Month: July 2018

Categories
Biodiversity Blog Undergraduate Experiential Learning

On Biodiversity: Smokey jungle frog alarm call and The Green Wall

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STUDENT REFLECTIONS FROM THE 2018 VT ECUADOR STUDY ABROAD TRIP

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On one of our night hikes at Shiripuno we came across a medium sized Smokey jungle frog (Leptodactylus pentadactylus). It’s a pretty common species in the area and they can grow to be pretty large. Even with the large size, their coloration makes them disappear against the background of the forest floor, so to spot one you have to keep a look out for eye-shine. When Dr. Hopkins saw the frog, he stepped off the trail and asked us, “Hey guys, do you want me to catch it?” and of course we all said yes, because what kind of question is that?! So, he goes and creeps up on the frog and just snatches it off the ground- an act which I later tried to perform, and failed. The frog was big enough to need two hands to control it, especially since it immediately puffed itself up upon being captured. Then came the part that I wasn’t prepared for, the alarm call. The frog started to emit a high-pitched screaming cry that was so loud it made us all cringe. It is certainly an excellent escape strategy because it was so obnoxious it made us want to let it go. We didn’t keep it for long, just enough to get a good video of the cry and just enough to make our ears start to hurt. When it was let go it only took two or three hops back into the forest to make it blend in again with the forest floor.

– Annelise Stunes, Biological Sciences[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/hMws7w951gs” align=”center” title=”Alarm call of the smokey jungle frog”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Video provided by Annelise Stunes.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Green Wall.

Over the course of this trip I have seen some spectacular views. We have hiked to viewpoints that gaze over the endless Amazon river basin, clambered over mountain passes in bouncing busses, staring in awe as a volcano emerges through the clouds. I’ve even seen the reaction on my classmate’s face as one of the particularly powerful bounces on the bus sent the soup in his hand flying through the air and splashing down into his lap. All of these views are amazing and if had been captured professionally could have been stock images that Apple uses for their screensavers (yes, especially Mark’s soup face). However, just recently I witnessed the most spectacular view I think I have seen on this trip and perhaps in my life.

As our group sputtered along a muddy trail along a creek we were heavily focused on powering through the greatest physical challenge we’ve encountered on this trip. Through our gritted teeth and soaked hair we were witness to some of the most spectacular places the cloud forest has to offer. About halfway through the hike we arrive, dripping and buzzing with energy, to a literal wall of green. Standing on a little island of rocks in the middle of the creek we faced a cliff face that was covered by the largest collection of moss and epiphytes I have ever seen. This cliff face seemed to span two acres of surface area and all of it was vibrant green. The moss had collected so much moisture and there was so much of it that water was cascading down the cliff face giving it the appearance that this was a raining wall. Hummingbirds were buzzing around the top of the cliff. The other side of the creek was another hill which was topped with humongous trees with fantastic branching canopies covered in an equal amount of moss and epiphytes as the cliff. The creek was kicking up mist and clouding the whole area and slightly masking the forest hundreds of feet above us giving it a mystical feel. It almost felt as if gnomes were going to pop and out begin running around us.

– Silas Beers, Fish and Wildlife Conservation[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][vc_column_text]

The time spent in the lowlands was incredible. We went on so many adventures, being in awe of the jungle the entire time. From the enormous buttresses to the heights of the canopy. I have made memories here that I couldn’t get anywhere else. From chasing howler monkeys, to watching squirrel monkeys climb over our heads. The flora and fauna of the lowlands is something you can’t describe. Being at Shiripuno showed me the importance of conserving the biodiversity in the lowlands. Our last night at Shiripuno, Fernando gave a presentation on the importance of conservation and how deforestation has affected the biodiversity. Now being here in the cloud forest, admiring the differences between the rainforest of the lowlands and the rainforest in the cloud forest, I’m seeing the beauty each one has to offer. I can see the importance of studying the natural history of the organisms in Ecuador. The rainforest is the epicenter of biodiversity, yet there is so much here that still needs to be understood. Back home, when someone talks about the rainforest it’s typically about deforestation and the need for conservation efforts in place to protect the rainforest. Thar fact that people are talking about it is great, but how to go about it is the hard part. Natural history plays an important role in conservation, if you do not understand the species, how are you able to help them? Each organism needs to be understood before it can be studied further.

