2017 VMN Annual Conference and Training

The 2017 Virginia Master Naturalist Annual Conference and Training was held September 15-17 at the Northern Virginia 4-H Center in Front Royal, VA. Kathy Scott, Wayne Barnes and I each attended parts of the weekend program along with approximately 250 other naturalists and presenters from around the state. The Shenandoah Chapter hosted the event with a wide array of speakers, facilitators and sponsoring agencies supporting. Volunteers from SW Piedmont, Old Rag and Fairfax Chapters pitched in as well.

The Shenandoah Valley setting was beautiful, and the weather, though hot, was beautiful for the programs and fieldtrips. The programs were well developed, informative and from a participant’s point of view ran smoothly.

I attended Saturday sessions on:

·         eMammal with Bill McShea representing the Smithsonian

·         Interacitve, Fun, Inexpensive and Easy Educational Outreach Activities from Project   Learning Tree

·         Virginia Black Bear Conservation from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

·         Discovering State Forests from the Department of Forestry

Quite a variety of topics! My favorite event was a flora and geology hike in Shenandoah National Park on Sunday morning with a botanist active in the Virginia Native Plant Society. At no point did I make a written note of his name. However, our group was able locate not only the 75 species on the Compton Peak Species List, but we (and the group leader) added 20 more!

Most spectacular to me on the hike was not the plants, but a basalt formation known as the Compton Gap Columnar Fault. Relatively easy to access from Milepost 10.1 of the Skyline Drive, the formation occurred…"Millions of years ago (when) plates on the earth's surface in this area began pulling apart, and lava—at first it was black-colored basalt, but eventually it metamorphosed into the greenstone you see today—oozed up out of the earth and through the cracks between the plates. As the lava cooled, it shrank into intriguing six-sided shapes down through its depths, forming columns. Geologists call this columnar jointing.” https://www.nps.gov/shen/compton-gap.htm

Thanks to Michele, Tiffany, Terri and all the VMN Program Team who have once again put together a well run, informative state-wide event. What a great way to earn all those necessary continuing education hours! 

Flora and Geology Walk, Compton's Peak

Jack-in-the-Pulpit fruiting

Compton Gap Columnar Fault

Columnar jointing

Greenstone bolder with amazing tree!