Category: Member Spotlight

Anna Finch is among our newest Chapter members, having transferred in from another chapter. HMN Stephanie Gardner was recently in touch with her to find out a little bit about her and help introduce her to other members:

Welcome to Headwaters Master Naturalists Anna!

Thanks for helping us get to know you through this online interview.

From what chapter are you transferring your VMN membership?

I originally was trained with the Fairfax Master Naturalists Chapter in 2015 and then moved to Portland, Oregon for a few years where I became an Oregon Master Naturalist there as well, and now transferring to Headwaters and sharing dual membership with Rivanna Master Naturalists as well. I live between your two chapters! And looks like some exciting opportunities to volunteer with both!

What were some of your favorite past volunteer and leadership projects with VMN? 

I am passionate about volunteering in parks connecting people to our beautiful natural world and being a steward! Some of my past favorite volunteer projects were vernal pool monitoring, frog call surveys, welcoming park visitors at Visitor Centers, and helping with other areas as needed like trash pickup.

In what areas will you continue to volunteer or are looking forward to exploring?

I am excited to continue exploring vernal pool monitoring and possibly macroinvertebrate surveys (I loved that so much in the training course I recall) and do love wildflowers and bird watching as well!

Do you have any favorite memories of amazing, odd, or funny moments in your VMN training and volunteer work thus far?

My favorite memory is when introducing to a child a fact about a beaver, or flower, or bird, and seeing the child’s face light up and make the connection to nature! I love inspiring those future naturalists! And finding fairy shrimp in my vernal pool in Alexandria, VA was so cool!

Please tell us about other interests and hobbies that you enjoy.

I also enjoy hiking and exploring new parks with my husband! He is from Fishersville and we have returned to his grandma’s house in Staunton to buy and begin our new chapter, so I love learning about new parks if anyone has any recommendations on their favorites in the area!

Thanks Anna! Welcome to Headwaters!
February 2023

Anne Elise Lintelman is among our newest Chapter members, having transferred in from another chapter. HMN Stephanie Gardner was recently in touch with her to find out a little about her and help introduce her to other members:

Welcome to Headwaters Master Naturalists Anne Elise!

We look forward to meeting you and think you will enjoy our vibrant and growing Virginia Master Naturalists chapter.

Thanks for helping us get to know you through this online interview.

From what chapter are you transferring your VMN membership?
Pocahontas Chapter

How long have you been involved in the Virginia Master Naturalists program?
I graduated Basic Training in 2018, shortly before moving back to Harrisonburg. 

What were some of your favorite past volunteer and leadership projects with VMN?  
Unfortunately I have not had the chance to volunteer yet!  When I moved back to Harrisonburg, I didn’t think about transferring chapters right away.  The job I moved here for did not leave me with much time or energy available for volunteering.  Then the pandemic hit and, as we all know, daily life was a bit distracting.  A little over a year ago I became self-employed and am now in better control of making time for volunteer work! 

In what areas will you continue to volunteer or are looking forward to exploring?
As a lover of native plants, I look forward to volunteering with habitat creation and conservation, tree plantings, implementing native plant gardens, etc.  I also look forward to exploring projects associated with Virginia wildlife, and I would love to learn more about birds in particular.  I am hoping to participate in some riparian projects along streams and rivers as well.  Mountain streams are probably my favorite scene to enjoy in our beautiful area.

Do you have any favorite memories of amazing, odd, or funny moments in your VMN training and volunteer work thus far?
I was born and raised in Virginia but didn’t know about the history of the Great Dismal Swamp until my basic training courses.  I will never forget holding a piece of carbon from the swamp that had a strip of sediment from the Yucatan peninsula within it, due to backsplash from the asteroid impact!  I have become very interested in the history of the swamp since and hope to finally visit this year.

I also felt very in awe of the number of mastodon skeletons my basic training geology teacher had uncovered in the Jamestown, VA area.  His account of finding a team to unearth them was very funny… I often remember that as well.

Please tell us about other interests and hobbies that you enjoy.
My favorite way to spend time is in my own garden, though I love my job of creating native gardens for others as well.  I love to draw and paint, especially botanical art, landscapes, or silly portraits of my friends.  My new favorite craft is wreath making.  This winter I have been helping to create our Ridge and Valley Native Plant Guide with a team of people – we are so excited for it to come out this spring!

Thanks Anne Elise! Welcome to Headwaters!
February 2023

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 Master Naturalist cohort are you a member? 

I’m in Cohort II, our class started in Fall 2012 and ended in Spring 2013. So it’s been just about 10 years.

What is your position on the HMN Board?  How long have you been serving?

I am currently the Treasurer. I was Treasurer before for about five years, and I’m just starting a new term after a two-year hiatus.

Have you held other positions on the HMN Board?

No.

What is your favorite thing about your role in the chapter?

As a member of HMN, my favorite thing is getting to know all these great people. As Treasurer, well, there’s not much to say; it’s really just bookkeeping.

What have been some of your most memorable activities/projects as a VMN?

Probably my favorite project was the “eMammal” project. For a couple of years, I would go to predetermined sites in the National Forest to set up “camera traps” (i.e., those automatic wildlife cameras). Then every three weeks or so, I’d go pick them up, replace the memory cards, and move them to the enxt location. The Principal Investigators were at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the goal of the project was to create a database of information about mammals: where they live, where they go, how they interact with one aonther, etc.

What are your future hopes for our chapter?

I would like to see our chapter continue to grow. We’ve been through a difficult time since 2020, and had quite a few members become inactive. But with a new cohort beginning this spring, the future looks promising.

