A Wild Day in Sperryville

by Marshall Jones, February 2008


	A few of the over 400 attendees at the 2008 Wildlife Habitat Open House. Photo by Carl Zitzmann.

Four hundred people did something wild at the Sperryville Schoolhouse on Saturday, February 9 – they attended the second annual Wildlife Habitat Open House, put on by the Biodiversity Task Force of RLEP, in partnership with the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) and the Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of Our Watershed (RappFLOW). Altogether, seventeen conservation agencies and organizations were there with displays, demonstrations, and workshops about how to conserve our land, waters, and the creatures who inhabit them (including us!)

The Open House happened just in time for those who are already thinking about spring. Despite our recent cold and icy February weather, the days are rapidly getting longer. The promise of spring is already lurking in the swelling maple buds and skunk cabbage roots; all they need is another warm spell to bring them to life. Just as this is time to get excited about our seed catalogs and gardens, it's also the perfect time to think about what we can do to restore and protect wildlife habitat.


	Shenandoah National Park's book sales table. Photo by Carl Zitzmann.

There is a wealth of wildlife information available from many organizations – so much so that finding the right source can be a daunting task. Conservationists Pam Owen and Don Loock understood this two years ago, when they began planning the first Wildlife Habitat Open House.

"We'd been getting requests from people about where to get good information on native plants and how to attract wildlife to their properties," recalled Owen, who is the Lead Coordinator for the RLEP Biodiversity Task Force. "We realized how easy it is to get confused about all the conservation programs out there, so we thought it would be great to bring these organizations together in one room. People could do one-stop shopping for wildlife habitat information and get inspired to start habitat projects."

Loock, who is Land Conservation Officer at the PEC office in Sperryville, agreed. After working with landowners to help them put their property into the conservation easement program, he wanted to give them more information about what to do to benefit the natural environment on their land.

"We worked with landowners and then wound up giving them a rolodex of different people and numbers," said Loock. "It was very cumbersome. Why not get them together in one place instead? We decided to do it in late winter so people can get ready for spring."

Out of Owen and Loock's discussion, the first Wildlife Habitat Open House was born in 2007. It was so successful that the organizers decided to bring in even more organizations to the 2008 Open House.


	The "Clean Streams" initiative took the stage on February 9. Photo by Carl Zitzmann.

For RappFLOW President Beverly Hunter, this year's event was the perfect place to roll out their new "Clean Streams" initiative, a partnership with the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District and the Rappahannock County Health Department, funded by the Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund.

"The event enabled RappFLOW volunteers to inform many people about the County's 'Clean Streams Days' coming up this spring," said Hunter. "The Wildlife Habitat Open House was an excellent opportunity for interested citizens to consider how healthy watersheds provide healthy habitats, and ways in which they can manage their own property to improve the watershed. The well-attended lectures helped to deepen understanding of these connections."

Judging from the continuous crowd of people studying the RappFLOW displays and talking to Hunter, RappFLOW Volunteer Coordinator Jenny Fitzhugh, and other RappFLOW representatives, there is tremendous interest in how to improve stream quality for the benefit of both people and wildlife.


	Dr. Lou Verner gives the first of his two presentations during the open house. Photo by Marshall Jones.

The Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance, which works to get more land into conservation easements, also had a steady stream of visitors. "I've gotten really good reactions from people," said RCCA Executive Director Ashley Matthews during the event. She said was surprised by the number of visitors from Culpeper, Fauquier, Frederick, Madison, and many other counties at her table.

A new feature this year was a series of workshops and activities held in a side room or outdoors on the grounds of the Schoolhouse. Louis Verner, Watchable Wildlife Biologist from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, led off the presentations and received an enthusiastic response to his talk on ten easy projects a landowner can undertake to improve wildlife habitat on their land. Later in the day, he had "standing room only" for his program on holistic pond management, a topic of special interest to RLEP and RappFLOW.


Jack Price, president of the Old Rag Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists, leads the river walk. Photo by Marshall Jones.

Along the Thornton River behind the Schoolhouse, Virginia Master Gardener and Master Naturalist Jack Price led a river walk to show the importance of vegetated stream buffers and rain gardens, as part of RappFLOW's stream buffer project. "People don't know you're what you're doing unless you get out and meet with them," Price said after the walk.

Later, landowners learned how to create a practical wildlife habitat plan from PEC's Don Loock and Faren Wolter. Their workshop covered ways to determine what wildlife species may be on their land and how to use basic ecological principles to benefit their habitats.

There were also special programs for kids. They learned how about habitat fragmentation and the use of radio collars to track wildlife movements from educator Ricki Ferrence of the Smithsonian/National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center (CRC) in Front Royal. At the CRC table, Ferrence also showed kids how to keep their own wildlife habitat journal, with help from volunteers Fred Viers, Leanne Creger, and Michelle Waterman. Creger and Waterman are George Mason University students in residence at CRC for the first Smithsonian-Mason semester in Conservation Biology, and several other George Mason students also came through the Open House during the day.

Outdoors, a "stream sense" habitat observation activity led by middle school teacher Lisa Miklos of the Old Rag chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program showed them how to use their senses to observe habitat and record their experiences.

The Shenandoah National Park Association, which supports the park by operating book and gift shops in Visitor Centers, was a new participant this year. "We're closed this time of year at the park Visitor Centers so all we have is mail order," said SNPA's Great Miller. "This Open House comes at a great time of year for us." They did a brisk business, selling more than $750 worth of wildlife books and field guides by the end of the day.

The complete list governmental and non-governmental conservation organizations participating in the Open House included:

Rappahannock League for Environmental Protection Biodiversity Task Force
Piedmont Environmental Council
Rappahannock Friends and Lovers of Our Watershed
Rappahannock County Conservation Alliance
Rappahannock County Government
Virginia Native Plant Society
Virginia Department of Forestry
Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Virginia Native Cooperative Extension
Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service
Smithsonian/National Zoo's Conservation and Research Center
Four County Master Gardener Association
Old Rag Master Naturalists
The National Park Service and Shenandoah National Park
Shenandoah National Park Association (SNPA)

When it was done, Pam Owen praised "the enthusiasm and knowledge of those representing the participating organizations combined with the enthusiasm and eagerness to learn of those who attended."

"It was a privilege for us to be part of it all," reflected RappFLOW's Jenny Fitzhugh, a few days after the event. Personally, I would turn Jenny's comment around – everyone who cares about the world of nature is privileged to have so many dedicated people, from so many fine organizations, willing to devote their Saturday to help ensure there is a place for wildlife and people in our environment.