I started this week by spending some time familiarizing myself with Conway Robinson State Forest. The property consists of 444 acres of “working woods” where the Department of Forestry manages about half of the property for sustainable timber harvests, while other large portions of the woods are managed to stimulate oak growth. Oak trees are slow-growing by nature, so they are often shaded out by saplings of other species that grow at a much faster rate. To combat this, foresters removed mid-story trees in specific regions of the forest with the hope that oaks will outcompete some other saplings. If this project is successful, the future Conway Robinson State Forest will remain partially oak-dominant, resulting in an all-around healthier and heartier habitat.
In the middle of the week, I attended a basic First Aid, CPR, and AED certification course through the American Safety & Health Institute with employees from the Manassas National Battlefield Park. In this class, we learned the latest CPR and rescue breath measures, while also covering the practicalities of implementing these life-saving techniques in the field. We were taught about wildlife hazards including topics like ticks, snake bites, bee stings, and poison ivy reactions. Moving forward, I feel much more confident about my abilities to act in these kinds of emergency situations, especially when conducting fieldwork. That being said, these skills are important for everybody to know. Always remember to renew your CPR certification!
For the remainder of the week, I primarily worked with a developing program titled Heritage Habitat. Local chapters of the Virginia Master Naturalists (in partnership with NPS, VDOF, and VCE) have developed these educational tours to provide Manassas National Battlefield Park and Conway Robinson State Forest visitors with the natural history and management practices of the two properties. We met on Friday morning to discuss the logistics of the program and to conduct a mock tour of the Brawner Farm property. The tours are designed to emphasize the importance of the “active management” taking place. Controlled burning, deer management, and hay baling are just a few of the measures ensuring that Brawner Farm stays similar to the state it was in during the battles at Manassas. On Saturday morning, Virginia Master Naturalists hosted a soft launch of Heritage Habitat for other local Master Naturalists to attend. We toured the Brawner Farm property, discovering tracks, identifying trees and grasses, and bird-watching along the way. I certainly do not want to spoil all of the details of the tour, so instead I highly recommend checking out Heritage Habitat’s upcoming events here! The program is unique in its combination of historical and natural education. Heritage Habitat is extremely valuable for those who truly want to understand the importance of the Manassas National Battlefield Park and Conway Robinson State Forest.