Photo (c) Barbara J. Saffir
Thursday, October 15,2020
7 pm
Register and learn more.
Join Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy’s Jenny Swiggart as she discusses the many fascinating and interesting facts about bears native to the area. Registration required. Participants will receive a link via email to this live-streamed program.
Article by Margaret Fisher, Photo by Plant NOVA Natives
A strip of lawn is the default landscaping choice for the area right next to a street. But is that the only option? Not necessarily, as gardeners are discovering. In many situations, boring lawn can be replaced with pizzazz.
Lawn has its advantages and disadvantages next to a road. It can be walked on, and short plants help preserve important sight lines. However, turf grass (which is from Europe) does nothing to support the local ecosystem which depends on native plants, and compacted lawn does a mediocre job at absorbing stormwater runoff.
Replacing lawn with native plants is an increasingly popular choice. The results can add a lot of character to a property. Certain native plants are particularly suited to the harsh conditions found next to roads, which often include compaction, salt and reflected heat. Deeper roots soak up and purify water before it ends up in our streams.
There are a number of considerations to take into account before planting. Do you actually own the strip of land next to the street? Does your neighborhood or jurisdiction dictate which plants can be used, or their height? If people park next to the curb, where will the passengers step when getting out of the car? Are underground or overhead utilities in the way? Do you know how to design the plantings so they don’t flop over the walkways? Check out the Plant NOVA Natives page on streetside gardens for details and for examples of how several residents have handled these challenges. Their practical solutions have turned ecological dead zones into an asset for the birds and butterflies as well as for the humans who get to appreciate them.
Thursday, October 15, 2020
7 – 8:30 pm
Virtual!
Fee: $10 ASNV members, $15 non-members
Register for the lecture here.
Join Audubon Society of Northern Virginia as they welcome author Jennifer Ackerman to discuss the much anticipated follow up to The Genius of Birds. NPR’s “SCIENCE FRIDAY” picks The Bird Way as one of “The Best Summer Science Books of 2020”:
Ackerman brings scientific research alive with personal observations of colorful and fascinating birds, from the kea parrot to the raven to the brush turkey, among others. By showing how each species communicates, plays, parents, works, and thinks, she reminds us that there is no one way to be a bird.
Learn more about Jennifer and her work here. To order an autographed copy of her book, visit our website.
Photo by Valeria Espinoza
Riverbend Park invites the naturalist community to volunteer at the park and at the nature preserve as staff continue to adapt during the pandemic, while keeping our community safe. Summer volunteers have played an important role in keeping the parks clean, restoring native habitats, and supporting the staff during a time of increased visitor turnout.
Additional volunteers this fall would be a blessing. Here are opportunities to work with the exceptionally nice Riverbend staff.
Option 1. International Coastal Fall Cleanup Day: November 7, 2020
Join Clean Virgina Waterways and the Ocean Conservancy on an International Coastal Cleanup Event to keep our waters clean! Collect trash from streams and trails. Compile and report results on trash collected to contribute to a global snapshot of littered items. Help keep millions of pounds of trash out of our oceans!
Register below for two different shifts and locations:
Riverbend Park 10:00AM-12:00PM
Scott’s Run Nature Preserve 9:00-11:30 AM
Option 2. Natural Resource Projects @ Scott’s Run: Thursday mornings.
Sign up here.
Option 3. Animal Care Volunteer Program (ACVP): Weekday and weekend openings
Whether you are looking for hands-on experience working with animals or simply love spending time with them, join us for ACVP this Fall! We are recruiting volunteers to help care for our display animals. Duties include feeding, watering, cleaning tanks/enclosures, exersicing and monitoring the animals. Learn about the natural history of native turtles and snakes while helping to care for these rescued/rehomed animals. This is an indoor/outdoor volunteer opportunity. Masks are required. Shifts are set to allow only 1-2 people in a building at a time. A weekly or bi-weekly volunteer commitment is preferred.
Option 4. Natural Resource Projects @ Riverbend: Every Thursday at 1pm.
Riverbend Park needs your help for an invasive removal project. Help restore and preserve Riverbend’s natural resources. Enjoy a day outdoors and do some good! Sign up here.
Option 5. Nature Education Volunteer Program
Join the programing team this Fall! Volunteers will assist with outdoor programs such as Field Trips for All, scout programs, and weekend nature programs. A minimum commitment of 2 programs/month is required. Apply here.
Curleyheads photo by Rusty Moran
Virtual, register here
Thursdays, 24 September and 1 October 2020
$25 fee
Are you ready to put the Audubon at Home principles to action? Then this workshop is for you! In this 2-session workshop, participants will learn to apply ecological principles to creating backyard habitats and restoring ecosystems. Focus will be on looking not only at the needs of animals, but working with nature and using local ecosystems as examples for selecting species, building soils and providing natural structure.Charles Smith is a native of Arlington, VA, and a naturalist and ecologist with 25 years of experience working primarily in natural resource management, including the Fairfax County Park Authority and five years with Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority. He is currently branch chief of Fairfax County Stormwater Planning Division, focusing on stream and natural area restoration.