 

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Categories
Biodiversity Blog Undergraduate Experiential Learning

A Day in the life: VT Ecuador study abroad at Shiripuno Amazon Lodge

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STUDENT REFLECTIONS FROM THE 2018 VT ECUADOR STUDY ABROAD TRIP

 

The Shiripuno Amazon Lodge is a privileged, remote location surrounded by miles of unbroken, pristine tropical rainforest and the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve in the Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador.

 

Besides occasional insomnia, there’s another reason why I plan to study birds and behavior: spring and summer mornings are my favorite times of the day and year. Even as a kid, I remember waking up and just listening to the songs outside my window, enjoying the complexity and variety. Now as an adult, there’s still something magical when I wake up just around sunrise: there’s no need to start the day yet, coffee or tea is brewing, and half the world is still asleep. Well, half of the human world is still asleep, but the natural world is awake and thriving. San Isidro multiplies that feeling.

Located in the cloud forest, the lodge overlooks a valley that usually has one or two low flying clouds in it (hence the name, cloud forest). One of the final days of our stay at the lodge, we were told we would have a later breakfast, meaning everyone could sleep in. My mind doesn’t work like that: 6am rolls around and I’m alive, awake, alert and enthusiastic. Even though we didn’t have to be at breakfast for another two hours, I was ready to start the day.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”23964″ img_size=”500×460″ add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”23965″ img_size=”500×460″ add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]After brewing a (slightly strong) cup of coffee, I wandered to the main lodge planning to read my book in the foggy morning. Inca jays squawk just off the path and a russet-backed oropendola called out their distinct rain drop call once or twice. By 6:20, I was settled in and wondering if a gnome was going to come out of the jungle. Instead, the hummingbirds made an appearance. 

Chestnut-breasted coronots were fighting off fawn breasted brilliants who were chasing off the wasps. Every so often one would come up to check out my red shirt, only to angrily zoom off when they realized I had no sugar water to give. I realized this was going to be as silent as it ever will on the deck. My mind started to sink back into that fuzzy, just woken up feeling for the next hour while I enjoyed the magic before the rest of the world start to wake up.

– Catherine Hucul, Biological Sciences[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv2xBbMVCnI” el_width=”60″ align=”center”][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When we arrived at Shiripuno Lodge in Ecuador’s beautiful Yasuni National Park we began our projects. Out of a total of 11 individuals in the class, there are 4 groups, each of which having completely different objectives. The group I am in, fondly referred to as “the salt people”, is studying temporal preferences of mammals at a natural clay lick. On the first day in the lowlands, we set out camera traps at a nearby clay lick. The plan was to leave them for 5 days and then retrieve them on the last day. Little did we know that the weather had different plans. After a long week filled with rain (hence the word rain in rainforest) we loaded up the canoe to retrieve the camera traps. As we approached the bank where we had previously disembarked, we quickly came to realize that it was entirely underwater! Fernando Vaca, one of our guides, said that it was the highest he had seen the Rio Shiripuno in all the years he had been there. My three group members and I jumped out of the canoe onto the “trail” which was under chest deep water. We trekked for several hundred meters before Fernando decided that it would only get deeper, and that it was unsafe. We tried to enter the clay lick from a different trail, but when Walaka jumped out of the canoe the water came high over his head! Fernando and our team ultimately decided that it could be too dangerous to try to retrieve the camera traps. Luckily a Michigan State class was going to be at Shiripuno Lodge the following week, and had agreed to get the camera traps once the river receded. I’ll never forget the experiences I had at the Shiripuno Lodge!

– Dominic Latona, Biological Sciences[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you like adventure and really feeling like you are close to nature this lodge has it all. So far, our stay at the lodge has been incredible. We have seen so much wildlife in the short time span that we have been here. The connection you feel when you are in the forest is like no other. Shiripuno and everyone working there makes sure nothing is left out of your trip. The small structures they have for guests hold up quite nicely. They definitely make sure you never go unfed. Three meals a day each with three separate courses and every single one is more delicious than the next. The men that work here are very kind and have a vast amount of knowledge about the rainforest. The man that deserves the most praise for his efforts in keeping this place alive and for keeping the amazon in the beautiful state that it is, is Jarol Fernando Vaca. This man has done the most for us on the trip. He has made sure that everyone is satisfied and comfortable. He has such a great attitude when it comes to finding critters and sharing the knowledge he has on them. He really inspires you to try and learn as much as possible with the amount of time you have. He has been a tremendous guide and truly knows his way around the rainforest. His skill set is vast and it makes the experience you have a Shiripuno even better. The primary goal at Shirpuno Lodge is research. Fernando conducts many studies just around the lodge that are unique and he finds items and information that are new to science almost every chance he gets. He loves the people that come through however his main goal is to show these people how special the rainforest really is and what the potential is if people continue the research that he has started. This lodge is not just great for the lodge itself but for the great men who are running it. They do the most that they can and ask for nothing in return. They deserve the most praise. This is by far one of the best trips I have been on and met the best people. I hope that I can stay in touch with Fernando and come back again someday.

