Bob Riggs will take you to the Saltville salt marshes to look for fall migrants. You will look for sparrows among the Marsh Mallows, rails in the Saltmarsh Bulrush, and falcons and accipiters (especially Peregrine Falcons and other migrating raptors) in the skies above. Bring binoculars and field guides if you have them.

Maddie Cogar is an Assistant Nongame Fisheries Biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). She completed a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Resources and then continued her education in Missouri studying aquatic insect and fish response to varying restoration and conservation efforts. Here in the nongame and endangered fishes section of DWR she and her coworkers focus on conservation, management, preservation, and restoration to benefit present and future generations. Come catch, observe, and identify macroinvertebrates and learn about what makes them feel at home in Big Laurel Creek.

This lecture with Ian Caton of Wood Thrush Native Plants, is an introduction to the techniques and challenges of collecting, storing, sowing and growing your own native plants. Growing your own plants from seed can be a fun and rewarding way to produce large numbers of plants for your garden for relatively little cost. But many people are not familiar with the best ways to do so successfully. How to time collection and sowing properly in order to overcome seed dormancy. How to properly store seeds so they do not lose viability. What tools will be needed and what to do after you have successfully germinated your seeds.

Allen Boynton will lead a field trip to look for a variety of bird species and discuss fall migration.

Make a gorgeous, nature-inspired autumn memento with Art Instructor at Ferrum College, Nell Fredericksen. Ecoprinting is a sustainable and artistic technique for creating unique natural patterns on many different substances (on ceramic tiles for this class). You will be making two different tiles by bundling a variety of leaves and flowers onto them, then boiling them in a "dirty pot" which contains rusty water and vinegar.  This process transfers the natural pigments from the plants onto the tiles.

Join Cade Campbell, Western Carolina University graduate student and contract biologist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to learn tips and tricks to help understand the evidence left behind by our local wildlife.

It has often been said that fire is a good servant, but a poor master. Fire is a natural disturbance in many ecosystems and humans have modified the role of fire with both beneficial and detrimental outcomes. In this session, we will explore the role of fire in ecological systems and the history of how human intervention has used it to modify or maintain ecosystems.