The Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club

MEDIC SOLO Disaster + Wilderness Medical School
MEDIC SOLO Disaster + Wilderness Medical School is being offered in Virginia in numerous areas in the coming months. This course is a Disaster + Wilderness First Aid certification course for adults, and focused youths ages 12+. It is a hands-on course that will teach you how to care for an injured / ill person during the critical minutes or hours before ambulance / hospital arrival. A blend of classroom instruction and hands-on rescue scenario practice is offered.  This course is approved by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Girl Scouts of the USA, American Camping Association (ACA), University of Virginia.  Click here to view the email announcement and here to view the flyer.  Click here to register for the course.

Environmental Monitoring and Management On the AT
While the primary activities discussed in association with the Appalachian Trail tend to be maintenance, border monitoring or hiking, there is much more going on. During a recent presentation at the Southern Regional Partnership Meeting, some special features of the AT were identified. There are 250,000 acres of unique, high elevation ecosystems; more rare, threatened and endangered species than any other national park service unit; trail lands protect headwater streams for major east coast watersheds; and the AT corridor acts as an ecological connector linking otherwise disconnected conservation lands. The importance of monitoring the natural resources of the AT corridor is due to constant threats to its unique ecology by invasive exotic species, climate change, pollution, recreational impacts, development, poaching, and/or the effects of historical land use.  For more information, click here or visit the following websites:

• Invasive Exotic Plant Management – www.appalachiantrail.org/invasive
  
• Invasive Exotic Plant Management – www.appalachiantrail.org/rareplants
  
• Phenology Monitoring – www.appalachiantrail.org/phenology
  

Members Encouraged to Use the Website Photo Album Feature

Members may upload photos for viewing by everyone. To upload the photos, from the site Home page, click on "Photo Album" on the left menu bar.  Next, click the <Upload Photos> button and then the <Choose File> buttons (up to 5 images may be selected at a time), browse on your local computer to locate and select the image(s), and then click on the <upload> button.

After the images are uploaded, a caption to the photo may be optionally entered or the photo can be deleted. To add a caption, click on the image in the album and then click the link underneath the photo that says "Add Caption".

To delete the photo, click on the photo in the album and click the <Delete photo> button.

Enjoy!

Appalachian Trail Limits of Stay
The U.S. Forest Service has established new limits of stay regulations at all Appalachian National Scenic Trail (Appalachian Trail) shelters, as well as one campsite and two overnight sites within the southern region. Overnight stays at all of the southern region Appalachian Trail shelters, Davis Path Overnight Site, Davis Farm Overnight Site, and Wayah Bald Shelter Camp are now limited to three days within a 30-day period.
For more detailed information about this regulation, refer to: Southern Region Closure Order and Final Decision Notice - Limits of Stay on the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.

Club Member Actively Promoting the Club Through Twitter

Kim R of our club has been trying to get the word out about Twitter to our members in case any of them use it?  The club name is @odatclub

ODATC and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Our website has created a new web page dedicated on updating people on the planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline and its impact to the AT and the Federal Parks and Forests.  You may access the new web page on the menu on to the left of the website home page or click here.