Bi-weekly Email Updates

Bi-weekly Email for September 1

Hello, VMNs. Another heat wave! Maybe the last one of summer. Stay hydrated and don’t over do it, as my friends are always telling me. When you need a cool down activity, you can catch up on the Bi-weekly emails.

This email includes:

1. Welcoming Kat to the VMN Team
2. Continuing Education Opportunities
3. Volunteer Service Opportunities
4. Recertification Pin Artwork Contest – deadline approaching

Welcome Kat to the VMN Team!

Katherine (Kat) Myer is the current Virginia Master Naturalist Student Assistant for Communications and Volunteer Engagement. Kat is working on several different activities, including developing content for social media, collecting photos and videos to tell the story of VMN program impacts, and assisting with office tasks such as volunteer recognition item distribution.

Kat is a Senior at Virginia Tech majoring in Environmental Conservation and Society and minoring in Biodiversity Conservation. She grew up in Clarke County, Virginia, and enjoys paddling the Shenandoah River and spending time with her family, two dogs, and orange cat when she is home. Over the past three years as a Virginia Tech student, Kat has enjoyed getting to know the New River Valley region and the town of Blacksburg. She loves to put up her hammock and read on campus or by the river, take long walks with her friends, and bake (favorably chocolate chip cookies). In school, Kat is Vice President of Community Relations in her sorority and on the Philanthropy Committee in her pre-law fraternity. Outside of academics and student engagement, Kat loves attending VT football games and going to the Blacksburg Farmer’s Market on Sunday mornings.

Continuing Education Opportunities

Save the Date for Fall VMN Continuing Education Webinars

Put them on your calendar now, and we will have the registration links available in the next biweekly email. 

Wednesday, October 7, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Heated Topics, Warm Approaches: Navigating Tough Conversations About Natural Resources with Dr. Ginger Orton, Extension specialist of natural resources science communication in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia

Monday, November 9, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Other Than Oak: What’s so great about Oak and are there other trees in Virginia that are as awesome? with Adam Downing, Extension Forester, Virginia Cooperative Extension Northwest District. 

Virginia Buffer Summit

The Upper & Middle James Riparian Consortium is hosting Virginia’s Buffer Summit. The theme this year is Buffers Across Virginia: People, Place, and Purpose and the Summit explores unique approaches to buffer restoration and how to collaborate and create healthy streamside ecosystems for clean water across the Commonwealth. 

Date: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm, October 14, 2026, with pre- and post-summit field session opportunities on October 13 and 15.

Location: Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, VA

Registration: $15, deadline October 7

Visit the annual buffer summit webpage for more information and registration. 

Volunteer Service Opportunities

Butterfly Big Day

Coordinated by the Urban Butterfly Initiative, Butterfly Big Day is a worldwide collaboration of butterfly organizations to sponsor a global day-long iNaturalist butterflying event. It is designed for people of all ages to document, celebrate, and learn more about butterflies and other pollinators, and how we can help their populations. People all over the world can contribute by submitting their photographs of free-living butterflies (not captive-reared or from butterfly houses) to the community science project iNaturalist. You don’t have to know the species – iNaturalist and butterfly experts will help. All photos of butterflies submitted to iNaturalist that are observed anywhere in the world on Sep 12, 2026 count toward the Big Day! 

Contact the Urban Butterfly Initiative with questions at UButterflyInitiative@gmail.com.

Note: Please ask your chapter’s service chair whether this is approved for volunteer service in your chapter and, if so, how to report your time. Many chapters have umbrella activities that this may fit under.

Reminder: Recertification Pin Artwork Contest

​The deadline for our Recertification Pin Artwork Contest is approaching. To participate, upload your original artwork showing a native salamander species by 5:00 pm on September 15. Please see the August 18 biweekly email for full contest details. 

Link to contest survey: https://virginiatech.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eEZZ4DojKi60eGy

Bi-weekly Email for August 18

Hello, VMNs. It’s hot out there! Make sure you’re staying hydrated and taking precautions so you don’t get too much sun. When you need a cool down activity, you catch up on the Bi-weekly emails.

This email includes:

1. Conference Update – Registration Open!
2. Continuing Education Opportunities
3. Volunteer Opportunities
4. Recertification Pin Artwork Contest

Conference Update – Registration Open!

Registration

The 2026 Virginia Master Naturalist Statewide Conference is September 18-20 in Herndon and registration is open for just two more weeks, so now’s the time to get in on the action! There is still a wide variety of classroom and field sessions with space. The great team of conference volunteers have also planned several ‘extras’ to make the weekend special, including a screening of the film “The Extraordinary Caterpillar”, a nature-themed bingo night with prizes, and a photo booth. Come join us, make some new VMN friends, and improve your naturalist knowledge and skills! 

Share Fair – Deadline Extended!

We invite all 30 VMN chapters to participate in the Chapter Share Fair at our 2026 Statewide Conference and Training. So far, we’ve only heard from a small number of chapters and we would very much like to make a good showing. Many of our sponsoring agency representatives really appreciate the opportunity to learn about the volunteer projects you all are doing, and volunteers also gained a lot from visiting other chapters’ tables. 

Our goal is to have each chapter share information about one meaningful project they have accomplished. This is not meant to be a general outreach table like you would use with the public. The audience in this case is other VMN volunteers and representatives of the VMN sponsoring agencies. 

We have space for one display per chapter, but anyone in the chapter may be involved in creating it. We will recognize the top displays with awards. Additional details can be found in the Share Fair section of the conference webpage. 

Please let Tiffany Brown know if your chapter would like a table by August 29.

