Virginia Master Naturalist program offered in Historic Southside

Are you interested in native animals, plants and insects? Want to be a better steward of the land?

Then consider becoming a Virginia Master Naturalist. The program is a statewide corps of volunteers providing education, outreach and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. This program is perfect for people who are curious about nature, enjoy the outdoors and want to be a part of natural resource management and conservation in Virginia.

The Virginia Master Naturalist program is a partnership among Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Virginia Department of Forestry, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and Virginia Museum of Natural History.

The statewide program has 30 chapters with more than 1,000 volunteers. To date, these volunteers have reached more than 130,000 people through educational programs for parks, community groups and schools.

The Historic Southside Chapter is a newly formed chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program includes Isle of Wight, Surry, Sussex and Southampton counties, as well as the City of Franklin. Training for this chapter will begin in August and finish in October.

Read more here - this entire article is printed in Tidewaternews.com

Search here for a chapter near you!

Having just completed the course work for Virginia Master Naturalist the BRFAL Chapter I can highly recommend this program! You will learn much in class and field work, bring your camera along, take lots of notes and have fun! If you know anyone who would be interested in this amazing program, please pass this info on!

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist wants you to 

LEARN ALL ABOUT THE WILDLIFE, FLORA, FAUNA AND INSECTS OF THIS BEAUTIFUL PLACE WE CALL VIRGINIA!

Calling all Phenologists!

USA National Phenology Network is looking for a few good men and women

Nolan Doesken from CoCoRaHS said "By the way, if you enjoy observing vegetation and when things bud and bloom, I encourage you to visit the National Phenology Network website:  http://www.usanpn.org/  They would appreciate more volunteers to help in their mission." 

BRFAL Chapter observing nature

The following info from USA National Phenology Network

The USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. The network harnesses the power of people and the Internet to collect and share information, providing researchers with far more data than they could collect alone.  

Rabies on the Rise

Rabies cases increase in New River Valley

Officials advise pet owners to vaccinate cats, dogs and ferrets against rabies.

Associated Press  May 24, 2011

photo © 2010 U.S. Department of Agriculture | more info (via: Wylio)

CHRISTIANSBURG -- Rabies cases are increasing in the New River Valley.

The New River Health District said Tuesday that 15 cases have been confirmed this year. That matches the 15 cases confirmed in all of 2010.

Two cows and a bobcat are among this year's cases. The other cases were raccoons, skunks and cats.

Health district director Dr. Molly O'Dell says there were a cluster of cases in Giles County.

The health district advises pet owners to vaccinate cats, dogs and ferrets against rabies.

Here is another article in the Roanoke Times about a Rabid bobcat in Floyd VA May 26, 2011. 

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist warns to take caution around animals you do not know, never pick up an injured or sick animal, or go near any animal that is acting strangely, call animal control  immediately at 540-483-7440. 


Animal Control for Franklin County Virginia can also be reached via the Franklin County Sheriff Dept dispatch 540-483-3000.

Wildland Fire Academy Brings 350 Firefighters to Farmville

Virginia Master Naturalists in the News

Wildland Fire Academy Brings 350 Firefighters to Farmville Smith Mountain Eagle More than 350 firefighters from Virginia and five other states will take part in ... and Recreation; Virginia Tech; the Virginia Master Naturalist program; ... photo © 2006 Roberto Ferrari | more info (via: Wylio) To learn more about the Virginia Master Naturalist program visit these websites: BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist.

Creepy Crawly Kinda Smally

INSECTS
BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist en-training brought their field guides and keys along on their last field-trip and identified insects!

GOT MILK?

IF YOU DO, THANK A DAIRY FARMER!

Virginia Agriculture

According to NASS (National Agriculture Statistic Service) Virginia has 47,300 farms with the average farm size being 170 acres. The total land in farms (acres) is 8,050,000.

As of Jan 1, 2011 the livestock held on these farms was as follows: 1,540,000 Cattle and Calves, 355,000 Hogs and Pigs, and 90,000 sheep.  Milk cows (average head) is 95,000 with a milk production of 18,095 lbs per cow, that is a total of 1,719,000,000 lbs of milk per year.

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist had their last field day en-training at Bowman Dairy Farm in Wirtz Virginia. This has been a family owned and operated dairy for over a century.  Mr Bowman shared with us that this is how they make their living with each family member participating in the work load in the care and feeding of the cows, operating the farm, to the production of raw milk. He said that only 10% of the cows are lactating at any given time.  The Bowman Family are milking these cows daily at 4am and 4pm and takes 3 hours!

