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In this new column we will feature a member of the Old Rag Master Naturalist chapter each month. ​
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Spotlight: Robin Williams

12/20/2020

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Even though born in DC, Robin considers herself a lifelong Virginian, albeit one who loves to travel. “Traveling is similar to being out in nature, it’s just another type of discovery,” she explained. She spent two years in France after high school, where she lived with her aunt and uncle and attended the Alliance Francaise and the Sorbonne. A third year aboard was spent in art school in Florence where she worked in sculpture.  “Living aboard was very reasonable back then and the dollar went far, particularly with student credentials,” she noted. She returned to the States and obtained her degree from the University of Maryland in anthropology and comparative literature in 1969. “And one of my goals was to make enough money to make the next trip to Europe and later to get to more parts of the world,” she stated, “and I have seen a great deal of it, all wonderfully fascinating.”
 
Robin has lived in a number of places in Virginia, including Alexandria, where she was a travel agent as well as worked with antiques. She also lived in in Fairfax, Marshall, and Luray. She and her husband settled in Rappahannock in 2004. She became a certified Master Naturalist in 2009. When asked why she initially applied for the class, she said “I saw the ad for the class and it sounded like fun to me!” She has been having fun ever since, as her over 1,900 hours of volunteer service attest.
 
When and how did you become interested in nature and the natural world? While Robin spent a lot of time during her childhood in nature, it was with horses. She also taught horseback riding for many years. “You see a lot of nature when you’re riding a horse,” she explained. Since becoming a Master Naturalist, she has found her niche – invasive plant removal. She has long been interested in native plants and became concerned about how invasive plants such as garlic mustard and autumn olive were affecting Virginia’s native flora. “The more I learned about invasives, the more I saw them as I drove around Virginia. It depressed me seeing trees along roads being killed by nonnative vines.”
 
Describe what you do on your property to support a healthy ecosystem.
Robin and her husband Bill have 25 acres in Rappahannock. Their neighbors raise cows and also cut hay on Robin’s land. While her husband “loves to mow grass” she insisted on a big pollinator garden where she plants a large variety of native plants, including native host plants for butterflies and native nectar sources for butterflies and bees. Trees on her property include oaks, elms, hollies, and nut trees; shrubs include dogwoods, viburnums, spicebush and wafer ash; flowering plants include mountain mints, common violets, asters, mallow, indigo and wild senna. She encourages using locally native plants, if possible.  “In doing this” she says, “you will enjoy most of our native wildlife. They are adapted to the native flora.”    She recommends Douglas Tallamy’s book Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants as an excellent source for good plants to use.
 
Robin doesn’t cut down the plants in her pollinator garden when they are finished flowering. Instead, she leaves the seed heads and debris in the garden to provide food for birds during the winter, which also provides cover and haven for toads, skinks and other wildlife.   “The birds own my garden, not me,” she stated.  An example of “birds rule”: Robin planted pussytoes (Antennaria) in her pollinator garden specifically because it is host plant for the American Lady butterfly. She was delighted to see multiple caterpillars on her pussytoe plants that season. “Then a family of catbirds found them – and those little assassins ate every single one!”
 
Robin and her husband have spent a great deal of time removing invasive plants from the wooded edge to their hay field. “When we take out the invasive plants, native shrubs and then trees come up. It is fun to see and learn from what grows naturally.” They now have hickories and oaks and many other species that had been previously crowded out by invasives.
 
What is the most amazing thing you have experienced in nature?
“I had always wanted to see a Giant Swallowtail butterfly”, Robin shared, “as they are the largest butterfly in North America.” [Note: Giant Swallowtails are 4 – 6 inches in size.] “While these butterflies are most commonly seen in Florida, where they are considered a serious pest by citrus farmers,” she continued, “they are occasionally seen further north including here in Virginia.”
 
