Thanks to the organizational skills of our outgoing Vice President and Programs Committee Chair Mary Gatling-Finks, last Saturday, January 28, we celebrated our 2022 accomplishments with our first in-person annual meeting in three years. Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave graciously gave us use of their spacious meeting room in the Houff Student Center…
Here is a new installment in our ongoing series to learn more about who’s doing the work behind the scenes to keep our Chapter running along. Stephanie Gardner, Newsletter Team member, conducted this online interview with our newly (re-)elected Chapter Treasurer, Carl Droms. How long have you been a Virginia Master Naturalist? Of which Headwaters…
by Elizabeth Pass, Cohort VIfor the February 2023 issue of Headwaters Highlights February is for love. Not only for romantic love but for all types of love. An important expression of love is to listen, which we do far too little of and is impeded by the barrage of created human noises that daily assaults us. …
We are working on initiating a new project for volunteers to work on to earn their volunteer hours. The Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) is seeking the help of Virginia Master Naturalists in spreading awareness and education on living with black bears to a broader audience in hopes to alleviate negative interactions and human-bear conflicts…
Know a young adult seeking a deep nature experience? There is a new adult program to be aware of in our region for young adults seeking an alternative to traditional college. Living Earth School’s (LES) new program in Albemarle County is called Deeper Roots Immersion and is designed for (approximately) college-age persons. It is a…
An exciting new Master Naturalist project centered around trees is starting in 2023 in Waynesboro! Headwaters Chapter members will work in current and planned public spaces like Ridgeview Park, The Greenway, Basic Park, and Coyner Springs Park. We will assist with management of invasive vines and trees, management of beaver cages around trees, pruning, and may also assist…
It’s that time of year when HMN board members put together our Annual Report for the VMN state program coordinators. Among our lists of activities and volunteered hours over 2022, this project stands out for the combined 162 hours put in by two HMN volunteers. Thanks to Jean and Lincoln for providing this unique and…
Rare MacGillivray’s Warbler graces DWR’s Lake Shenandoah Pollinator Trail! We think of pollinator plantings as hosting, well, pollinators: bees, butterflies, moths, and other insects. Some birds, such as hummingbirds, do of course serve as pollinators though we generally don’t connect pollinator plantings with birds. But wait! By late fall, with their elegant flowering days in…
On Saturday, December 17 the Rockingham Bird Club (RBC) conducted its annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The CBC was started in 1900 by Frank Chapman as an alternative to hunting birds. It is the longest running citizen science survey in the world. Locally the count has been happening since 1954. My participation, with my wife…
Headwaters Master Naturalist Stephanie Gardner gave a most interesting presentation to the Rockingham Bird Club (RBC) on December 7 entitled “When Archives Take Flight: The Bridgewater College Birding Journal, 1918 and 1947 – 1950”. As the Special Collections Librarian at Bridgewater College’s John Kenny Forrer Learning Commons, Stephanie told the story of a composition book…
Virginia Master Naturalist Headwaters Chapter 