NCTC Volunteer Opportunity

PVAS to Sponsor Birding Station at NCTC Open House


The National Conservation Training Center will hold its annual open house on October 23.

The event will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., rain or shine.

The theme of this year's open house will be focused on birds. NCTC's 538-acre campus includes a rich variety of bird habitats, from eastern hardwood forest to edge areas, hedgerows, meadows and Potomac River waterfront. It also includes a Bald Eagle nest which has been active for five seasons now.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping visitors will take this opportunity to learn more about our fascinating feathered friends.

PVAS will be sponsoring a "Take a Child (and Adult) Birding" station at the event.

From there, we will be conducting short (10 to 20-minute) bird walks on the NCTC campus throughout the day, providing binoculars for those who do not have their own to see birds up close.

We will also have informational displays, including a "please touch" table, and people on hand to answer questions. We would also like to offer visual bird identification games and bird song quizzes for children.

We will need volunteers willing to help staff this PVAS station and lead birding walks.

If you would like to volunteer and/or have other ideas for activities for our station, please contact Joette Borzik of NCTC at 304-876-7207 or joette_borzik@fws.gov as soon as possible.

Yankauer Volunteer Opportunity

Dear Master Naturalists,


If you are available, Tuesday Sept. 14th is the United Way's Day of Caring. We typically have about 80 people out at Yankauer hauling mulch, pulling stilt grass, getting the flower garden under control, and other various projects.

While this year we have LOTS of volunteers, we don't have a lot of knowledgeable volunteers to lead the charge for trail trimming (the difference between a fern and multiflora rose when trimming trails) and weed pulling (stilt grass vs. a native grass).

I would LOVE some Master Naturalists on hand to help lead the charge on these types of nature-oriented projects, and this would definitely be worth some volunteer hours.

I'm expecting volunteers to arrive at Yankauer around 8:30 am and everyone is usually gone by 3pm. (Of course, if you'd like to help clean up and get more hours, I won't complain.) There's also a breakfast for volunteers at 7:30 at War Memorial Park, we provide a hot lunch at the preserve, and there's a delicious "backyard barbecue" type dinner at the Clarion in Shepherdstown from 4:30-6:30 for volunteers. What more could you want? Breakfast, lunch AND dinner, complete with some VH on the side! (And if you still want more to do, there's a free concert at Yankauer from 6:30-7:30!)

Please let me know if you'd be willing to come and be a crew leader and share some of your MN knowledge with others. Spending a weekday in the woods with wonderful fellow volunteers is an added perk. You can e-mail me at PVASmail@aol.com or call me at 304-676-3397 to let me know of your willingness.


Thanks,
Kristin Alexander