Home and Latest News

     Repp Glaettli and Ruth Douglas (VMN volunteer, Rivanna Chapter) contributed three hour talks for the Louisa Master Gardeners at the Louisa Public Library in March, as part of a month-long series titled “Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Gardens and Landscapes.” Repp focused on native plants and offers a digital draft to anyone interested that explains which insects play vital roles in our area; just ask him for a copy at rglaettli@albemarle.org. Botanist Ruth Douglas, an indefatigable booster for native plants from the Rivanna MN chapter, spoke about the pollinator exchange. 

     Mary Lee Epps described another well-attended forum at the Ivy Creek Natural Area with Rivanna Master Naturalist Marilyn Smith and Austin Jamison, on March 21. “Marilyn and I had both attended a ‘Train the Trainer’ workshop on pollinators put on by Carol Heiser with VDGIF (the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries) and Nancy Adamson of the Xerxes Foundation,” she says. “Carol supplied us with a large number of free brochures and handouts to give attendees. We tried to combine information with hands-on-activities, and people seemed to really enjoy the day.”
     The Ivy Creek event began with a general presentation introducing and offering suggestions about how to construct pollinator gardens featuring native plants. Marilyn demonstrated how to construct mason bee houses, using pre-made frames created by her and her husband, and inviting participants to cut bamboo for nest tunnels. Her accompanying Powerpoint described the lives and habits of mason and leafcutter bees. Austin Jamison, from the Blue Ridge Division of Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, addressed the main activities involved in planting a pollinator meadow, including how to prepare a site, which planting techniques work best, how to maintain such meadows, which seed mixes flourish in our area, and what the meadow tender can realistically expect. 
     After lunch, attendees divided into four working groups and tackled the challenges of designing pollinator gardens in four particular and realistic scenarios. One involved a 10 x 60’ private vegetable garden in an urban/suburban environment, with the owner asking for better yields and a more attractive appearance; another provided a homebuilder’s plot, cleared for construction, that called for environmentally responsible landscaping solutions.  The third group posed as owners of a local garden center that services urban/suburban clients, but is adding more native plants to its inventory. How could they create a new entrance that would educate and inform clients about the need and splendor of native flora? The final project focused on Washington Park, or any urban park, and the opportunity to improve a pollinator habitat in the midst of a heavily used site of particular cultural importance to a largely African-American neighborhood.
     Each group shared their solutions at the end of the workshop, and as a final activity, participants potted pre-stratified seeds of pollinator-friendly native plants. As a takeaway, everyone went home with a mason bee house and eight or ten pots of native plants. Mary Lee Epps mentioned, in passing, that each participant paid $10 to defray the cost of materials, potting soils and seeds (pots were donated!), but that charging this modest amount, in her opinion, also helped the attendees take the event and its message seriously. All good! 

A web-ready image is included below, along with a downloadable press-quality version for printing.  Please help us share these amazing statistics with your networks!

Martha lifts binoculars to her eyes, scans the view from the window and focuses on a flash of blue that came to rest on a birdhouse atop a post in the garden.  She exclaims with visible joy, “It’s a bluebird!  I haven’t seen one in years!”  Even though she can no longer hike in a park or stroll through a garden, thanks to members of the Old Rag Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists, Martha and other residents of Dogwood Village Health and Rehabilitation and Senior Living, a long-term care facility in Orange, Virginia, enjoy the sights and sounds of nature from their rooms or on the facility’s grounds. In 2012, a dozen or so volunteers, encouraged by the chapter’s vice-president Julie Connelly, developed a program they call the Reconnect with Nature Project: Bringing Nature Home to Long-term Care, which includes various programs to bring nature to residents who otherwise had little access to the natural world. Besides the Bluebird Project, programs include a vegetable garden, a healing garden, an interactive display of nature trivia, both large- and small-group presentations that might include a display of photographic prints, a lecture with projected images, and/or hands-on resources.  And for those unable to join a group, volunteers make one-on-one visits to their rooms if requested to do so.

The activities directors and administration of Dogwood Village welcome the master naturalists’ participation, because all these activities encourage the residents to socialize, share memories, and benefit from the healing powers of nature.  The volunteers provide not only their time and expertise, but offer their attention, friendship, and kindness to the residents of the long-term care community, all the while connecting the residents with the natural world. 

So effective is the chapter’s Reconnect with Nature Project that in September, 2014, the Virginia Health Care Association (VHCA) honored the Old Rag Master Naturalists chapter with its Group Volunteer Award of the Year. The VHCA is an organization of nearly 300 licensed nursing and assisted living facilities in the commonwealth.  It advocates for long-term care communities and aims to enhance the quality of life for those living in nursing homes, rehabilitative, and assisted living facilities.  Each year the VHCA makes awards to volunteers for outstanding services. 

To explore ways to meet this need in her community, then vice-president Julie Connelly, M.D., invited interested members of the Old Rag Chapter (ORMN) to assess their skills and interests and explore ways they could use them to address the disconnection with the natural world experienced by long-term care residents.  Their brainstorming resulted in the Reconnect with Nature program, which aims to help residents find more joy in their lives by connecting with nature and igniting their curiosity and wonder, feelings that might have been forgotten or not acknowledged for a long time. The residents’ responses to these programs, as evidenced by their words, facial expressions, and gestures show how well this program works.  Expressions of joy, appreciation, and surprise, and often the resurfacing of memories allowed them to connect the past with the present. Textures and smells of pieces of the natural world sparked liveliness and remembrance.  Friendships among the residents and the volunteer naturalists developed.  Friendships also developed among residents, especially around the vegetable garden during the summer months. The residents express how much they look forward to the next activities, which inspires both the volunteers and staff to continue this work and demonstrates the importance of connecting the residents with the natural world. 

The Old Rag chapter’s Reconnect with Nature Project: Bringing Nature Home to Long-term Care demonstrates that Master Naturalists can play an important role in improving the quality of life for people who are confined to a long-term care facility.  Living in an institution need not translate into being disconnected from the natural world.  Other chapters might follow this example and develop similar projects of their own.