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SPRING: A Busy Time for Master Naturalists
The March meeting of the Blue Ridge Foothills And Lakes
(BRFAL) Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist (VMN) Program was attended by
recently hired Dr. Alycia Crall, VMN Co-ordinator as well as Ryan Klopf, our new
Chapter Advisor. Alycia has degrees from
UGa, Colorado State Univ and Univ of Wisconsin and is based in Charlottesville
with the Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation/Virginia Cooperative
Extension, a part of the College of Natural Resources and Environment of
Virginia Tech. Ryan has degrees from
William & Mary and SIU and is currently a PhD candidate at SIU. He is the Mountain Region Steward for the
Natural Area Preserve System of the Virginia Natural Heritage Program within
DCR. Both visitors addressed the group
of 20 BRFAL members and fielded questions afterward.
AWARDS
Several awards were distributed at the meeting including
recognition of De English who has completed more than 500 hrs of Master
Naturalist volunteer activities. Kathy
Scott was recognized for passing the 250 hr mark of volunteering on various
projects that help preserve natural resources in our area. Re-certification pins for 2013 were presented
to Carl Boast, Jean & Lee Borgman, Meg & Rich Brager, Guy Buford,
Marshall Daniels, Jim Dodd, Charlotte Hubbard, Connie Hylton, Shellie Leete,
Dick LeRoy, Marilyn & Herb Mocksfield, Jim & Denise Pilversack, Kathy
Scott and Shawn Shirley. The limited
edition pin for this year represented the brook trout, which is the state fish
of Virginia (and the only native trout of the commonwealth and distributed widely west of the Fall line.) This pin was based on a painting by Repp Glaettli, a member of the
Rivanna Chapter of VMN.
NEW LOGO!
A logo for the BRFAL Chapter was unveiled at this
meeting. It was designed by members Meg
Brager & Kathy Scott. Shirts and
hats with the logo on them can be obtained from Lakeside Embroidery on Scruggs
Rd in Moneta.
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The recently designed BRFAL logo
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PUBLIC EVENT - FROGWATCH USA
The next BRFAL meeting on April 18th, 2013 at 7 PM will be free
and open to the public with preregistration required due to limited
seating. Our featured speaker will be
Robin Lentz, Animal Collection Curator at the Mill Mountain Zoo.
She will describe a program supported by the
Association of Zoos and Aquariums called Frogwatch USA. This 10 year old ongoing project involves
volunteers reporting calls of local frogs and toads to help conserve these
important species. To get info on the
location of the meeting and to register, email BRFAL.VMN@gmail.com or call
540-365-4613.
NEXT BASIC TRAINING!
Dates, times and location for the next Basic Training Course
have now been set. This 40 hr course is
a requirement to become a Certified Virginia Master Naturalist. Classes will be held at the Franklin Center
in Rocky Mount on Tuesday afternoons beginning Sept 3, 2013 and continuing
until Nov 19, 2013.
There will also be 5 field
trip sessions at various locations on Saturdays to be determined. Applications will be solicited in the
summer. There is a fee associated with
the course which has been $100 in the past.
To learn more about taking the course and becoming a Virginia Master
Naturalist, visit BRFAL.blogspot.com or virginiamasternaturalist.org . To receive personal info about applications,
email BRFAL.VMN@gmail.com or call 540-365-4613.
Spring is here, Get Outdoors!
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