The FMN Strategic Communications and Marketing committee members welcome your news and event notices, learning and service opportunities, stories, resource reviews, (and other ideas–we are open to creative thinking). We curate our content, so, yes, you’ll work with an editor, but the exchange will simply polish your pearl.
Send your content or requests to Marilyn Kupetz: [email protected], with the header: FMN website content
Coursera’s eight-week course, “Biodiversity and Global Change: Science & Action,” is taught by scientists at the University of Zurich. Registration begins Nov. 27, and the first session is on Dec. 4. Here’s the course description:
“In this course, featuring many researchers at the University of Zurich, you will learn about the amazing diversity of biological organisms in the world around us. You will discover the field of “biodiversity science”, experience the countless forms that biodiversity takes, look at the values and importance of this diversity, understand the processes that create and maintain diversity, and hear about how biodiversity is distributed across the Earth. You will also experience how biodiversity is threatened, and what conservation, management, and individual actions can do for its protection. Having been equipped with such knowledge through the course, we encourage you to take action, however small, to positively influence the future of biodiversity, and thereby become a Biodiversity Ambassador.”
The course requires two to four hours of study each week.
Behavior change has not yet been extensively incorporated into conservation practice planning, design, or overall thinking. This year’s Fuller Symposium, December 4, brings together a diverse array of experts from the behavior sciences to tackle how we can better integrate behavioral strategies and interventions into conservation practice to produce more effective outcomes for nature.
Attend in person at the National Geographic Society’s headquarters, or by by web streaming.
The conference is free and counts toward VMN continuing ed credits
You can attend in person or online. Register here
This year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, Richard Thaler, was recognized for his contributions to behavioral economics, a critical component in understanding how we make decisions about our health, wealth, etc. (Book recommendation: Nudge, with his coauthor, Cass Sunstein). Dan Ariely, one of the presenters at the symposium, is another prominent behavioral economist, and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal. (Book recommendation: Predictably Irrational.)
From the Ground Up: Managing and Preserving our Terrestrial Ecosystems is a new 7-week online course from the SDG Academy about sustainable use of our terrestrial ecosystems.You will learn about the impacts of deforestation, climate change, and more, with a particular focus on the human activities that affect these ecosystems. In studying the interplay of local communities dependent on these natural resources, you will emerge with a deep understanding of how to ensure the long-term health of our global ecosystems.
The course launches November 27th, 2017. Register here. While there are only 7 weeks of course content, the course will remain open until January 29th, 2018. Students can enroll anytime! After January 29th, 2018, the course content will no longer be available.
Course materials each week include pre-recorded lectures, readings, discussion questions, and quizzes. In addition, live webinars are offered throughout the course so that you can ask questions directly to instructors. Each Monday, course materials are made available and remain available for the duration of the course. All course components can be completed at a time that is convenient for students; quizzes can be completed anytime before the course ends.
Time commitment: Approx. 2-4 hours per week
Cost: Free
Requirements: An internet connection. Certificates: Students who successfully complete the course will receive a digital certificate of completion. In order to successfully complete the course, students must score an average of 70% or higher on the quizzes, all of which are multiple choice. Students who score 85% or higher will receive certificates of completion with distinction.
Certified Monitors Networking and Team Building Workshop
Saturday, November 18
Time: 11am – 1pm
Location: Manassas National Battlefield, Administrative HQ Building
The Northern Virginia and Prince William Soil and Water Conservation Districts are proud to announce the first networking and team building event for certified volunteer stream monitors! Meet fellow certified monitors, discuss best practices with long-time volunteers and staff from the two Conservation Districts, and hear about new national-level stream initiatives from the Izaak Walton League, the coordinators of the Virginia Save Our Streams Program. For more information or to RSVP, please contact Dan Schwartz. Open only to volunteer monitors who have passed their certification test.
Stream Monitoring Workshop: Reston
Monday, November 20
Time: 10am – 1pm
Location: Snakeden Branch behind the Walker Nature Center, Reston
Join Walker Nature Center staff as they monitor Snakeden Branch in the forested parkland behind the Center. To RSVP and get directions, please fill out a Reston Volunteer Application and then sign up through the event calendar.
The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia is taking applications from public school teachers for an all-expenses paid week of professional development plus transportation to National Audubon Society’s Hog Island Camp in Maine. This year’s Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week occurs July 15-20, 2018. Highlights include ospreys, bioluminescent sea creatures, and boat trips to nearby islands, including to a puffin colony. Applicants must be public classroom teachers, specialists, or school administrators working in the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, Manassas Park, Leesburg or the counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William or Stafford.
