdoors near his studio overlooking the Potomac River, usually with a camera, often with a fly rod, always with a dog, enjoying the beauty and humor in the world around him. He writes about that works at his blog, Dispatches from the Potomac. Ed is a member of the Virginia Outdoor Writers Association. His Blog is not to be missed… outstanding photography and writing!

Robert Thomas – Virginia Landscapes and Habitats Category
Robert Thomas is a professional photographer and educator. He began his career during the Golden Age of slide film when Kodachrome was ASA 10 and High Speed Ektachrome was ASA 64, cameras were mechanical, and exposure was manual. Robert now has evolved to become a digital photography expert! He is an avid outdoorsman and is currently the Chairman of the Board of the Virginia Outdoor Writers Association, a Board member of the Mason-Dixon Outdoor Writers Association and is the Director of Communications for the Fly Fishers of Virginia. He lives in Richmond, VA with is wife Joan and dog Liza.

Tim Farmer – Virginia Master Naturalists in Action Category
A graduate of Western Kentucky Univerwity with a degree in photojournalism, Tim worked as a writer, photographer, and editor for newspapers in Kentucky and Virginia over a span of 15 years. Tim has been a contributing editor to Canoe & Kayak magazine for 10 years and had numerous articles and photos published in various magazines and newspapers, including USA Today and The Washington Post. Since 1997 Tim has been the Public Relations Coordinator for the State Arboretum of Virginia at UVA’s Historic Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, VA, “The Commonwealth’s Public Garden,” where he has had the opportunity to combine “my love of the outdoors with my writing, editing, and photography experience.’ He still finds time for adventures and a few freelance assignments from time to time. Tim also tells us that “I guess I was born with ink in my blood, since both my parents were journalists early in their careers and my mom was one of the first female photographers for the then-new network of newspapers called The Associated Press. I started my first newspaper in sixth grade, a 2-page flyer full of school gossip and bad jokes that I sold for 2 cents per copy. I used the proceeds to buy a pet skunk.”

 And, the Winners!
All the winning photos are viewable below.  Click on the gallery thumbnails for each photo to see the titles, photographers, and placement.

Virginia Flora, Fauna, and Other Species

• First Place: Inge Curtis, Historic Rivers Chapter, “Oystercatcher on Grandview Beach”
• Second Place: Matt Bright, Arlington Regional Chapter, “Morning Dew” Strophostyles umbellata
• Third Place: Lisa Gurney, Eastern Shore Chapter, “White-tail deer, Odocoileus virginianus, Assateague”
• Honorable Mention: Bill Gorewich, Pocahontas Chapter, “Conflict” Sialis sialis & Cardinalidae

 
Virginia Landscapes and Habitats

• First Place: Emily Luebke, Rivanna Chapter, “Sweet Summer Night,” Raven’s Roost, Blue Ridge Parkway 
• Second Place: Kevin Divins, Pocahontas Chapter, “Forest, Mt. Rogers”
• Third Place: John Bunch, Historic Southside Chapter, “Approaching Sunset on the Blackwater”
• Honorable Mention: Judy Illmensee, Eastern Shore Chapter, “Rainbow” Oyster VA

 
Virginia Master Naturalists in Action

• First Place: Rich Brager, Blue Ridge Foothills & Lakes Chapter, “Awakenings” Rivanna River
• Second Place: Josh Schnell, Arlington Regional Chapter, “Snappershot,” Chelydra serpentina
• Third Place: Rosemarie Nielsen, Merrimac Farm “Inquiring Minds”
• Honorable Mention: Hannah Bement, Shenandoah Chapter, “Viewing a Wood Frog Egg Mass”
• Honorable Mention: Noel Boaz, Southwestern Piedmont Chapter, “Be Very Quiet I’m Hunting Chapter Secretaries, VA Museum of Natural History”

By Ariel Firebaugh, Graduate Student, UVa Department of Environmental Sciences

​I am a firefly scientist. This hasn’t always been the case. My previous research organisms were small, non-descript moths; I can’t tell you what a delight it is to work with a flashy insect for a change. It seems like everyone has a firefly story: a memory of a particular night when the fireflies put on a spectacular display, or a confession of macabre childhood crimes perpetrated against firefly kind. Catching fireflies in the suburbs of Atlanta sparked my interest in entomology as a kid; now I’m lucky enough to catch fireflies for a living as a graduate student in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia.  
 