To entice this butterfly to her farm, Robin included one of the Giant Swallowtail’s favorite food – wafer ash (Ptelea trifoliate) – in her pollinator garden. While walking her dog one morning “a Giant Swallowtail flapped by my head and set down on my wafer ash, where it laid eggs on top of the leaves.” Robin explained that most butterflies lay their eggs on the underside of host plant leaves to hide the emerging caterpillars from hungry predators. Giant Swallowtails, however, have evolved a different way to deter predators. Their caterpillars look unappetizingly like bird droppings. Robin had her husband build a cage around the plant where the Giant Swallowtail had laid her eggs, in recognition that the mortality rate of butterfly larvae is enormous. “This was in July,” she said. “Three caterpillars survived and pupated in late summer. We took them into our garage, where they were dormant until the following May, when they emerged and flew away. I got to watch the whole process from egg-laying to mature butterfly.”

                                                                            Adult giant swallowtail and young larva (illustrating bird dropping mimicry),
​                                                                photograph by Donald Hall, Entomology and nematology Department, University of Florida

 
Tell us about the projects where you have volunteered and what made the biggest impression on you.
One of her first volunteer efforts was ORMN’s multi-year project to clear out invasive plants the from the alluvial forest area along the Thornton River. The project started at the Buck Hollow Trail Head in coordination with Shenandoah National Park. Targeted invasives included Oriental bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose, garlic mustard, Oriental lady’s thumb, Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven), and Japanese stilt grass. Robin takes a lot of pride in the team effort and the visible progress they have made. “It’s starting to look like the forest is supposed to look,” she declared. She is also impressed with the other ORMN volunteers who participate in this effort. “It is back-breaking work and involves 2-3 hours a week throughout the year as individuals are able to participate” she noted. “Most people don’t enjoy pulling weeds in their own garden, let alone somewhere else!”
 
The first year Robin served on the ORMN Board, she mentioned at a meeting that the chapter should consider participating in the butterfly count that was sponsored by the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). “’Good idea – you’re in charge’ was the response,” she said. She helped organize the first butterfly count in 2011, in coordination with the Washington/Virginia Butterfly Association. ORMN conducted its first annual count within a 15-mile diameter circle in Rappahannock County on private properties after securing permission from the landowners. Robin explained that the count here takes place on the next to the last Saturday in July. Butterfly counts are done all over North America (and worldwide), most occurring in July or August. There are also spring and fall counts in some areas, as butterflies do not appear in just the summer months.
 
“It’s not a ‘make-work’ project but rather provides data that are entered into a national data base managed by NABA,” Robin noted. These data from around the country are then used by scientists who are studying whether the number of specific butterfly species is constant or in decline. She has learned much from this project, including what contributes to butterfly decline.  
 
Her final words of advice: “Go native when you plant: the birds, bees and mammals all seem to benefit from my natives.”
 
Interviewed by Charlene Uhl, December 2020
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Spotlight: Dera Cooper

11/26/2020

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Going from a career as a banker to becoming a Master Naturalist might seem like a major life shift – but for Dera Cooper, it was a natural progression that reflects her lifelong love of animals and being outside in nature. Born in Dallas, Texas, Dera and her family moved around the United States as they followed her father’s career as an engineer. Connecticut was the last place she lived with her family before getting married and starting a family of her own. Her career as a banker included stints with JPMorgan and Bank of America, where she primarily worked with large nonprofits – including several conservation-oriented firms – as well as colleges and universities. When she and her husband David, who also had a career in banking, retired in 2016 they moved from Chevy Chase, Maryland to Madison County.
 
When and how did you become interested in nature and the natural world?
Dera has always loved animals. “There have always been dogs in my life”, she said. Like many girls, she also wanted to have a horse but to her disappointment, that never happened. Her interest in mammals continued when she became a Master Naturalist. One of her first volunteer activities was with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), where she drove a 15-passenger van that took visitors around the SCBI facility in Front Royal. She learned a lot about different endangered species and had the incredible opportunity to see an annual exam of one of their clouded leopards. [Note: This cat is considered a threatened species with a decreasing population trend. Since 90% of what is known about clouded leopards comes from research on captive populations, SCBI’s collaboration with international partners is providing critical information to efforts to protect this threatened animal.]
 
