Winter Rally Re-Cap

Geology Road Trip with Arthur Merschat

We were delighted to host the first ever Mount Rogers Winter Naturalist Rally last weekend! It has been one of our objectives to host a fall, winter, and summer rally. The winter rally focused on the flora, fauna, weather, and terrain that is unique to the cold, winter months! 80 eager individuals experienced stimulating outdoor activities and great food. Our programs included winter astronomy, the Oral History of Konnarock, a weather balloon launch, a geology road trip, waterfowl prowl, wildlife tracks & signs, winter tree identification, the challenges of measuring snow, ecology & management of high elevation communities and clay bowl making with Grim Pottery.

Geology Road Trip with Arthur Merschat

Fluorescent Lichen found on a Night Hike led by Cade Campbell following the winter astronomy program.

We would like to say thank you to our keynote speaker and guide, Dr. Doug Miller, for his extraordinary presentation, “Sandy Snow: An Unusual Hurricane Winter Wonderland”. We would also like to thank our incredible guides that really helped make our first Winter Rally a success. Thank you to Allen Boynton, Cade Campbell, Jeremy Stout, Dr. Ed Davis, Mark Archibald, Arthur Merschat, Jordon Blevins, and Debbie Yates.

Kids programs were lead by Program Coordinator Ali Reilly and Naturalist Educator Olivia Jackson. Fries School brought 18 students to explore the Blue Ridge through programs such as intro to birding, geology, tracks & signs, snow science, and winter ecology.

Finally, a special shoutout to our spectacular volunteers, the BRDC Board! Their help truly allowed the rally to run smoothly and efficiently.

We can’t wait to see everyone back on our campus for our Spring Rally coming May 12-14! Stay tuned for more updates!

Fun Times

What a great bunch of enthusiastic kids full of stories and questions! BRDC got to spend the afternoon with the 2nd and 3rd graders at Hillsville Elementary School during their intersession. We presented our Tracks and Signs program to tie in with their animal theme. 

The class began with the distinction between animal tracks and animals signs. We quickly moved on to choosing a mold of an animal track and mixed up our messy Plaster of Paris and poured it into the mold to create a cast of that print. The students eagerly participated in the continued activities and patiently waited for their casts to harden. At the end of the program, they all removed their casts from the mold and left with their own animal track!

Toes in the Sand

Kids are always intrigued by animal tracks and they are quick to identify our most common tracks of deer and dogs, but can they determine the other critters that travel through our area leaving only a track behind?

The K-2 Program presented the book "Whose Tracks are These? A Clue Book of Familiar Forest Animals" by Jim Nail. In this story, the reader is given clues to the description of an animal and its tracks. The clues lead you to guess "who am I?" with the answer given on the following page. The students in Grayson County Public Schools loved this book and loudly expressed Whose tracks these were! 

After the completion of the story, the students were asked to take off a sock and shoe and step into the tray of sand. They observed and described the characteristics of their tracks as a "hands-on" (using their feet) tool to aid in understanding the parts of a track. Afterward, track casts of animals found in the Blue Ridge were pressed into the sand and the students tried to guess which animal they belonged to. They were finally asked to do a homework assignment for BRDC; to go on a hike with their family and see how many animal tracks they could discover and identify. They are to report back to us in March. 

We want to thank the teachers and staff at all the schools for allowing us to come into their classrooms.....and apologize for leaving behind sandy tracks on the carpet circles all over the county!