Continuing Education Fieldtrips
Upcoming ORMN CE Field Trips
Registration for field trips is required. To register for a field trip, please click the button below, fill out the registration form, and submit.
Upcoming ORMN CE Field Trips
Registration for field trips is required. To register for a field trip, please click the button below, fill out the registration form, and submit.
Pollinator/wildflower walk (FULL)
July 29, 10 am - 12 pm
Rain date: Friday, July 30th, 10AM - 12PM
Location: Dana Squire’s property outside the town of Madison. Directions will be provided to attendees later. This is a 5-acre native warm-season grass and wildflower meadow, converted from a fescue hayfield 8 years ago.
Maximum # attendees: 10
Conditions: The terrain is gently rolling, mowed paths. The pace will be very slow, distance less than 1/2 mile. Given the summer weather, bring water, sun protection, and insect repellant.
Walk leader: Alex Newhart
Alex Newhart, member of the Shenandoah Chapter of the Virginia. Master Naturalists, is an entomologist and biochemist. His masters and doctoral research focused on defensive compounds used by aquatic beetles to protect themselves from predation by fish and amphibians. Alex conducts pollinator surveys for the Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL) project. While conducting a VWL field survey in 2014, Alex trapped a very rare bumblebee in a field at Sky Meadows State Park. The Rusty-Patched bumblebee had seen dramatic decline in the eastern United States, and the one found was the first sighting since 2009. The specimen is now in the Smithsonian collection.
Monarch Larva Monitoring – field data collection and larva nursery
Tuesday, August 10, 9:30 AM – 11:30 PM
Rain date: Tuesday, August 17, 9:30 AM – 11:30 PM
Location: Carolyn Smith’s farm in central Madison County. Directions will be provided to attendees later.
Milkweed is the exclusive plant on which monarch butterflies lay their eggs. This 130-acre farm has several meadows where milkweed grows naturally, as well as two areas where milkweed was planted. Two sites will be open for observation: a wild site with established common milkweed plants that is mowed only once a year; and a cultivated garden patch that has five native milkweed species as well as a wide variety of nectar plants for monarchs. Participants will have the opportunity to examine milkweed for eggs and caterpillars and learn how data are compiled for a national database that has been active since 1997. The monarch nursery will also be open, where participants will be able to see monarch caterpillars and chrysalids as well as videos of a caterpillar pupating and a butterfly eclosing.
Conditions: Both the wild patch and the cultivated patch have uneven soil and may be wet from morning dew or muddy. Plan on wearing boots and if you have kneepads and/or a hand magnifying lens, you may want to bring them in order to observe the plants closely. Given the summer weather, bring water, sun protection, and insect repellant.
EDDMaps5 training
Coming Soon, check back for date and time
For members interested in learning how to use the EDDMapsS program for reporting, mapping and managing data on invasive species as part of the new approved program announced by Carolyn in her June 26 email to all members. For more information about EDDMaps, click here.
July 29, 10 am - 12 pm
Rain date: Friday, July 30th, 10AM - 12PM
Location: Dana Squire’s property outside the town of Madison. Directions will be provided to attendees later. This is a 5-acre native warm-season grass and wildflower meadow, converted from a fescue hayfield 8 years ago.
Maximum # attendees: 10
Conditions: The terrain is gently rolling, mowed paths. The pace will be very slow, distance less than 1/2 mile. Given the summer weather, bring water, sun protection, and insect repellant.
Walk leader: Alex Newhart
Alex Newhart, member of the Shenandoah Chapter of the Virginia. Master Naturalists, is an entomologist and biochemist. His masters and doctoral research focused on defensive compounds used by aquatic beetles to protect themselves from predation by fish and amphibians. Alex conducts pollinator surveys for the Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL) project. While conducting a VWL field survey in 2014, Alex trapped a very rare bumblebee in a field at Sky Meadows State Park. The Rusty-Patched bumblebee had seen dramatic decline in the eastern United States, and the one found was the first sighting since 2009. The specimen is now in the Smithsonian collection.
Monarch Larva Monitoring – field data collection and larva nursery
Tuesday, August 10, 9:30 AM – 11:30 PM
Rain date: Tuesday, August 17, 9:30 AM – 11:30 PM
Location: Carolyn Smith’s farm in central Madison County. Directions will be provided to attendees later.
Milkweed is the exclusive plant on which monarch butterflies lay their eggs. This 130-acre farm has several meadows where milkweed grows naturally, as well as two areas where milkweed was planted. Two sites will be open for observation: a wild site with established common milkweed plants that is mowed only once a year; and a cultivated garden patch that has five native milkweed species as well as a wide variety of nectar plants for monarchs. Participants will have the opportunity to examine milkweed for eggs and caterpillars and learn how data are compiled for a national database that has been active since 1997. The monarch nursery will also be open, where participants will be able to see monarch caterpillars and chrysalids as well as videos of a caterpillar pupating and a butterfly eclosing.
Conditions: Both the wild patch and the cultivated patch have uneven soil and may be wet from morning dew or muddy. Plan on wearing boots and if you have kneepads and/or a hand magnifying lens, you may want to bring them in order to observe the plants closely. Given the summer weather, bring water, sun protection, and insect repellant.
EDDMaps5 training
Coming Soon, check back for date and time
For members interested in learning how to use the EDDMapsS program for reporting, mapping and managing data on invasive species as part of the new approved program announced by Carolyn in her June 26 email to all members. For more information about EDDMaps, click here.