Explore Nature By Nurture

Next week, I’m off to D.C. to learn what leaders in the corporate social responsibility/nonprofit/youth leadership space are thinking about when it comes to health and wellness, volunteer programs, and youth voice!

And of COURSE I’m looking forward to swapping insights about getting students and employees connected outside - why it’s critical and how to do it amidst other competing priorities.

I’ll be sharing my research-based decision-making framework and how I’ve used it to map out professional and infrastructure development paths for schools, and to guide the work of building a volunteer habitat restoration corps for my city’s parks and rec department.

I also have new tools to help landscape architects and those who hire them to prioritize planting locally native species in their construction projects.

If you know leaders in the D.C. area who may be interested in talking while I’m in town -

• school students outside
• employee wellness and volunteer programs
• prioritizing native species in landscape projects

please help us connect!

So there is a five year-old red oak in my urban yard, quite close to my house, which needs to be removed before it becomes a real problem.

But I let it grow there in the first place and I have been resistant to removing it. Why? First because I thought it would be fun to let my daughter watch it grow and be able to show her what flowers and acorns on oak trees actually look like and watch the autumn color change up close (because it’s currently got reachable branches yes?). Also because of little treasures like this.

Do I know what it is? Nope. Does it matter to me? Not really.

This little guy is wrapped in a house of leaves, happily munching on more leaves.  Nature showing off her creativity and artistry and doing her thing. You just don’t find little gems like this when you have a sterile lawn and imported, non-native plants.

Enjoying this blue corporal dragonfly? (Tell me it's not glaring at the camera.)

Thank you to everyone who caught flying critters this past weekend (basically everyone I gave a net and who wasn't me) so we could marvel at them!

If you took pictures of living organisms in iNaturalist last weekend, make sure you've uploaded them! (Check the icon that is on or next to your pictures. If it is an up arrow with a dotted circle, tap the icon to finish uploading.)

You can also help us identify the things that were found by checking into the project and clicking on others' observations. And if you'd like to get in on an identification party....

Come join me to go through project images to help identify organisms and run basic quality control on the images (e.g. are there two different types of organisms uploaded in one observation?). I'll show you how to access the project pictures to filter and identify, and I'll bring a variety of field identification books (feel free to bring your own if you have them). We'll explore photos together!

MUST BRING YOUR OWN LAPTOP:
Thursday, May 7, 11:00a - 1:00p, Miller Center Rm 307 (byo-food)
Thursday, May 7, 4:30p - 7:00p, Miller Center Rm 307 (byo-food)

It's helpful if you DM me to let me know you're coming, though not necessary.
Either way, get out there and keep learning!

Well so far Kirk is lighting it up!
Today is the last day to help us collect data with your photos of wild plants and animals for the City Nature Challenge!

Break open some old logs…

Turn over rocks…

Shake a shrub over a white sheet…

Scoop up anything that moves and get a clear, close-up photo so we can identify it to species!

We’ve been having a great time collecting photos of plants and animals over the past few days! If you can join us at Ivy Creek Park this afternoon, we’ll be out with Lynchburg Water Resources scooping up bugs in the water.

But even if not, anywhere inside of City of Lynchburg boundaries counts towards our project data. Any photos and audio that you’ve collected between Friday and today, you can finish uploading to iNaturalist the rest of the week.

Throughout the next two weeks, we will be helping with quality control and identification of all the species for which we got pictures.

Stay tuned for a date for our “Identification Party” when we’ll gather to do the work together!

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-revivelyh-lynchburg-bioblitz

What would happen, and what would we find if we only stopped to be curious and really LOOK at what's around us?

A couple of days ago, while scouting at Ivy Creek Park in Lynchburg, VA, Levi Mitchell found a species of beetle in a genus that's not even described by Wikipedia. The beetle is in the family Ptiliidae, colloquially called featherwing beetles. There are only five observations in the world logged in iNaturalist, and Levi has two of those.

So is this species of beetle so incredibly rare? Maybe, maybe not.

This tiny species is from the smallest beetle family in the world, with sizes ranging from 0.3 mm to only 4 mm. It lives with ants. You have to dig, and even then, you have to look. Kudos to this young man who made this record - a young man who was simply curious and took the time to look.

What will YOU find this weekend?

