Starting a Non-Profit 501(c)3 Organization in Virginia

The Virginia State Corporation Commission webpage provides a wealth of information for starting a non-profit. They have a 'Businesses' section that is broken down into several categories, each of which are pertinent to someone looking to start a non-profit. They are:

Clerk's Information System (CIS) FAQs
Create a New Business
Existing Business Resources
New Business Resources
Forms & Fees
UCC Filings

Exploring the 'New Business Resources' tab, another webpage with categories opens up. There is a 'GETTING STARTED' section that lists several more option, two of which will provide the most help for a new individual: 

1) Learn about Business Types and Categories

2) Frequently Asked Question About New Business

As a non-profit, your business category would classify as a nonstock corporation (more info about this can be found by clicking #1 above). In the FAQ About New Business, there is a link specifically for 'Virginia Nonstock Corporations including Nonprofits'. While it's important to read though each of the other sections and understand why/how your desire to start a non-profit will be categorized as it is, the previous link really explains the steps to starting a nonprofit.

The first step to forming a Virginia Nonstock Corporation is to file articles of incorporation via a two page form (Form SCC819) with the Clerk's Office. This form is similar to tax forms where the second page provides information on what to include in each section of the form on page 1. Once approved, the Commission will issue a certificate of incorporation. In order to obtain tax-exempt status, the nonprofit must file with the IRS via IRS Publication 557. Virginia SCC also provides an organizational toolkit that provides a very succinct version of what is needed to begin a non-profit, which includes the information above.

In Virginia, every nonstock corporation is managed by a board of directors. These directors appoint the officers of the corporation. Directors are commonly selected by the members of the organization. A Registered Agent is also required for nonstock corporations in Virginia. Only one person can serve in this position. This position has one purpose - if any notice or demand is served upon on them, they will forward the information to the last known address of the business entity (nonprofit).

In summary, it seems as though three main things are needed: 

1) File for Articles of Incorporation
2) If desiring tax-exempt status, register with the IRS
3) Select a Registered Agent

Other necessary things are components of one the above (establishing a board of directs, members, etc.).

Other Resources:

Code of Virginia: Chapter 10: Virginia Nonstock Corporation Act

Starting a non-profit as it relates to my study area: Mainside Quantico.

Mainside Quantico has numerous wildlife trails that allow for walking, hiking and biking opportunities throughout. Additionally, the Chopawamsic Wildlife Viewing Area is part of Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources' Virginia Bird and Wildlife Trail. Currently, there is a biking club on Quantico that while it's not affiliated with the base, they have been granted access to improve trails and propose new biking/hiking trails. All requests require approval from the base commander as well as environmental evaluations to ensure threatened/endangered species are not adversely impacted.

For Mainside, I think it could be beneficial for a group similar to a Master Gardener program. My thought would be that this group would help with coordinating base plantings, encouraging native and/or non-invasive ornamentals to be planted instead of non-natives. The Master Gardeners could focus heavily on invasive identification and removal programs and hopefully with greater members be able to really focus on invasive removal. For example, Japanese Stilt Grass (Microstegium vimineum) or Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata) can be mechanically treated by hand pulling (also herbicidal treatments), but with enough volunteers hand pulling, this can be an effective means of treating these species. It's possible a different organization could be created instead, as in addition to invasive species treatments, some of these species removal projects would benefit greatly from erosion control projects along streams where Japanese Knotweed (Reynoutria japonica)is removed.

I envision that this organization would work closely with base natural resources to track documentation and changes over time, ensure proper techniques are practiced and for accountability for actions occurring on the base on behalf of the natural resources. I think this group could have a great effect on the installation and if successful on Mainside, groups could shift to the west side and conduct smaller area surveys - most likely following delineation of the training areas. Area by area, the base could be surveyed and treated for invasives. This would take a significant amount of time, but again with numerous volunteers, this could be a meaningful task with long-lasting impacts.

Overview of Fish, Wildlife, & Agronomy program on Marine Corps Base Quantico

The presentation below covers information about the FWA Program on Quantico.