Describe what you do on your property to support a healthy ecosystem.
Dera and her husband moved to Virginia in 2016, where they brought a 54-acre parcel. “Part of the land was originally a tree farm,” Dera explained. The owner had planted a lot of different trees (mostly non-native) that he liked but in no particular order. There was also a significant amount of non-native invasive species on the property such as ailanthus, autumn olive, and bittersweet. Dera and her husband initially focused on removing plants that threatened their pond’s dam. “We have worked each year to remove the invasives and let the land ‘do its own thing’,” she explained. Some land is still in hay production and they have a good variety of pines and hardwoods such as hickory and oak. They have observed many mammals, including foxes, groundhogs, and in their first year, two young bears that walked up their driveway while they were sitting on their front porch (they moved inside right away). “There is a natural stand of blue sedge in the front yard that we don’t mow,” Dera explained. “We leave it for the birds.”
 
What is the most amazing thing you have experienced in nature?
When Dera and David lived in Maryland, they had a weekend house on the Eastern Shore. “I was standing outside looking over the water and a bald eagle barreled down from the sky, caught a humongous snake, and flew off. It was truly breathtaking” she said.
 
As the VMH Coordinator for ORMN, what would you like our members to know?
When they first moved to Virginia, Dera became friendly with her neighbor who encouraged her to become a Master Naturalist. As a member of ORMN’s Class 8, Dera took to heart the request made during class that member support in administrative functions was critical to the continuation of the chapter. So when the VMN Coordinator at the time stepped down, she accepted the responsibility and has been in this position for three years. “It is so important for each of the members to help with administrative tasks,” she said. “And to make a pitch for my area, you can put in your time in the comfort of your own home and earn volunteer hours really quickly!”
 
Dera described the importance of reporting volunteer hours, particularly volunteer hours for our State sponsors. “Our sponsors need this information to justify their involvement with us, which sometimes includes funding.” She continued, “If members don’t record volunteer hours, ORMN doesn’t get credit for all the time we collectively invest in our sponsors and partners.”
 
At the end of each calendar year Dera’s team “scrubs the data” to make sure everything is accurate. They check each entry for correctness and consistent language. They then compile it for inclusion in ORMN’s annual report which is submitted to the State VMN office. The State VMN compiles the data from chapters across the State and submits it to the various sponsors and partners.
 
Dera and her team are always ready to help any member who has problems with entering information into the VMN system. “The system is set up to allow you to go back and easily correct something you may have entered incorrectly.” The Volunteer Management System is being updated this coming year and Dera hopes it will be easier for members to use. She also hopes that members will take her plea to heart.  “Your volunteer hours are so valuable!” she said. “We want to be sure that our sponsors and partners know of the exceptional contributions made by the members of Old Rag Master Naturalists and you are recognized for all your hard work.”
 
Her ending request: “Let’s make sure VMN, our sponsors and our partners recognize how much we value them by documenting the many, many hours of support we give them each year.”
 
Interviewed by Charlene Uhl, November 13, 2020
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Spotlight: Carolyn Smith

10/26/2020

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Carolyn Smith holds many positions in the Old Rag Master Naturalist chapter: citizen scientist, educator, committee chair, mentor, and a voice for natural habitats in Virginia. She was interviewed from her unique homestead that is a living example of how a cattle ranch can be transformed into a vibrant natural habitat that supports native flora and fauna.
 
When and how did you become interested in nature and the natural world?
Carolyn, a member of the ORMN class of 2015, has been interested in the natural world since early childhood. “My father and mother took me camping and hiking from a young age. I was in Girl Scouts. I was always outdoors,” she says. She believes her love of the natural world came from her father (a birder) and mother (a botanist) who passed their genes on to her. Her father in particular was always pointing out the rhythms of nature. He appreciated the spiritual dimensions of nature and considered it his cathedral.
 