– Georgia Martin, Fish and Wildlife Conservation[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Categories
Conservation Faculty Spotlight News Water

Study explores connections between land management, water quality, and human response in lake catchments

From VT News

July 3, 2018

As many of us prepare to travel to lakes and other bodies of water this summer for relaxation and recreation, now is the perfect time to consider what we can do to help protect the lakes we love.

Scientists have long studied the ecological impact of humans on lakes, but a new study led by researchers at Virginia Tech explores how those ecological impacts can cycle back to affect humans. The study, published in the journal Ecosphere, offers a new model for those invested in protecting and maintaining lakes.

Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire
The researchers examined lake catchments — areas of land where water runs into a freshwater lake — at Lake Mendota in Wisconsin, Oneida Lake in New York, and Lake Sunapee (pictured) in New Hampshire.

“Lakes provide so much in terms of drinking water, recreation, aesthetic value, and more,” said Kelly Cobourn, assistant professor of water resource policy in Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, and project lead. “People derive a lot of value from connecting with lakes. We also understand that humans degrade the quality of lakes with some of the choices they make. We provide a roadmap for understanding and approaching these problems that hasn’t been used before.”

The study, which is in its third year, brings together researchers from Virginia Tech, The Pennsylvania State University, University of Wisconsin, Cornell University, Michigan State University, and Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. The team uses coupled natural and human systems modeling to understand how humans and the environment affect one another.

“Similar research in the past has looked at the effects humans have on lakes, but rarely has anyone completed the loop of looking at how lakes affect humans,” said Cayelan Carey, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences in Virginia Tech’s College of Science. “This paper focuses on completing the feedback loop that captures human actions, the consequences of those actions for water quality in lake ecosystems, and the effect of ecosystem change on human behavior.”

The researchers examined three lake catchments, or areas of land where water runs into a freshwater lake — Lake Mendota in Wisconsin, Oneida Lake in New York, and Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire. The team collected data on land-use and management decisions, how water and sediment are transported to the lake, and how those things affect water quality by changing levels of chemicals that may affect the color or clarity of the lake.

“Agriculture is a huge source of nitrogen and phosphorous loaded into lakes and watersheds,” explained Cobourn, a faculty member in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation. “We are looking at how farmers decide which crops to plant, how much land is used, and how fertilizer is applied. While fertilizers can help improve crop yields, they also leach into lakes.”

Carey, who is working on understanding how human decisions like land development or the application of fertilizer affected the ecosystem, added, “With this data, we can run ‘what if?’ scenarios to see how things might change under different conditions. For instance, what would happen to algal blooms if farmers don’t use any fertilizer at all? What would happen if they use 50 percent more fertilizer?”

From there, the researchers moved on to focus on how changes in water quality affect shorefront property values and whether those changes motivate civic action by lake associations and other concerned groups. Kevin Boyle, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, studied the factors that affect the value of properties surrounding lakes.

“Lakes provide important and unique ecosystems,” Boyle said. “A lake that is clear and healthy is going to hold more value to people than one that isn’t. The property-value impacts can be used as an educational tool, because we now have information about the economic benefits of protecting lakes, in addition to the ecological ones.”

A critical relationship between lakes and people arises when citizens participate in civic action to protect ecosystems. According to Michael Sorice, associate professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, volunteer organizations like lake associations are common in areas surrounding lake catchments because of the nonmonetary value people associate with lakes.

“Lakes are magnetic to people,” he said. “They are important for outdoor recreation, aesthetic value, historical significance, and more. We are trying to understand how lake associations encapsulate all of those values and use them to influence lake water quality.”

