See Service Projects for two new entries:  Continuation of the Extreme Makeover Project and Mariners' Museum Trail Maintenance Project. 

Two approved services projects have been added to the website: Preschool Outreach Project and
Virginia Living Museum Signage Project.

See the Service-Project link to view a new project "Longleaf Pinecones".

"Bio-Char" and "Grandview Cleanup" have been added to the Service Projects list. 

"Living Barrier" and "Blue Bird Gap Pond Improvements" have been added to the Service Project list.

See 'Service Projects' for this new listing.

The advanced training at the May meeting featured Diane Tulipani. The topic was the Diamondback Terrapin. As part of her research, she has organized a state-wide population survey scheduled for June - July 2011.

To learn more about this citizen science opportunity, click 'Service Projects' in the navigation on the left, then locate 'Terp Search' in the listing. 

You can register for this activity at https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDVnYWdLRmlFYU02RWdQbDNnanRrY3c6MQ

Yes we have a newsletter! The Winter 2011 Issue of Field Notes, the quarterly newsletter of the Peninsula Chapter, is now available (View Download). Issue highlights include:

Welcome to Cohort Three

The Board of Directors of the Peninsula Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program is pleased to announce that the chapter’s third cohort of volunteer naturalists began basic training on Wednesday, January 26th, at the Cooperative Extension Office in Newport News. This will be the first basic training class conducted by the Peninsula Chapter since the Fall of 2009.

Doug Tallamy’s Talk “Bringing Nature Home”

I missed the very beginning of his talk up in Richmond, but could understand his emphasis on our disappearing habitat. He shared that we have converted out natural world into cities and suburbs:  41% of our country is in agriculture, 54% in cities, and 5% is pristine, and most is too high and dry to be helpful habitat. Studies have been done to determine the fate of imperiled species and in looking at only 1/8 of them, they found that 4,262 species were imperiled. About half of the bird population is in decline. He emphasized that biodiversity is essential and nonrenewable.

Hospitality Committee News

We held a pot-luck gathering on Feb 2 to welcome Cohort 3 members. I’m sorry that I did not have a chance to meet everyone, but I enjoyed speaking to several of the class members.  I was especially impressed with Katarina’s phone which has a translation dictionary. Thanks to all who brought the delicious food!

Plus information on meetings, trainings and service projects.

 

The Volunteer Management System for the Virginia Master Naturalist Program is now online for the Peninsula Chapter. Chapter members can use this system to record volunteer service hours, advanced training hours and even record mileage data.