Winter Salt Watch, your help needed!

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With a chill in the air and snowstorms already blowing through some parts of the country, we know that ice, snow, and salt aren’t far behind. It’s time to gear up for Winter Salt Watch!

Last year Winter Salt Watch volunteers helped Izaak Walton League learn more about chloride levels in 17 states across the country. Volunteers and community groups took more than 300 readings using their Salt Watch kits! You can join this nationwide citizen science project and find out how road salt is affecting your local waterways. Order your FREE Winter Salt Watch kit today – even if there’s no snow on the ground yet. You can use your kit right away to take a reading before the road salt starts to pile up. These readings are called “baselines”, and they give you a number against which to compare your winter chloride readings. Without a baseline, you can’t effectively track changes in chloride levels and what’s causing these changes, such as road salt application. Aquatic life is affected by chloride when levels exceed 230 ppm (parts per million). Water treatment plants are not equipped to filter out extra salt, so it can end up in your tap water and even corrode your pipes.

This year Izaak Walton League plans to synthesize and share the Salt Watch data with participants regularly throughout the season. Don’t miss an update – request your FREE Salt Watch kit right now!

Learn more about the connection between road salt and water quality.

Explore last year’s results – and see this year’s baselines!

Youth Education Mini-Grants

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The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia is pleased to announce the 2020 youth education mini-grant program. This program aims to help teachers, schools, and non-profit organizations educate youth about birds and the environment. ASNV anticipates awarding three mini-grants, up to $500 each. Applications will be available in February 2020 and due March 15, 2020. Please contact [email protected] with questions.

Sign Up for the 38th Annual Manassas-Bull Run Christmas Bird Count, Dec. 15th

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Audubon Society of Northern Virginia (ASNV) will host the Manassas-Bull Run Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Sunday, 15 December 2019. The center of the 15-mile diameter count circle is near the intersection of Routes 28 & 29 in Centreville. Birders of all skill levels are needed. A complimentary hot lunch will be available to participants.

If you participated last year, your sector or route leader should be in touch soon. If you don’t hear from anyone, or if you’d like to be in a different sector, contact Phil Silas at [email protected].

ASNV will also be offering an opportunity for feeder watchers. If you or someone you know lives within the count circle and cannot go out in the field, he or she can observe from inside, counting the birds that come to a feeder or yard on December 15 as an alternate way to participate.

If you are new to the CBC, signing up is easy! Just contact Phil Silas with your phone, email, and birder level (B=Beginner, I=Intermediate, E=Expert), and any notes or comments.

Please see the related post on training for this bird count which will take place on November 24th.

ASNV Accepting Applications Now for Educator Scholarship, deadline extended to March 1, 2020

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Each summer Audubon Society of Northern Virginia offers a full scholarship and transportation to “Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week” at National Audubon Society’s Hog Island Camp in Maine. Next year’s session is July 12-17, 2020 and will feature workshops on educational techniques, a boat trip to the restored Atlantic Puffin and Tern colony on Eastern Egg Rock, intertidal explorations, and hiking through Hog Island’s unspoiled spruce-fir forest.

Applicants must be a public classroom teacher, specialist or school administrator in the ASNV chapter territory. Counties: Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William, and Stafford. Independent cities: Alexandria, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Manassas, and Manassas Park.

Application Deadline: March 1, 2020

Scholarship Announcement: March 16, 2020

Link to scholarship application: http://audubonva.org/hog-island-scholarship

Questions: [email protected]. For further information about this session at Hog Island, visit https://hogisland.audubon.org/sharing-nature-educator-s-week.

101st Green Breakfast: Helping the Land Heal, Nov 9th

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Brion’s Grille
10621 Braddock Rd, Fairfax, VA 22032
Saturday, 9 November
Breakfast begins at 8:30am, $10 at the door, cash preferred
No prior registration required

Kristen Sinclair, Ecologist
Fairfax County Park Authority, Natural Resource Management Branch

As the county’s largest landowner with 23,890 acres in 427 parks (August 2019), much of the responsibility for preserving Fairfax County’s rich natural heritage rests with the Fairfax County Park Authority. These landholdings include large, biodiverse forests along the Potomac Gorge and in the western region of the county, emergent wetlands at Huntley Meadows, a tidal freshwater marsh on Mason Neck, and nearly all of Fairfax County’s stream valleys. They also include dozens of community parks and numerous lakefront parks.

The Park Authority’s Natural Resource Management Plan is structured to support several guiding principles that will inform all aspects of natural resource management on parkland, including stewardship of our natural capital, preserve biodiversity and sustain wild and healthy ecosystems, protect, restore, and expand ecosystem services, manage resources adaptively and learn through experience, and preserve a legacy of natural heritage for present and future generations.

Join us for a presentation by Kristen Sinclair, Ecologist with the FCPA-Natural Resource Management Branch, who will give an update on the Park Authority’s ecological restoration program, known as “Helping Our Land Heal” and highlight other recent projects completed by the FCPA-Natural Resources Branch.

Breakfast includes an all-you-can eat hot buffet with fresh fruit and coffee, tea, orange juice or water. No prior registration required. If you have any questions, please contact the Northern Virginia Soil and Water District at [email protected].