Added Carey, “We were actually hosted by the Lake Sunapee Protective Association in New Hampshire recently. They were excited to use the models we came up with to help improve their lake.”

Kelly Cobourn, Cayelan Carey, and Michael Sorice are also affiliated with the Global Change Center housed in Virginia Tech’s Fralin Life Science Institute.

This project aligns with Virginia Tech’s Global Systems Science Destination Area, which fosters transdisciplinary study of the dynamic interplay between natural and social systems. Research in this area involves faculty collaboration as a means to discover creative solutions to critical social problems emergent from human activity and environmental change in areas such as freshwater systems.

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Categories
Disease Educational Outreach News Science Communication

Visit the Smithsonian’s new infectious disease exhibit and find a Hokie alumna making science accessible

From VT News

Why should people and animals be vaccinated? How does disease spread between animals and people? How does an outbreak become a pandemic? What can we do to prevent the spread of viruses, such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and influenza?

Answers to these questions can now be found in the same space where dinosaurs tower and whale moans bellow. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., opened its doors on May 18, 2018, to reveal a new line of viral defense: knowledge of how disease spreads, where disease fits within the larger picture of the environment, and our place in it.

The exhibit, called Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World, is designed to teach visitors how zoonotic diseases, or those typically infecting animals that spill over to humans, spread to become a global threat.

Outbreak features nine diseases that have spilled over from animals, including bats and rodents. Two of the diseases featured, Ebola and Nipah, have outbreaks that are occurring right now. The exhibit examines what we can do to stop these disease outbreaks from becoming pandemics. But understanding our individual role in stopping a disease outbreak can be difficult.

Exhibits Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Photo credit: James Di Loreto, Lucia RM Martino & Fred Cochard, Smithsonian.

This is where Ashley Peery comes in. Peery, now a two-time alumna at Virginia Tech, spent the last six months developing materials to train volunteers for the exhibit. For six weeks from April through May, she led the training of 66 volunteers who live around the nation’s capital. The volunteers vary in age and expertise and include scientists, doctors, teachers, and science enthusiasts from the undergraduate level all the way up to retired professional.

“I find that the people recruited to volunteer in Outbreak are genuinely interested in learning how to share their knowledge with others,” said Peery,  an American Society for Microbiology (ASM) fellow who is detailed to the Smithsonian as an educator.

Leading up to the exhibit’s opening, Peery was also responsible for developing activities and strategies that volunteers could use to help museum visitors connect with the exhibit’s messages about One Health, the idea that human health, animal health, and environmental health are all interconnected.

To develop the material, Peery pooled together resources based on her own expertise. At Virginia Tech, Peery first studied biology in the College of Science as an undergraduate, then as a doctoral student in entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. For her Ph.D., Peery studied genetic changes in Anopheles mosquitoes, which can carry malaria, under the guidance of Igor Sharakhov, an associate professor of entomology and an expert in genomics and cytogenetics of mosquitoes.

Peery also utilized the latest science and expertise from scientists working at the cutting edge of these fields. She drew material from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as from ASM’s network of experts. She created models that allow volunteers to engage visitors with specific examples of the roles of scientists and the public in the process, for example. Visitors are then asked how they would approach disease based on whether they wore the hat of an epidemiologist, a disease researcher, or a citizen concerned with infection.

The exhibit features nine zoonotic viruses: HIV/AIDS, influenza (both bird and human strains), hantavirus, Nipah, SARS, MERS, Ebola, and Zika. Each of these viruses tells a story of One Health and visitors learn the human, animal, and environmental components of each one. The exhibit also highlights an “upside” for each of the diseases.

Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World Exhibit
Ashley Peery training volunteers to lead tours of the Outbreak: Epidemics in a Connected World Exhibit. Photo courtesy of Ashley Peery.

“The One Health framework helps us understand how each featured disease has spilled over to humans, and shows how human actions can spread these diseases into outbreaks and even pandemics,” Peery said.

Factors that affect the spread of these viruses include habitat destruction, growing global populations, and domestication of animals, all of which the exhibit aims to explain.

“One Health is a holistic approach for thinking about disease,” Peery said.

The One Health perspective has been gaining traction over the past 10 years, Peery explained, but the concept has struggled to reach scientists working across the human, animal, and environmental  forefronts of disease research. The exhibit will help bring this mode of thinking to light, Peery said.

