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New Volunteers Get Ready For Spring Season At CNSC
Community volunteers have played a vital role in the operation and success of the OTTER program field trips for K-12 students and teachers. Over 70 volunteers from Central Virginia have helped young students learn and understand about their environment. Our volunteers have ranged from college students to retirees and have included natural resource agency employees, homemakers, business executives, retired teachers, and environmental advocates.

As part of the DuPont funded environmental education initiative, all volunteers get to participate in a special training workshop to get familiarized with the natural features of the Center and the science curriculum.

Read more about our volunteer training.

Local businesses and community organizations are using portions of the Center's natural areas and the Education Building to hold retreats, seminars and workshops. Arrangements for renting the facilities are handled through the College's Walter G. Mason Center for Business Development and Economic Education. On-site leadership and adventure training is also available for businesses and other organizations through the College's New Horizons program.

Future volunteer programs will include the involvement of senior citizens through a collaborative project between Lynchburg College's Beard Center for Aging and the Life Course and the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement (EASI), a national organization that involves retired persons in environmental outreach projects.

Special interest groups and other community organizations, such as the Lynchburg Birding Club, Master Gardener clubs, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, the City of Lynchburg Parks & Recreation, and Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, have been visiting the Center and conducting educational programs and environmental studies of the area.

The Center is listed as a site along the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries western phase of the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail system. Visitors to the region will be encouraged to stop by our future wetland interpretive wayside on their way to or from the Blue Ridge Parkway.