Historic Rivers Master Naturalist volunteers Judy Jones (left) and Rick Brown (right) with Virginia Master Naturalist Program Director Michelle Prysby (center) at the start of the Bassett Trace Nature Trail. Photo by Janet Harper.
Historic Rivers Master Naturalists provide citizen science, stewardship, and education at the Bassett Trace Nature Trail in Colonial Williamsburg. Photo by Michelle Prysby. --By Rick Brown, VMN-Historic Rivers Chapter
The Bassett Trace Nature Trail is a 1.4-mile out-and-back trail found within the 585 acre Bassett Woodlands at Colonial Williamsburg. The trailhead is located at the Griffin Hotel Gold Wing parking lot continuing to the Green Course Golf Clubhouse. The Historic Rivers Chapter first formed a continuing partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2018 that resulted in the reopening of the trail with added improvements that created a natural outdoor learning venue in a woodland setting in the historic colonial capital of the Commonwealth.
This project offers a unique variety of volunteer opportunities for our members by providing the means to fulfill all of the three core missions of the Virginia Master Naturalist program:
Our members who participate in this project also become Colonial Williamsburg Volunteers.
Hundreds of visitors to Colonial Williamsburg have discovered, enjoy, and return to this naturally preserved habitat thanks to the good works of the Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers in the Historic Rivers Chapter.
A new feature that has recently been added to the Nature Trail project involves the cooperation of numerous volunteers of our Chapter over the past 6 years. We now have an active Friends’ group webpage that is a chronicle of the natural world that can be found on a visit to this trail. This all began when our volunteer Trail Stewards began sharing photos of things they found along the trail. We know that all Master Naturalists have a pathological compulsion to take pictures and document what they see, and so naturally, these 800+ pictures found their way into collections that kept growing over the years.
Originally the Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum, of which the Bassett Trace is a part, created a webpage on a site hosted by PlantsMap, a cloud-based data storage website. That site linked to the CW webpage and had active links to QR codes on the tree tags we placed all along the trail. That worked pretty well so we also began adding our nature photos to that webpage. However, in June 2022, PlantsMap crashed and for a time we had no access to our photos or data. Subsequently, the data and domain name were assumed by Plantsoon, another cloud-based web service located in Belgium. We quickly began working with them to recover and migrate our data from their site to a new webpage we created dedicated solely to Bassett Trace and our project. The result is that we now have recovered all of our original information, and we are adding even more features to make this a virtual educational tool for the public.
The new Plantsoon site is constantly being updated to meet the needs of users like us. New features are being explored to expand our virtual footprint. One of our volunteers, Leisa Clark, has single-handedly taken upon herself the task of identifying and documenting the native plants that flourish along the trail. If you hike along the trail you will see her handiwork in small ground-level cards that identify the plants by common and Latin name. These signs appear, move, and disappear just as the plants do. And she is constantly expanding her inventory. A new feature this year is the addition of QR codes on each sign that link back to the Friends’ webpage thereby providing hikers with additional information to educational resource websites, such as the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora, Virginia Tech Dendrology, and other botanical educational sites. This provides learning opportunities at all levels for interested users.
The Bassett Trace Nature Trail is a 1.4-mile out-and-back trail found within the 585 acre Bassett Woodlands at Colonial Williamsburg. The trailhead is located at the Griffin Hotel Gold Wing parking lot continuing to the Green Course Golf Clubhouse. The Historic Rivers Chapter first formed a continuing partnership with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in 2018 that resulted in the reopening of the trail with added improvements that created a natural outdoor learning venue in a woodland setting in the historic colonial capital of the Commonwealth.
This project offers a unique variety of volunteer opportunities for our members by providing the means to fulfill all of the three core missions of the Virginia Master Naturalist program:
- Citizen Science – Volunteers identify and photograph fauna, and tag flora species found within the boundaries of the tract. The data is recorded on a public webpage that they created.
- Education & Outreach – Trail Guides, trained by Colonial Williamsburg, lead guided tours for the public three times per week between March and December each year. In addition, special tours are provided upon request for school groups, and a variety of interested organizations.
- Stewardship – Our members also serve as Trail Stewards performing assigned trail maintenance and weekly walks twelve months of the year. They correct or report any issues that need to be addressed to keep the trail open, clear of trash and obstacles, and safe for the enjoyment of our visitors.
Our members who participate in this project also become Colonial Williamsburg Volunteers.
Hundreds of visitors to Colonial Williamsburg have discovered, enjoy, and return to this naturally preserved habitat thanks to the good works of the Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers in the Historic Rivers Chapter.
A new feature that has recently been added to the Nature Trail project involves the cooperation of numerous volunteers of our Chapter over the past 6 years. We now have an active Friends’ group webpage that is a chronicle of the natural world that can be found on a visit to this trail. This all began when our volunteer Trail Stewards began sharing photos of things they found along the trail. We know that all Master Naturalists have a pathological compulsion to take pictures and document what they see, and so naturally, these 800+ pictures found their way into collections that kept growing over the years.
