Salsa in the Park: A Celebration for Nature Conservation, September 20th

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Photo courtesy of Defensores de la Cuenca

Celebra la Naturaleza y la Salsa con Nosotros el 20 de Septiembre

Friday, September 20, 2024
4:30 pm
Alabama Park Drive, 1100 Alabama Drive, Herndon VA
FREE

  • Groove to the rhythm with Fairfax County Park Authority, Defensores de la Cuenca, and Opportunity Neighborhoods with salsa dancing and making.
  • Celebrate nature and conservation with the Herndon Latino community
  • Dive into fun with green actions and learn how to live a healthy, eco-friendly life
  • Enjoy a family-filled afternoon with great company and exciting educational opportunities

An Afternoon at the Smithsonian – Returns

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Smithsonian tour group – photo courtesy of FMN Ana Ka’ahanui

After a summer hiatus, the popular Smithsonian CE tour led by FMN John Kelmelis, returns in September. Speaking, of course, about the interpretive tour of the National Museum of Natural History for Virginia Master Naturalists. As a reminder, this tour is for FMN volunteers only and is limited by the Smithsonian to 6 people per tour. The tour begins at 3:00 p.m. so please plan to arrive by 2:45 for orientation. Details are described below and in the BI Calendar event description.

When: Thursday, September 26 2024 at 3:00pm
Where: Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC
Meet at the information desk inside the rotunda beside Henry, the big elephant.
How long: Approximately 2 hours.
Group limit: 6 individuals
To register:
1. Login to BI and click on your ‘Opportunities’ tab.
2. Select ‘Opportunity Calendar’ from the pull-down list.
3. Find event in the displayed calendar and click on it to display event details.
4. To sign up, Click on the ‘Sign Up’ box in the lower right. This automatically signs you up and puts the event on your calendar. Events disappear from calendar when full.
5. To claim 2 CE hours: use All Continuing Education -> FMN All other Chapter Training

Geology section National Museum of Natural History with FMN Dr. John Kelmelis. Photo FMN Susan Martel

Bring paper and pencil or E-pad to take notes if you desire. No visual or audio recordings please (Smithsonian rule).
This tour will identify the relationship of some exhibits tailored to the natural environment of Virginia including the geologic history, mineralogy, entomology, osteology, evolution, mammalogy, and many other topics.  Some take-aways include an introduction of how the display collection can be used to enrich the naturalist’s understanding of science and facts related to the natural condition and history of Virginia.

FMN Dr. John Kelmelis – photo FMN Susan Martel

Dr. Kelmelis is former Chief Scientist for Geography for the U.S. Geological Survey, former Senior Counselor for Earth Science at the U.S. Department of State, former Professor of Science, Technology and International Policy, and Founding Faculty of the School of International Affairs at Pennsylvania State University.  He holds a BA in Earth Science; MS in Engineering; and Ph.D. in Geography.  He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has held positions in other national and international scientific organizations.  He is a docent at the Smithsonian and a Virginia Master Naturalist in the Fairfax chapter.

Acknowledgments:
FMN Susan Martel – photos
FMN Ana Ka’hanaui – a photo from her camera
FMN Jerry Nissley – cover photo

Acorn Collection Season – 2024

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The VA Department of Forestry (VDoF) Acorn Collection Program is an established program that helps sustain the native tree population in Virginia. The program helps by collecting native acorns, raising trees on farms, and reforesting areas that may have been destroyed by fire, disease, or clear cut. In 2023, FMN volunteers contributed over 60 hours, collecting acorns and delivering them to the bin located at the Fairfax County Government Center.

VDoF Training with Tomorrow’s Trees Mindy Kania and VDoF Jacob Zielinski – photo FMN Ana Ka’ahanui

For 2024, VDoF has partnered with Potomac Conservancy’s Tomorrow’s  Tree’s Program, Fairfax Tree Stewards, and FMN to improve the quality of the collection. VDoF’s Community Forester for Fairfax, provided training to the above coalition, designed to help correctly identify seed types and improve collection methods.

The Tomorrow’s Tree Program established additional collection sites that FTS and FMN will monitor for quality and then transport the bags of acorns to the VDoF storage facilities in Warrenton. Scheduling times to monitor and transport will be handled via a Shared Google Doc sign-up sheet. The Project lead will create the Google Doc and distribute it to the FMN and FTS leads, who will disseminate it within their respective orgs. Those who wish to participate can simply pick a bin and functional times in the doc. Easy.

