Collect Acorns for the VDOF

It’s that time of year again! The Virginia Department of Forestry is requesting acorns from around the state. HMNs can log volunteer service hours for this under “Habitat Restoration/Maintenance – Acorn Collection for Virginia Tree Nurseries (DOF)” in Better Impact. From the Virginia Department of Forestry News Release, September 8, 2022: Every year, Virginians from…

JMU Tree Inventory Updates, Summer 2022

Note the Tree Inventory Volunteer Days in September: 1, 6, 8, 9, 14, 20, 22. More details here and in Better Impact! To date eight HMN volunteers have spent 70 hours logging trees into a GIS field data collection app and have added a total of 733 trees to JMU’s Campus Tree Inventory Map. Information…

Bat Count

Leslie Sturges, president of Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia, organized a bat count on the evening of July 27 at the farm of Carolyn Ford, just within Staunton city limits. We had excellent attendance and weather, with a total of about 17 participants, including three from our Headwaters Master Naturalist chapter. We began with…

Volunteering at JMU in June

HMNs participate in new JMU stewardship projects James Madison University holds a designation as a Tree Campus. They have a committee for oversight of activities. Annually they must host service projects, have a tree care plan, and celebrate Arbor Day. One of their goals for this year is to increase the tree canopy coverage on…

HMNs Present at Arboretum

The Brown Bag Lunch series at the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum at James Madison University featured two programs in June presented by Headwaters Master Naturalists. The first, on June 22, was “What Humans Hear in Nature & Vice Versa” presented by Lincoln Gray, who is professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at JMU. The focus…