Originally the Colonial Williamsburg Arboretum, of which the Bassett Trace is a part, created a webpage on a site hosted by PlantsMap, a cloud-based data storage website. That site linked to the CW webpage and had active links to QR codes on the tree tags we placed all along the trail. That worked pretty well so we also began adding our nature photos to that webpage. However, in June 2022, PlantsMap crashed and for a time we had no access to our photos or data. Subsequently, the data and domain name were assumed by Plantsoon, another cloud-based web service located in Belgium. We quickly began working with them to recover and migrate our data from their site to a new webpage we created dedicated solely to Bassett Trace and our project. The result is that we now have recovered all of our original information, and we are adding even more features to make this a virtual educational tool for the public.
The new Plantsoon site is constantly being updated to meet the needs of users like us. New features are being explored to expand our virtual footprint. One of our volunteers, Leisa Clark, has single-handedly taken upon herself the task of identifying and documenting the native plants that flourish along the trail. If you hike along the trail you will see her handiwork in small ground-level cards that identify the plants by common and Latin name. These signs appear, move, and disappear just as the plants do. And she is constantly expanding her inventory. A new feature this year is the addition of QR codes on each sign that link back to the Friends’ webpage thereby providing hikers with additional information to educational resource websites, such as the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora, Virginia Tech Dendrology, and other botanical educational sites. This provides learning opportunities at all levels for interested users.
American Snowbell (Styrax americanus) is one of the labeled plants to enjoy on the Bassett Trace Nature Trail. The plant label has a QR code to direct observers to a page on the Friends of Bassett Trace Nature Trail's Plantsoon site, where there are photos and links to more information about the species. We also have over 200+ photos of birds, insects, mosses, fungi, ferns, mammals, and random trail scenes that we are working with the Plantsoon developers to add to the webpage to expand the Bassett Trace inventory even further. Storing our data in this way allows us to have a dynamic teaching tool that can be used by our members, casual visitors, and those whom we encounter on the weekly nature walks led by our Trail Guides. It provides a valuable resource of the natural inventory of living things that can be found on Bassett Trace.
Here is a link to explore our site on Plantsoon.
You will find descriptive links to the history of Bassett Hall and the surrounding woodlands, maps, videos, our collections, and of course lots of photos. The pictures you see on our webpage have been contributed over the years by our volunteers: Seig Kopinitz, Nancy Barnhart, Claire White, Judy Jones, Leisa Clark, Jim Webb, Jim Easton, Glenda White, Cheryl Roettger, Shirley Devan, and many others, to all of whom we are eternally grateful. This is a true collaborative volunteer effort.
It is entirely possible that our webpage may also have application to other Chapters’ projects, such as wildlife mapping, trail developments, parks, bird walks, etc. The Plantsoon website is now being used locally by the Williamsburg Landing Arboretum, and the Williamsburg Botanical Garden at Freedom Park to store and display their own collections. I would be glad to tell you how we are able to make it work for us.
Come for a visit. We now have over 30 regular volunteers who monitor and maintain the trail with scheduled weekly walks. There are 9 Trail Guides who began leading 3 free public tours per week beginning on March 4th, and continuing every Tuesday, at 9:30 AM, with 2 additional tours weekly at 9:30 & 10:30 AM, every Saturday. This fall Nancy Barnhart, one of our expert birders, will lead monthly bird walks for interested guests. Our project is a busy place and a great opportunity for Outreach.
Here is a link to explore our site on Plantsoon.
You will find descriptive links to the history of Bassett Hall and the surrounding woodlands, maps, videos, our collections, and of course lots of photos. The pictures you see on our webpage have been contributed over the years by our volunteers: Seig Kopinitz, Nancy Barnhart, Claire White, Judy Jones, Leisa Clark, Jim Webb, Jim Easton, Glenda White, Cheryl Roettger, Shirley Devan, and many others, to all of whom we are eternally grateful. This is a true collaborative volunteer effort.
It is entirely possible that our webpage may also have application to other Chapters’ projects, such as wildlife mapping, trail developments, parks, bird walks, etc. The Plantsoon website is now being used locally by the Williamsburg Landing Arboretum, and the Williamsburg Botanical Garden at Freedom Park to store and display their own collections. I would be glad to tell you how we are able to make it work for us.
Come for a visit. We now have over 30 regular volunteers who monitor and maintain the trail with scheduled weekly walks. There are 9 Trail Guides who began leading 3 free public tours per week beginning on March 4th, and continuing every Tuesday, at 9:30 AM, with 2 additional tours weekly at 9:30 & 10:30 AM, every Saturday. This fall Nancy Barnhart, one of our expert birders, will lead monthly bird walks for interested guests. Our project is a busy place and a great opportunity for Outreach.
Historic Rivers volunteers Janet Walker (left) and Rick Brown (right) with Virginia Master Naturalist Program Director Michelle Prysby (center). The nature trail includes some interesting non-native plants, including an historic rhododendron collection and a Boynton Oak, native to Alabama (at the foot of the group in this photo.)
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