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Want to learn about the natural world and participate in volunteer projects to benefit natural resource conservation in Virginia?  Virginia Master Naturalist chapters in many locations are now recruiting new volunteers to participate in their fall basic training courses.  Classroom and field sessions led by expert naturalists, scientists, and natural resource managers will cover topics from trees to birds to stream ecology.  Completing the course is the first step to becoming a Certified Virginia Master Naturalist volunteer and gives you access to a wide range of local and statewide volunteer projects to help you spend time outdoors with a purpose!  Learn more about the program at http://www.virginiamasternaturalist.org, and contact your local chapter for additional information and applications.

Locations, deadlines, schedules, and contacts for Fall 2016 VMN Basic Training Courses:

• Arlington, Arlington Regional Chapter: Application deadline is August 20, class is evenings September 6-December 6, 7-10 pm, https://armn.org 
• Eastern Shore, Eastern Shore Chapter: Application deadline is August 22, class is daytime September-November, http://www.masternaturalistesva.com 
• Fairfax, Fairfax Chapter: Application deadline is August 1, class is evenings September 8-December 1, http://www.vmnfairfax.org 
• Fredericksburg, Central Rappahannock Chapter: Application deadline is August 8, class is daytime August 8-December 6, http://masternaturalistcrc.blogspot.com 
• Powhatan/Goochland, James River Chapter: Application deadline is August 1, class is evenings September 6-December 13,  https://jamesrivermasternaturalists.wordpress.com, email jamesrivermn@gmail.com for application
• Leesburg, Banshee Reeks Chapter: Application deadline is September 1, class is daytime September 17-April 2017, http://www.vmnbansheereeks.org 
• Newport News, Peninsula Chapter: Applications now being accepted, class is Wednesday evenings September-December, http://vmnpeninsula.weebly.com 
• Williamsburg, Historic Rivers Chapter: Applications are first-come, first-served, class evenings September 6-March 8, http://www.historicrivers.org 
• Wise, High Knob Chapter: Application deadline is July 25 (some late applications may be accepted), class evenings August 8-November 7, contact pmeeks@vt.edu for more information and an application.

The Virginia Master Naturalist program’s state office is now accepting nominations for three statewide awards: Volunteer of the Year, Project of the Year, and Advisor of the Year. These awards will be judged by the VMN statewide office team and at least one VMN Steering Committee member. We will announce and distribute the awards at our annual conference, Friday evening, August 26.

To submit a nomination, please send the information requested for that particular award to Michelle Prysby, mprysby@vt.edu. Nominations are due by July 25 at 5 pm. 

Volunteer of the Year
This award is intended to recognize a volunteer who has made outstanding contributions to natural resource education, citizen science, and/or stewardship. There is no minimum requirement for amount of hours or length of service for a volunteer to receive this award.
In your nominations, please include the following:

• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of nominator
• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the nominee
• Description of why the nominee should receive the award, limited to 400 words. You may choose to include a description of the individual’s service, specific examples of positive impacts made, aspects that make the individual stand out from other volunteers, and quotes from other volunteers or local partners.
• You may include examples from the individual’s entire length of service, but please place your primary focus on the last 1-2 years.

 
Project of the Year
This award is intended to recognize a chapter or individual volunteer’s project that has made significant and noteworthy positive impacts for natural resource education, citizen science, and/or stewardship within the last 1-2 years. Nominated projects should be projects created and led by a VMN volunteer or chapter, but they may be in partnership with other entities.
In your nominations, please include the following:

• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the nominator
• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation for the primary VMN volunteer contact for the project
• Description of why the project should receive the award, limited to 400 words. Please include a description of the project goals, activities completed, and impacts and outcomes for natural resources in your community. Include the roles and contributions of VMN volunteers to the project. Identify any significant partners for the project.

 
Chapter Advisor of the Year
This award is intended to recognize a chapter advisor who has made significant and noteworthy contributions to a VMN chapter within the last 1-2 years.
In your nominations, please include the following:

• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the nominator
• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the chapter advisor
• Description of why the chapter advisor should receive the award, limited to 400 words. Please include specific examples of how the chapter advisor has helped the chapter run effectively, make positive impacts in the community, or otherwise achieve its goals.

Please help us recognize the outstanding work and people of your chapters!

​The VMN state office and a team of volunteers from the Blue Ridge Foothills and Lakes Chapter have been working hard over the last several months to plan the 2016 VMN Statewide Volunteer Conference and Training.  It is still almost four months away, but we are finalizing all the sessions and presenters, pinning down details at the venue, and preparing the conference website.
 
