It’s been another beautiful week out here at Conway Robinson State Forest. I’ve spent most of my time surveying and chatting with community members about the health of the property and the potential to create educational programs for Conway’s visitors. The more people that I talk to, the more I realize how much the forest is valued and respected by its users. (I’d like to include a special “hello!” to all my new readers who were interested in learning more about my internship after talking to me in the parking lot!)
With the rate of population growth here in Northern Virginia, habitat fragmentation is an increasingly apparent issue. The development of housing and expansion of roadways destroys important corridors that allow animals to move across the region. Luckily, Conway Robinson State Forest is situated in such a position that it serves as an essential corridor between Bull Run Mountain and Manassas National Battlefield Park. Talking with community members who understand the importance of this property is always great!
In the middle of the week, we visited landowners to inspect their properties for emerald ash borers. This insect is an invasive species of jewel beetle that lays their eggs in the bark of ash trees. Larvae eat away at connective tissues beneath the bark until the flow of water and nutrients is disrupted and the tree dies. To combat this pest, landowners can have their ash trees treated with an insecticide that is injected into the base of the ash’s root system. Then, local foresters can help monitor the success of those treatments and, under the right circumstances, some cost-share programs can be implemented. Find out more here.
In other news, reports of the Manassas bobwhite quail have been confirmed by the Resource Management team! Even though I spent my week at Conway, I wanted to celebrate the success that Kaleigh and Aliya had in finally locating THREE bobwhite quail! After nearly a month and a half of 5:30am surveys, their hard work finally paid off. On Thursday and Friday they were able to get recordings of the birds using the callback survey method that Kaleigh developed. Listen for the signature “bob-WHITE” call in the recording below (the first call can be heard at 0:05).
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Unfortunately, the Virginia Master Naturalist shortleaf pine release that was originally scheduled for this weekend has been postponed. The dense shrubs in the back portion of the forest are just too thick for volunteers to navigate at this point in the year. Since the event will now occur in the fall, we are hopeful that the briars will be thinned out and the saplings will be more accessible. In the meantime, we’ll spend the rest of the summer working on many more management programs that improve the forest health and engage community members in the process!