Raptorthon 2021

HMN Penny Warren was one of a five member team, the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watchers, which participated in a day-long annual bird watching event on May 10, 2021. “The purpose of Raptorthon is simple: get outside and have fun birding while raising funds on behalf of raptor monitoring throughout the Americas!” – Hawk Migration Association…

Volunteering for the SNP Bear/Wildlife Mitigation Patrol

This past summer I had the greatest honor to work with the Shenandoah National Park Bear Techs (Biological Science Technicians – Wildlife) and American Conservation Experience Wildlife Management Interns under the management of the SNP Biologist, Rolf Gubler. The purpose of this program includes assessing nuisance black bear and white-tailed deer behavior in developed areas…

Shen Mt Garlic Mustard Pull

HMN Lisa Klein reports here on her May 1, 2021, garlic mustard pull along the Shenandoah Mountain Trail near the Confederate Breastworks in the George Washington National Forest: There is a ton of garlic mustard up on Shenandoah Mountain. Lynn Cameron had seen a couple of patches, but by the time we went up to…

Cohort Zoom

Greetings from Cohort VII Our eager swarm of 25 got together on a windy Feb 27, 2020 evening for our initial class at Bridgewater College. At this intro session we “broke bread”, got to know some of our fellow mates, met some of the HMN officers and got the lay of the future land from…

Getting acquainted with Better Impact

Like it or not, we’ve got a new volunteer management system in Better Impact! The Virginia Master Naturalists Volunteer Management System (VMN VMS) that has been in place since the formation of the Headwaters Chapter in 2011, is scheduled to disappear at the end of April. The state program coordinators have worked hard over most…