Virginia Native Plants (3/27/2015)

I am completing the development of a class that will be titled "Plants for Erosion and Sediment Control & Stormwater Management".  I will start teaching this class next week and am looking forward to it.  Hopefully it will not bomb; from what I hear in the field, everybody is looking forward to it.  I have a huge responsibility resting on my shoulders.

In the process of doing research for this topic I ran into now three reference guides that I thought were very good:

1. A native plant guide for Virginia's Eastern Shore (click here)
2. A native plant guide for Virginia's Northern Neck (click here)
3. A native plant guide for northern Virginia (click here and you'll find it on this page)

All are really good and a lot of fun to browse through,  Yes my course will deal with native plants and alien invaders (as in plants).  The department I work in is spearheading the effort in creating these guides, and word is that the Hampton Roads will be next, maybe divided into the south side and north side.  

This division into the north and south side is so indicative of what is going on in our area politically and socially.  Everyone wants to make this the greater Hampton Roads area but the darn Hampton Roads and the tunnels divide us and it is hard not to see that as a barrier between us and them (who ever us and them are).  Oh well.

Back to my class.  I will let the readers know how it is going, these next two months of traveling will tell.  The photo below was taken two Sundays ago, and to me it is symbolic of a new beginning, a new class and more respect for nature in general and of native plants in particular.  Of course it was taken in Newport News Park just around sunrise.