Basic Training Application online now!

If you are interested in the next BRFAL Chapter Master Naturalist Basic Training, click here for an application and more information!

If you have any questions, please email us at BRFAL.VMN@gmail.com or call 540-365-4613

OUR NEXT BASIC TRAINING BEGINS SEPT 3, 2013 in Rocky Mount! Classes held 1:30pm-4:00pm each Tuesday with Saturday morning field-trips (more here),

We hope to see you there!

Launch of the America's State Parks Ambassador Recruitment Campaign

VIRGINIA STATE PARKS IS A SPONSORING AGENCY FOR THE VIRGINIA MASTER NATURALIST PROGRAM. MANY OF OUR PROJECTS HAVE BEEN IN SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE STATE PARK OR FAIRY STONE STATE PARK.

Director Joe Elton would like to share this with you:

What was Appalachia like before the demise of the American Chestnut?

Find out at this Phoebe Needles program on July 9, 2013 
"APPALACHIAN NATURAL HISTORY & THE CHESTNUT RECOVERY PROJECT” WITH BETTY HAHN & MATT BRICKMAN

Blight effecting a young American Chestnut

BRFAL Member Kathy Scott Planting American Chestnut Seedlings this past winter in the Blue Ridge Mountains

More info here.
ACF website here.
Center for Lifelong Learning

The Program

The Center for Lifelong Learning began in March, 2003. It is a monthly program for adults 55+ that focuses on education and fellowship. A seminar in the morning is followed by a gourmet lunch. The seminars are on a variety of topics from "How to Spot an Antique", to "50 years of Space", and "The Religious Journey of Thomas Jefferson". 

This is a great opportunity to have a day in the beautiful surroundings of the Phoebe Needles Center for learning and fellowship.  The seminars are offered at no cost to members, and $8 to non-members. Lunch is $8 per person.

Care to car pool? Let our chapter know. This is an amazing setting up near the Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Directions here.
The Phoebe Needles Center | Phone 540-483-1518 | Toll-free 800-848-1677

Naturalists Lead Activity for Girls Scouts

By Connie Hylton

(AT ICIMANI ADVENTURE CAMP of the Skyline Council)

BRFAL Naturalists Connie, Lee, Jean, De, and Shannon recently worked with Franklin County Service Unit Scouts (Daisies, Brownies, Junior and Cadet Girl Scouts) in a water activity.  

About 50 Girl Scouts were camping May 17 and 18 at Icimani Adventure Camp along Back Creek in Roanoke County.  On the 18th we were scheduled to provide a water habitat awareness activity for the groups.  We planned for an in-water activity but had a rain contingency plan for the rainy forcast on that Saturday.  Fortunately, the rain held off and we were able to let the Scouts get in the creek and use our Save Our Stream monitoring equipment to collect and observe macroinvertebrates from the stream and learn how the organisms use the stream as their habitat and also how they can indicate if the stream is healthy.

The Scouts enjoyed the opportunity to get in the stream and were excited to find the creatures we found.

Included in the pictures below is a picture (provided by one of the parents) of a Planarian (Flatworm) netted by the Junior and Cadet  Scouts group.  Planaria are not usually found in large numbers in area streams as they have a preference for water with less flow in the deeper still waters of streams and in ponds and lakes.  Planaria are tolerant of pollution in streams and finding large numbers of them along with fewer intolerant species would be indicative of unhealthy conditions in streams.

Creek Mapping Part 2

Connie H shares a couple more pictures of creek mapping project on the second excursion to Booker T. Washington National Monument in Hardy, Virginia. 

Click here for more details on this project and the first excursion photos.

Don and Rick at the drafting table

Earth Day Exhibit at Franklin County High School

On Monday, April 22, 2013 some members of the BRFAL Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalist had an exhibit for Earth Day at Franklin County High School 2013.

Naturalists Don, De, Lee, and Connie sponsored a display about water and Save Our Streams for the students.  There were other tables by the Forestry Department, Horticulture Classes, Environmental Classes and Agriculture Classes with emphasis on caring for the environment and ecosystems.

The Advanced Placement Environmental Science Class hosted the Earth Day Fair and invited our group to do a display concerning water. Teacher Carla Barrell was most appreciative of our time in providing the display and hopes to sponsor another Earth Day Fair and have additional displays next year.

Lee demonstrating a net used in Save Our Streams (Photo and info from Connie H.)

Our next chapter master naturalist basic training will be September 2013! If you are interested, take a peek at some of the documents on this blog (top and right side bar) or drop us a line at mail: BRFAL.VMN@gmail.com

Honey, is that you?

It wasn't caught on eMammal, but dMammal and the "D" in dMammal stands for Donnelly! 

Richard Donnelly reports "Here are the details from our event this morning":

Inspiration from the Pacific Northwest

Having lived in the Pacific Northwest myself for 11 years, I thought this time lapse video was really stunning. I am sharing a photo I took from Blake Island, which is a small island between Port Orchard and Seattle. Accessible only by boat.

This was my very first digital camera in 1999 so I was excited to get these photos. Chump change in comparison to the 260,000 photos taken for the time lapse video. ENJOY! Shellie

Purely Pacific Northwest from John Eklund on Vimeo.