Meet a few of the young ladies at Bowman Dairy Farm

GOOD MILK REQUIRES GOOD FEED

Photo Contest for Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation 2012 Calendar

CALLING ALL OUTDOOR AND NATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS!

Foundation partners with RaysWeather.com on 2012 calendar

by LIZ on MAY 25, 2011

The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and RaysWeather.Com announce a partnership to produce the 2012 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation Calendar. The contest is open for online entries until June 15, 2011, so get your entries in now at www.raysweather.com/Photo+Contest!

Rx: Get Them Outside!

BLUE RIDGE COUNTRY MAGAZINE TACKLES A VERY PERTINENT SUBJECT - CONNECT WITH KIDS IN NATURE!

Rick Van Noy explores the natural with son Sam and daughter Elliott.

Rick Van Noy is the author of “A Natural Sense of Wonder: Connecting Kids With Nature Through the Seasons,” and a professor of English at Radford University in Virginia.

Read the article in Blue Ridge Country Magazine here.

We recommend Blue Ridge Country Magazine, they make great gift subscriptions.

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist wants you to 

GET OUTSIDE and DON'T FORGET TO TAKE THE KIDS WITH YOU!

Virginians Bucking the Trend

BRFAL Chapter Virginia Naturalist en-training enjoy a Forestry Field Trip to Montmorenci Tree Farm in Hardy Virginia 

Our gratitude to Tom and Sallie Newbill for hosting this group at their fabulous property and sharing part of their successes with us

Jennifer Gagnon teaches about forestry

Mature female loblolly cones from last Fall

Landowner Tom Newbill (center) and Don Kelso of BRFAL Chapter (left)

Montmorenci Tree Farm is 700 acres total (some devoted to agriculture) where the Newbills grow Loblolly Pines to sell as construction lumber.  Virginia is the most northern region to grow Loblolly Pine - Pinus Taeda (for the scientific name, Pinus is the Latin name for the pines and taeda refers to the resinous wood.)  The word loblolly means "low, wet place", but these trees are not limited to that specific habitat. Loblolly Pines grow well in acidic clay soil, which is common throughout the South, and are thus often found in large stands in rural places.

The Understory Artist

Nature’s Pretty Secrets

Photographer Jackie Labovitz uses a mix of skill and unwavering patience to capture images of hard-to-find plants and animals.

BY LISA ANTONELLI BACON

CHILES LARSON

Jackie Bailey Labovitz is known as an “understory artist”—meaning she is a specialty photographer who goes to great lengths to find, and then take pictures of things most people never see. Usually her quests involve countless hours combing damp woodland floors for specific flowers, amphibians and insects, then spending considerable time on her belly to photograph them in meticulous detail. She targets wildlife we would never see otherwise because the plants or animals tend to live only in specific places at very specific times.

Read this entire article from Virginia Living.com here


UNDERSTORY, an exhibition of 16 of her photographs on canvas, celebrating the short perennial lives of native plants that bloom beneath the forest canopy, is currently on view at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Naturalist Center, the Norfolk Botanical, and the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. 


Visit Jackie's website here: http://www.baileylabovitz.com/
Don't miss her beautiful wildlife photos of Birds, Butterflies, Insects, Amphibians, Mammals and Plants. Click here

"When photographs are as beautiful as these, they should be seen by everyone."

Helene Lisy, Naturalist Center

National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist loves nature photography!  Learn more about this program in Virginia here. Get outside and photograph something beautiful today!

I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain?

Rain makes Appalachian Trail a soggy slog

"It's supposed to rain in the spring, isn't it?" said Sam McMullan, a 30-year-old hiker from New Zealand.

Rain makes Appalachian Trail a soggy slog

roanoke.com - Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke TimesDuring this rainy May, many Appalachian Trail hikers say they have no dry clothes. They wake up in a damp tent, pull on soggy, smelly clothes, and hike up and ...

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist say "I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain coming down on a sunny day?" CCR 

GET OUTSIDE!

Run Newt Run!

Meet Terrestrial Newt, isn't he cute? 

Eastern Newt or Red-spotted Newt living at Booker T Washington National Monument in VA

Newts are gentle forest creatures as Tim Quinn shares with the class

This Newt is a youth

He is a common salamander found in these Blue Ridge Mountains and Foothills in the Eastern United States. Eastern newts dwell in wet forests with small lakes or ponds. They can coexist in an aquatic environment with fish, however, their skin secretes a poisonous substance when the newt is threatened or injured. They have a lifespan of 12 to 15 years in the wild, and may grow to 5 inches in length.