Growing up as an Air Force “brat”, Carolyn lived throughout the US and abroad. Born in Tripoli, Libya, she lived with the family in Bangkok and Moscow.  During the two years her family lived in Moscow she attended a local Russian high school where she learned to speak Russian with a Moscow accent.  This in turn led to a career as an interpreter, much of which she spent in Geneva at the nuclear arms control talks between the US and Russia.  From there she went to the Sudan to work in a refugee camp, and later settled in the San Francisco Bay Area and had a second career in the non-profit world. 
 
Describe what you do on your property to support a healthy ecosystem.
When she was 15 years old and her father was stationed in the DC area, her parents started looking around for a piece of land in the country. In 1965 they found the 129-acre parcel of land in Madison County where Carolyn now lives. The land was an old family farm that then was used to raise cattle. Over time her parents transformed the landscape to one that is now 80% forest, includes three manmade ponds, marshy areas, and meandering paths through the woods dotted with native wildflowers. She remembers helping her parents heel in 20,000 pine seedlings, which now tower 90–100 feet.
 
Carolyn continues to add native plants, shrubs and trees to her land and will soon begin a cost-sharing project from the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to install riparian buffers along the streams that run through the property.  This will involve taking 14 acres out of agricultural production and planting trees and wildflower meadows.
 
She has also invested significant time over the last 20 years in eradicating invasive plants, including autumn olive (Elaeagnus umbellate), Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus), mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata), Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) and tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima).  Her most enduring nemesis is garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata), which she calls “particularly pestilential” because it can quickly and thoroughly take over a wooded area. This noxious weed can produce thousands of seeds each year which remain viable in the soil up for to 10 years.  There used to be huge stands of garlic mustard in her woods but she has made great headway after years of compulsively pulling up, bagging and hauling it out of the woods, both on her land and (with permission) that of her neighbors.  
Carolyn is also on the lookout for invasive plants that are newly emerging threats to natives. She has found two on her land -- mulberry weed (Fatoua villosa) and incised fumewort (Corydalis incisa).  The fumewort flowers not only in spring but also in fall, and she’s trying to keep it from enlarging the  foothold it has already gained on her property.
 
What is the most amazing thing you have experienced in nature?
Carolyn shared two different experiences that reflect her appreciation of the expansiveness of nature. When she lived in California, she used to backpack with friends in Yosemite National Park.  She was awed by the “grand scale” of nature when the group would climb Half Dome, which rises 8,839 feet above sea level and has a 360-degree view.  “After the physical exertion required to get to the peak, the view was awesome, inspiring and a truly spiritual experience,” she says.
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Carolyn in Yosemite Valley with Half Dome in the background
​She compares that to her other amazing experience, which is her 4-year study of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly as part of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project. She described the day-by-day observations she makes, seeing this insect go from a tiny egg to an adult that flies from here to Mexico. Carolyn explained it gave her a new appreciation for living things beyond humans: their constant effort to ensure survival by avoiding predation, metamorphosis into a chrysalis, then emergence as a winged creature capable of traveling over 2,000 miles.
As Chair of ORMN’s Project Committee, what would you like our members to know?
Carolyn resisted becoming involved in administrative duties when she first became a member. She remembers former ORMN president Don Hearl saying “No one joins a Master Naturalist chapter to do administrative work but without it we can’t do what we joined to do – support and conserve nature.  So please consider joining the Board or a committee.”  Heeding his words, when the chapter’s first Projects Committee chair left her position two years ago Carolyn took her place.  She has enjoyed working with the other committee members and getting to know Board members.  She says there are individual perks as well, such as interacting with VMN people statewide and attending leadership workshops.
 
Carolyn views herself as a steward of her land. It took her family years to restore their property to a natural habitat that supports native animals, birds and insects. She accepts the responsibility to maintain and improve this vibrant environment. She continues to be enthralled with the mystery of nature and sees the doorway to learning as exciting and inspirational. “Natures soothes my spirit and fills my soul,” she says. “Like my father, nature is my cathedral where I feel closest to the infinite.”
 
Interviewed by Charlene Uhl, October 24, 2020
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Spotlight: Bill Birkhoffer & Dana Squire

10/8/2020

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Have you ever looked at your land – be it a small garden, a large corner lot, a hay field, or whatever your spot on earth is and wondered: could I do something different here that would be beautiful, encourage butterflies, bees, birds and other animals to come? 

​This month’s Spotlight on Our Members features two Master Naturalists who have transformed a part of their land into a vibrant, colorful meadow that is filled with guests – plants, insects and animals - from nature. One member had a hay field and the other a portion of land that was not being used for any particular purpose. Read their stories of how they transformed these areas into meadows and their advice and lessons learned on how you could do it, too!

​  DANA SQUIRE
 
Dana Squire is passionate about nature and the natural world. When she and her family moved to Madison County in 1991, their 18-acre property included a barn, other outbuildings and a 5-acre hay field that was harvested by a local farmer. She worked to landscape the residential area to be inviting to birds and pollinators.  She was a member of the first class or the Old Rag Master Naturalists in 2007. Her volunteer efforts included working with the Virginia Working Landscapes program managed by the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. As she surveyed plants, birds and pollinator species on farms in Central Virginia as a part of this project, she realized she could transform her hay field into a natural environment. She tells her own story, below, of how she created a meadow in her backyard.
 
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Question: What does one do with a field of fescue grass and no cows?

       a.  Let a local farmer put his cows in the field
       b.  Let a local farmer hay the field
       c.  Pay someone to bush hog the field once or twice a
            year
       d.  Nothing
       e.  All of the above.  

In my case, the answer was "e"; I’d tried them all.  And I hadn’t found any of these options particularly satisfying, so I added another:

     f.  Convert the field to native grasses and wildflowers, creating aesthetic interest and a wildlife habitat.  
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These ponderings were prompted by my involvement with a project called Virginia Working Landscapes (VWL). VWL is a program of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, which studies the relationships between the plants growing in fields and the birds, mammals and pollinators using that field.  I’m a volunteer for the project, and I help conduct surveys of the plants and wildlife.  The subject fields belong to landowners who support the research and have significant open acreage. Land use varies, and the properties may be working cattle farms or restoration lands or anything in between.
 
Working with VWL, I began to see that the 5-acre hayfield I owned was good for one creature, the cow, and I was not raising cows. Most fescue in our area is tall fescue, which becomes very dense near the ground and creates a lot of thatch.  These attributes make it difficult, if not impossible, for ground nesting and ground-feeding birds to use the field.  They need bare soil around the bases of plants to move, build nests, and feed.  In fact, in our area, the widespread planting of fescue for livestock has greatly contributed to the decline of the once-abundant Northern bob-white quail, not to mention quite a few other bird species.                                              
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                                                   Before….               
 
I knew that my field had potential to support many birds and small mammals, as well as important pollinators, including butterflies and bumblebees.  Although the fields I surveyed for VWL were each a minimum of 25 acres, I knew that even 5 acres of native grasses and wildflowers would be more beneficial and interesting than the fescue that grew there.
 
But how would I get rid of the fescue? The most effective way to destroy it is with an herbicide such as Glyphosate.  I’m not a fan of herbicides, and this was a really difficult hurdle for me to get over.  I had to do a lot of research to convince myself that I would not be causing more harm than good.  Before tackling the 5 acres, I decided to start with small areas that were not part of the hayfield, but instead part of my lawn. I knew I was mowing way too much, and decided I was willing to attempt converting part of my lawn to wildflowers. I handled the spraying, tilling, and planting myself, a process that began in the fall and ended with broadcasting seed the following spring.
 
I was very happy with the results and decided to tackle the larger project, but I knew I would need a lot of help. Fortunately, at that time, the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) was offering grants and lots of great advice to landowners who were willing to commit to this conversion. I qualified for the grant and contracted with a local company to handle the spraying and planting. ​
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                            After.....The converted hayfield

The meadow was planted in May of 2013. I was surprised to find that many plants bloomed their first summer: partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata), tickseed (Coreopsis), blanket flowers (Gaillardia), cone flower (Echinacea), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae) and Maximillian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) all had a showing in their first year. Later years have seen the establishment of large swaths of milkweed (Asclepias), host plant of the monarch butterfly, blue false indigo (Baptisia australis), oxeye (Heliopsis helianthoides), and wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa).

