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Master Naturalists from the North Texas chapter coordinate |
THE MORE VIRGINIA develops, the more
With that in mind, five state agencies are in the final planning stages of a program to give concerned citizens a way to help out with conservation and environmental education.
The new effort, called the Master Naturalist program, will debut next month and is expected to expand rapidly throughout the state over the next couple of years.
Michelle Prysby, who will coordinate the effort, said the aim is to have local chapters up and running in 10 Virginia communities by this fall.
While the Fredericksburg area is not among the initial startup localities, officials involved in the program said it readily could have its own chapter as early as January, if there is sufficient interest.
As with the established and successful Master Gardener program, operated by Virginia Cooperative Extension, the new program provides interested citizens with a number of hours of broad-based training in exchange for a like number of hours of community service. In the naturalist program the training focuses on ecosystem education; the service aims at conservation and education.
Prysby comes to her new post from North Carolina, where she was most recently citizen science director at Great Smoky Mountain National Park. A native Tarheel, she graduated from North Carolina State and did her graduate work at the University of Minnesota. She
Lou Verner, a veteran biologist on the Master Naturalist technical advisory committee, said a wide range of conservation projects could be carried out by these trained volunteers, all aimed at environmental improvement, conservation or education.
Verner, director of the state's watchable-wildlife program, had firsthand experience with a Master Naturalist program in Texas, in his previous work in that state. "The Virginia program is patterned after the Texas one," he said, "which has been quite successful now for about 10 years, with about 50 local chapters and 2,300 trained volunteers."
I spoke with Verner and David Whitehurst, director of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' Wildlife Diversity Division, in a conference call this week, and both said expectations are for a high level of public interest in the Master Naturalist certification when it is formally announced next month.
Whitehurst said five state agencies are joining to set up and operate the initiative. Besides Game and Inland Fisheries, they include the Department of Forestry, Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Museum of Natural History and the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Whitehurst sits on the program's administrative oversight panel. Both he and Verner believe it will go over well in the state.
"From our perspective," said Whitehurst, "this connects people with nature, as the recently opened Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trails do. We want people to be connected with nature but have enough knowledge to enhance that enjoyment and make a contribution" in their own communities.
And from my own perspective, I couldn't count the number of times over the years that I have heard someone say, in so many words, "I want to get involved, but I don't know how."
Well, this is how. For as Whitehurst put it in our talks, informed citizens make far better advocates than those who are simply concerned but ignorant. "This aims at providing them with the knowledge they need to be effective advocates."
Which brings up the sensitive area of political involvement in what are typically hot local development issues. What about it?
This is most definitely not training in or
What they do on their own, he said, as individuals and not as Master Naturalists, would be up to them.
There will be a local adviser for each chapter, named from among employees of local offices of the five participating state agencies.
Fredericksburg and surrounding area would seem to be a natural for the Master Naturalist program. With an existing high level of public interest and a rapid rate of development and corresponding pressure on natural resources, I would anticipate the creation of a local chapter fairly soon. Even before the program is formally unveiled, said Whitehurst, interest has been great.
While the program will get under way with only 10 local chapters, there have already been inquiries--in advance of any formal announcement--from 15 or more Virginia localities.
I asked Verner what sort of activities these local volunteers might undertake. He said that in Texas that has been determined largely by local conservation needs and has covered quite a broad range of activity. Among examples he cited were: habitat restoration; endangered species rescue efforts (plants or wildlife); public education such as leading field trips; and constructing and maintaining native plant demonstration habitats to help people see what they might accomplish in their own yards.
"The local Master Naturalists often serve as field generals, if you will, the resource others turn to for help" in their localities," said Verner.
Anyone interested in seeing a chapter of the Master Naturalist program here should contact Prysby at 434/872-4580. A Web site for the program should be up and running within the next few weeks, at the following address: virginiamasternaturalist.org.
In the meantime, those with a general interest in the mature program operated in Texas can visit its Web site at master naturalist.tamu.edu.
PAUL SULLIVAN, a former reporter with The Free Lance-Star, is a freelance writer living in Spotsylvania County. Contact him by mail at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; or by e-mail at PBSullivan2 @cs.com.