Learn all things bluebird, conference Nov. 16th

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Dorothy Hart Community Center
408 Canal St, Fredericksburg, VA
Saturday, 16 November 2019
8am – 3pm

The Virginia Bluebird Society’s 2019 Biennial Meeting will be an all day bluebird fest. The keynote speaker will be Bet Zimmerman Smith, a North American Bluebird Society board member and Life Member of NABS. Her highly regarded and hugely popular website, sialis.org was ‘developed as a resource for people interested in helping bluebirds and other native cavity-nesters survive and thrive.’

The registration fee ($40 VBS-members, $50 non-members) includes continental breakfast, lunch, programs and door prizes.

View the breakout session topics and register here.  Master naturalists, earn 3.5 hours of continuing education credit.

Cutting edge: Water Chestnut Program (WCP) Meeting, Nov. 15th

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Twin Lakes Golf Course, Club House, Ball Room
6209 Union Mill Rd., Clifton VA 20125
Friday, 15 November 2019
10 am – 2 pm

The Fairfax Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists is facilitating an informational meeting about the invasive water chestnut (Trapa bispinosa).

The water chestnut program (WCP) would be an early detection and rapid response project for naturalists who would like to identify, verify, map and remove this novel species of water chestnut before it becomes established. The focus area is within the Potomac River watershed in Virginia.

This type of water chestnut, discovered by Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries (VGIF) in the tidal Potomac River at Pohick Bay in 2014, is not known to be established elsewhere in the USA. Scientists at the US Geological Survey (USGS) have found that it is spreading, but it is not yet considered widespread, or outside the Potomac Watershed. This is an opportune time to take measures to remove it before it becomes a huge menace in the Potomac River and watershed. Species of water chestnut (Genus, Trapa) are known to spread extensively and be invasive in Virginia and other regions of similar climate. Trapa can quickly grow over the surface of shallow water, completely shade out native submerged aquatic plants, impede water flow, clog irrigation pipes, alter biodiversity, and obstruct recreational boating and swimming.

Come to learn about this water chestnut species and explore options for eradicating it.  Virginia Master Naturalists, natural resource managers, pond owners, gardeners, naturalists, invasive species managers, pond management companies, and other interested parties are welcome to attend.

Program is free and open to the public. Please see the agenda and register here.  Questions? Email [email protected].

Fairfax Master Naturalists:  This program qualifies for Continuing Education credit.

Wildlife Conservation in a Changing World: Can Wildlife Adapt?, a talk Nov. 13th

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Huntley Meadows Park
3701 Lockheed Blvd., Alexandria VA
Wednesday, 13 November 2019
7:30 pm

Climate change is happening now. Even if we drastically reduce emissions soon, changes will continue into the future because greenhouse gases already emitted can stay in the atmosphere for decades. How will this affect wildlife? Can wildlife adapt? What can we do to help? Climate change on its own, and in combination with other stresses, may push many species to their limits. Climate change can adversely affect wildlife, for example, when the life cycles of interdependent species get out of sync and when rising coastal waters flood nesting sites. Too little or too much precipitation can stress whole ecosystems. Dr. Sally Valdes will explore how climate change is affecting wildlife and offer some steps for addressing this threat.

Dr. Valdes has a Ph.D. in aquatic ecology from Cornell University with minors in natural resource policy and ecosystem ecology. She worked for almost 25 years as a biologist in several federal government agencies. Since retiring, she has taught an environmental health and a wildlife ecology class. As a federal employee, Dr. Valdes served on an advisory group that developed the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and was responsible for integrating climate change concerns into environmental reviews of proposed federal projects.

The program is sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh.

Roving Trail Naturalist opportunity at Huntley Meadows

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Huntley Meadows Park
3701 Lockheed Blvd.
Alexandria , VA 22306
Eight hours per month for one year
Contact Halley Johnson (Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator)

Do you love nature and getting outside as much as possible? Do you want to share that excitement with others? Join the Huntley Meadows team as a Roving Trail Naturalist!

Volunteers will work independently on Huntley Meadows trails. They will have access to biofacts and educational supplies to help support their engagement with visitors. Roving Trail Naturalists will engage with visitors of all ages and background to increase awareness and appreciation of Huntley Meadows’ resources.

Volunteers should have a passion for nature and a desire to learn more. Strong communication and people skills are a must. Patience with all visitors and a willingness to coordinate with staff required. Experience in informal education a plus, but not required. Ability to stand/walk for up to 4 hours carrying a backpack. Volunteers must attend division orientation and complete required training. There will be on the job training as well. Applications due by January 1, 2020. This position will require a background check.

Fairfax County Bug Bioblitz, Oct. 25-31st

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Photo (c) by Barbara J. Saffir

Gear up for Halloween by looking for creepy crawlies in your neighborhood! Insects support whole ecosystems. Let’s celebrate them!

Insect populations are declining worldwide. Help us monitor our local insect and arachnid populations with this fun citizen science project.

Using iNaturalist, an app that can be downloaded to your Android or Apple phone, make and upload your observations between October 25th – October 31st, anywhere in Fairfax County. You can also join them for their public event on Saturday, October 26th from 10 am – noon at Lake Accotink Park.

More information on iNaturalist here.