The transition from tidy hayfield to the wilder meadow did not take as much getting used to as I expected. I had agreed to let all plants stand over the winter, and was concerned that I wouldn’t like the scruffy, messy look of the unmowed field after having lived with the clean look of a monoculture for so long.
To the contrary, the variety of structures and shapes was full of interest and contrast, and as the winter moved on, I found the appearance of the meadow more and more fascinating.  Walking after abundant snows, my dog and I flushed dozens and dozens of juncos and sparrows – common species, to be sure – but never so numerous in the past.  And it was easy to see why: many pockets of relatively dry ground under the grasses bending with snow afforded a welcome refuge not available in the past.                                     
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​                                     Meadow in winter
 
Every season of every year is different – different shapes, colors, birds, butterflies. I once came upon a fox, sitting with eyes closed, basking in the sun at the edge of the mowed path, and for a few seconds, she didn’t notice me. As she dashed off, I knew that neither of us would have been there, so close to each other, if this were still a tidy hayfield. I’m so grateful to all who helped me and to all who now live here.
 
            
                Fall glory                              Milkweed  Patch                    
  
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Dana opens her meadow to interested groups including master naturalists and garden clubs. Her meadow is used as a teaching tool to help others learn to identify plants, birds and pollinators, and to share information on how to convert from a cultivated to a natural landscape. And as planned and hoped, the meadow is now home to a variety of birds, insects and mammals who have found an ecosystem that supports their needs for food, shelter and breeding. 
 
Looking back, Dana is glad she undertook this project. While she struggled with her use of herbicides, she acknowledged that the expert advice she received was compelling: that any other method would mean the fescue would return and overrun most of the native plants over time. Looking forward, she plans to keep the meadow healthy by having controlled burns and staying engaged in the never-ending battle against invasives, but especially to take the time to enjoy this vibrant, rich landscape right outside her door.
 
Interviewed by Charlene Uhl, September 22, 2020
BILL BIRKHOFER
 
Bill Birkhofer is a native Californian from Sonoma County who ended up in Virginia through a circuitous l route that included being a Congressional intern, serving in the U.S. Army, returning to Washington, DC as a legislative assistant, and a 40 year career in the global engineering and construction industry.  He met his wife GeorgeAnn, who also worked for Congress, and in 1998 they bought “26 acres of heaven” in Madison County where they built a log cabin on the land as a place they could go to escape the DC congestion.  When they retired they expanded the house and started to focus on their land. GeorgeAnn is a Master Gardener and focused on landscaping around the house and outbuildings. She teamed up with ORMN Master Naturalist Alfred Goossens to convince Bill he needed to become a Master Naturalist as well. Bill was in the 2017 Master Naturalist class and subsequently became interested in establishing a pollinator meadow.
 
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Meadows Musings from Bill
 
Among alternatives for improving our living environment, creating and sustaining native plant gardens and meadows is the principal means of conserving and sustaining pollinator populations and wildlife habitat.
 
Current research clearly documents the growing loss of native pollinators and plants due to increasing redevelopment or conversion of agricultural production lands. These changes in land use patterns and corresponding ecological impacts plant and animal wildlife. That’s the research - but most of us can observe these trends right around us in the Virginia Piedmont.
 
But we can make a tangible difference, by developing and sustaining native plant gardens and meadows. All of us with available land - from large residential lots to rural non- farm acreage - can get involved.
 
I’m a believer. Three years ago, we started our own native pollinator meadow on our property in Madison, and it’s proven to be an unbelievable adventure! Each year has been a combination of expectations, surprises and lessons learned. And we want to share it all - how we started, our experiences, our continuing experimentation, helpful observations and responses to your questions.
 
So, let’s start at the beginning.
 