Fireflies (or lightning bugs, depending on the viscosity of your sweet tea) are beetles in the family Lampyridae (apparently from the Greek lamprid-, “brilliant.” Firefly scientists are dazzlingly punny.) Many (but not all!) firefly species flash as a means of communication. These flashes range in color from amber to snot green to bright white, and they are the result of a bioluminescent chemical reaction that takes place in an abdominal light-producing organ called (brace yourselves) the “lantern.”
 
As the unofficial mascots of summer, fireflies remind us that beauty can arise from the most unexpected places (such as the backside of a beetle). For an insect, fireflies are downright charismatic, yet we are in the dark about some of the most basic questions about their biology. Are firefly populations increasing, declining, or holding steady? How do pesticides, light pollution, deforestation, “lawnification,” and other symptoms of urbanization affect them? To begin to answer these questions, I’ve been on a firefly roadtrip this summer surveying fireflies in yards across the Commonwealth. By tallying firefly abundances and species diversity near urban, suburban, and rural homes, I hope to shed some light on how firefly populations may be affected by land development in the Old Dominion.
 
Like some birdsongs and frog calls, firefly flashes play a role in species identification during courtship. They “speak” with a language of light, and each species has a unique pattern of dits and dots. There could be as many as 200 firefly species in North America, and I’ve seen about 8 species in Virginia on my roadtrip this summer. When I first started working with fireflies, their flashes all looked the same, slurring together like the syllables of a strange language. After many late nights spent in my lawn chair observing them, I’m becoming more fluent in firefly.
 
The most common firefly species I’ve encountered in my travels is Photinus pyralis, or the common eastern firefly. These fireflies begin flashing around sunset, flickering up from the grass like flames. Common eastern fireflies cruise close to the ground and are easy to catch with your bare hands. As dusk falls, an entirely different cast of characters comes out. Fireflies in a different genus called Photuris begin flashing around 45 minutes after sunset. Photuris flash patterns are dazzling and diverse. Some species twinkle like Christmas tree lights; others swoop like comets, curl like smoke, or seem to crescendo. A field full of chattering Photuris fireflies can rival a fireworks display. For me, every night this summer has been like the 4th of July.
 
Over the past two months, I’ve crisscrossed the state counting fireflies from tidy townhouses to snug subdivisions to sprawling farms. Working in yards is an unusually intimate form of fieldwork. I ring the doorbell just as the homeowners are sitting down to dinner, and fuddle around in their flowerbeds until well past the witching hour. Through it all, my homeowner volunteers (about 2/3 of who are Virginia Master Naturalists) have been generous, helpful, and understanding, even when my coffee gauge was perilously close to empty. Their curiosity and enthusiasm have inspired me to learn more about the natural world. I’ve genuinely enjoyed meeting every one of them, and I am extremely grateful for their support.
 
I’ve had such a wonderful time this summer, and wish I had time to count fireflies with all of the Virginia Master Naturalists. If I couldn’t make it to your neck of the woods, don’t worry! There are still ways that you can contribute to efforts to monitor firefly populations across North America. Citizen science groups such as Firefly Watch (affiliated with the Boston Museum of Science) have an open call for volunteers like you to count fireflies throughout the summer. The monitoring protocol is easy to follow and takes less than an hour a week to complete. Here is a link to the Firefly Watch website: https://legacy.mos.org/fireflywatch/
 
As my roadtrip draws to a close, I’d like to invite you to take a moment to notice the last fireflies of the season. What is the purpose of a firefly? “To make baby fireflies” is the answer many biologists would suggest. The firefly scientist in me agrees, but the part of me that has listened to a little too much late-night smooth FM while driving over the past couple weeks is starting to think otherwise. Why couldn’t it also be true that the purpose of the firefly is to be grabbed, squished, sequestered, left to smolder, to sear into one’s memory, so we sometimes pause on the patio in spite of the sweating and swatting and scratching to simply marvel: “Isn’t this lovely?” 

