CE Webinar Series
To be certified and maintain certification every year as a Virginia Master Naturalist, volunteers are required to complete 8 hours of continuing education. To assist volunteers needing to meet this requirement, the state program offers continuing education through our annual statewide conference and an online webinar series. To attend a webinar, please click on the registration button below the webinar description. You can also access previous webinars by streaming a recording online, following the links provided at the bottom of the page.
In addition to these monthly CE webinars, we have offered an occasional, irregularly scheduled High Five From Nature webinar series.
NEXT WEBINAR
We have a double-header for May to provide training on two different volunteer activities!
May 19, 9:00 am – Going on a Butternut Hunt: Assessing health and potential resistance of butternut trees (Juglans cinerea) to butternut canker disease in Virginia.
Description: The native Butternut tree (Juglans cinerea) has served as an important ecological, cultural, and medicinal staple in the eastern forests of the US for centuries. Since the 1960s, populations have been decimated by an invasive fungus known as the Butternut Canker Disease. Despite the ongoing research efforts that have gone on across much of its native range, knowledge on Virginia butternut’s distribution, health, and potential resistance is poorly understood. Join UVA graduate student Mia Murray to learn more about her thesis project about butternut trees, butternut canker disease, and how you can join her efforts in the search of butternut trees across Virginia!
Presenter: Mia is currently a MS student in the Environmental Science department at the University of Virginia. She earned her B.A. in Environmental Science from Wheaton College (MA). She is interested in conservation and restoration ecology. Specifically, she aims to explore questions inspired by people’s observations or concerns about their local ecosystems and species while collaborating with communities throughout the scientific process.
May 21, 12:00 pm – The Virginia Native Seed Project with The Clifton Institute
Description: Learn more about the Virginia Native Seed Project and get tips on how to collect native seeds, including timing and best practices. This will also provide instructions on how to participate as a volunteer for the project and insights into how to propagate native plants from seed.
Presenter: Rachel Martin, the Native Seed Project Coordinator for The Clifton Institute, was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina where she spent many weekends hiking with her parents in the woods behind their house. This early exposure to plants led her to pursue a degree in Horticultural Science from NC State University in Raleigh. Following graduation, she worked in numerous botanical gardens throughout the East Coast and even abroad. Through her work at The Clifton Institute she is excited to make source-identified seed more readily available for conservation practitioners, landowners and other users.
View Earlier Webinars from the 2026 Series
Insights from the Claudius Project on poisonous mushrooms of Virginia
Presenter: John Dent, Virginia Master Naturalist volunteer (Rivanna Chapter) and Emeritus Professor of Medicine with the University of Virginia School of Medicine
Recorded 14 April 2026
Watch the video
The Virginia Wildlife Action Plan: A Plan for the Next 10 Years
Presenter: Jeff Trollinger, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
Recorded 11 March 2026
Watch the video
Living with Eastern Coyote in Virginia
Presenter: Leah Card, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources
Recorded 5 February 2026
Watch the video
Looking Back and Forward: VMN Program 2025 Retrospective and 2026 Kickoff
Presenters: Virginia Master Naturalist Program State Office Personnel
Recorded 29 January 2026
Watch the video
View Earlier Webinars from the 2025 Series
Reaching an audience where they are – Outreach in Interpretation
Presenter: Angela Yau, Nature Program Facility Manager at Locust Grove Nature Center with Montgomery Parks in Maryland
Recorded 5 November 2025
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The ecology and restoration of urban forested natural areas
Presenter: Dr. Tara L.E. Trammell, John Bartram Associate Professor of Urban Forestry, Plant and Soil Sciences Department, University of Delaware
Recorded 22 October 2025
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Chapter Leadership Demystified
Presenters: Michelle Prysby (VMN Program Director, Virginia Tech/Virginia Cooperative Extension), Tiffany Brown (VMN Program Assistant, Virginia Tech/Virginia Cooperative Extension), Pam Faulkner (VMN, Riverine Chapter), Cassandra Lopez (VMN, Fairfax Chapter), Brian Scott (VMN, Tidewater Chapter)
Recorded 30 September 2025
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Spanish for Naturalists
Presenters: Jack Person (VMN, Arlington Regional Chapter), Wendy Cohen (VMN, Fairfax Chapter), Josefina Doumbia (VMN, Fairfax Chapter), Lesley Newman (VMN, Headwaters Chapter), Kate Pugh (Western Albemarle High School teacher)
Recorded 23 September 2025
Watch the video
Spanish for Naturalists vocabulary list (available as HTML or PDF)
Soil Health for a Thriving Virginia
Presenter: Summer Thomas and Mary Sketch Bryant, Virginia Soil Health Coalition and Virginia Cooperative Extension
Recorded: 14 July 2025
Watch the video
Bonus webinar: Beech Leaf Disease Survey Training
Presenter: Lori Chamberlin, Forest Health Manager, Virginia Department of Forestry
Recorded: 17 June 2025
Watch the video
VMN Educators Bureau Flash Talks
Presenters (all VMN volunteers, shown in order of appearance): BeeHurricane Thompson, Tanya Finch, Nora Cox, Rod Walker, Edie Juno, Robert “Bob” Dunstan, Robin Duska, David Lauthers, Michael Walker
Recorded: 12 June 2025
Watch the video
Bonus webinar: Birdability Project Re-launch and Kickoff Webinar – Together on the Trail: Accessible Birding and the Birdability Map
Presenter: Cat Fribley, Birdability
Recorded: 10 June 2025
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Butterfly population trends in America north of Mexico and their most likely drivers
Presenter: Leslie Ries, Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Recorded: 5 May 2025
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Balancing Nature in a Growing City
Presenter: Dr. Trakela Wright-Hicks, Virginia Cooperative Extension Urban Forestry Specialist, Virginia State University
Recorded: 10 April 2025
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Gray Fox in Virginia
Presenter: Victoria Monette, PhD student, Virginia Tech Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Recorded: 26 March 2025
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Ecological forecasting to anticipate the future of forests and freshwaters
Presenter: Quinn Thomas, Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
Recorded: 24 February 2025
Watch the video
VMN Treemendous 20th Anniversary Kickoff and Program Awards
Presenters: Michelle Prysby, Tiffany Brown, and Lori Chamberlin (VDOF)
Recorded: 23 January 2025
Watch the Treemendous 20th Anniversary Kickoff video
Watch the awards announcement video
View Older CE webinar videos
Virginia Master Naturalist Continuing Education Webinar Series (2014-2024)
View our Continuing Education Webinar Series playlist from all previous years.
Diversity and Inclusion in Natural Resource Education (2021)
In this webinar series, we aim to share with Virginia Master Naturalist volunteers and others several stories and examples of people connecting diverse audiences to natural resources. Funding for this webinar series was provided through a grant from the Virginia Environmental Endowment.
Connecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to Nature in Baltimore, November 1, 2021
Watch the video
Environmental Justice in Virginia, December 2, 2021
Watch the video
Birdability: because birding is for everybody and every body!, December 9, 2021
Watch the video
Connect with Us
For general inquiries about the Virginia Master Naturalist program, please contact:
masternaturalist@vt.edu540-231-0790