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 A part of their land – approximately 3 acres - that was an old pasture and completely dominated by fescue was designated as the site for the meadow. Bill consulted with a variety of local experts, including Dana Squire, also a ORMN Master Naturalist; David Bryant of the Natural  Resource  Conservation Service Service; and Bert Harris at the Clifton Institute.  He made the decision to use herbicides to denude the land, spraying in the fall of 2017 and again in early spring 2018. In order to have the length and variety of flowering and fruiting, he selected a mixture that included four native grasses along with 15 annuals , biennials and perennials. He decided to use the drill-seed method rather than broadcast seeding, in order to assure a more successful germination overall. Within two months of seeding, he had a full field of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta).  Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana) was a “volunteer” native.  Because it provides food for birds, Bill chose to thin by hand - removing 250 plants which resulted in fewer pokeweed in subsequent years - rather than target spraying.
Bill cautioned several times that “it is an illusion to think you are going to control nature – and frankly you don’t want to.”  What the meadow does each year is always variable and offers at least one surprise. In 2020 his meadow was dominated by beebalm or wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa).  This was puzzling as the seed mixture he used only contained 2% of bergamot, compared to 7% partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculate); 5% purple cone flower (Echinacea purpurea); and 8% Black-eyed Susans. He theorized that because bergamot comes in so early and it was a very wet year, it may have retarded the germination of other species.
Bill treats his meadow like a citizen scientist. He has divided it into four quadrants and records what happened to each quadrant independently. The quadrants are different in slope and temperature so they represent microclimates, which in turn affects what is successful. He has experimented by introducing additional plants to lengthen the blooming period. In 2020 he overseeded with a new mixture that included goldenrod (Solidago); partridge pea; Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera); wild senna (Senna hebecarpa); and two species of native aster , bushy aster (Symphiotrichorum  dumosus) and calico aster ( Symphiotrichorum lateriflorum). He installed seven bluebird boxes in a trail surrounding the meadow. While mowing around the boxes in the spring if this year, he discovered an emerging stand of common milkweed (Asclepsis syriaca) - the source of food for Monarch caterpillars. He has propagated additional milkweed from seeds, and planted them adjacent to the existing stand. Having completed the Monarch Monitoring training offered by the University of Wisconsin ( Monarch Larvae Monitoring Project), he will begin monitoring in 2021.
After each growing season concludes and early spring approaches, Bill uses a “walk-behind” and finish mower to cut the dead growth back. He is careful to wait until late February or early March to allow the meadow to serve as winter shelter for birds and animals, and prior to return of ground nesting birds. At the end of the growing season in 2021, he plans to conduct a controlled burn of the meadow, to achieve a clean surface that will allow him to overseed.
 
Bill feels one of the main objectives of his meadow is to educate others about the relative simplicity of installing and maintaining a meadow, the reasonable cost, and the important biodiversity benefits in doing so.
 
Looking forward, he is excited about the experimentation he wants to do. He plans to expand his meadow by adding about two acres of intermediate cover woods on his land that will encourage more wildlife to visit. He is watching what others are doing, such as the Clifton Institute which has 110 acres in meadows. Lessons learned by others encourage him to try new things. “My meadow is an ongoing science experiment. While it is a relatively small island, it supports wildlife that wouldn’t be here without it.”  He says his meadow gives him a lot of pleasure and “a heck of a lot of naturalist learning.” And that’s what keeps him engaged and involved every day.
 
Interview by Charlene Uhl September 25, 2020
 
 
 
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Spotlight:  Jack Price

9/12/2020

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PictureJack overlooking the Shenandoah Valley from Stony Man Mountain
 Of the current 77 members of the Old Rag Master Naturalist (ORMN) chapter, Jack Price stands out in many ways – not the least of which is that he has earned over 6,500 volunteer hours since becoming a member in 2008. Jack was interviewed from his 10-acre homestead on Hazel Mountain, which abuts his beloved Shenandoah National Park.
 
How and when did you become interested in nature and the natural world?
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During his childhood in Connecticut on the Long Island Sound, Jack and friends would explore the tide pools at low tide, marvel at the storms that came in over the water, explore astronomy in the nighttime sky, and delight in walking through the then-wooded areas to find different birds and other forest wildlife. He thought he would grow up to work in a science field or an area related to nature. But his math and science teachers weren’t all that engaging “which reinforced the significant impact that teachers have on their students.” He ended up getting a BA in history and political science.
 
