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The peak monarch butterfly migration recently reached northern Mexico, just 500 miles from their final winter destination in the transvolcanic mountain range of central Mexico.  Monarch aficionados worried that Hurricane Patricia would decimate the migrating butterfly population, but the storm weakened and the butterflies detoured into ravines for protection.  There has been a lot of worry about monarchs this year, with new reports that the number of overwintering monarchs in Mexico has dropped 90% over the past two decades.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is reviewing a petition to list monarchs as an endangered species.   
 
Positive steps to conserve monarch breeding habitat and increase monarch populations are underway.  In May, a federal inter-agency task force released its strategy to promote pollinator health; increasing monarch butterfly populations is one of its three major goals.  The USFWS has launched a campaign to support planting of new monarch habitat across their breeding range.  Virginia Master Naturalists have been doing their part as well, using their volunteer time to educate youth and adults about monarchs, to contribute data on monarchs to several large-scale citizen science studies, and to plan and plant milkweed habitat for monarchs and other pollinators in their communities.  Here we highlight just a few of the many monarch projects underway in our VMN chapters.

Making Use of Roadsides
-Submitted by Susan Walton, VMN-Peninsula Chapter
Virginia Master Naturalists and other partners are working with the Virginia Department of Transportation to identify suitable roadside areas that could support pollinator habitat.  In one example, Susan Walton (VMN volunteer – Peninsula Chapter) partnered with Gloucester VDOT Superintendent Kevin Sears to protect three patches of milkweed along Route 17.  Thanks to advice and education provided by Susan, Mr. Sears changed the mowing pattern so that the milkweed patches were not mowed in the summer.  While one patch was accidently mowed, in the other two areas the milkweed bloomed and provided nectar and homes for pollinators throughout the summer. The mowed patch grew back to provide young milkweed for the fall monarch migration.  VDOT has a Pollinator Habitat Program that they are working to implement statewide, starting with a new planting of more than 8,000 pollinator-friendly plants at the Dale City Rest Area on I-95.  Leaders for the project are interested in receiving suggestions for locations where roadside pollinator plants could be located and in recruiting volunteers to help with future efforts.

Schoolyard Milkweed Gardens and Youth Education
-Submitted by Barb Dunbar, VMN-Historic Rivers Chapter
In 2013 the Historic Rivers and Peninsula Master Naturalists partnered with Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) to help teachers and students plan, build, and plant a monarch waystation at ten elementary schools and one high school.  Since that time they have had additional schools request their help in creating outdoor classrooms/pollinator habitats for a total of twenty-three schools.  Last year, those schools tagged approximately 650 monarch butterflies that were gathered from the school gardens.  Many were raised in the classroom enabling students the awesome experience of watching the monarchs go through their transformation from egg to adult butterfly.  Some of the schools took on the additional task of testing the monarchs for a protozoan parasite in partnership with the University of Georgia. The project is on track this year to tag another 600+ as they journey to Mexico.  Many of the schools have enlarged their gardens focusing on habitat for birds and frogs.  The Virginia Master Naturalist and VCE Master Gardener volunteers continue to work with the teachers and students providing expertise in planning additions to the garden and more importantly, helping with hands-on lessons for the students.
 

Tracking Our Monarch Populations
-Submitted by Jennifer Ambs, VMN-Pocahontas Chapter
​Monitoring monarch populations is an important part of their conservation, as we need to understand how the populations are changing and if efforts to provide more habitat are making a difference.  There are numerous large-scale citizen science projects focused on monarchs, such as Journey North, Monarch Watch, and the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, and VMN volunteers are engaged in many of these projects.  The VMN Pocahontas Chapter sent a copy of a letter recently sent to Governor Terry McAuliffe, who had visited Pocahontas State Park on Earth Day 2015 to help put in a monarch butterfly habitat. 
 
“Dear Governor McAuliffe,
 
We are writing to update you on the Monarch Butterfly Garden you initiated in Pocahontas State Park on Earth Day, April 22, 2015. As Virginia Master Naturalists active in the park, we have been monitoring the garden weekly for monarch activity and entering data into the national Monarch Larva Monitoring Project database.  The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP) is a citizen science project involving volunteers in monarch research.  It was developed by the University of Minnesota to collect long-term data on milkweed habitat and larval monarch populations, with the goal of understanding spatial and temporal variation in monarch populations.  It aids monarch conservation and increases the understanding of butterfly ecology.  As part of this research, we measured milkweed plants and noted the size and general condition of each plant, the presence of predatory insects, and the development of buds, flowers and seed pods. Our garden is one of only nine sites in Virginia participating in the national database for 2015.
 