Sample Bin – photo courtesy of Tomorrow’s Trees

The Acorn Collection season for Fairfax County starts on approximately 7 September and ends on 15 October. It is estimated that bin monitoring will be needed once a week for each site, maybe twice in mid-season. Transport to Warrenton may be once every two weeks but would be dependent upon the volume of acorns delivered to a site.
Monitoring consists of checking the bin for proper deliveries – no plastic bags, proper labeling, bin load, make sure the lid got replaced. Transport is simply taking the bags to the VDoF storage facility in Warrenton.

Volunteers participating in this program may enter hours for acorn collection, bin monitoring, and transportation to Warrenton.
Of course, FMN who want to continue to simply collect, as in previous years, may still do so and deliver their cache to the Fairfax County Government Center or any new site.
The code for both is: S400: VDoF Acorn and Seed Collecting — VDoF

Collection bags, sized for 5 or 10 lbs, are available on location at the new sites in limited supply. Brown paper bags are also accepted in any Collection Bin. 

Collection requirements still apply:

  1. Please DO NOT collect acorns in plastic bags. Acorns will mildew and spoil.
  2. Please separate different acorn types into separate bags and include a leaf or two from the tree to help with positive identification.
  3. Please label the bag with type of acorn, collection date, and collection site (zip code at least)
  4. Remember the proverbial adage, “If the nut is cracked, throw it back”. Hollow nuts or those with cracks or holes are not viable seeds. Just this simple check is a tremendous help to VDOF.

Please contact FMN Jerry Nissley ([email protected]) to request the training slides and/or the Google Doc for signing up. Training Slides can also be downloaded or viewed from Member Google Drive. The map of collection bins in the slides does not yet include new bins at the Mt. Vernon Government Center, 2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria, 22306, (available 7 Sep thru 15 Oct) and potentially Hidden Oaks Nature Center (TBD at press release time) in Annandale.

Acknowledgments:
Mindy Kania, Tomorrow’s Trees Program Director – photos
Jacob Zielinski, VDoF Community Forester – training presentation (with Mindy)
Dan Storck, Mt. Vernon District County Supervisor – hosting a new collection bin

FMN Activity Code Catalog Updates

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A few changes were recently made to the catalog of Activity Codes volunteers use to record service hours. Oh man – I can feel the eyes rolling now! Bear with me … it’s not that bad. Only two new codes, with one prompting a few others to be renamed to align code names with functionality. And of course, a few activity titles required updates because of the recent name change of Audubon Society of Northern Virginia to Northern Virginia Bird Alliance. Both new codes and all name changes mentioned below are in effect as you read this article.

The Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy unveils it’s Forragers’ Forest at the Forest Walk. Photo by: Ayman Rashid/Creative Services/George Mason University

The first new code is S600: George Mason University Stewardship Projects, created under Habitat Creation and Restoration. The focus of this activity is to help maintain the GMU Foraging Forest by promoting sustainable gardening. In part, these unique habitats contain a native food forest and a riparian forest. Both require planting native forbs, graminoids, herbaceous and woody plants, weeding, mulching, and other standard demonstration garden maintenance practices. Additional activity details are found in the BI activity code description, along with how to register for work days. Since this is a collaboration, registration will be facilitated via a GMU signup link found in the BI activity description. Go to the Opportunities List in BI to find the description.

This activity is a first for FMN, in that, it is a collaborative effort between the GMU campus community, ARMN, and FMN.

The second new activity code is also catalogued under Habitat Creation and Restoration. This activity was created to group stewardship activities for sites within the municipality of Fairfax City:
S210: Fairfax City Stewardship Projects — City of Fairfax
Description – This service code covers a broad range of activities associated with the creation and preservation of natural resources on City of Fairfax municipal grounds and within City of Fairfax Parks and Rec domain.
S210 code has a link in the description that points to Fairfax City Parks and Rec site, to easily identify Fairfax City park names

Because of the new code for Fairfax City, it made sense to rename a few other existing activity codes to simplify locating stewardship activities for all independent municipalities in Fairfax County.
Municipality Codes : (old name followed by *new name)
S124: Restoration of Vienna Township Parks — Town of Vienna
*S124: Vienna Township Stewardship Projects — Town of Vienna

S200: Falls Church Habitat Restoration — City of Falls Church
*S200: Falls Church City Stewardship Projects — City of Falls Church

