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A 5,000 Hour Milestone

In 2016, Susan Powell, VMN-Historic Rivers Chapter, reached the noteworthy milestone of 5,000 volunteer hours completed and reported.  Susan has been a VMN volunteer since 2006.  She’s been a significant leader in the chapter, serving on the board for many years, teaching classes for the basic training course, and overseeing risk management for chapter projects.  She also teaches workshops to train new volunteers in the Wildlife Mapping project; the Historic Rivers Chapter has an extremely organized Wildlife Mapping project that they carry out as a group in several local parks.  Susan also manages to get outdoors to do bird and butterfly counts.  One of Susan’s most significant accomplishments was leading the kiosk project at Freedom Park.  In this project, chapter volunteers collected photos, audio files, and descriptions of local wildlife for an electronic kiosk at the park so that visitors can learn about the plants and animals they might see while exploring the area.  

​Only one other VMN volunteer has completed and reported 5,000 hours: Tom Adkins, VMN-Shenandoah, who achieved the milestone at the end of 2014.

Naturally Nelson 2017
—Submitted by Leah Jung, VMN-Rivanna Chapter

On April 20 & 21st several volunteers from VMN’s Central Blue Ridge Chapter helped high school students teach environmental science at the annual “Naturally Nelson” event in Nellysford.
 
Bill Plyler, Kim Bryant and Debbie Harkrader oversaw educational stations which included plant structure, function and planting, macroinvertebrates as a measure of stream health, and the interdependent web of food chains. Local fauna, flora and geology were also described while touring the kids through the onsite Natural History center.
 
“This is a win-win event for everyone,” said Leah Jung, Rivanna Chapter Master Naturalist who coordinates the event each year. “Using Environmental Studies Academy students from Western Albemarle High to teach the 4th & 5th graders makes a greater impression on the elementary students, and provides the high schoolers with opportunities to distill their knowledge and mentor younger kids. We doubled the event from last year – hosting 2 elementary schools instead of one – and exposed Nelson County children to the wonder and interconnectedness of nature.”
 
Participant response to the program included: “This is my very first plant and I’m going to try very hard to keep it alive, because I’m excited to have it” (5th grader), “This is the best field trip we’ve ever been on” (Tye River Elementary teacher), and when asked what they learned, “We have to take care of nature!”

York County Volunteer of the Year
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On Tuesday, April 18th, Jan Lockwood was awarded the Volunteer of the Year award for York County at York Hall in Yorktown, for her continued efforts coordinating the Bluebird Trails at New Quarter Park. Jan also coordinates bluebird trails in James City County and Poquoson with HRC Master Naturalist, Lois Ullman, but this award focused just on her efforts in York County.

Virginia State Parks Recognizes the Historic Rivers Chapter

​The 2016 Virginia Blues Award for Exemplary Volunteer Service was presented to the Historic Rivers Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists by Jon Tustin, Manager of York River State Park.  He presented this award to the chapter at the general membership meeting on March 12th.  It was awarded for the myriad of support services the chapter’s volunteers offer to York River State Park, including but not limited to monitoring two bluebird trails consisting of 56 boxes, inventorying park wildlife through the Wildlife Camera Trap project as well as Wildlife Mapping, assisting with leading school groups, helping with native plant gardens and, of course, stewardship through the removal of invasives,

A Double-Duty Master Naturalist is Recognized

There are some Virginia Master Naturalists who enjoy volunteering so much that they have also committed to the VCE Master Gardener program.  Since volunteer service cannot be double-counted for these two programs, Master Gardeners who are also Master Naturalists must complete and report enough service to maintain their status with each program separately.  VMN-Historic Rivers Chapter member Gwen Harris recently received the York County Master Gardener of the Year award.  Congratulations, Gwen!

Yu-hsin Hsu Recognized for Stewardship in Arlington

The Arlington County Board recognized Yu-hsin Hsu, VMN-Arlington Regional Chapter, as a 2016 recipient of the Bill Thomas Outstanding Park Service Volunteer Award, which honors residents who demonstrate a passionate dedication and support for the county’s dynamic programs, natural resources and public open spaces.

From the County’s press release: “An ardent supporter of Arlington’s natural resources, Yu-hsin Hsu has volunteered with Long Branch Nature Center, the Arlington Central Library pollinator garden, the Natural Resources Management Unit and Arlington Regional Master Naturalists.

At Long Branch Nature Center, Yu-hsin has been invaluable as a Saturday animal care volunteer since fall 2013, logging about 160 hours and freeing up weekend staff to attend to visitor contact and other activities as well as directing other animal care volunteers in their tasks. In addition to animal care, Yu-hsin helps with invasive exotic plant removals and preparing for twice-yearly native plant sales at the center.

Yu-hsin has been a volunteer with the Arlington Central Library garden project since early spring 2016. At that time, she happened to pass by the Library’s native pollinator garden, where she saw a staff member weeding. Yu-hsin offered to help – she has not stopped helping since.

Margaret Brown, Central Services Division Chief at the Library says of Yu-hsin: “She brings to the garden a spunky energy and perseverance, as well as a similar passion for educating others about the critical importance of pollinators and native plants. She is tireless in her efforts and selfless in her generosity.”

The final piece of Yu-hsin volunteering trifecta is her work with the Department of Parks and Recreation’s Natural Resources Management Unit, educating and involving children in the Remove Invasive Plants (RiP) program, volunteering at the native plant nursery, and with habitat restoration projects. She has also helped inventory County plants and animals through the annual National Geographic Bioblitz, and engages in other conservation and outreach activities through the Master Naturalist Program.”