The training course for Outbreak volunteers included online modules and face-to-face sessions. This in-person portion included talks by One Health experts from the CDC, USAID, ASM, and the National Zoo. It also included training in strategies for science communication and inquiry-based learning approaches.

The Smithsonian has well-developed methods for teaching volunteers, Peery explained. New volunteers are trained to consider their audience, speak without jargon, and use inquiry-based learning approaches as they interact with visitors. Outbreak volunteers take the role of a learning guide and use 3D models and guiding questions to assist visitors as they learn. In this approach, volunteers encourage visitors to take an active role in their own learning rather than simply providing answers.

“How do you leverage the information in the exhibit to reach specific learning outcomes so visitors walk away understanding the exhibit?” Peery asked, while developing the training materials in February 2018. “One goal of training is to equip Outbreak volunteers  with a ‘bag of tricks,’ such as objects or ideas that visitors can relate to. This will help  pull people in who are interested and build upon this connection so these folks leave with some deeper understanding of the exhibit.”

Peery will recruit and train new volunteers in early 2019 for those interested in joining the museum as volunteers.

In the future, Peery will also be working to promote DIY Outbreak, a print on demand version of the exhibit. DIY Outbreak is a 15-panel condensed version of the 4,400 square feet of panels, objects, and videos on view in the main exhibit. DIY Outbreak is available in other languages in addition to English—French, Spanish, Arabic, and traditional and simplified Chinese. It will serve as a flexible learning resource  for people “who need a tool to educate their local community,” Peery said.

”My hope is that these very important messages of how diseases spread from animals to humans will reach communities around the world, not just those that are able to walk through the doors of the museum in Washington, D.C., and DIY Outbreak is really going to help with that,” Peery said.

This goal is fitting for Peery, who has continued to grow an interest in science outreach since her time at Virginia Tech.

When asked how Peery interacts with visitors who are skeptics, she noted, “You’re not going to change people’s minds, but we can reference the latest scientific data and meet them where they are. It’s really key that we meet the community where they are.”

The exhibit will run until May 2021 and is open year-round.

-Written by Cassandra Hockman

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Categories
News Research Undergraduate Experiential Learning

Study: Undergrad research opportunities often lead to STEM doctorates

From UVAToday
BY FARISS SAMARRAI  |  

College students who participate in hands-on, faculty-mentored research while pursuing bachelor’s degrees gain personal and professional benefits that strengthen time-management, critical thinking and communication skills, and provide deep one-on-one connections with distinguished faculty through shared research interests.

Now, a finding by scientists at the University of Virginia and four collaborating institutions suggests that the value of structured undergraduate research programs extends to society as a whole by encouraging participants to seek advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics – the so-called “STEM” fields.

In an article recently published in the journal BioScience, the researchers reported that college underclassmen who take part in summer research training programs – specifically, in this study, the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates initiative – are 48 percent more likely to pursue STEM-related doctoral degrees than demographically matched students who apply to the program but are not selected.

The analysis is among the first to provide valuable, quantifiable data on the effectiveness of research opportunities for undergrads.

“STEM scientists drive innovation and contribute to economic growth in this country,” said Eric Nagy, a study co-author and UVA biology faculty member who serves as associate director of UVA’s Mountain Lake Biological Station. The station hosts and trains Research Experiences for Undergraduates students each summer.

Biology faculty member Eric Nagy co-authored the new study. (Photo by Fariss Samarrai, University Communications)

“The biologists we train at Mountain Lake Biological Station apply their skills to critical societal challenges in the environment, health care, public policy and basic scientific understanding and advancement,” Nagy said. “The U.S. is falling behind in citizen scientific literacy. Programs like ours can help change that.”

Nagy and his colleagues note in their publication that concrete data are increasingly essential to document the value of science training programs.

“Scientific, technological and economic competitiveness is motivating greater interest and investment in STEM training around the world, with an emphasis on addressing the current (global) shortage of STEM Ph.D.s,” the scientists write. “With annual spending on STEM training well over $14 billion in the United States, guiding future investments … demands a good understanding of effective approaches.”

In the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, in which UVA is a long-time participant, the National Science Foundation awards universities and laboratories competitive grants to support the scientific training of 10 college underclassmen for 10 weeks over three to five consecutive summers. Students from colleges with limited research opportunities then apply to host institutions, and those accepted receive a stipend and, at UVA and many other sites, free room and board and research support for the duration of their training.