Lake Accotink Park
7500 Accotink Park Rd., Springfield VA
Saturdays in September 2020
8 – 10 am
The Lake Accotink Park Invasive Management group, which has made tremendous gains against non-native invasive plants at a location at Lake Accotink Park, started having invasive management work days again. They would love to have you join them whether you’re experienced or just beginning. They are cutting back invasive Porcelain Berry, digging up the very pervasive Porcelain Berry roots, removing Japanese Stilt Grass, Oriental Bittersweet, Multiflora Rose: the usual suspects.
For a while they couldn’t have any invasive work days, but then they went to having ten volunteers at a site. Now they can have up to fifty volunteers, so they’ve been making a lot of progress working within current safety protocols.
To volunteer, contact Beverly Rivera (571) 314-2107.
A closed-captioned recording of the webinar is now available online, in case you missed it, want to watch again, or would like to share it with others. You can find the webinar here: https://video.vt.edu/media/0_4ng4izoa.
In this webinar, Jonathan Rutter (Virginia Tech) shares some insights from the social sciences on ethno-racial diversity in wildlife viewing and conservation. At the center of the webinar is a study on the relationship between race, ethnicity, and birdwatcher specialization based on a large, national survey of eBird users. Jonathan also shares an overview of the importance of ethno-racial diversity in wildlife conservation, management, and recreation; barriers to minority participation in outdoor recreation; and best practices for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in wildlife viewing, based on literature review conducted for this project. A short panel discussion includes Dr. Ashley Dayer (Virginia Tech) and Dr. Jennie Duberstein (Sonoran Joint Venture), who are co-authors on the study.
This webinar emerged principally in response to requests from the conservation community for broader translation of findings from the birdwatcher survey and in an effort to distill and share social science that can guide conservation organizations as they work to address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is in no way intended to replicate or replace the rich and important conversations about the lived experiences of people of color in birding, science, and conservation that have been occurring for some time, and increasingly over the summer of 2020. We acknowledge that the racial composition of speakers in this webinar is more reflective of our existing conservation community than the community we want to build, and we look forward to opportunities to highlight more diverse voices and perspectives in subsequent webinars and resources.
This webinar was co-hosted by the Human Dimensions Subcommittee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) and the Wildlife Viewing and Nature Tourism Working Group of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA).
A list of the references used in the presentation and some other recommended reading can be found as an attachment in the webinar link.
Clifton Institute
6712 Blantyre Road
Warrenton VA 20187
Clifton Institute is looking for a full-time Land Management Outreach Associate to educate landowners on best practices for natural habitat management in northern Virginia, to liaise with partner organizations to improve management of native grasslands, and to restore and maintain the Clifton Institute property for the benefit of declining native species. They are also looking for a part-time Communications Assistant to communicate with the public about our education, restoration, and research programs. You can learn more at cliftoninstitute.org/employment. Please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested!
Richmond, VA – The 11TH annual Richmond Virginia Environmental Film Festival (RVAEFF) is announcing the 2021 Virginia Environmental Film Contest.
The contest is open to Virginia residents with films based on environmental topics pertaining to Virginia. Films of all formats and genres will be considered. A juried panel will select the winning films and prize money will be awarded to the film producers. Winning entries will be announced January 15th, 2021 on our web site, RVAEFF.org and through a press release.
$1,000 Grand Prize
$500 First Prize
$100 Best Cinematography
$100 Best Short Film
$100 Honorable Mentions (two)
All films are to be submitted August 15th through December 31st, 2020 to RVAEFF.org. When at this site, click the Virginia Environmental Film Contest button and you will be taken to FilmFreeway.com web’s page. Film Freeway, is a web site for filmmakers to submit their films to hundreds of film festivals. Once on this site, filmmakers will find full details regarding contest rules, deadlines and how to submit their film.
The Richmond Virginia Environmental Film Festival was founded in 2011 and has been a great addition to the Richmond culture. With over 1,500 people attending last year’s festival, we know what the power of these films can do to inspire positive changes in ourselves and our communities.
The film festival is scheduled for February 12th through the 28th, 2021. Award winning entries and other submitted films will be shown at various venues in Richmond and surrounding areas and/or streamed online. The specific venues and platforms for the 2021 festival will be announced later this year and will comply with all state and local Covid-19 guidelines.
Admission to the Festival is free and open to the public due to generous community sponsors. More information on the Festival can be found at RVAEFF.org.
Questions? Contact: Jean Masters
Email: [email protected]
Mason Neck photo by Jerry Nissley
One of Capital Nature’s favorite providers of virtual nature programming in the region is the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS). Through its Naturalist Hour series, ANS hosts two to three expert naturalists each week to explore fascinating topics such as urban foraging, birds, caterpillars, climate change, botanical folklore, fungi, crickets, nature journaling and the list goes on.
Learn from entomologist Mike Raupp, for example, that 1.5 million periodical cicadas will emerge per acre next Spring! Mycologist and environmental educator Serenella Linares has taught us about the proper way to photograph mushrooms for identification. Wildlife education and outreach specialist Kerry Wixted has elucidated how various animal species mate in her session: “Wild Sex: How Nature Does It.” Stay tuned for details about another ANS Naturalist Hour from our team on October 27th, “Community Science with Capital Nature.”
If you have any nature-related expertise that you’d like to share with the community, contact [email protected] for possible consideration for Naturalist Hour.