Text by Dr. John G. Jelesko, Virginia Tech faculty
​Images by Andrew Huang, Virginia Tech student

     Summer is in full swing, and so is the risk of poison ivy rash.  For the majority of adults (about 80%) direct contact with any part of poison ivy plant results in allergenic contact dermatitis (commonly called poison ivy rash).  The natural product produced by poison ivy/oak/and sumac  that is responsible for causing allergenic dermatitis is called urushiol.  The symptoms can range from minor reddening and itching, to extensive swelling with oozing puss filled blisters (yuck!).  Perhaps the worst part is the incessant itching!  Moreover, in 2006 and 2007 two scientific studies demonstrated that increasing atmospheric CO2 levels result in poison ivy grew faster, made more biomass, and produced more allergenic forms of urushiol.  Expect to see more (and more noxious) poison ivy in your future! 

     There is currently no prophylactic treatment to prevent poison ivy rash before exposure to the plant.  That means identification and avoidance is your best “medicine” for preventing poison ivy rash.  To this end, the my laboratory at Virginia Tech is developing a public education and engagement social media campaign called The ITCHY Project.  This stands for Investigating Toxicodendron Change and Habitat for Years, hence the acronym ITCHY. We recently developed a video called “The Familiar Stranger” focusing on poison ivy identification to help the public accurately identify poison ivy. You can see “The Familiar Stranger” on The ITCHY Project Facebook page (www.facebook.com/theitchyproject).  Here are some takeaways about identifying this “familiar stranger”.

​Diagnostic 2: Leaflet margin shape(s):  In most cases, poison ivy leaflets show some degree of lobing or notching of the leaflet edges (leaf margins).  The terminal leaflet typically shows symmetrical lobes on both sides, whereas the lateral leaflets will show asymmetric lobing with deeper lobes on the outer leaflet margin than the inner margin (giving it a “mitten shape”).  

​Diagnostic 3: No spines, thorns, nor twining.  Wild raspberry/blackberry  also have conspicuous spines/thorns on the  stems.  Another common poison ivy look-alike is hog peanut that has somewhat more diminutive smooth margined “leaves of three (leaflets)”.  However, hog peanut branches climb by twining around other plant branches or stems.  Poison ivy can also climb as a vine, but it NEVER does so by wrapping around a branch or stem (twining).  Instead, poison ivy vines/lianas climb by putting out aerial roots on the stem that cling to the bark of its host tree, or wedge itself into cracks in the bark of trees (or rocks for that matter) to gain purchase.

​I wish all the VA Master Naturalists a wonderful summer in the outdoors, enabled with new skills in poison ivy plant identification and avoidance.  As for me, I will be seeking out poison ivy as much as possible as part of my research focus on this ever-fascinating “Familiar Stranger”. 

Since the 1970s, the Virginia Outdoors Survey (VOS) has been conducted as a random survey of Virginia residents. The survey assesses the popularity and needs for outdoor recreation facilities across the commonwealth. For the first time, the 2017 survey is open to the general public. The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation invites you and anyone you wish to share the link with to take the 2017 Virginia Outdoors Survey. 

The online survey will close at 5 p.m. on Aug. 24.

You may click here: 2017 Virginia Outdoors Survey, or go to: https://csr.coopercenter.org/DCR2017CS

More to Do and Learn in Northwestern Virginia

Can’t make it to the Virginia Master Naturalist Statewide Conference and Volunteer Training, or perhaps just wanting other great learning opportunities in that area of the state?  Check out these other fall conferences from our partners.

Virginia Native Plant Society Tri-State Conference – September 29-October 1, 2017, Shepherdstown, WV (with some field trips in Virginia)
Virginia Environmental Education Conference – October 10-12, 2017, Northern Virginia 4-H Center in Front Royal, VA.