Remember, if you live in Virginia, you live in bear country

DGIF wants to remind you...

You Live in Bear Country...

photo © 2007 Bess Sadler | more info (via: Wylio)

As new spring growth emerges, so do bears, and they are following their stomachs in search of food.

With a healthy and growing black bear population, bear sightings are becoming the norm throughout Virginia. While the highest concentration of bears occurs in the Blue Ridge and Alleghany Mountains and around the Great Dismal Swamp, bears are likely to be seen just about anywhere in Virginia. During the months of April and May bears have left their dens and are ending their winter fast. Bears do not eat, drink, urinate, or defecate while they are in dens. Additionally, while denning, female bears may give birth to cubs. Cubs are born weighing less than a pound and are reliant on their mother's milk.

In Virginia, bear diets consist of 80% vegetation and only 20% protein from common sources like insects and carrion. Bears are highly adaptable and intelligent animals and can learn to associate human dwellings with food. In their search for food, bears are attracted to residential areas by the smell of food around homes.

Please don't feed the bears

Always remember that a bear is a wild animal, and that it is detrimental to the bear, as well as illegal in Virginia, to feed a bear under any circumstances. Even the inadvertent feeding of bears is illegal. The most common food attractants are bird feeders, garbage, and pet food. Additionally outdoor grills, livestock food, compost, fruit trees, and beehives can also attract bears.

Click on the following link to learn details on how to handle bears in your backyard...

• How do you encourage a bear that's hanging around to move on?
• What should you do if you see a bear on your property?
• How can I learn more about bears in Virginia?
• Living with Bears in Virginia, a video produced by VDGIF provides tips for peacefully coexisting with bears and other useful links to bear information.

If you do see a bear in your area, enjoy watching it from a distance. If you experience a bear problem after taking appropriate steps of prevention, please notify your Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Regional Office. Phone numbers for the regional offices can be found by visiting the Department's website.

Remember, if you live in Virginia, you live in bear country. 
BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist wishes everyone a safe Spring and Summer Outdoors!

Regal Tree, Historic Sound?

Thomas Jefferson was not only the third President of the United States, he was also a naturalist, as well as a farmer, inventor, historian, and writer.

In 1807, TJ planted a poplar at Monticello that lived nearly 200 years. Now guitar-makers Huss and Dalton are turning its wood into noteworthy instruments.

COURTESY OF HUSS & DALTON GUITAR CO., INC

From left: Jeff Huss, Betsy Baten and Mark Dalton with the sizeable stump from the Monticello 

On April 16, 1807, Thomas Jefferson noted this in his Weather Memorandum Book: “Planted 1. Laurodendron in margin of S. W. shrub circle from the nursery.” The meaning of TJ’s shorthand? He had planted a poplar tree just outside his bedroom. Flash-forward to about 1870: In the earliest known photograph of Monticello, wintry conditions are ravaging Jefferson’s home—and the aforementioned poplar can be seen towering overhead. That tree would grow to 22 feet in circumference and live nearly 200 years, until 2008. That year the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) took down and milled the diseased poplar, concerned that it was threatening the restored mansion it once shaded.


Read the entire article here from Virginia Living.com
Learn more about Monticello here
Learn more about TJ's personal retreat POPLAR FOREST which is in Forest, VA.

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist loves Virginia History!  Learn more about this program in Virginia here. Get outside and find something fun!

A Mushroom with Gills

Field-Trip to Booker T Washington National Monument Brings up Interesting Flora, Fauna and Fungi! 

One of the fun and unique things we spotted in our field training was this Oyster Mushroom.  As every good Virginia Master Naturalist does, I came home and immediately had to get more information!  So enjoy these photos from today and the information I found afterward, online. Tim Quinn, Victoria Keenum and Don Kelso led this troupe of Naturalists-en-training and did a fantastic job!

BRFAL Virginia Master Naturalists en-training using their field guides for identification

Oyster Mushroom

This mushroom has gills!

Pleurotus is a genus of gilled mushrooms which includes one of the most widely eaten mushrooms, P. ostreatus. Species of Pleurotus may be called oyster, abalone, or tree mushrooms, and are some of the most commonly cultivated edible mushrooms in the world. (No we didn't eat it or cut it to bring home, since this is National Park Service land!)