Where do you live in the Valley?  

I live in Harrisonburg with my partner Adrie, who is actually the person responsible for getting me involved with HMN (thanks, Adrie!)

Are you originally from Virginia?

No, I grew up in the Albany, NY area, and lived mostly in New York (with a couple of stints in Europe) until I moved to Harrisonburg to take a job at JMU. That was 40 years ago.

Please tell us a little about your past or present career(s).

I was a Mathematics professor at JMU for 29 years, from 1983 till I retired in 2012. One of the first things I did after I retired was join the HMN training class!

What do you enjoy doing when not volunteering for VMN? 

I am an avid bike rider and skier. I also enjoy hiking and backpacking.

If you were an animal, plant or fungus; what kind would you be?

A bird (but only if I could keep my human brain!)

What are you most looking forward to in 2023?

Getting back to some semblance of normality after all the upheavals of the past few years.

January 2023

While not strictly a naturalist activity, I did get the chance to participate in an all-day, hands-on 18th-century cooking class at Sky Meadows State Park near Delaplane, Virginia, earlier this month. The teacher, Rebecca Suerdieck, is a second-generation historic re-enactor who literally grew up at Colonial Williamsburg! Not only does she know her open fire and hearth cooking, she knows what visitors to Williamsburg have been asking for years to have in a workshop. And Rebecca delivered by letting the seven of us be the sous chefs and do the chopping, tying, mixing, cutting, and taste-testing that went into preparing the seven dishes we made—followed by a feast!

The menu:

• Herb-stuffed roasted pork loin made in a reflector cooker
• Buttered roasted carrots
• Sweet potato bake in a Dutch oven
• Fresh cheese
• Cornbread and buttered molasses in a Dutch oven
• Salad with a creamy balsamic dressing
• Apple pie in a Dutch oven

The whole meal took about 5 hours to prepare and according to Rebecca’s husband, Mike, it takes about 60 pieces of wood to make enough coals to make the 6-course dinner. All the recipes were from authentic 18th-century Virginia cookbooks, so we got to read all the old text and try to make sense of it. We learned a lot about fire skills, too.

Rebecca teaches about 5 of these workshops each fall in various historic kitchens around the state. You may want to check it out and take a fun road trip next year. I know I’ll be going back! https://cookingandfire.wixsite.com/workshops

– Kate Guenther, Cohort I, November 2022

Photos by Kate. Click on one to make it bigger and start a slide show with captions.

This is the latest installment in a series to learn more about who’s doing the work behind the scenes to keep our Chapter running along.

Stephanie Gardner, former HMN Board Historian and Parliamentarian, is conducting a series of online interviews with the members of our current Board of Directors. Here we are featuring Peggy Plass, Chair of the Basic Training Committee.

Peggy scouting photo ops for the Reddish Knob Bird & Wildlife Trail site, May 2016. Photo by Sandy Greene.

How long have you been a Virginia Master Naturalist?  Of which Headwaters Master Naturalist cohort are you a member? 

I started in 2015, with Cohort 4 (along with Elaine and Brian, who are also currently on the board!)

What is your position on the HMN Board?  How long have you been serving?

I’m the training co-ordinator person, but am serving as a sort of “bridge” in that position (I won’t run the next training class, but will help with training the person who will). I did the last training class (the one that had its first meeting on March 12 of 2020….so you can figure how that went from there!)

Have you held other positions on the HMN Board?

Yes! I was also Project Committee chair for 4 years! Loved that.

What is your favorite thing about your role in the chapter?

When I was project chair, I loved getting to know about all the great stuff that everyone was doing, and being the contact person for the initiation of new projects. As training co-ordinator, obviously, the best thing was getting to work with a new class of master naturalists!

What have been some of your most memorable activities/projects as a VMN?

I love the Virginia Working Landscapes projects (I worked on the pollinator project for 4 years, and loved it!). I also really loved doing river clean ups (I still have very fond memories of walking through Middle River beside a canoe when it got too full of discarded tires!). I’ve also loved doing the Spring tree planting at McCormick Farm–that was my first ever volunteer experience as a master naturalist, and I’ve loved returning to it (most years!) since.

What are your future hopes for our chapter?

I’d love to see us expand in the projects that we offer in our community! I’d love to sponsor more “nature gardens” type things in parts of our towns that need those green spaces most, and expose kids to the joys of the natural world in working on them. I’d like for us to have projects that serve disabled members of our community, allowing an expansion of the people who are able to participate in our outings and events. I’d love to have something akin to a Mushroom Club in Harrisonburg, and have HMN sponsor our first foray! And, as always, I’d love to have us expand our involvement in citizen science projects.

Where do you live in the Valley?  

I’m in Harrisonburg.

Are you originally from Virginia?

Nope! Grew up in Memphis, went to grad school in New Hampshire, and have lived in Virginia since the early 90s.

Please tell us a little about your past or present career(s).

I’m a professor at JMU in the Justice Studies Department there.

What do you enjoy doing when not volunteering for VMN? 

I’m a knitter. I also like biking in our beautiful valley (trying to plan a bike trip to South Dakota for this summer!). I sort of like gardening, although I’m terrible at it, but keep hoping that I’ll improve. I like playing with and taking care of my dog (and cat). Love traveling!

If you were an animal, plant or fungus; what kind would you be?

Definitely a mushroom–I think an indigo lactarius. Something about a blue mushroom (which is also edible!) which is so magical.

What are you most looking forward to in 2022?

Birds. Biking. Bat (monitoring). Getting to see more master naturalists in real life (rather than virtually).

March 2022