S303: Habitat Creation and Restoration — City of Alexandria
*S303: Alexandria City Stewardship Projects — City of Alexandria

S215: Arlington County Park Stewardship Projects — Arlington County
*S215: Arlington County Stewardship Projects — Arlington County

Inactivated:
S199: Stewardship Projects at Long Branch Nature Center — Arlington County
(Merged with S215: Arlington County Stewardship Projects — Arlington County)

E253: Leading Reston Dragonfly Class & Count — Reston Association
(Zero hours in 2024; merged with E150: Walker Nature Center – – Reston Association)

NVBA logo – courtesy of NVBA

Northern Virginia Bird Alliance (NVBA)

Activity Code names required change due to the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia (ASNV) name change to Northern Virginia Bird Alliance. Basically, the acronym ‘NVBA’ replaced ‘ASNV’ in activity names along with similar description updates. No code numbers were changed. Please read the new descriptions to see updates.
Birds
C029: NVBA Christmas Bird Counts — Northern Virginia Bird Alliance
C036: NVBA Waterfowl Count — Northern Virginia Bird Alliance
Community Outreach
E117: NVBA Education and Outreach Projects — Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

Wildlife Surveys

C205: NVBA Wildlife, Bird, and Insect Surveys – – Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

In addition, two codes that formerly addressed ASNV’s Audubon at Home functions were modified. Collectively, ‘Audubon at Home’ is now referred to as ‘NVBA Wildlife Sanctuary Program’.
Community Outreach
E208: NVBA Wildlife Sanctuary Program Directors & Coordinators — Northern Virginia Bird Alliance
Habitat Creation and Restoration
E030: NVBA Wildlife Sanctuary Program Ambassadors — Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

There you have it – a summary for membership’s awareness. There is no action required by volunteers. No need to move hours or anything like that because none of the code numbers changed.

No Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) or Fairfax County codes were changed during this realignment exercise.

Annually, a majority of FMN volunteer hours are contributed to our parks, county, and municipal facilities. Hopefully, these changes help simplify locating stewardship activity codes for the independent municipalities in Fairfax County. This code realignment also helps FMN provide accurate annual reporting that reflects how we support our community and important chapter partners.

Acknowledgments:

Liz Train and Tom Blackburn: content for NVBA.

Cover photo: “a new day dawns” by Jerry Nissley

Beyond Fossil Fuels: The Bumpy Transition to Clean Energy, Webinar, September 17th

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Photo: SERC

Tuesday, September 17, 2024
7 pm
Sponsored by Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)
Register here.

Major transitions between technologies, like the switch from gas lights to electric lights, may seem quick when we look back on them. But transitions generally take decades. During this time, progress is inevitably punctuated by setbacks as proponents of the status quo push back against the forces of change. This bumpy path is playing out again in today’s transition from fossil fuel-based power to clean, renewable power from wind and solar. Transitioning our power system away from using fossil fuels to generate electricity will have a larger impact on reducing the future rate of climate change than any other single action, so it is crucial that we complete the transition as quickly as possible. In our September webinar, Professor Sara Via will discuss recent progress in the all-important transition to clean energy, consider some of the barriers that are impeding that progress and outline how each of us may be able to help reduce those barriers.

Jerry Nissley

Hidden Oaks Nature Center Seeks Volunteers

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Photo: FMN Jerry Nissley

Hidden Oaks Nature Center
7701 Royce Street, Annandale VA
Contact volunteer coordinator [email protected]

Front Desk

Wednesdays, 9am to 1pm or 1pm to 5pm

If you love nature and enjoy talking to people, consider volunteering at Hidden Oaks’ front desk. You will welcome visitors, orient them to the park, answer questions, and check in program participants. This is an opportunity to learn about the natural resources of the county and share your knowledge. Training provided.

Animal Care Helper

Fridays

Help with the care of animals on display at the nature center, including feeding and watering turtles, snakes, toads and other animals and cleaning their enclosures. Learn about the natural history of reptiles and amphibians. Training provided.

They are also looking for adult volunteers for a variety of other tasks, including helping with programs.

First Annual Fall Festival at Leopold’s Preserve, September 21st

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Saturday, September 21, 2024
11 am – 3 pm
Leopold’s Preserve
16290 Thoroughfare Road, Broad Run, VA

The highly anticipated Fall Festival at Leopold’s Preserve, is proudly brought to you by the White House Farm Foundation and Northern Virginia Conservation Trust.