Dendrology (the study of trees) on Mainside Quantico

For this module, I was tasked with identifying the main tree species that a visitor would come across if visiting the Mainside of Marine Corps Base Quantico. I chose to stick with native species, although some ornamentals that are introduced may be readily observed as well (Bradford Pear and Crape Myrtle for example). In the presentation, I describe characteristics of each species, with photos to highlight helpful identification features.

A review of the mobile app "Seek" by iNaturalist

Background

Citizen Science is a way of collection of scientific data through crowdsourcing methods. With the advent of GPS and high quality camera equipped smart phones, numerous organizations have created mobile applications that equip the average citizen to take photos and document species across the globe. Even if the species are unknown or misidentified, other citizen scientists can review photos to confirm or deny accurate identification. Additionally, for those willing to learn, these apps give the user the ability to learn from others ID tricks and apply these to their own field excursions.

That's my brief review of Citizen Science. It does have its caveats, but overall citizen science increases the amount of amateur scientists in the field documenting millions of more observations than could ever be recorded by professionals themselves. If you'd like more information on Citizen Science or would like to get involved, head over to either of these websites and they will give more in depth explanations as well as numerous opportunities to get involved!

CitizenScience.gov

SciStarter

As such, we were tasked with picking a mobile species identification app. I understand I am weak in my identification of plants, so I chose to download and review the mobile application Seek, by iNaturalist.

iNaturalist is a mobile app for both android and apple platforms. iNaturalist was developed through joint efforts between National Geographic and California Academy of Sciences. I'm not reviewing their namesakes' app, but their mobile identification app "Seek".

My Review of Seek

I've had a smart phone for a number of years now, so I've learned most of the ins and outs of basic applications. Seek provides a very user friendly interface. On the app's opening screen, the app uses your phone's GPS to locate you and show you a swipe-able list of nearby species. While I haven't used this feature per se, I think it is a great feature for anyone working to identify common species of anything other than common plants. I'm not sure if there is an algorithm generated to display the most tagged species within "X" proximity of your location or what, but that would make sense. I used Seek to identify and learn grassland plant species and invasive species. To identify a species, you simply click the photo icon and Seek uses your phone's camera to view whatever species you are looking at. I noticed especially with plants that finding a species when it is flowering is helpful, but not always required. From my understanding seek uses other users' verified photos and compares it to the species you are observing to help identify it. The app will go through 'levels of identification' to family, genus, and hopefully to species, but it will use the common names (binomial nomenclature is used as well). (Tip*: If you're unsure of what I mean in the previous sentence, check out my Ecology presentation here, slides 5-8 specifically)

If/when Seek is successful in identifying your species, you have the option to take a photo of it, recording it in a section entitled "My Observations". At this point, you can view information about the species including higher quality photos of your species. You can scroll through and look at the taxonomy of the species (see Tip* above), whether it is native or introduced (and how-so), view a range map and some other data tidbits including similar species. I'm sure Seek has a margin of error and some may be a result of similar species. I have noticed that different lighting situations can make it more difficult to identify a species and/or mis-identify the species.

As far as drawbacks to the app, the only two that exist for me are 1: you must have internet access to be able to identify a species while mobile. If you find yourself in a situation where you don't have access, you can still take several photos of the species in question, and upload them into the app when you get service for identification. I'm not sure if Seek uses GPS coordinates from your geotagged photo however. The other drawback I've found is mine sometimes gets stuck in a loop. There are features on the app called "Species Badges and Challenge Badges" that encourage users to get out and complete a 'challenge' and identify more species to earn the badge. For example, I currently have three levels of badges for simply observing 1, 5, and 20 plants. There are badges for insects, fungi, birds, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fishes, mollusk and arachnids. There are also Challenge Badges that encourage people to find X birds, or X species near a river. Sometimes when I have completed a 'Species Challenge', the app puts me in a loop of going back and forth between the species that earned me the challenge and the Challenge Badge reward itself. This isn't that big of a deal as I can just close the app and open it right back up. 

