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From Our Sponsors and Partners – Spring 2020

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drawing of three trout species superimposed on shape of the state of Virginia, with text reading #vatroutslam

From the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

VDGIF has launched a new fishing challenge this spring called the Virginia Trout Slam Challenge. It is a challenge for anglers to catch all three species of trout (Brook, Brown, and Rainbow) in the same day. The goal is to get anglers out to some of the lesser known trout waters and add a little adventure to their fishing experience.  Check out the web page for more information.
–From Jason Hallacher, Region 4 Assistant Fisheries Biologist, VDGIF and VMN Chapter Advisor for the Headwaters Chapter.

Image of woman holding two live turtlesMeagan Thomas, DGIF Watchable Wildlife Biologist

Introducing Meagan Thomas

Meagan Thomas is DGIF’s newest watchable wildlife biologist who, along with Jessica Ruthenberg, will be leading Virginia’s Watchable Wildlife Program. Prior to her employment with DGIF, Meagan worked as a human-wildlife interactions biologist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission where she developed a variety of programs and materials centered on fostering positive wildlife interactions for constituents. Before that, Meagan coordinated research and education efforts related to reptile and amphibian conservation in the Southeast as the research manager for Davidson College. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge for creating effective citizen science and outreach programs, especially related to non-game species of wildlife. She obtained her M.S. degree in Biological Sciences at Eastern Illinois University where she conducted her thesis on snake dietary ecology. Additionally, she received two B.S. degrees from Towson University, majoring in Organismal Biology and Ecology as well as Animal Behavior.

Welcome, Meagan, on behalf of the 2,000+ wildlife watchers in the VMN program!

Photo of newly planted native plant landscape with walking path and interpretive signNative demonstration landscaping and one of six new interpretive signs in Cedell Brooks Jr. Park in King George County, Virginia. Photo contributed by Virginia Witmer. More information on this project is at href: https://www.plantvirginianatives.org/cedell-brooks-jr-park-native-landscaping

From the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality: 
Making Natives the Norm: Regional Plant Campaigns Expand State-Wide

In 2009, prior to the Plant Eastern Shore Natives campaign, native plants were being described as scraggly and weedy. Ten years later, with native plants campaigns spreading state-wide, that perception is fading away garden by garden.
 
Thanks to the Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program, led by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, in collaboration with more than 20 partner state agencies and non-governmental organizations, two new regional campaigns are under development. A Plant Southern Piedmont Natives campaign will first be piloted in the West Piedmont Planning District Commission. (The Plant Piedmont Natives campaign has been renamed Plant Northern Piedmont Natives.) A Plant Southwest Virginia Natives campaign will encompass the Roanoke and New River Valleys and includes the counties of Roanoke, Botetourt, Craig, Montgomery, Giles, Floyd and Pulaski, as well as, the cities of Roanoke, Salem and Radford. 

“The growing state-wide initiative will continue the work in Virginia’s coastal zone, “says DEQ CZM Coordinator Virginia Witmer. “Using to the Flora of Virginia as a reference, the initiative helps landowners learn more about their property and the ecological benefits of a native plant landscape. Local garden centers are recruited to promote the native plants they currently carry and to increase the supply and variety of the native plants they carry. And we work with local jurisdictions to strengthen policies that favor native plant landscaping.” 

Want to volunteer with the campaign in your area?  Contact Virginia Witmer and she will connect you with the campaign coordinator for your region. Learn more about all the current regional campaigns and download all available regional guides at www.PlantVirginiaNatives.org.  

–From Ann Regn, DEQ Communications Manager, and Virginia Witmer, Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program Outreach Coordinator

From Our Sponsors and Partners – Spring 2020 Read Post »

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Nightjar Surveys

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Photo of small bird chicks on leaves on the ground.

Chuck-will’s widow nestlings approximately ten days after hatching. Photo contributed by Laura Duval.

By Laura Duval, Research Biologist & Program Coordinator, The Nightjar Survey Network ​

The U.S. Nightjar Survey Network (NSN) is a citizen science-driven research group that has worked to collect long-term occupancy data for this unusual group of birds over the past 12 years.
 
North American nightjars, or goatsuckers, include nine nocturnal (most active at night) and crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk) species. Nightjars arrive in North America during late March after migrating from their wintering grounds, which can be as distant as South America. They typically breed and forage in deciduous and pine forests near shrubby or agriculture fields and bodies of water.  Depending on the species, nightjars typically lay 1-3 eggs in leaf litter found on the forest floor or in open pebbled and sandy tracts. The downy-feathered, semi-precocial nestlings (see photo) are mostly dependent on the adults for food, but are mobile near the nest within days of hatching. Nightjar young become independent after their parents feed them for up to a month in their natal territory. Nightjars begin their movements back to their wintering grounds as early as July, though some populations remain in southern states such as Texas, Florida and Arizona throughout the winter. 

Nightjars are included in a group of birds labeled “aerial insectivores” due to their foraging habits. Recent research has indicated that aerial insectivores are in the most drastic decline of all bird taxa. Factors affecting these birds include habitat degradation, human disturbance, agriculture practices (i.e., exposure to pesticides), and climate change. We know little about the specifics of their ecology because their nocturnal tendencies have made them challenging to study and simply hard to detect by millions of citizen scientists that submit observations in volunteer data portals such as eBird. Long-running programs such as the Breeding Bird Survey adhere to a diurnal survey period reducing the overall number of nightjars detected for that program. 

The Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia established the network in 2007 in an attempt to fill gaps in knowledge for these species. Since its initiation over 3,000 surveys have been conducted nationwide. The project is designed to be effective over many years of surveying and over broad landscapes. With the support of the Virginia Master Naturalists we are hopeful that we can tap into a core group of local participants that would be willing to donate a few hours of their time once a year to this cause. A passion for scientific contribution, a willingness to work on a gorgeous moonlit night, and a vehicle is all it takes to become a surveyor. The structure of the survey network also encourages participants to conduct routes (even those without birds) for several years to lend insight into trends over time. 

2020 Survey Dates
Window 1: FL, TX, and low elevation AZ and NM: 1 April to 14 April
Window 2: Any location in the country: 30 April to 14 May
Window 3: Areas north of AZ, FL, NM, and TX, and for high elevation areas in the Northern U.S.: 29 May to 13 June
Window 4: North and western states (WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, Dakotas, MN): 27 July to 11 August

The 2020 season has already began, however, for Virginians there is still time to sign up and conduct surveys by visiting http://www.nightjars.org/. Survey windows 2 and 3 (see figure below) are the best times to detect nightjars in our state. Environmental parameters such as moon phase and face illumination, cloud cover, precipitation and wind affect the activity and subsequent detection of nightjars. Therefore, please adhere to the survey window dates and try to pick an evening where you have favorable weather. 

Instructions for how to create an account, select or create a route, conduct a survey and enter data can be found here: http://www.nightjars.org/participate/survey-instructions/. This year we developed instructional videos for accomplishing these tasks as well that can be viewed at http://www.nightjars.org/learn/

We have created a draft project proposal form for this project that you can use to get the project approved in your VMN chapter.

Feel free to contact us anytime with questions you may have at nightjars@nightjars.org. 
​
Happy Birding!

Nightjar Surveys Read Post »

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Newly Revised Aquatic Ecology Publications Available

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thumbnail image of a publication called VMN volunteers edited all twelve publications in the Sustaining America’s Aquatic Biodiversity series.

One of the major ways Virginia Cooperative Extension accomplishes its mission of connecting the resources of Virginia Tech and Virginia State University to the people of Virginia is through its extensive online publications.  Wondering how to start an organic farm?  How to deal with high iron content in your well?  How to help your family prepare for an emergency?  How to recognize poison ivy?  There are publications by VCE experts on all these topics and many, many more.  

In order to make sure the information that is being shared is current, VCE requires that publications be updated every five years or else they will be removed from the publications website.  In 2019, the twelve publications from the Sustaining America’s Aquatic Biodiversity series were on that sunset list.  Unfortunately, the original authors of most of the publications were no longer with Virginia Tech.  Feeling that these publications had value for both new Virginia Master Naturalist trainees learning about aquatic ecology and for members of the public interested in aquatic creatures, I reached out to see if any Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers might like to help.

It turned out that there were many volunteers looking for at-home projects (and this was before COVID-19!) and many who had skills and knowledge related to aquatic species or writing and editing.  We assembled 47 volunteers into twelve teams, sent each team a publication, and let them go to work.  Every team did a fabulous job, returning the edited versions back on time.  The edits were definitely needed; many of the publications had links that no longer worked and statistics about species diversity that were no longer accurate.  

I was incredibly impressed by the work of the volunteers.  They essentially rescued these publications so that more people can learn from them in the future.  They also demonstrated that this method is a viable one for completing a task of this type.  I have recommended to my other natural resource colleagues at VCE to consider engaging VMNs if they need help with future publication revisions.  In addition, working with the volunteers on this publication project gave me the confidence to engage a larger group of VMN volunteers in a new project to edit all the captions from our collection of 75+ continuing education webinar videos.  Thank you to all of the volunteers who contributed!

You can find the Sustaining America’s Aquatic Biodiversity publications on the VCE publications site.  You can also find links to the publications on our VMN aquatic ecology curriculum page and at the end of this article.

What is aquatic biodiversity; Why is it important?
Why is aquatic biodiversity declining?
Homes for Aquatic Animals
Freshwater Mussel Biodiversity and Conservation
Crayfish Biodiversity and Conservation
Freshwater Fish Biodiversity and Conservation
Selected Freshwater Fish Families
Frog Biodiversity and Conservation
Salamander Biodiversity and Conservation
Turtle Biodiversity and Conservation
​Freshwater Snail Biodiversity and Conservation
Aquatic Insect Biodiversity and Conservation

Newly Revised Aquatic Ecology Publications Available Read Post »

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Connecting with Nature from Home

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PictureEveryone is looking for ways to learn from home these days.

Promoting life-long learning is a key component of the Virginia Master Naturalist program.  Our VMN volunteers are eager and enthusiastic learners.  In 2019, 2,200 volunteers reported spending more than 30,000 hours participating in Continuing Education!

Even in the current COVID-19 crisis, VMN volunteers are seeking ways to remain connected to nature and to keep learning more.  Plus, many of them may have children or grandchildren for whom they are facilitating learning opportunities while schools are closed.  At the same time, our sponsoring agencies want to continue connecting to constituents and to provide research-based information about Virginia’s natural resources.

With those needs in mind, we have collected below at-home nature learning resources from each of our sponsoring agencies.  These include videos, webinars, curriculum for youth, and more.

VMN volunteers, please note that some of the content may be appropriate for Continuing Education hours and some may not be.  Please consult your chapter leaders for guidance if you are wondering about a particular webinar.

Sponsoring agency representatives, if you have additional resources from your agency that you would like us to share here, please contact the VMN program office.

Virginia Cooperative Extension


Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

  • Providing interpretive and educational programming from Virginia State Parks through their social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.


Virginia Department of Environmental Quality


Virginia Department of Forestry


Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries


Virginia Institute of Marine Science – Center for Coastal Resources Management


​Virginia Museum of Natural History

Connecting with Nature from Home Read Post »

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