Free Spring Workshops!
We’ve got two workshops coming up at The Upper New, hosted at our headquarters in Sparta, North Carolina:
Monday, March 23: Watersheds as Bioregions
Tuesday, March 24: Good Citizen Science (iNaturalist)
The workshops will take place at 115 Atwood Street, Sparta, NC, in the same building complex that houses the Alleghany County Public Library and the Alleghany Campus of Wilkes Community College. (This building is also known as the BDC.)
FYI, the source of the above screenshot is our interactive map for the Upper New bioregion. Below we’ve provided a view in OpenStreetMap.
Families are welcome!
We welcome participants aged 16 and older, as well as parents or grandparents bringing younger family members to learn together.
Both of these workshops are hosted free of charge, but space is limited to ten participants each, so you’ll need to register for a spot.
If you’re a parent bringing younger family members (up to three young people total in your family), your family only needs to register for one spot.
Questions? Please send us a message!
The Workshops
Watersheds as Bioregions: Bioregional Learning, Planning, and Building in the Upper New River Sub-basin (USGS 05050001)
Monday March 23, 2026: 1:00-3:00 pm
Facilitator: Ben Erlandson, Founder and Director
Description
This workshop begins with an introduction to the concept of bioregionalism. The premise of the workshop is to use the Upper New River sub-basin (USGS 05050001) as an example bioregion to better understand the pragmatics of bioregional learning, planning, and building. Bioregional learning processes can include mapping, spatial analysis, and regional geography; regional geology and climate; bioregional flora and fauna; hydrology and watershed analysis; water resource management; landscape ecology and restoration. Bioregional planning processes include mapping, monitoring, indexing, and footprinting. Bioregional building processes occur across three core elements of bioregions: a Biodiversity Framework (e.g., living corridors, whole watersheds, conservation areas, bioregional wilderness), an Agricultural Heart (e.g., farmland preservation, bioregional water, foodsheds, expanded farming roles, natural edges), and Regenerative Communities and Infrastructure (e.g., compact urban areas, infill, regenerative transit, recycled water, local energy, natural drainage, walkability networks). Dr. Erlandson will also present an overview of Local Watersheds, a geolocated watershed catalog database application as a platform for bioregional learning, building and planning. This workshop will maintain a conversational approach, including Q&A and discussion throughout its entirety.
Good Citizen Science: Getting to Research Grade in iNaturalist
Tuesday March 24, 2026: 1:00-3:00 pm
Facilitator: Danielle Hewell, Bioregional Explorer
Description
This workshop begins with an introduction to iNaturalist: “an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature” helping us identify plants and animals around us while generating data for science and conservation. The first half of the workshop will include a basic overview demo of the iNaturalist platform, web application, and mobile application. We’ll give a demonstration of how to create an account using the website, and then explore example entries, looking at maps of nearby areas to explore other observations. We’ll explore what it means to create “research grade” observations that are most useful as data for conducting scientific research. Then the workshop will head outside to walk around and record observations using iNaturalist. We’ll conclude the workshop with a “debrief” Q&A where everyone will share feedback on their experiences using iNaturalist.
Note: It is highly recommended that participants create their iNaturalist account and download the iNaturalist app prior to arriving at the workshop.
Why “Practice Runs”?
We’re running these two free workshops in March because we need to work out the kinks in each of them as we prepare to offer these workshops as part of the New River Conservancy’s 2026 Symposium in early April. We invite you to consider attending the symposium, which of course carries a registration fee.
Beyond the symposium, we’ll be running these and other workshops in the future, hosted at the BDC and other locations, so it’s good to be interactive with “real participants” as early as possible to get feedback early on to ensure higher quality experiences.. These future workshops will likely require registration fees, and some will need to include materials fees. So, this is a great opportunity to help us out and get to experience these workshops free of charge.
Register to attend
Even though these workshops are free to attend, we need for you to register in advance so we can get a headcount and properly prepare for the resulting audience size. There are also space limitations, so if too many folks register, we’ll be creating a waiting list.
Please register for either workshop using this google form.
One last thing: Friday Afternoon In The Universe!
If you’re interested in our workshops, then you’ll likely be interested in another new project we’re launching called Friday Afternoon In The Universe. Friday is an open discourse multigenerational learning community, initially hosted once a month (on the fourth Friday) in Sparta, NC.
Learn more about Friday here.
We hope to see you there!