The caps may be laterally attached (with no stem). If there is a stem, it is normally eccentric and the gills are decurrent along it. The term pleurotoid is used for mushrooms having this general shape.

Pleurotus fungi are found in both tropical and temperate climates throughout the world. Most species of Pleurotus are white-rot fungi on hardwood trees, although some also decay conifer wood.

Scientific Classification
Kingdom: Fungi
Phylum: Basidiomycota
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Pleurotaceae
Genus: Pleurotus

*Information from Wiki, more here.  

• Visit Booker T Washington National Monument - admission is free. Directions and more info here
• Booker T Nat Monument is in Franklin County, VA - where is Franklin County? Learn more about it here

BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist are all about FUN (gi)! Get outside and see what fun you can find.

Morris sees a hummingbird moth

YES YOUR EYES ARE DECEIVING YOU, BUT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO AS THIS IS A GREAT MASQUERADE!

"A couple of Sundays ago, I was standing on the front porch of Hazel's third daughter, Teresa, in Rocky Mount. We were watching those big bees with a bright yellow body I always called yellow jackets. They were in a feeding frenzy on a couple of azalea bushes in full bloom.

photo © 2009 Dwight Sipler | more info (via: Wylio)

While watching, the bees were joined by what appeared to be a cross between a bee and a hummingbird. Yep, that's right. It had a long snout, or feeder tube as it's called, like a hummer, zips around like a hummer, has a tail like one, but it has two antennae. This one was about the size of a baby hummer but bigger than one of the bees feeding of the nectar.

Explore Virginia Outdoors!

GET OUTSIDE!
If you have not yet seen this fantastic portal to all things outdoors in Virginia, we encourage you to check it out!  VirginiaOutdoors.com has blogs from the Virginia State Parks, maps, video tours, hiking guides, and tons of useful information.

1. Learn more about Virginia State Parks here
2. Learn more about Trail Quest here
3. Learn more about Virginia Dept of Game and Inland Fisheries here
4. Learn more about Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trails here
5. Learn more about the Virginia Master Naturalist Program here
6. Find your Virginia Destination here - search by region

Brought to you by your BRFAL Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program, who want you to "Go outside and play!"  

Testing the Water

Stream Ecology Field Trip

Virginia Master Naturalists In-Training for the BRFAL Chapter met at Waid Park in Franklin County to test the water.  We discovered a few things as we dipped our nets in the Pigg River.  

We were told by our trip leader and chapter member Victoria Keenum to look for the "sensitive" bugs. Sensitive? Does this mean if we turn over their rock we might hurt their feelings?  Apparently not. Victoria showed us a field guide with the "bugs" we would be looking for an identifying in this waterway, The Pigg River. Being Sensitive simply meant that these organisms will not be found in abundance where water quality is degraded. Their dominance generally signifies good water quality. The second group was "Less Sensitive," and third group to ID was the "Tolerant." Tolerant means these organisms can be found where water quality is degraded. Their dominance usually signifies poor water quality.

The weather was grand, the park was a hustle and bustle of soccer games and families out to enjoy the day. We had children from young to old stop by to see what we were doing with our microscope, nets and tweezers!

Collecting Bugs in The Pigg River

Locating the bugs for identification

Trapping the borer: Bug threatens Virginia's ash trees

Purple traps have been set up across the state to monitor the advance of the emerald ash borer, an invasive threat to ash trees throughout the country.

*Non-native tree killing pest! 

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, warns that if the pest is not contained and managed, "the impact of emerald ash borer in North America will be similar to that of the devastation caused by two fungal diseases, chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease, which destroyed dominant species of woodland and urban forests in the 20th century."

Read the article with photos here from The Roanoke Times and learn more about these destructive pests.  Ash trees represent about 1.6% of our forests in Virginia.
Photo Courtesy David Cappaert, Michigan State University, Bugwood.org

Virginia Master Naturalist Program Receives Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence

Governor Bob McDonnell announced the winners of the 2011 Governor’s Environmental Excellence Awards, which were presented at the Environment Virginia Symposium in Lexington on April 6. 

The Virginia Master Naturalist program is one of the winners of this prestigious award, earning a gold award in the category of governmental environmental programs. 

Read the entire article here dated

Monday, April 11, 2011 at: http://virginiamasternaturalist.blogspot.com

• More on this award from The Roanoke Times -Master Naturalist Program at Virginia Tech receives environmental award
• article with info about the Eastern Shore Chapter of VMN.
• in the Virginia Tech News