Holston Rivers VMN Chapter

The Virginia Master Naturalist Program is a statewide corps of volunteers providing education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. Interested Virginians become Master Naturalists through training and volunteer service.

For more information about our Chapter and the statewide program visit "About Us"

Interested in joining the Holston River Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists? A new course of training will begin in February, 2009. For information contact: info@holstonrivervmn.org

Plants and biodiversity

• Digital Atlas of Virginia Flora,Virginia Botanical Associates
• NatureServe: A Network Connecting Science with Conservation.
• Bioimages: To provide educational information to the public on biologically related topics, as well as to be a source of biological images for personal and non-commercial use. Dept. of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt Univ.
• Macroinvertebrate Identification Key, from: Stream Study, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia
• USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Database
• Tree of Life: a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 9000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics.
• The VA Hepetological Society has an excellent web site with lots of information on various reptiles.
• The Hellbenders Homepage: promoting the conservation of North American giant salamanders.

Trees

• Virginia DOF Virginia DOF Tree Identification
• Dendrology: Virginia Tech's Forest Biology and Dendrology website

Birds

• About Birds from Cornell University
• Birds & Science from the Audubon Society
• Virginia Society of Ornithology
• Important Bird Areas (IBA's) in Virginia

Water and stream ecology

• Virginia Stream Restoration & Stabilization Best Management Practices: Virginia Department od Conservation & Recreation.
• Center for TMDL and Watershed Studies, The Center for TMDL and Watershed Studies at Virginia Tech was chartered in May 2004. As a part of a Land-Grant university the Center is committed to education, research, and outreach. The Center has developed programming and resources to serve various audiences including local stakeholders in a specific watershed, state and federal agency staff, TMDL developers, and extension and research professionals. Much of the Center�s activity deals with improving the watershed simulation models.

In addition to websites there are listserves, including the Bristol Birders listserv (with archives) at the following site: http://www.virginiabirds.net/listserves/virginia%20listserves.htm

Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology announces the release of Version 2.0 of their Birds of North America Online, the definitive, comprehensive reference for life history information on over 700 different bird species that breed in the United States and Canada. Probably too expensive for the casual birder but may be of interest to Bird watching groups and educators.
Contact Barry Bermudez at Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 607-254-1143.

Download Project proposal form.

• One of the main missions of the Virginia Master Naturalist program is education. In Southwest Virginia we enjoy a varied and abundant ecological bounty. It is a duty and a pleasure to preserve and educate others about our natural heritage. Visit our newly designed Education page to learn about educational opportunities available in our area.

• Sugar Hill and Scenic Clinch River Trails:Enjoy eight miles of maintained trails along the Scenic Clinch River, the Sugar Hill Loop Trail and Oxbow Lake that start at the Oxbow Dam in St. Paul, Virginia. Dozens of tree species are identified along the trails. The Sugar Hill and Clinch River Trails have been nominated as state birding and wildlife viewing trails because of the wide variety of flora and fauna found along the way
• Virginia Citizen's for Water Quality
• Canaan Valley Institute: a nonprofit, non-advocacy organization committed to helping communities improve the quality of life in their watersheds by restoring aquatic resources using cost-effective, locally determined solutions.
• Holston River Soil & Water Conservation District
• Native plants for conservation, restoration and landscaping
• Virginia Outdoors Foundation—Abingdon Office
• Earth 911
• Google Earth

Food for thought

One change is in the composition of floras and faunas. The larger predators are lopped off the apex of the pyramid; food chains, for the first time in history, become shorter rather than longer. Domesticated species from other lands are substituted for wild ones, and wild ones are moved to new habitats. In this world-wide pooling of faunas and floras, some species get out of bounds as pests and diseases, others are extinguished. Such effects are seldom intended or foreseen; they represent unpredicted and often untraceable readjustments in the structure. Agricultural science is largely a race between the emergence of new pests and the emergence of new techniques for their control.

Observations on the effects of man-made change on the environment, from The Land Ethic, by Aldo Leopold.