Even if you can't join us at Ivy Creek Park, you can join our City Nature Challenge project on iNaturalist and contribute to our inventory of species in the Lynchburg area!

Simply upload your photos and audio clips that you take of the WILD plants and animals you find (within Lynchburg City boundaries) between April 24 - 27 into iNaturalist (must be photos or audio clips that you actually took). You'll be contributing to global science, all while learning about the plants and animals around you!

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2026-revivelyh-lynchburg-bioblitz

Lynchburg Parks and Recreation iNaturalist.org



(photo is the iNaturalist observation uploaded by sum_dirt just a couple days ago!)

Your only limit is your imagination.

Here is one of my favorite tools for academic projects that gives kids (and yourself) a "legitimate" reason to be outside learning AND using tech.

• Technology: Catalog the organisms in your schoolyard, backyard, or park.
• Writing: Write species accounts of the plants or animals you find.
• Math: Create charts and graphs about what you find and when.
• Science: Share or compare data across sites.
• Empathy: Write stories from the point of view of one of the organisms you find.
• Abstract to concrete: Search for and document examples of classroom vocabulary (e.g. insect, spider, angiosperm, predator, parasite)
• Collaboration: Work with teams of students within or across classrooms and schools.
• Career: Engage with expert naturalists and the scientific community in your local area.
• Comprehensive: Write a report that pulls it all together.

Check out how easy it is to start using iNaturalist to explore plants and animals around you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXTnEf4ha7Q

What's a tool you can use to reinforce math, English, science, technology, and even social skills while running around outside?

iNaturalist.

No, this is not a paid advertisement, and no there are no referral fees involved.

Our kids (and we) need to spend time outside every day to maintain mental, emotional, and physical health. Yet we also need time to teach kids knowledge, processes, and how to think, so that they can grow into resilient, compassionate, critically thinking, successful humans.

iNaturalist is simply one of my favorite tools for helping educators add structure and goals to their outdoor learning efforts (particularly when they are new to outdoor teaching), so that taking kids outside can be both regular, intentional, and - it needs to be said - an enjoyable experience for kids AND teachers.

You can download it on your relevant app store, and access their free "how to" guides.

If you're in the Lynchburg area, come play with us at our ReviveLYH Bioblitz in Ivy Creek Park this weekend -
Homeschoolers: Friday, April 24, 12:15 - 3:30
Public: Saturday, April 25, 8:00a - 4:00p
Homeschoolers: Monday, April 27, 12:15 - 3:30

You can find more information and registration links on my webpage: https://www.explorenaturebynurture.com/revivelyh-bioblitz

On April 25, come learn more about birds with the Lynchburg Bird Club while you help us catalog resident plants and animals in city parks!

Thinking about joining in on our Bioblitz at Ivy Creek Park on Apr 25? Register for the 8:30a time slot in our Bioblitz to get volunteer credits. Then come a little early at 8:00am to meet and walk around with the Lynchburg Bird Club. When the bird walk is finished, you can stay and join in on the next hunt for wildlife!

Register here: You'll need to Keyword search for "Bioblitz" or Activity #52001
https://valynchburgweb.myvscloud.com/webtrac/web/search.html


Photo credits: By Bill Thompson of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region - Photo of the Week - Male eastern towhee at the Quabbin Reservoir (MA)Uploaded by Snowmanradio, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15297291

Registration link for public participation is live! (These are complementary activities, but we need to know you're coming!)

You'll need to Keyword search for "Bioblitz" or Activity #52001

https://valynchburgweb.myvscloud.com/webtrac/web/search.html

This photo represents about 2 square inches. How many species can you see in it?

(Bonus challenge: Can you find the partially hidden mite in this image? Or maybe it's a spider. ...Or a tick...? You see, that's the beauty of a bioblitz and citizen science. We get to take pictures of cool stuff and help each other figure out what we're looking at!)

We are getting excited over here in Lynchburg, VA!

The ReviveLYH Bioblitz with begins in 11 days! We're aiming to document as much biodiversity across Lynchburg City Parks as we can. And if you want to bioblitz in company, we're documenting with homeschool youth Friday 4/24 and Monday 4/27 afternoons, and the public on Saturday 4/25.

Learn more information about the bioblitz and register here: https://www.explorenaturebynurture.com/revivelyh-bioblitz