After serving four years in the Air Force, with a tour of duty in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, Jack began his lifelong career in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. This included working in human resource management at the VA Hospital in North Hampton, Massachusetts and at VA headquarters in Washington DC. He retired as head of HR policy for the VA hospital system.
 
Jack’s fascination with nature was reignited when he worked in the DC area. He became a member of the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club and explored much of Shenandoah National Park in his free time. This led to him becoming a member of the first ORMN class in 2007. He was a charter member of the ORMN chapter when it was officially established in 2008 and became its first president.  He subsequently served as Chair of the chapter’s education committee and as a member of its board of directors. 
 
The Virginia Master Naturalist program is supervised by the state coordinator and a Steering Committee made up of representatives of the state agencies that sponsor the program.  In 2014 the Steering Committee was expanded with the addition of four representatives from local chapters around the state.  Jack was one of four master naturalists appointed to serve in this important role and remains on the Steering Committee to this day. 

Picture
Jack manning the Byrd Visitors’ Center
Describe what you do on your homestead to support a healthy ecosystem.
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Jack and his wife purchased their property in Rappahannock County when they retired. The land is now all wooded with a variety of native hardwood species. It was logged in 1995 (with high-ending cutting that left oak stumps up to four feet in diameter) but for 50 years before that it was pasture land. He was trained as a wildlife habitat facilitator by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (now the Dept. of Wildlife Resources) and used that knowledge to enhance the property using native plants. He started with introducing plants that supported birds, butterflies and other pollinators but noted that he soon lost control to nature as “to who come out on top in plant succession and with wildlife.” “The bears, cottontail, deer and snakes decide where they will live – not me,” he said.
 
Jack teaches classes on how to create wildlife habitat, using his land and experiences for others to learn from. He has led the Botany field trip for ORMN trainee classes to much acclaim.
 

On a project for which you have volunteered, share how the funding was used.

ORMN formed a partnership with the Town of Washington in Rappahannock County in 2012. Washington committed land within the town for ORMN to create a native plant garden, with the promise that the land would not be sold. Numerous ORMN volunteers helped establish the garden. A bridge over wetlands was built, making the garden more accessible. The ORMN chapter donated funds and also helped secure an additional $12,000 from a variety of local and state sources.  Jack noted that some of the partnerships that resulted in funding were “tough to build” but ORMN was extremely committed to this project. In 2016 active planning for additional educational programs was in the works when the town sold the land the project was on to a private individual.  This experience made Jack sensitive to the fact that “projects can go one way or another” – and Master Naturalists need to be able to adjust to changing circumstances.  “It was clear we should have had a written memorandum of understanding with the town when we started.”

 Jack continues to be active in many ORMN approved projects, notably our partnership with Shenandoah National Park. He has worked on invasive plant removal in the park, manned the visitor center and bookstore at Byrd Visitors Center, and led educational programs and hikes to wildflower meadows at Dickey Ridge. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Shenandoah National Park Association and was its president from 2010 thru 2013.  He participates in Project Feeder Watch and other bird/butterfly counts.
 
What is the most amazing thing you have experienced in nature?
​

At first Jack responded by sharing “up close and personal” encounters with timber rattlers on his property, ravens in Grand Canyon, and bugling elk at Yellowstone. But he ended by saying the most amazing thing in nature he has ever seen was on Mount St. Helens. He and his daughter visited the crater created by the volcanic eruption in September of 2019. He was astonished by how nature bounced back from the suffocating ash and burned vegetation that resulted from the eruption. “We saw 4- to 6-foot wide burned and broken tree stumps surrounded by lush vegetation and new trees after one of the most devastating and destructive events in natural history.” It was a humbling reminder of the power of nature for both destruction and resurrection.
  
Interviewed by Charlene Uhl, Class X, ORMN, August 11, 2020
​
Picture
Jack at Mount St. Helens
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