It’s the first week of July, quail surveys are officially completed, and time is moving WAY TOO FAST!! It’s hard to believe that my summer is already starting to wind down. It feels like just yesterday when I was picking out my very own pair of rainboots and leather gloves from the resource shed. We had a short week because of the Fourth of July holiday, but that doesn’t mean that there was any lack of excitement in the Resource Management team’s activities!
Youth Conservation Corps is an employment program that provides high school students with an opportunity to gain work experience in environmental stewardship and natural resource management on the United States’ public lands. This week, we were given time to take the Manassas YCC members into the field to show them the work that we have done throughout the summer. We started the day by showing them the bobwhite quail survey methods. Even though we didn’t hear any quail, everybody filled out their own data sheets and learned how to identify a few of the common grassland bird species that we encounter daily.
After an hour of surveying, we went back to park headquarters and presented information about natural resource management practices at the park. The Manassas battlefields are a cultural resource first and foremost, but it is important to remember that the preservation of the lands and viewshed would not be maintained without significant natural resource management in partnership with the cultural preservation.
After the presentation, we went on a nature walk at the Stone Bridge trail. Here, we taught the YCC crew how to ID native trees, grasses, birds, and even a few herps! The feedback from the kids was amazingly positive. They were all super eager to learn about the forest ecosystem and what we do to make sure that it stays healthy. Guided nature walks are a great way to get community members to take a closer look at the resources that we regularly for granted. By identifying aspects of biodiversity and giving people up-close interactions with flora and fauna, the general understanding of ecological connections is vastly improved upon.
For the rest of the afternoon, we repaired some of the park’s deer exclosures. With several extra sets of hands, we were able to lift a fallen tree off of one exclosure’s fencing so that it could be repaired and included in the deer population research for years to come. I would like to thank the YCC members for being such great students and for being a huge help with our fieldwork!
On Wednesday, we switched from being teachers to students as we were given a tour of the Clifton Institute in Warrenton, Virginia. The Clifton Institute is a 900-acre field station used for research and environmental education in Northern Virginia. Right now, the Institute is working on restoring 100 acres of livestock pasture into native grassland habitat that will attract other native plants and animals to the region. We learned how to identify several forbs and grass species that are good indicators of a healthy grassland habitat. The hope is that these species will be found on the Manassas battlefield property when we begin doing grassland vegetation surveys in the coming weeks.
This weekend was the official public launch of the Heritage Habitat walking tours, created by Virginia Master Naturalists and Virginia Cooperative Extension. On Saturday morning, I joined their tour at Brawner Farm. We learned about the importance of native species, controlled burns, forest succession, and how invasive species impact the environment. Heritage Habitat is a great program for Manassas battlefield visitors to incorporate environmental features into the historical significance of the region. Check out the Heritage Habitat Facebook page to stay updated with their upcoming events!