Application at http://audubonva.org/hog-island-scholarship
Application deadline: February 1, 2017
Questions? Email ASNV Youth Education Chair Stacey Evers at [email protected]
The Potowmack Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society
Saturday, November 18, 2017
10 am to 1 pm
Fraser Preserve
101 Springvale Road
Great Falls, VA 22066
VNPS programs are free and open to the public. Space is limited on walks, so please register at https://vnps20171118.eventbrite.com
Join Margaret Chatham for a tour of the Trees of Fraser Preserve, Saturday, November 18, at 10 am. Some fifty species of trees have been recorded for Fraser Preserve. Come see how many of them we can spot with the help of turning colors, with the certainty of viewing the State Champion American Elm down by the river.
This will be a somewhat energetic hike, downhill and up several times. You might want to bring binoculars and a walking stick in addition to water and the usual dress for the weather.
Margaret is a devoted Fraser Preserve Volunteer Visitation Committee Member who removes invasive barberry shrubs in winter and wavy leaf basket grass in summer and knows the preserve intimately. She is also editor of the VNPS Potowmack News newsletter, a volunteer at the VNPS propagation beds at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, and an Arlington Regional Master Naturalist.
The Potowmack Chapter of the Northern Virginia Plant Society (http://vnps.org/potowmack) cordially invites you to:
A Talk by Dr. Ashley Egan
Sunday, November 12, 2017
12:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Green Spring Gardens
4603 Green Spring Road
Alexandria, VA
VNPS programs are free and open to the public
The Talk will follow a short business Annual Meeting:
Kudzu, one of the most notorious invasive species in the U.S., now occupies most of the southeast, and continues to make headway. Introduced from Asia about 140 years ago, it is still not understood how many times it’s been introduced or from what genetic source(s). Dr. Egan’s lab focuses on answering these questions. Kudzu impacts native species, including other native legume vines such as the wild thicket bean or North American wild kidney bean (Phaseolus polystachios). The wild kidney bean is an important crop and wild relative to the cultivated Lima bean, serving as a critical genetic resource for plant breeding efforts, yet its range is in decline where Kudzu is advancing. Dr. Egan’s collaborative work has made significant efforts to characterize the conservation status of this Virginia native species.
Dr. Ashley N. Egan is a research scientist and assistant curator at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, where she specializes in legume biology (Fabaceae). Dr. Egan completed her undergraduate degree at Utah State University studying the population genetics of the trout lily, Erythronium grandiflorum. She then completed her PhD in Molecular and Evolutionary Biology at Brigham Young University in 2006, and accepted a postdoc position at Cornell University. She taught at East Carolina University where she began her work studying the evolutionary genetics and introduction history of Kudzu, part of which she will share with us.
Cornell Ornithology Lab and The Nature Conservancy have joined together to create Habitat Network (http://content.yardmap.org), the first citizen science social network. Habitat Network is a citizen science project designed to cultivate a richer understanding of wildlife habitat, for both professional scientists and people concerned with their local environments. They collect data by asking individuals across the country to literally draw maps of their backyards, parks, farms, favorite birding locations, schools, and gardens. They connect you with your landscape details and provide tools for you to make better decisions about how to manage landscapes sustainably.
The kinds of questions they are seeking to answer with your help are:
1 What practices improve the wildlife value of residential landscapes?
2 Which of these practices have the greatest impact?
3 Over how large an area do we have to implement these practices to really make a difference?
4 What impact do urban and suburban wildlife corridors and stopover habitats have on birds?
5 Which measures (bird counts? nesting success?) show the greatest impacts of our practices?
Members, Service Project C253-Habitat Yard Mapping has been approved for your use. You can map your own yard, a local park, or other public or private property for which you have access permission.
On November 15 the Friends of Dyke Marsh will present Dr. Kim de Mutsert, George Mason University’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy, who will give a presentation on the ecology and challenges of Hunting Creek. Dr. de Mutsert heads GMU’s research that monitors water quality and the biological communities in the Hunting Creek area. Her studies research water quality, fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities, anadromous fish, Escherichia coli levels and micropollutant levels in sediments and waters of Hunting Creek and Cameron Run. Streams in the Cameron Run watershed “are listed on the EPA list of impaired waters for acute ammonia and fecal coliform contamination,” according to Fairfax County. Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality reports that the creek is impaired for bacteria and PCBs in fish tissue.
The program is sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh and cosponsored by the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, Potomac Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club, Mount Vernon Group.
Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve is a 485-acre tidal freshwater marsh on the Potomac River one mile south of Old Town Alexandria, administered by the National Park Service and part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Friends of Dyke Marsh is a 35-year old conservation advocacy organization. Visit Friends of Dyke Marsh website (https://www.fodm.org)
Free, public program
Wednesday, November 15th,7:30 p.m., at the Huntley Meadows Park Visitor Center, phone 703 768 2525.
If you use a GPS device to find the park, do not use the park’s name. Enter the park’s address, 3701 Lockheed Boulevard, Alexandria, VA 22306.