Tick Vigilance

Ticks are active year-round in Virginia As Virginia Master Naturalists, it is important to know that every season is tick season in Virginia, and winter weather doesn’t necessarily determine how bad the spring and summer tick seasons will be. April through September are generally considered prime tick months but May is National Lyme Disease Awareness…

HMN Book Group Inaugural Meeting

Thanks to Stephanie and Sandy for both sharing their reflections on the HMN Book Group’s first selection! It sounds like a winner. And thanks to Peggy for facilitating and hosting the group. Stay tuned for the next selection. Books and bats enthusiasts gathered at the home of Peggy Plass on the afternoon of Sunday, February…

Rare MacGillivray’s Warbler at Lake Shenandoah

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…

Stop the sale of invasive plants

HMN David Forrer, Cohort VI, on a collaborative effort to curb invasive plants in Virginia: All of us HMNs are painfully aware of the many invasive plants that are taking over landscapes and forests around us. In addition to the stiltgrass, garlic mustard, and other invasives we see and do battle with in the forest,…