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Field Guide 
A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America
A new and unique field guide titled "A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America" has recently been published. It was written by a Virginia native, Dr. J. Reese Voshell, Jr. of Virginia Tech. This work resulted from an uncommon partnership between the author, VMA Outreach, and the Izaak Walton League.
Jay Gilliam, of the Virginia Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, approached VMA Outreach, an affiliate of the Virginia Manufacturers Association, to ask for support of the field guide. This book is intended to assist citizens who monitor Virginia’s streams by means of the "Save Our Streams" program. After discussions with Jay and the author, a partnership developed. VMA decided to provide funding and other support for the new field-guide. Reese Voshell’s book is a unique field guide designed for the layperson to gain both a better understanding, and greater enjoyment of the aquatic invertebrates found in freshwater streams. It fills a void for grassroots citizen water monitoring groups that needed a practical, user-friendly guide. This unique field guide is expected to be widely popular with teachers, students, anglers, persons conducting water quality monitoring, and anyone who appreciates nature, regardless of age or education. Some of the guide’s distinctive attributes include: - Coverage of approximately 100 of the invertebrates most likely to be found in streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, marshes, and swamps of North America.
- 102 color whole-body illustrations of organisms and 100 black and white illustrations of special structures or life stages. A well-known scientific illustrator, Amy Bartlett Wright, created all of these illustrations.
- Using the guide, organisms can be identified in the field without any special equipment.
- Illustrated coverage of the biology of each organism.
- Composed using non-technical terms geared towards amateur naturalists and persons interested in the environment.
Work on the field-guide continues through VMA Outreach, Dr. Reese Voshell, and the Izaak Walton League with the hope of indoctrinating this unique partnership as a trusted institution. A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America can be ordered from McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, 1-800-233-8787. About the Author: J. Reese Voshell, Jr., Ph.D. Reese was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and grew up in Norfolk, Virginia, where he attended public schools. He holds degrees from Randolph-Macon College (B. S., 1969) and Virginia Tech (Ph. D., Zoology, 1976). In between his undergraduate and graduate studies, Reese taught high school for 3 years in Powhatan County, Virginia. Upon receiving his Ph.D., he joined the faculty of the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech, where he now holds the rank of Professor. He has received numerous research grants to study the ecology and taxonomy of freshwater invertebrates, most of which dealt with the effects of pollution and environmental stress on these organisms. In conjunction with his graduate students, he has published many papers in journals and given numerous talks at scientific meetings. He has taught a variety of courses at Virginia Tech, but he emphasizes his specialty in two courses, Aquatic Entomology and Freshwater Biomonitoring. He has also taught workshops to various federal and state agencies. His teaching has been recognized with several distinguished awards, and he has been named to the university’s Academy of Teaching Excellence. Reese lives with his wife and daughter in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Floyd County, Virginia. His 30 years of teaching, outreach, and research have convinced him that people of all ages, educational backgrounds, and personal interests can become fascinated with freshwater invertebrates, and that experience is what inspired him to write this book. About the Izaak Walton League and the Save Our Streams Program: The Virginia Save Our Streams Program has been a priority project of the Virginia Division of the Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) since 1995. The IWLA has 27 chapters in the Virginia and approximately 7000 members. Members are often sportsmen and women in service to the environment. The Virginia Save Our Streams Program trains interested citizens to monitor streams using a biological method of water quality monitoring. We encourage our monitors to work with their neighbors and collect data on a watershed basis. Additionally, we work cooperatively with riparian property owners and state agencies to fill the gaps where baseline information does not currently exist. Support for VaSOS comes from public and private sources. There are currently 400+ certified monitors in the Commonwealth working in 67 watersheds. About VMA Outreach… Industry Serving the Environment: - The Virginia Manufacturers Association (VMA) is a trade association of Virginia’s leading manufacturers. VMA Outreach, an affiliate of VMA, was created in 1998 by VMA’s board of directors to be a focal point for cooperative efforts with environmental organizations and other constituencies.
- VMA Outreach consists of VMA members who work to promote communication, education, and outreach to the media, environmental interest groups, government and the general public about the environmental issues and the significant role that manufacturers play in protecting the environment.
- The group supported this field guide as an important to tool to educate users about our water resources and for its use by citizens to monitor streams in Virginia and potentially across North America.
- This partnership is one example of the projects supported by VMA Outreach in cooperation with government and private groups statewide. For more information about VMA Outreach visit our website at www.vmaoutreach.com.
Project Contact Information
A Guide to Common Freshwater Invertebrates of North America can be ordered from McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, 1-800-233-8787.
Additional Links
http://www.vmaoutreach.com/projects/
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