Meadowview updates

[meadowview]

Hi Folks:

Our interns are providing accounts of their volunteer work at Meadowview and they have more interesting posts on the way. Please contact me if you are interested in volunteering or taking an "eco-vacation" at Meadowview. We have work year round at the research station, in the greenhouse and office, and on the Joseph Pines Preserve.

Our pitcher plant restoration at Joseph Pines Preserve is nearly complete. We have the only reserve in Virginia with native Virgina yellow pitcher plant. We had six Sarracenia flava populations remaining in Virginia (a combination of historical sites and sites we found); four have now been extirpated and the other two are soon to follow leading to the complete extinction of all our native S. flava colonies.

Fortunately, we propagated all six yellow pitcher populations (from either seed or rhizome divisions) and they are all flourishing on the Joseph Pines Preserve.

Due to several recent donations we now owe just over $8000.00 on our real estate note for Joseph Pines Preserve. If you are interested in helping out financially with our preservation work please consider a tax-deductible donation to the preserve. We hope to pay the loan off this year and you can help make that dream a reality. We are an official non-profit 501(c)(3) charity recognized by the IRS.

Here is an image of the now extinct Gary's Church population from Prince George County, VA which is flourishing at Joseph Pines.



Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station

[meadowview]

Hi Folks:

We've added some new sections on our "About Us" link on our web site at www.pitcherplant.org. You can now access our IRS Form 990 for 2007, we have a privacy policy, and you can read our Annual Report for 2007 and Budget for 2008. The Annual Report is a quick summary of the main events from 2007 and will be discussed in greater detail in our upcoming newsletters.

Please note in the Form 990 that there is no compensation of Meadowview staff. We're all volunteer at this time to get the job done. I am hoping that in the future we will get grants or enough donations to fund payroll but that has not happened to date. We've been running a full time volunteer crew now for 8 years but need to find a source of funds to pay for staff.

Interns Rebecca Elliott and Nick Haywood are returning to Meadowview for a fall and winter session. If you want to visit us we will be staffed to give you a tour or handle any of your plant needs.

We are also installing an outside wood furnace (see centralboiler.com) to eliminate or greatly reduce our consumption of propane for operations center and greenhouse. This will greatly reduce our fossil fuel carbon footprint. We've found a large and ready source of hardwood firewood at our local landfill and now have our winter supply of fuel in place. I'll have more on this story when we get the unit installed in mid-October.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station

[meadowview]

Hi Folks:

I want to let you know we are mailing out our Holiday Newsletter to all our Meadowview members. There is a lot to fill you in on and I hope you enjoy the copy. We'll be posting an e-copy on our web site in a few weeks so you can read the news there too.

We've completed the first hard copy of our catalog with many new, unique, and limited edition Sarracenia. The catalog is free to members ($2.00 for Shipping) and $5.00 for non-members (plus $2.00 for shipping). This hard copy will eventually replace our on-line catalog with a new electronic version but in the meantime the goodies are available in print only! Enjoy the read.

Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station

[meadowview]

Hi Folks:

We just completed a winter burn of our pitcher plant bogs and longleaf pine uplands at the Joseph Pines Preserve. You can see a dramatic photo of the burn on our main page at www.pitcherplant.org.

Also, our wood furnace is doing a fantastic job of heating the greenhouse and operations center. The interns are nice and warm with the radiator heat supplied by the wood furnace. You can see a shot of the wood furnace on our main page as well just above "Views of the Research Station". A special treat is you also get to see intern Rebecca Elliott posing with the furnace in an antique Canadian pitcher plant coat! Notice the purple pitcher plant stitched onto the coat.

We are working on expanding Joseph Pines Preserve from the present 100 acres to 236 acres. If we are successful in this endeavor we will be able to greatly expand our pitcher plant wetlands. The adjoining properties have excellent seepage bogs and sphagnous headwater streams that are in need of restoration but that will produce outstanding pitcher plant habitat.

Don't forget that we will be camping and working on Joseph Pines in early March. If you would like to help out please contact me at [e-mail].

Also, we are planning a June tour of Joseph Pines. We typically give tours on weekends but I would appreciate feedback from Forum members on who would like to attend and what would be a good weekend.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,

Phil Sheridan
Director
Meadowview Biological
Research Station

[Sockhom]

Hi Phil,

Great work!
Too bad I'm so far away...


François.