Registration will open in June, so we want to give you a preview of the conference now to whet your appetite for the natural resources smorgasbord that we will have for you! 
 
Venue
The Skelton 4-H Educational Conference Center at Smith Mountain Lake is a wonderful venue for our needs.  Attendees will be able to choose from several styles of lodging rooms, all at affordable prices.  There are many classrooms for breakout sessions, including a computer lab with tablets that we’ll make use of for training on some citizen science-related technologies.  The grounds include trails and lake access that will be incorporated into some of the sessions. 
 
On-site sessions
We have thirty (!) on-site concurrent sessions from which VMN volunteers may choose.  Interested in plants?  Attend a session on replacing turf with natives or on identifying sedges.  Are herps your thing?  Track box turtles, become trained for the Frog Watch USA project, or learn how snakes kill and eat their prey.  Want to build skills for educating others?  Get ideas for interactive and easy outreach activities for festivals and events or learn the best way to communicate about climate change.  Instructors for these sessions include highly rated local presenters as well as state agency personnel and other presenters from across the state.
 
Off-site sessions
Many of the on-site sessions will make use of the outdoors since we have the 4-H Center campus available to us, but we will have field trips as well.  Among them are hikes to two different DCR Natural Area Preserves, a fungi foray at Claytor Nature Study Center, and a BioBlitz at Booker T. Washington National Monument.  We will also have pre-conference field trips at Booker T. Washington National Monument and at Smith Mountain Lake State Park.
 
Back By Popular Demand
Our program is old enough to now have some traditions, and we’ll be bringing back your favorites to the conference as well.  Expect the Friday night “Chapter Share Fair” where you can show off the great things your chapter is doing and gather ideas from others.  The VMN photo contest will return — rules are already posted at https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/custom.aspx?EventID=1831018&_i=sCWrb7lOOoE%3d.  (Note that there are limited entries per chapter; some chapters have an internal competition to choose their entries.)   We will also have program awards, so watch for information about nominations which will be sent out in the coming weeks.  This and registration details will be available through the Volunteer Management System once they are posted.
 
We hope to learn, celebrate, and swap ideas with you in August on the shores of Smith Mountain Lake! 

​For several years, a few of our VMN chapters have done chapter “focus projects” – projects that the chapter works on as a team, engaging volunteers from across different training cohorts, and that are intended to have more significant impacts on natural resource conservation than can be accomplished by volunteers working individually. For example, in 2015, the Headwaters Chapter installed a series of five pollinator waystations spread across Rockingham and Augusta counties.  The project included researching where and what to plant and developing interpretive signage for each of the sites, as well as the actual planting.  More than 20 VMN-Headwaters Chapter volunteers were involved. 
 
In our VMN 2015-2020 strategic plan, supporting chapters through mini-grants to help them conduct projects is one of the listed priorities.  Thanks to a generous grant from an anonymous donor, plus matching funds from the many VMN volunteers who donated to our annual campaign, we are able to meet this goal in 2016.  We put out a call to chapters for mini-grant proposals specifically to support chapter focus projects.  Our intention is to support not only positive outcomes for natural resources, but also positive outcomes for chapters, such as increased volunteer retention and engagement, and development of new partnerships.
 
We have funded focus projects for nine different chapters:

• Central Blue Ridge Chapter – Developing and installing an interpretive trail for a new Nelson County park
• Fairfax Chapter – Establishing long-term monitoring of three DGIF Birding and Wildlife Trail loops
• Historic Southside Chapter – Developing a native pollinator garden in Isle of Wight County
• Holston Rivers Chapter – Conducting a BioBlitz at Hungry Mother State Park
• James River Chapter – Conducting a wildlife survey at Belmead
• Northern Neck Chapter – Increasing diversity through enhanced outreach programming
• Peninsula Chapter – Conducting a biological inventory of Lucas Creek
• Riverine Chapter – Developing educational materials for parks in the VDGIF Henrico Birding and Wildlife Trail Loop
• Roanoke Valley Chapter – Installing a riparian buffer in a Roanoke County park

 
The funds have just been dispersed and most projects are just getting started, but one is already well underway.  Volunteers in the Roanoke Valley Chapter worked together to improve a stream much in need of protection.  The stream had turf nearly up to the edge of the water and evidence of erosion, but now has a newly-planted riparian buffer with native trees and shrubs. The mini-grant helped the chapter purchase all the plants as well as the necessary tree tubes and other materials to ensure that they thrive.  To expand the impacts of their work, they also engaged local high school students in the project.  Their next step will be developing interpretive signage to help park visitors know what the plantings are all about and why they are important for stream conservation.