Laurels from the Holston Rivers Chapter
–Submitted by Monica Hoel, VMN-Holston Rivers Chapter

VMN-Holston Rivers Chapter Puts Bioblitz Data to Work
In April 2017, the Holston Rivers Virginia Master Naturalist chapter (HRVMN) will do a service project at Hungry Mother State Park (HMSP) that is a direct result of last year’s Bioblitz event. In April 2016, HRVMN members assisted Virginia State Park staff with the execution of a 24-hour Bioblitz within the footprint of HMSP.  One of the discoveries at that event was an invasive Mountain Red Belly Dace that is an invasive threat to the endangered Tennessee Dace. The unwelcome Dace has infiltrated the lake through poor fishing habits (people have been using the tiny fish as bait and then dumping the leftover bait into the lake). On April 29, 2017, HRVMN members will again team up with State Park staff to spend a day working to eradicate the dace from the HMSP lake. The 2016 Bioblitz led to other meaningful outcomes, including the discovery of green salamanders in the Park: the first ever Smyth County sighting of the elusive salamander.

RareQuest Video Receives Film Festival Award 

2016 was the pilot field season for Project RareQuest, a collaboration between the VMN program and the Virginia Natural Heritage Program through which VMN volunteers document occurrences of rare plant and animal species.  The Virginia Native Plant Society provided a grant to get the project started, and we used some of the funds to create a video about the project at the end of the year.  Priya Jaishanker, Audiovisual Media Assistant in the Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, produced the film.  

In February, Priya’s film, “Mission RareQuest” received one of two runners-up award at the Richmond Environmental Film Festival, and the video was shown on the big screen at the Byrd Theater in Richmond.  If you missed it, you can watch the film on our RareQuest project webpage.

Multiple Fairfax Chapter Volunteers Recognized by Their Communities

VMN-Fairfax Chapter volunteer Shawn Dilles received a Town of Vienna Award for his work to clean up Wolftrap Creek in Vienna, VA.  Over six months, Shawn worked to removed more than 20 bags of trash from a mile-long section of the creek. 

Don Coram and Doug Britt, also VMN volunteers in the Fairfax Chapter, were selected as the 2016 Reston Association Group Volunteer of the Year.

Shawn, Doug, and Don all graduated from the Fairfax Chapter’s basic training course in Fall 2016.

New Publication on Wildlife Habitat Management

The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has released a new version of the publication “Managing Land in the Piedmont of Virginia for Birds and Other Wildlife“.  This handbook, available as a free PDF, provides information for private landowners on improving and maintaining habitat on their properties.  Although it covers habitats found in the Piedmont, these same habitats are found in other physiographic provinces as well, so this primer is useful across the state.

Last Call for Photos!

VDGIF is still accepting submissions for their annual photo contests, up until Monday, February 6.  We have traditionally had several Virginia Master Naturalists be winners or runners-up in the contest.  Consider submitting your best shots to one of this year’s categories: Virginia Fauna, Virginia Landscapes, Textures & Patterns, or The Sporting Life.  Full contest details can be found on the VDGIF blog.

By Ashley Peele, Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas 2 Coordinator     

Spring is in sight and season two of the second Virginia Breeding Bird Atlas (VABBA2) is about to launch!  In preparing for season two, we’d like to look back at what we learned and accomplished in season one, 2016.  First, Virginia is an incredible place to survey birds.  Between the mountains and valleys, the rolling Piedmont, and the rich Coastal Plain, Atlas volunteers identified over 205 species of birds and confirmed 174 of those species are currently breeding.  They reported over 684,000 birds to the project!  (For more details, check out our Season One Summary at http://amjv.org/resources_vabba2/Season2016Summary_Final.pdf.)
 
Interestingly, most of the data received this year comes from areas where the most people live.  This makes sense!  We tend to bird the areas closest to home first.  However, this year we’re asking volunteers to begin looking at blocks a little further from home.  You often don’t have to look far outside your community to find where the Atlas coverage drop away.  There are so many awesome breeding records just waiting to be confirmed in the rural Piedmont or out in the mountains or even in your own neighborhood, so please consider field excursions to those areas.

The second remarkable thing about this first season is the volunteer birder community, including many Virginia Master Naturalists, who pitched in from all over Virginia.  By the end of the summer, over 450 volunteers contributed to the Atlas project.

The Virginia Master Naturalist program continues to grow!  We have just finished compiling 2016’s numbers, and we think you’ll agree that they are very impressive.
 
In 2016, 1,756 volunteers reported nearly 146,000 hours of service, more than 24,000 hours of continuing education, and more than 106,000 face-to-face exchanges of educational information about natural resources.  Their service in 2016 is valued at  $3.8 million, based on the 2015 value of a volunteer hour in Virginia as calculated by IndependentSector.org (2016 value is not yet published.) 

Our number of active volunteers grew by ~5% in 2016 compared to 2015, but, even more exciting, the number of volunteer hours they contributed increased by 21%!  We saw especially high increases in the areas of education, citizen science, and chapter administration.  Keep an eye out for the spring issue of our quarterly newsletter and on our Facebook page, where we will share some specific stories of outcomes and impacts of this service.

Thank you to all the volunteers who contributed, either through reporting their service, or by submitting their chapters’ annual reports so that we can learn about the great work that you do!