Environmental Studies at Shenandoah University

07/30/2026

Yes, that is one of our very own Environmental Studies students rescuing that Barred Owl! 🦉

This student has been volunteering with BRWC for a couple of years now and is currently completing an internship and a SU Summer Scholar Research project at the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center this summer. This is exactly why hands-on experiences and immersive internships are so important to incorporate into educational programs. Look at those skills! A trained professional already!

Check out the original post below to read the full story! 👇

As a reminder to everyone enjoying our local waterways: please pack out your fishing line and gear! Properly disposing of line and hooks prevents devastating, human-caused injuries to precious wildlife like this owl.

Friendly reminder: Please don't try this at home! If you ever spot entangled or injured wildlife, always call the professionals at BRWC or your local wildlife rescue for help before attempting a rescue yourself!

07/01/2026

Calling all citizen scientists and nature lovers! Want to learn how you can help monitor your local waterway? Join us for a hands-on Save Our Streams Workshop on Sunday, July 26 near Capon Bridge!

Together, we’ll explore the watershed and learn real monitoring techniques to evaluate:
🪨 Physical components (Stream habitat and surroundings)
🧪 Chemical components (Water quality testing)
🐛 Biological components (Aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling)

Register here:
cacaponriver.org/event/wv-sos-workshop-macroinvertebrates/

05/24/2026

Looking forward to this summer's research on Peromyscus spp!

The mouse in the garage with enormous eyes and white feet isn't a house mouse. She's a deer mouse — native, and the most common wild mammal in North America.

The house mouse is uniformly gray-brown with small eyes and a naked tail the same color on both sides. She's introduced, lives permanently in human structures, and chews wiring. She's the one that colonizes kitchens.

🌿 The deer mouse has large dark eyes, white belly, white feet, and a sharply bicolored tail — dark on top, white below. She lives outdoors in woodlands and fields. She enters garages and sheds in fall for warmth but doesn't move into the house.

She eats seeds, berries, insects, and fungi. She's a primary food source for owls, foxes, and snakes.

🐾 The one-second diagnostic:

- Large eyes + white feet + bicolored tail = deer mouse. Native.
- Small eyes + uniform gray + scaly uniform tail = house mouse. Introduced.

One safety note: in some regions, deer mice can carry hantavirus. Don't sweep or vacuum droppings — wet-clean with disinfectant and ventilate the space first.

Two mice. One native visitor, one permanent resident. The eyes tell you which 🌿

05/23/2026

Today is World Turtle Day. The turtle crossing your road this month may be older than you are.

Eastern box turtles can live past a hundred. Snapping turtles reach seventy or more. Painted turtles live forty to fifty years. They survive because adults live long enough to reproduce many times over decades.

🌿 That math breaks when an adult female is killed on a road. She crosses to nest because sunny road shoulders are often the best-drained, warmest nesting habitat available. She's choosing the best option for her eggs.

Most nests are destroyed by raccoons within days. Most hatchlings don't survive the first year. The population holds steady only because each female nests for decades.

🐾 If you see one crossing:

- Move her in the direction she was heading — she knows where she's going
- Pick up by the sides of the shell, not the tail
- Snapping turtles: slide a flat board or car mat underneath and drag gently
- If she's already across, leave her

The turtle on the road this morning has been navigating that route longer than the road has been there 🌿

05/18/2026

We’re hiring! Sustainability Matters is seeking an Environmental Educator and Outreach Coordinator who is passionate about conservation and eager to join us in seriously making sustainability fun! 🌎

This role will create and implement conservation education programs for K-12 students and adults in school, community, and park settings. They will also build and maintain partnerships with schools and community organizations, lead scientific research at our native meadows, and collect program impact data.🌱

The full job posting can be found at https://www.sustainabilitymatters.earth/jobs1/educator/outreach

05/12/2026

Our next career exploration webinar features the host himself!

Series leader Aaron Stoler from Exponent will field your questions and describe "moving through six majors as an undergraduate, internships I hated, graduate school that made me fall in love with science, fallouts, academic burnout, rekindling passion for ecology, discovering parts of the world and society that I never knew existed, and candid advice on self-care in the work environment"

Tuesday at 4:00 PM ET! https://esa.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tih4wb3FTDaOfqDzCKe7Qw

05/09/2026

05/07/2026

♻️ Join us at our May Pickup Party starting at 5:30 p.m. this Thursday, May 7, at the Emil & Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center! We'll meet in the parking lot behind the Innovation Center.

Meet your neighbors, keep our City clean, and earn stormwater credits when you attend our Pickup Parties each month!



Wi******er Public Schools Emil & Grace Shihadeh Innovation Center

05/05/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AYA4Ws1xw/

A branch fell off your oak last fall. You've been meaning to haul it to the curb. It's been on the ground for six months.

In that time, it became an apartment building.

Year one: Fungi colonize the exposed wood. You can see the first brackets forming on the bark — small, shelf-like growths that are breaking down the lignin and cellulose inside. The branch is getting softer.

By year two or three: Beetle larvae have tunneled into the softened wood. Their galleries — winding channels the width of a pencil lead — aerate the interior. Woodpeckers find the branch and drill into it to extract the larvae.

By year five: A red-backed salamander has moved into one of the beetle galleries. She lives in the damp, rotting wood and hunts pill bugs, mites, and springtails on the surface. The branch is now a hunting ground and a shelter.

By year ten: The branch is mostly soil. The fungi, the beetles, the salamander, the woodpecker — they converted a fallen limb into nutrients that are feeding the tree it fell from.

🌿 A different way to see the branch:

- A fallen branch is not debris — it's a building under construction
- If it's not blocking a path, leave it where it fell
- The fungi that colonize it aren't disease — they're decomposers doing their job
- One fallen branch can support more than thirty species over its lifetime

You almost hauled it to the curb. Thirty species are using it now. 🌿

05/03/2026

🌻Join us Wednesday, May 13 at 9 am for a guided walk and plant ID session with Smithsonian botanist Natalie Izlar as we bring new life to an unexpected place🌱

With Natalie helping bring this year’s newest meadow to life, we’ll also explore our earlier plantings and look for wildlife returning to these revitalized native habitats.

Visit: https://sustainabilitymatters.app.neoncrm.com/nx/portal/neonevents/events?path=%2Fportal%2Fevents%2F44062 to register for free today!