“The REU program at Mountain Lake has been an awesome opportunity to explore my interests in scientific field work and the program has exposed me to important skills that will help me succeed in graduate school,” said UVA undergraduate Rachel Thoms, a rising fourth-year biology student in the program this summer.

UVA biology students Rachel Thoms, left, and Rita Hueston are in the REU program at Mt. Lake. (Contributed photo)

Like professional scientists, the students, working under mentors, design their studies, prepare proposals, collect data, perform analyses and interpret and present their results. They also participate in seminars and a wide range of formal research training activities.

“This REU program has been very valuable to me,” said Rita Hueston, a rising UVA fourth-year biology and French major, and an Research Experiences for Undergraduates student at Mountain Lake. “It has allowed me to fully immerse myself in research and explore field biology in a way that’s hard to do in a university setting, especially when balancing additional classes and work. It has also provided me an opportunity to converse with a variety of people from all sorts of backgrounds who have valuable experiences of their own worth sharing with others, but who I might never have met if I hadn’t done this program.”

To gauge the effectiveness of these funded research experiences for undergraduates, the researchers identified and tracked 176 individuals with similar demographics who had applied to one of five field ecology- or field biology-based training programs offered at a Research Experiences for Undergraduates site in the U.S. for the summers of 2009 through 2011. Half of the applicants were accepted, and half were not. Nearly half of the acceptees went on to pursue advanced degrees.

“Our assumption for a long time has been that conducting independent undergraduate research under the guidance of a faculty mentor prepares students for success in STEM careers,” said Alan Wilson, the study’s lead author and a biology professor at Auburn University. “Our data support that assumption. They show that the product is real, that it can make a difference – for the students, their mentors and the reputation of their universities.”

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates impact study was conducted by scientists with UVA, the National Science Foundation, Auburn University, the Rocky Mountain Biological Lab in Colorado, San Francisco State University and the University of Washington.

Read more about the study.

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Categories
biweekly update

Biweekly Update – July 3, 2018

New Announcements:

1. EMG Webinar series – We will not be offering a webinar this month (July). We will resume our webinar series in August, with an update from the State EMG Office, and specific topics to be announced soon.

2. Spark page from Colorado: Check out these resources from the Colorado Master Gardener program, discussing staffing booths at public events!

3. Recorded Webinars: Recorded EMG Coordinator webinars hosted by the National Extension Master Gardener Coordinators Committee

4. Hanover Master Gardeners will host a Master Gardening Training Course beginning in September. The classes will be Monday and Thursday morning in the Hanover area. For more information contact Anglette Pryor at 804-752-4310 or angellp@vt.edu.

5. Plant Identification: Annuals, Perennials and Vines – 6 week online educational course offereings from NC State – starts July 9th, 2018

6. Upcoming VMGA meeting – Lexington, VA – Saturday, August 11, 2018

7. Hometown Habitat Screening – Louisa County, VA – July 14th, 2018

8. Arlington / Alexandria Educational programs – July 2018

July Announcements:

9. Twilight Tuesday Series– Fauquier County –July 31, August 7 and 28, September 18

10. National Children and Youth Garden Symposium – Ithaca, NY – July 11-14, 2018

11. 2019 International Master Gardener Conference: Search for Excellence Awards: Deadline for SFE Applications is July 16, 2018

12. Ag in the classroom workshops – June 12 – August 9

August Announcements:

13. 2018 National Extension Master Gardener Coordinators Conference – August 6-9, 2018 – Madison, WI

September Announcements:

14. Mark on your calendar: VMGA Education Day 2018 – Appomattox, VA – September 29, 2018 – Holiday Lake 4-H Center, Speakers on entomology, bats, wildflowers, water resources, and what’s happening in your backyard that you might not be aware of! More information available in the coming weeks!

15. Saturdays in the Garden Series – Fauquier County – April 14, June 23, September 22

16. VBMG Fall Gardening Festival – Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018 – HRAREC, 1444 Diamond Springs Rd. – Virginia Beach, VA

Other Announcements:

17. Follow the State Office on social media:

18. Walmart Foundation is accepting applications: Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until December 31st

19. #LocalFoodMatter PHOTO CONTEST – photos must be submitted between June1st and November 2nd, 2018