In a recent visit to the Virginia Tech campus, approximately forty state representatives toured several research facilities across campus as part of a Joint Retreat of the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake, and Natural Resources and Senate Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources.

Faculty and graduate students in the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Department of the College of Natural Resources provided tours and overviews of several research facilities located at the Center Woods site on campus:

GCC Director, Dr. William Hopkins, along with IGC Fellow, Sydney Hope, shared a closer look at the initiatives and capabilities of the Research Aviary, in addition to some of the hellbender research and staging underway at the site.

GCC faculty affiliate, Dr. Emmanuel Frimpong, relayed a “big picture” overview for aquaculture and fisheries research across the university, to include the commercial fisheries and conservation projects currently underway at the Conservation Aquaculture and Aquatic Ecology Laboratory.

Dr. Jess Jones, also a restoration biologist of the US Fish & Wildlife Service and co-director of the Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Center, gave visitors a close-up look at the current mussel conservation work at the FMCC.

While at Virginia Tech, the Senators and House Delegates also visited the Virginia-Marylan College of Veterinary Medicine; the Human Agricultural Biosciences Building for an overview of Cooperative Extension and the Agricultural Experiment Station; and the Kentland Farm and livestock, dairy, and drone research facilities.