Our Mission:

It is a program that cultivates volunteers by providing training to get the participants started, and then helping them find opportunities to use their knowledge and skills to benefit Virginia’s natural resources. It is a program that’s about community partnerships.  Our Virginia Master Naturalist chapters become a way for many partners involved in natural resource education and conservation to work together to cultivate and engage a group of motivated and trained volunteers.  The program was launched in 2006, and continues to grow!

Our official mission is to be a statewide corps of volunteers providing education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. 

At the end of 2013, more than 3,100 people had graduated from a Virginia Master Naturalist training course. In 2013, more than 1300 individuals reported doing volunteer service as a Virginia Master Naturalist.  More than 750 volunteers have achieved the title of Certified Virginia Master Naturalist.  More than 175 volunteers have completed 250 hours of service, and in 2010, we had our first volunteer achieve the milestone of 2,500 hours of service!

Since inception of the program, Virginia Master Naturalists contributed more than 400,000 hours of volunteer time to benefit natural resources in Virginia, which equals $9.4 million worth of donated time.

The volunteers’ education projects have reached more than 420,000 youth and adults.  Their educational programs reach many groups of people, and some of our chapters are working hard to find ways to reach underserved audiences in their communities.  The Riverine Chapter partners with the Richmond Audubon Society to conduct afterschool programs for urban youth who otherwise have little opportunity to connect with nature.  The Arlington Regional Chapter has started a roving naturalist program in Spanish that shares nature information with the Latino population.  A volunteer in the Holston Rivers Chapter leads an ongoing naturalist program for mentally disabled adults.  We continue to look for ways to both diversify our volunteer base and help the volunteers reach diverse audiences in their communities.

Stewardship projects, like the bobwhite quail habitat restoration project, have improved at least 7,500 acres of public lands and 2,500 miles of trails.  (Those numbers are probably gross underestimates, since volunteers frequently do not report this statistic.) 

The program is organized into semi-autonomous chapters that are led by volunteers.  These chapters are local teams for a designated area of the state. There are 29 chapters in Virginia. The chapters are in both rural and urban areas. Some focus on one county and others cover multiple counties. Because chapters are run by the members, participating in chapter governance, organization, and activities is an important part of being a Virginia Master Naturalist volunteer.

Master Naturalists are also part of a larger statewide structure.  They must adhere to statewide policies and keep records of their service to report back to the state (via the chapter’s record keeper).

There are Master Naturalist programs in many states, but Virginia’s program is unique because we have six different state agencies that co-sponsor the program.  They are Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the Virginia Department of Forestry, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and the Virginia Museum of Natural History.  The Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation and the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment also support the program and house the program coordinator position. 

The process of becoming a Certified Virginia Master Naturalist begins with enrolling in and graduating from one of the basic training courses offered by our chapters.  Eight additional hours of advanced training are required.  The biggest focus for the program is the volunteer service (a minimum of 40 hours).  Both the 8 hours of advanced training and the 40 hours of volunteer service must be completed annually to maintain certification.

Check out out basic training page for more information.