Here are some of the festivities you can expect:

  • Nature Adventures: Join guided hikes, explore trails, and enjoy the beauty of Leopold’s Preserve.
  • Family Fun: Kids’ activities, face painting, games, and nature-themed raffle.
  • Tasty Treats: Food trucks and unique local vendors.
  • Community Bonding: Connect with fellow environment enthusiasts.

Fall Butterfly Identification with Larry Meade, September 3rd

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Photo: David Illig, Variegated Fritillary

Tuesday, September 3, 2024
7:00pm – 8:30pm

Webinar

Click here for registration details.

Presented By Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

The sight of butterflies fluttering around on a warm day is one of the most iconic signs of summer, but they can still be found well into the fall months. These beautiful insects usually live for only a few weeks as adults, but they make quite an impression while they are in their full glory. There is a large variety of butterfly species in our area. Larry Meade will walk students through the common species and help them differentiate some of the trickier look-a-like species.

Participants are encouraged to register for the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) Count to be held on Sunday, September 15, 2024.

A good way to prepare this program is to review Butterflies of the Mid-Atlantic, a Field Guide, by Robert Blakney and Judy Gallagher. Judy Gallagher is a member of the ASNV Board, and the field guide is available for purchase on the NVBA website.

Larry Meade is president of the Northern Virginia Bird Club and a member of the NVBA Adult Education Committee. He is a frequent bird walk leader and has been involved in numerous Audubon Christmas Bird Counts and NABA Butterfly Counts. He is the compiler of the Alexandria Circle NABA Butterfly Count.

This program is FREE for members of Northern Virginia Bird Alliance, (formerly Audubon Society of Northern Virginia) and members of the Northern Virginia Bird Club.

 

 

Help Count Butterflies for the NABA Butterfly Count , September 15th

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Photo By David Illig, Variegated Fritillary (NABA Butterfly Count)

Sunday, September 15, 2024
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Alexandria Area

REGISTER : Deadline to register is Thursday, Sept 12 at 9:00 PM

Organized by:  Northern Virginia Bird Alliance

The Butterfly Count is an ongoing program of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) to census the butterflies of North America (United States, Canada and partially Mexico) and to publish the results. Volunteer participants are assigned a count area with a 15-mile diameter. The volunteers conduct a one-day census of all butterflies sighted within that circle.

Volunteers are encouraged to attend the butterfly identification webinar on Sept 3 (FREE for NVBA Members; $10 for non-members).

Volunteers of all experience levels are welcome! Every team will be led by an expert. Participants are encouraged to stay with their team for the duration of the event.

This count is organized by Larry Meade.Deadline to register is Thursday, Sept 12 at 9:00 PM so you can be assigned to a team on Friday. Teams will each meet at their designated count locations.

Larry Meade is president of the Northern Virginia Bird Club and a member of the NVBA Adult Education Committee. He is a frequent bird walk leader and has been involved in numerous Audubon Christmas Bird Counts and NABA Butterfly Counts. He is the compiler of the Alexandria Circle NABA Butterfly Count.

VMN Continuing Education Webinar: Put That Tree in the Right Place! September 16th

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Photo: Plant NOVA Trees

Monday, September 16, 2024
12:00-1:00 pm

Webinar
Registration: Pre-registration required

 

Description: Trees provide so many benefits and services to us, to our communities and to the environment.  Join Dr. Laurie Fox, Horticulture Associate with Virginia Tech, for an overview of how to assess a site and select the right tree to fit the growing conditions and the owner’s goals.

Presenter: Laurie Fox is a Horticulture Associate with Virginia Tech’s Hampton Roads Agricultural Research & Extension Center (AREC) in Virginia Beach. Her Ph.D. research focused on phytoremediation, or cleaning the environment with plants. Her current work includes stormwater & nutrient management in the landscape, urban stormwater best management practices (BMPs) including floating treatment wetlands, aquatic weed ID & management in ponds, sustainable landscapes, sustainable landscape design & practices, native plants, buffer zones, and rain gardens.

Our webinars and trainings related to urban forestry are supported by an Urban and Community Forestry Grant from the USDA Forest Service, administered by our sponsoring agency, the Virginia Department of Forestry.

As with all the webinars in the VMN CE Webinar Series, this webinar will be recorded and posted at http://www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/continuing-education-webinar-series.html.