Lodging

We have a room block at the conference hotel that lets attendees book a room for a discounted rate. See the conference webpage for details. The deadline to book a room on this block is September 7, 2026. To get the group rate, you must book your room on or before this date!  If you try to book a room before September 7 and are not able to, please reach out to Tiffany at tiffany.brown@vt.edu. 

Continuing Education Opportunities

VMN Continuing Education Webinar – Beyond Debate: Navigating divisive issues in outreach conversations

Date: August 19, 12:00 – 1:00 pm 

Description: Ever felt the heat when discussing wildlife management or water quality? Conversations about environmental topics can raise controversies that often make participants feel distressed and confused. But sidestepping these tough topics means missing a vital chance to foster informed public engagement. Join this dynamic webinar to discover how to prepare for and address divisive subjects across various outreach settings. We will discuss proactive strategies to prevent friction before it starts and practical techniques to defuse tension when it arises. Participants will gain fresh perspectives on controversial issues, reflect on personal biases, and come away with practical methods for navigating controversies with confidence.

Presenter: Andrea Lorek Strauss from the University of Minnesota Extension and Minnesota Master Naturalist program

Registration: Pre-register for the Beyond Debate webinar.

Wetlands Watch Webinar: Catch the King and Measure the Muck 101

Date: August 28, 12:00 – 1:00 pm

Description: With extreme rainfall, heatwaves, and drought already at play, it’s hard to imagine another stressor like sea level rise. To help our state and localities prepare for a future with sea level rise, Wetlands Watch has been mobilizing volunteer mappers since 2017 through the Catch the King community science program. Are you ready to help your community adapt to climate change and stay safe from flooding? Time to get prepared to map on October 9-11th and help Catch the King (tide)! This month’s Lunch and Learn will provide background on this Guinness World Record-Holding community science program and how you can get involved this year. We will also hear from special guests Dr. Derek Loftis (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) about how data is used, and Dr. Margie Mulholland (Old Dominion University’s Measure the Muck) about flood water quality and more ways to get involved.

Registration: Free, pre-registration required

Note: See the Volunteer Opportunities section below for more information on participating in the Catch the King service activity.

Reminder: Fall Forestry and Wildlife Field Tours, October 20-23

This October, come help celebrate the longest running field tour series in Virginia!

Started in 1976 to promote sustainable forest and wildlife management practices, the Fall Forestry & Wildlife Field Tours have become one of the premier landowner education programs in the commonwealth! To celebrate, we will explore sustainable forestry and wildlife management practices across 4 counties over 4 days (October 20-23). Tours visit private, public, and industry-owned lands and manufacturing facilities. Join for 1, 2, 3, or all 4 days.

Agendas, registration, and other information on the Virginia Forest Landowner Education Website. 

Volunteer Opportunities

Catch the King and Measure the Muck

Catch the King (CTK) is a community science program that mobilizes volunteers to map the extent of tides and flooding during the fall season of perigean spring tides, commonly known as “king tides,” in Virginia. During the king tide, participants use a mobile app to collect location-based data points along the water’s edge at peak high tide. ‘Measure the Muck’ is an add-on activity in some locations where volunteers collect water samples from the flood waters.

Here are the dates for this year:

Sept 11 – 13: Wet Run (practice & data collection)

Sept 12: Measure the Muck

Sept 26 – Oct 1: Sept Full Moon Mapping

Oct 9 – 11: Official Catch the King Event!!!

Oct 10: Measure the Muck

Oct 25 – 30: Oct Full Moon Mapping

Please visit https://www.wetlandswatch.org/catchtheking for signup links and more information.

If your chapter is interested in co-hosting a Catch the King training, contact the coordinator Stephanie Letourneau, s.letourneau@wetlandswatch.org. 

The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy has many volunteer opportunities in various locations across the state. Learn more from their website. You can also use the link on the site to sign up to receive their volunteer announcements.

Reminder: Recertification Pin Artwork Contest

​The 2027 recertification pin, earned by previously certified VMN volunteers who complete at least 40 hours of approved volunteer service and 8 hours of approved continuing education during 2026, will be an image of a native salamander species. We chose salamanders as the theme because we haven’t featured them before, because Virginia is a global hotspot for salamander biodiversity, and because they are charismatic species that draw attention.

Which salamander it will be and the artwork for the pin will be determined through an artwork contest. VMN volunteers are invited to submit their own artwork according to the guidelines below. The winning artwork will be selected by a team of judges that will include the VMN program staff and experts from our sponsoring agencies. All submissions will be recognized in our fall edition of The Pollinator newsletter.

Contest Guidelines

• The artwork must be original artwork created and submitted by a currently enrolled VMN volunteer.
• Please limit submissions to one per volunteer.
• The volunteer may choose which salamander species to illustrate, but it must be a species native to Virginia. We suggest that you choose a salamander species with a color and/or shape that will stand out well on a pin.
• The artwork may be a drawing, painting, or photograph, but it must be submitted as a digital file, such as a PDF, JPG, PNG, or GIF file. In the past, drawings and paintings have usually been more successful because of greater control over the background.
• The naming convention of your digital file should be “YourLastNameYourFirstName_SalamanderName” (for example, MouseMinnie_EasternHellbender.gif)
• We tend to prefer artwork that allows us to create a pin in the shape of the organism, rather than having to be an oval or rectangular pin. Keep this preference in mind when creating your artwork and imagine a pin cut in the shape of the image. Pins cannot easily have very finely detailed edges, so it is helpful if the image outline is a smoother line. 

To Submit Your Artwork for the Contest

If you want to submit your artwork for the contest, please complete the online contest survey no later than 5:00 pm on September 15, 2025. You will be asked to provide your name, email, VMN chapter, and your permission to use the artwork. Have your digital artwork file ready; you will need to upload it within the survey.

Link to contest survey: https://virginiatech.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eEZZ4DojKi60eGy