Our chapter draws strength from its members’ diverse talents and personalities, each deserving of their own spotlight! For this occasional post spotlighting one of our Headwaters Master Naturalists, we are featuring Dr. Eric Jones, ecologist, beloved chapter presenter and field trip leader. Sadly, he is making plans to move out-of-state. Stephanie Gardner interviewed Eric with these questions…
Each year in our Chapter’s Annual Report for the VMN program we are asked to describe our efforts in complying with the program’s guidelines to strive for diversity in our membership. The request looks like this: Civil Rights Compliance Information To comply with state and federal guidelines, we are required to document the following information…
Congratulations to the 23 graduates of Headwaters Chapter’s Cohort V Basic Training class! Their accomplishments were celebrated on Tuesday, May 9, 2017, with dinner and the distribution of certificates, name tags and t-shirts in the community room of Eagle Carpet in Harrisonburg. Space constraints meant the entire chapter could not attend the festivities but the entire chapter does join…
On Saturday, April 29th, the Headwaters Master Naturalists led three wildflower walks on trails on Shenandoah Mountain. Nearly 50 participants and 15 master naturalists hit the trails in search of spring wild flowers. Highlights from the three trails include: Dowell’s Draft Trail (moved from Braley’s Pond due to fish stocking at the pond): Trailing Arbutus…
In late March and early April, HMN trainees Morgan and Ben Martindell and members Adrie Voors and Carl Droms were among a group of 49 who volunteered to deploy temperature loggers for Trout Unlimited’s Upper Shenandoah Stream Temperature Study. The group included several other members of the trainee class. The first step in the process…
On Saturday, March 25th, the current Headwaters Master Naturalist Training Class met at Buckhorn Inn for a scouting field trip of part of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Forest Trails Loop of the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail, which they are adopting as their class project. We had a chance to look…
In addition to the updates below, HMN Coordinator for this project, Sandy Greene, has compiled some tips for successful monitoring trips here: DGIF Birding and Wildlife Trails for HMNs Adapted from an email sent to Adopt-A-Trail Project coordinators by VDGIF’s Virginia Birding & Wildlife Trail Project organizer Jessica Ruthenberg on March 30, 2017: Welcome Spring and…
On Tuesday, March 21, six HMNs (including three members of this year’s training class) joined host Brian Lux and our guide, Daniel Greenawalt, on a caving adventure. Our destination was Church Mountain Cave, located off Runion’s Creek Road in Rockingham County. After parking the cars, a short hike up a logging road and a section of…
Shanil Virani, Director of the John C. Wells Planetarium at James Madison University and Assistant Professor in the JMU Department of Physics and Astronomy, provided a captivating two hour program at the planetarium for Headwaters Master Naturalists and other invited guests on Sunday evening, March 5. The topic was the profound changes in the number…
Early in 2017 Harrisonburg’s Stream Health Coordinator Trey Jarrels invited HMNs to help save tree seedlings along Blacks Run in Purcell Park. Planted last year by representatives of The Nature Conservancy, the trees are part of a ten year joint project begun in 2008 to improve the health of Blacks Run whose waters find their…
There is a new volunteer opportunity and bat expert resource that moved to Augusta County! Recently, Leslie Sturges has relocated her non-profit organization— Save Lucy the Bat— from northern Virginia to Mt. Solon. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of white-nose syndrome and its devastating impact on North American bats. And because…
For a few years now, I have been citizen scienc-ing it up in my front yard marsh monitoring the types of frogs that are there, what time of year they croak and how loudly. Sometimes the frogs are VERY loud. At times I have literally had the urge to put my hands over my ears.…