We have also registered the garden with Monarch Watch, a project of the University of Kansas that is focused on preserving monarch habitats by creating waystations throughout the migration pathways. The garden at Pocahontas State Park has now been successfully certified as a Monarch Waystation.  As participants in Monarch Watch, we tag adult monarch butterflies in order to track the success rate of their iconic migration.
 
The monarch butterflies found our first-year garden and laid eggs on the milkweed plants.  We observed 6 eggs and the following week in early September, found five monarch caterpillars eating the milkweed plants. By the time of our next visit the caterpillars were gone – but we are confident they found their way to nearby branches and successfully completed their cycle to adulthood.  

We are grateful for your initiative to establish a garden to help protect and preserve the monarch butterflies, a critical link in the pollination chain of Virginia’s agricultural and natural resources. We are currently preparing for a second garden in another area of Pocahontas State Park. At the same time we will continue to monitor the garden that you helped establish.
 
We appreciate your support and are proud to be part of this important conservation effort in Virginia.
 
Sincerely,
 Jennifer Ambs, Project Coordinator
Eric Gray, Mary Camp, Karen Daniel, Wanda Cutchins, Katherine Snavely and Joshquinn Andrews, on behalf of the Pocahontas Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists

We look forward to sharing more stories on ways that VMN volunteers are helping monarchs in Virginia!

Throughout 2015, we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Virginia Master Naturalist program.  We’ve released an infographic to communicate all that our volunteers have done over the past decade, we launched our first ever annual campaign, and now we bring to you something a little different – the Virginia Master Naturalist Program’s 10th Anniversary Trivia Contest!

How much do you really know about the Virginia Master Naturalist program?  Maybe you know some basics, such as who our sponsoring agencies are and where our chapters are located.  How about the finer details, like which species have been featured on the recertification pins or the name of our newest chapter?  Test your knowledge by participating in our trivia contest.  The questions are listed below, but you’ll need to go to the trivia contest survey page to submit your answers.

The contest rules include:

• Responses must be entered, along with requested contact information, into the online survey form by Wednesday, September 30.
• On October 1, we will compile the entries that have 100% correct answers.  We then will randomly select 3 entries from this group to receive limited edition Virginia Master Naturalist logo items.  More info on those coming soon!
• Other correct respondents will be recognized on the VMN blog on or shortly after October 1.  We will also post the correct responses there.
• Legitimate sources for finding the answers include your fellow VMN volunteers, program partners and sponsors, social media, VMN publications and website, or your own memory.  You may not ask program staff (Alycia, Michelle, or Tiffany) for the answers.
• VMN program staff and current or former Steering and Executive Committee members are not eligible for the prizes, but they can still be recognized on the blog if they participate.

The Questions:
1.     We now have annual statewide or regional conferences for the VMN program.  They are a time to come together to celebrate accomplishments of our volunteers, explore a new area of the state, and participate in continuing education.  In what city and in which year was the first VMN statewide conference held?  

2.     At the beginning of the program, we started new chapters in batches.  How many chapters were started in the first wave or cohort of VMN chapters? 

3.     We are fortunate to have many Virginia state agencies supporting our program.  List each of the seven state agency sponsors of the VMN program by name and indicate which one has joined most recently.

4.     We have been using the same logo since close to the beginning of the program.  What is the scientific name of the organism featured in the VMN program logo?

5.     VMN volunteers who re-certify by completing 40 hours of volunteering and 8 hours of continuing education each year now receive special pins with Virginia species.  What five species have been featured on VMN recertification pins?  List them by common name.

6.     Choosing a chapter name can sometimes be hard!  Which VMN chapter changed its name a year or two after getting started?  Identify both its former and its current name.

7.     Our program has grown quickly!  How many VMN volunteers had been trained between the beginning of the program and the end of 2014?

8.     Representatives from our sponsoring agencies provide input into the program through two committees.  Name three current members of the VMN Executive Committee.

9.     In 2013 and 2014, we conducted a needs assessment and strategic planning process for the program to guide us through our next five years.  Name one goal identified for the VMN program to achieve by 2020 in its strategic plan.

10.  We’re still reaching new parts of the state!  What is the name of the newest VMN chapter?

Submit your answers and enter the contest at http://tinyurl.com/qzvy5wx!

We are excited to announce the addition of the seventh sponsor to the VMN program: the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Center for Coastal Resources Management!  See below for the official press release.

Virginia Master Naturalist program welcomes new sponsoring agency

BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 3, 2015 – The Virginia Master Naturalist program (http://www.virginiamasternaturalist.org) — a statewide volunteer training and service program providing education, outreach, and service to better manage natural resources and natural areas in Virginia — welcomes the Virginia Institute of Marine Science’s Center for Coastal Resources Management (http://ccrm.vims.edu) as its newest sponsoring agency.

Based in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment (http://cnre.vt.edu), the Virginia Master Naturalist program started in 2005 with financial support from five sponsoring agencies: Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Museum of Natural History, and the state departments of Conservation and Recreation, Game and Inland Fisheries, and Forestry. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality was added as a sponsoring agency in 2010. Program volunteers actively were engaged in that department’s Citizen Water Quality Monitoring Program, a collaboration that has strengthened over time.

“We are excited to have the Center for Coastal Resources Management join our growing network of sponsoring agencies and partnering organizations around the state,” said Alycia Crall (http://frec.vt.edu/people/crall/index.html), statewide coordinator for the Virginia Master Naturalist program. “With a rapidly growing program, we continue to look for ways to diversify our funding support. The center’s contribution will further support that growth and advance the mission of our program, as well as that of the center throughout the commonwealth.”

The Center for Coastal Resources Management develops and supports integrated and adaptive management of coastal zone resources. To fulfill this mission, the center undertakes research, provides advisory service, and conducts outreach education, including Master Naturalist training courses for coastal and estuarine ecology and management in collaboration with other Virginia Institute of Marine Science departments.

“Supporting the Virginia Master Naturalist program is a logical extension of our outreach efforts,” added Center Director Carl Hershner Jr. “There is a growing need for educated citizens to support various local and state government initiatives aimed at restoring the Chesapeake Bay and adapting to climate change. These volunteers are well positioned to serve the commonwealth in these roles, and we look forward to helping make that happen.”

Karen Duhring, the center’s outreach and training coordinator, will represent the agency on the Virginia Master Naturalist program’s steering and executive committees. “The annual Virginia Institute of Marine Science training classes for Master Naturalists have been well received and are a pleasure for us to conduct,” she said. “Expanding our relationship as a sponsoring agency will allow us to connect the program to more continuing education courses and opportunities. We are also willing to assist any chapter interested in developing citizen science programs related to coastal and wetland issues.”

The College of Natural Resources and Environment (http://www.cnre.vt.edu/) at Virginia Tech, which consistently ranks among the top three programs of its kind in the nation, advances the science of sustainability. Programs prepare the future generation of leaders to address the complex natural resources issues facing the planet. World-class faculty lead transformational research that complements the student learning experience and impacts citizens and communities across the globe on sustainability issues, especially as they pertain to water, climate, fisheries, wildlife, forestry, sustainable biomaterials, ecosystems, and geography. As a land-grant university, Virginia Tech serves the Commonwealth of Virginia in teaching, research, and Virginia Cooperative Extension (http://www.ext.vt.edu/).

Related Links

• Celebrating a decade of Virginia Master Naturalists (http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2015/04/040915-cnre-masternaturalist10.html)
• Master Naturalist program grant to enhance training curriculum (http://www.cnre.vt.edu/magazine/articles/college-news/201502/master-naturalist-program-grant-to-enhance-training-curriculum.html)
• Virginia Master Naturalists serve as stewards, teachers, and citizen scientists (http://www.vt.edu/spotlight/impact/2014-11-24-master/naturalists.html)

This story can be found on the Virginia Tech News website: 
http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2015/08/080315-cnre-masternaturalistagency.html 

Collaborative Science is the product of a research grant entitled ‘Sustaining ecological communities through citizen science and online collaboration.’ This research is supported by the National Science Foundation and is intended to help engage individuals in using technology to conduct locally based, but regionally connected, natural resource stewardship projects. Collaborative Science uses a series of web-based modeling and social media tools to engage Virginia Master Naturalists in conducting authentic science. This includes making field observations, engaging in collaborative discussions, graphically representing data, and modeling ecological systems. The goal of these efforts is to allow volunteers to engage in natural resource management and conservation. 

Collaborators in this project include learning scientists, ecologists, and computer and information scientists from several higher education institutions, including Rutgers University’s Program in Science Learning, Virginia Tech’s Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Colorado State University’s Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, the University of Massachusetts, and Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers. 

The results from this project will help to build and assess a collaborative science learning system as a tool to teach citizens about authentic scientific inquiry and how these citizens can become citizen scientists by engaging in authentic and necessary scientific practices.

Below, we share examples of some of the Collaborative Science projects VMN volunteers are leading.

Sample Project – Booker T. Washington Native Plantings Experiment

Text by Rick Watson, Blue Ridge Foothills and Lakes Chapter

The Blue Ridge Foothills and Lakes Chapter recently launched a Collaborative Science project at Booker T. Washington National Monument (BTWMN).  Project volunteers will localize and eradicate invasive grasses, e.g., Johnson grass, from a 15 by 30 meter area within a primarily fescue grass field at BTWNM.  Efforts will involve spot herbicide treatments in mid/late summer, followed by restoration planting in that area with three different mix types of native grasses (e.g., Big/Little Bluestem, Switch grass, Indian grass) in the fall.  Spring and summer growth will then be assessed by volunteers in May and September of the following year.  The goal is to determine which native grass mix, if any, competes most effectively with, and thereby deters, the Johnson grass invasive, thus providing park personnel with key information on how they might restore the monument fields to ecological conditions typical of those in the late 1800s.

A mini-grant, courtesy of the National Science Foundation project, is covering herbicide, seed, and other materials costs.  Twelve volunteers participated in an online facilitated web-based building of a project model that successfully highlighted all the elements that could impact the project plan.  This model, along with key technical guidance from the BRFAL Chapter Advisor, was used to guide the detailed project plan design.   The site was assessed and a proposed study area approved by BTWNM management.  The test area was then marked off and staked and the first herbicide treatment conducted July 15th.  Results from the study will be documented in the Collaborative Science website, where others may learn and apply it.

Sample Project – Improving Water Quality at Bundoran Farm

Text by Mary Tillman, Rivanna Chapter

Rivanna Master Naturalists on Bundoran Farm wanted to improve the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay by improving water quality in their own back yard, the Middle Branch of the Hardware River.  

A year ago when we joined a training on collaborative science, we decided to apply what we learned to Bundoran Farm, a 2300 acre preservation development where the goals are to use best practices in protecting the environment, maintaining the viewshed, and preserving farmland. Cattle, horses and sheep graze on the extensive pastures which allows Bundoran to fulfill its mission to support agriculture. Unfortunately the cows also use the streams to cool themselves and to defecate. The run off from the pastures as well as livestock contamination of the streams has contributed to water pollution in both our watershed and ultimately in the bay. It stood to reason that if we could deny the animals direct access to the streams and provide them with an alternative water source we might be able to eliminate sources of pollution here on the farm as well as throughout the larger watershed. The collaborative training helped us do just that.

The training taught us how to develop and implement solutions to problems in a new way. Rather than creating an outline where one step follows another, we learned to think more dynamically, not censoring or ordering in a linear way, but freely generating all obstacles or challenges that we thought we might encounter. Instead of making lists we wrote these obstacles onto balloons or satellites that rotated around a core where we had written a brief statement of our project. In our case it was “fencing livestock out of streams.” We also connected obstacles that were related.

Bundoran Farm has many individuals and groups who needed to support the project if we wer
e going to be successful. They were the homeowners who would be affected by the fencing of their property, the farmers who used the land for their livestock, the employees who worked for the developer, the Farm Management Committee who would ultimately recommend either for or against the project to the Board of Directors, and the developer himself. Each of these groups received their own balloon in the planning process and had to be approached differently in order to get them on board. In addition to the groups with vested interests in the project, we had other obstacles to overcome.

The well being of the cattle was an important consideration. Once we fenced the livestock out of the streams we had to find other sources for water. We needed to dig at least one well, run pipes from the well to various fields, and provide water troughs with cement pads. We also were concerned about making sure that the animals had access to shade. Each of these ideas got a balloon.

Another concern was how we would demonstrate that our project really did improve water quality. We did this by teaching ourselves to test for E. coli bacteria. We used James Beckley’s presentations on You Tube as a learning tool, bought the materials we needed, and set up and implemented a schedule for testing.

Probably the most important consideration was funding for the project. We worked with the Thomas Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District whose aims were similar to ours, and we became one of their largest projects. Besides providing the fencing, piping, water troughs, gates and a well, they drew up a fencing plan that encouraged farmers to rotate their cattle on a more regular basis. Bundoran Farm benefitted from a TJSWCD grant that covered 100% of the costs.

When we completed our fencing project, we were left with 35 feet of pasture on each side of the streams that was no longer available to cattle. This riparian buffer, required by the project, helps to filter impurities out of the streams as they flow though the farm. The presence of the buffer has given us a unique opportunity to create an educational trail that follows the stream through a variety of habitats—open pasture, a fresh water marsh, woodland and a lake. Each habitat attracts different kinds of flora and fauna throughout the year.  What we want to do now is build a trail that makes use of the buffer to educate the residents of the farm, school groups and Master Naturalists. We hope to use the collaborative science model to help us realize this next goal.

Other on-going Collaborative Science projects include a study by the Historic Southside Chapter of the most effective methods for managing Japanese stiltgrass within a longleaf pine ecosystem and a multi-chapter investigation of varying methods of deterring house sparrows from nesting in bluebird boxes.  In particular, this group is investigating the efficacy of swapping sparrow eggs with fake plastic or wooden eggs in order to dupe the birds into wasting time and energy tending a nest that will never result in fledglings.  As all these projects are improving understanding of natural resources and contributing to conservation efforts, researchers also are learning about how the volunteers learn and use online tools throughout the Collaborative Science process.