Contact:
Website: TheArtOfTimeLapse.com
Email: john@theartoftimelapse.com


Various locations include ...
Mt. Shuksan, Crater Lake, Mt. Bachelor, Mount St. Helens, Oregon's Badlands, Painted Hills, Cape Kiwanda, Mt. Hood, Lost lake, and Cannon Beach
I started this project in July 2011 and shot the final scene in August 2012. I took approximately 260,000 images. I used 6.3 TB of hard drive space.

Equipment:

1. Canon 5D Mark II 
2. Canon 5D Mark III (x2) 
3. Canon 24mm f/1.4 L II 
4. Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L II
5. Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L 
6. F-Stop Tilopa Backpack 
7. Gitzo GT3541LS (x2) 

DOESN'T THIS VIDEO MAKE YOU WANT TO GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY? (Don't forget your camera!)

What a difference a year makes!

Dr Todd Fredericksen at Ferrum College in Virginia Shares some insight comparisons from last Spring to this one!
What a difference a year makes

Phenological observation dates from the Ferrum area

First Observation	2012	2013
Crocus flowering	Jan 27	Feb 10
Spring peepers calling	Feb 2	Mar 12
Daffodils flowering	Feb 12	Feb 26
Bradford pear flowering	Mar 11	Apr 2
Carpenter bees	Mar 13	Apr 7
Redbud flowering	Mar 13	None yet
Appalachian tiger swallowtail	Mar 14	Mar 29

Shellie shares "I am sure you have noticed the trend as well. Last year Spring came early, this year she arrived a bit late! Below are photos of a few blooms in my yard last year on March 13th! These are only now starting to bud this year (Mid-April)"

Upcoming events at Smith Mountain Lake State Park

Lauri A. Schular, the Nature Interpreter at Smith Mountain Lake State Park would like to invite you to the following park events in April - May 2013 

Wildlife Wednesday Cruises - Join us the first Wednesday of each month!

We’ve teamed up with Virginia Dare Cruises to offer this fun-filled & informative lunch cruise.

Amapping We Will Go…

Blue Ridge Foothills and Lakes Chapter head out to our local National Monument on another cool project!

The mapping team (Tommy, Dr Don, Meg, Rick, Connie and myself not pictured)

Spring is in the air, thoughts turn to ……bees

here are some examples of Mason Bee houses, you can easily make your own or purchase one 

Spring is in the air, thoughts turn to ……bees 
By Meg Brager


Birds are doing mating dances in my yard and I’m looking forward to seeing what has survived the winter in my garden, and also to the lovely buzzing of bees.  Must be the season, all kinds of blogs and articles are out there about the fascinating world of bees.  Read about the “bee whisperer” here:  

http://www.beautifulwildlifegarden.com/at-the-bee-whisperers-apiary.html

I was interested to read that you can build a bumble bee hive, and it sounds like a much less work-intensive undertaking than European honey bees.  If you have talked to any of our Franklin County beekeepers (visit their FB page here) you know what a commitment honey bees are.

Interestingly, when I googled bumble bee hives the first site that came up was “Terminex” !  Don’t kill them….they’re the good guys !

Mason bee houses is something we've been talking about in Master Gardeners, they are easy to construct and attract small blue mason bees which are excellent pollinators.  They also nest in the hollow stems of certain plants, all that stuff we usually cut down when we’re cleaning out in the Spring.  Instead of throwing them away, gather them into a bunch to make low-cost housing for mason bees.

Here is an example with the "HOW -TO" easy to make mason bee houses!

Losing our bees is a threat right up there with global warming, so do your part!

SPRING: A Busy Time for Master Naturalists

Dick LeRoy, President of BRFAL with guests Dr. Alycia Crall, VMN Co-ordinator and Ryan Klopf, Chapter Advisor.

It's not a killjoy, but a killdeer

A visit to Carvins Cove brought this interesting bird to us. Seeing it reminded us of a sandpiper, with its spindly legs and long beak. Not being a proper birder, but still interested in birds, we decided to look it up when we got home! We found out it is indeed a plover, a "Charadrius vociferus"  which is commonly called a Killdeer.

Not super camouflaged, but we did see him!

We made it to Facebook!

WE INVITE YOU TO FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK!

We hope this will be a great place to interact with our fellow Master Naturalists and everyone else who wants to dive right in. We want this to be a great chapter resource.

Follow this link to our page:

http://www.facebook.com/BRFAL

Our next Basic Training will be Fall 2013 - dates TBA.

Everyday Nature: How I Came To Love House Centipedes

I must share this with you. As a Virginia Master Naturalist, I really do enjoy millipedes and centipedes, they are really cool! Look closely at them and they are a work of art. 

I took this photo of a millipede in the woods of Virginia

Nature Brought Us Together

Honoring Black History Month here in Virginia, here is a short video on a mostly impoverished black community in Bayview Virginia and how the Nature Conservancy got involved. I hope this short video will touch you! We're all in this together!

The Nature Conservancy 

Science isn't just for scientists

Unleash your inner scientist!

Who can you trust?

Punxsutawney Phil Predicts Spring Is Coming! 

But what does the Woolly Bear Caterpillar predict? (Wait, the Woolly Bear predicts a harsh or mild winter). Who else is in this prediction business? Here are a few more from Weather Lore: