What is a Master Naturalist?

Virginia Master Naturalists are trained and certified volunteer educators, citizen scientists, and stewards helping to conserve and manage natural resources and public lands in Virginia. Check out this wonderful video on what it means to be a VMN volunteer from Sonny Bowers (Historic Rivers Chapter).

Members of the Arlington Regional Master Naturalist (ARMN) chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program:

  • provide, promote, and facilitate volunteer service to sustain natural areas in our communities using sound natural resource management and conservation practices,
  • offer and support environmental education and outreach to encourage understanding and respect for our natural environment, and
  • engage in a wide range of citizen science activities that contribute to greater knowledge of local streams, plants, animals, and local habitat.

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  The application period for the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists’
Fall 2019 Volunteer Training is OPEN till August 9, 2019!
To learn more about the training and when to sign up, click HERE.
And stay up-to date on what we do with the ARMN Blog. Sign up to receive it now!

Recent Posts

Outstanding Participation in the 2019 City Nature Challenge! What Are the Next Steps?

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by Louis Harrell

Citizen science activities are an important way for individuals to contribute to scientific knowledge and for members of the public to increase their knowledge of local natural resources. Currently, the largest citizen science project that ARMN supports is the City Nature Challenge. Read about the results of this year’s challenge and the role that ARMN played in the success of our local area.

Cities around the world compete in the City Nature Challenge to see who can make the most observations of plants and animals using the iNaturalist app to record photos and information, find the most species, and engage the most people. The 2019 City Nature Challenge was held from April 26–29, 2019, and included 159 cities. Like last year, ARMN-sponsored events contributed significantly to the success of the event. In total, ARMN lead 25 events that were attended by 173 people. In the Greater Washington, DC area (which includes close-in Virginia and Maryland communities), 1,268 people made 29,996 observations and identified 2,258 species. Worldwide, Cape Town, South Africa had the most observations and species. Washington, DC was in fifth place worldwide with the number of observers, and 10th overall. See Capital Naturalist by Alonso Abugattas for more details about this year’s CNC, with the focus on activities in Arlington.

If you couldn’t participate in this year’s Challenge, there are still many opportunities to contribute!  To move an observation from a “casual” observation to “research grade” in iNaturalist, the observation needs to be validated by at least one other knowledgeable person. You can find these observations on iNaturalist and validate them yourself. For a few hints about how to identify observations efficiently, see https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/24425-keep-cranking-with-those-id-s and https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/24578-one-last-push-results-will-be-tallied-9am-monday.

The most observed species in our area were:  Mayapple, Virginia Creeper, Poison Ivy, Tulip Tree, Garlic Mustard, and Virginia Spring Beauty. Below are photos of these species taken by City Nature Challenge participants in our area. 

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) (279 observations) https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/37640276
Photo 37640276, (c) Beth Kiser, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) (258 observations) https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/36699786
Photo 36699786, (c) ecomoser, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Poison Ivy (237 observations) https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/37748617
Photo 37748617, (c) Beth Kiser, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) (222 observations) https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/37504678
Photo 37504678, (c) Ken Rosenthal, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolate) (210 observations) https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/37510565
Photo 37510565, (c) Ken Rosenthal, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica)(200 observations) https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/37639606
Photo 37639606, (c) Beth Kiser, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
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