Once I observed enough species it asked me if I wanted to download iNaturalist as I was completing a lot of challenges. I declined. My purpose of using the app was to help identify plants at specific location. In the future, I may download iNaturalist because unlike Seek, iNaturalist documents every occurrence of a species that you observe, essentially expanding databases of species' known ranges. This is where the Citizen Science part comes in. I've included images below that really speaks volumes to what iNaturalist has the capability of providing to science. Keep in mind each of the data points below are daily observations. The graph shows observations plotted against time (in days).

The top photo shows an increase in submissions beginning right around when COVID-19 began. Once temperatures warmed up and people started getting out, observations spiked.

This bottom photo shows observations from the mobile app, by phone over time.

I'm biased, as I am a Wildlife Biologist by trade. I find the app to be highly accurate in it's identification abilities and it's inability to identify a species without enough information. I just attempted to use an old Eastern Box Turtle photo in to identify a reptile, and it said it could identify it to the Genus of Box Turtles, but couldn't go any further. There's a chance it said this too because it wasn't using the geotagged attributes of the photo based on my current location (we only have one species of box turtle in Northern Virginia). I think the app is very easy to use and user friendly. If you're not able to use the app well, it just requires some practice.

If I had to rate Seek, I'd give it a 10/10. I'll likely download iNaturalist in the future, but for now, I'll stick with Seek as that's where my individual need is.

Invasive Species on Quantico

This module had us explore invasive species presence on our area of study. In the slideshow below, I have outlined information about native species in my area of study and highlighted invasive species that occur within this area. Some of the invasive species occur throughout the base and by no means is this an exhaustive list. From this course alone, I've documented and learned an additional 11 species of plants that I was previously unable to identify, nor did I know they were invasive. As I continue to explore the vast area Quantico has to offer, I am sure I will learn more about species that in fact aren't native to our area.

Web Soil Survey Information

I'm a novice when it comes to soils and soil information. I know the basics, but have never had to assess soil content or anything similar in any parts of my career. I understand the value of knowing soils and soil attributes in certain settings and job fields and the benefits this information can provide when dealing with agriculture for example.

I began my exploration of the Web Soil Survey by accessing USDAs website, poking around a bit, then opening up the actual WSS interface to explore my AOI (area of interest). 

I uploaded GIS files to delineate my AOI, which worked exceptionally well.

I uploaded the entire base perimeter for the AOI (upper photo), and then zoomed in on Mainside Quantico for the lower photo.

I think I've mentioned in previous posts, but I find immediate intrigue in these maps because I want to see if I can use them to hone in on locations for Morel mushrooms that may (or may not) be found on the base. I'm jumping ahead, but I also decided to download this soil data for use with GIS' spatial analyst tools to find where my vegetation layers and the soil layers overlap, and target those areas for searching.

In the tab entitled "Intro to Soils", I found it extremely helpful to see the range of topics listed and the wealth of information listed under each subsection. Below, I've included a photo of just some of the topics covered on this page.

Under the next tab, Suitabilities and Limitations for Use, I found this section to be very difficult to understand. There are "?" tabs as well as "View Description" tabs that provide more information in each section, but I found myself confused on how 'ratings' were classified within a section and what each rating meant.

I watched the recommended YouTube tutorial video, but I felt like this was more of an intro of how to use the WSS interface than the components within. It did seem to be geared to a class that may already have an understanding of Soil Science and the terminology within the website.

An important concept I did retain from tutorial is to keep in mind the purpose of the WSS tool - to provide coarse information for broad-scale projects. For on the ground, site-specific applications (depending on what is needed), it may require soil-core samples from your site location in order to accurately determine soil properties within the AOI.

On Quantico, the Federally Endangered Small Whorled Pogonia (Isotria medeoloides) exists on the base in site-specific areas. I could possibly use the WSS and point locations from our surveys to identify areas of potential SWP habitat and search for new locations on the installation. I may be able to use the methods mentioned above, identifying forest-type and soil type of known locations, and search for similar areas of overlapping layers in efforts to find more populations on the base.

Obtaining weather data and climate information for Quantico

(12 August 2020) I've added the next three paragraphs to my original post. For actual data-driven information, skip to the section 'Quantico', below. The next three paragraphs are my 'feel' of living in Virginia for nearly 26 years since the early 90s.