This program provides an opportunity for citizens, community groups, school children, and others to contribute their observations of wildlife to the state's biological databases. Through two workshops, each accommodating 20 people, participants learn to inventory and monitor wildlife, identify habitat, and read maps. One of the workshops trains 20 facilitators, who have the potential to reach 400 other people. The other workshop trains participants to become wildlife mappers. Wildlife experts and wildlife mapping mentors provide assistance in identifying wildlife.
Educators can integrate the program into existing curricula and subject areas.
This public school project educates members of the Ocean View community about their roles as caretakers of the environment and develops in them a stewardship ethic that protects the Chesapeake Bay. The project focuses on the restoration of habitat for the declining oyster population in the bay and addresses water quality, bay-friendly gardening and lawn maintenance practices, community outreach, and aquaculture studies. Students distribute the information they gather to the community through newsletters, workshops, presentations to community organizations, public service booths at area festivals. A high percentage of the students involved in the project are residents of a culturally diverse low-income community. Partners with the city schools in the Maritime Pathways project are the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Elizabeth River Project, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.