The Clifton Institute Inc

Our first goal is to inspire a deeper understanding and appreciation of nature. Our second goal is to restore and maintain high quality habitats for native plants and animals on our property and to communicate best land management practices to other landowners so that the quality of the habitats in our whole area can improve. Our third goal is to study the ecology of the northern Virginia Piedmont so that we can better appreciate the amazing native plants and animals that live here and we can better understand the threats that face them.

We provide several types of environmental education programs: We offer half-day field trips for classes from local schools, homeschooling groups, and other local organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of Fauquier and the Windy Hill Foundation. We offer in-house recurring program series pre-K-12 students at no charge to the students. We hold four week-long summer camps each year. And we offer education programs for the general public about topics in natural history, ecology, and conservation.

Our field trips and monthly series have different structures and target audiences, but they have one thing in common: during every program, we take the students on a hike around the field station. It may not sound like much, but a guided nature hike is a powerful tool for effective environmental education. First, a hike is the best way to promote curiosity and scientific thinking. Second, a hike is the best way to encourage our students to become environmental stewards. All of our programs are designed to teach our students about the natural history, ecology, and evolution of native plants and animals; to inspire curiosity, wonder, and compassion for nature; to promote healthy minds through mindful observations in nature; to promote healthy bodies through physical activity; and to foster scientific and critical thinking skills.

Our focus in our habitat restoration projects is to conserve declining species of native plants and animals. Across North America, grassland birds are declining faster than birds that live in any other habitat. And 26% of the birds listed as Tier 1 (Species of Greatest Conservation Need) by the VA State Wildlife Plan are early successional species. We are therefore focusing on restoring and maintaining grasslands and shrublands on our property, as well as helping other landowners do the same. In 2019, 2019 we started a major project to restore 110 acres of what has been used as a cattle pasture to a native grassland. The first step in establishing a native grassland is getting rid of the nonnative plant species; we will do this by using herbicides and repeated discing (an organic alternative similar to plowing). Once native plants are established, we will maintain the grassland by mowing or prescribed burning. We will test seven combinations of establishment and management methods in order to figure out how best to help declining native species. Our findings will be used to guide our future restoration projects and educate local landowners.

In 2018 our board made a significant investment in our staff: we increased from one full-time and two part-time staff to four full-time staff. Thanks to this investment, we have significantly expanded our work in the last three years. We have a proven record of providing high-quality environmental education programs, carrying out major restoration projects, and conducting meaningful scientific research projects. We are excited to continue to grow in the coming years.

Our organization has grown significantly in the last few years. In 2022, we taught 3,250 people, more than 3 times as many as in 2018. In the 2022-2023 school year, we completely redesigned our field trip programs so that visiting students learn how to conduct field science and help us collect data on one of five ongoing research projects.

In 2019, we started a major grassland restoration experiment. We are working to restore 110 acres of a former cattle pasture that is dominated by fescue to a native grassland to benefit native species. In 2021 we finished the establishment phase of the project and since then we have been burning and mowing different parts of the field to maintain it as a grassland. In the last few years, we have also cleared 30 acres of Autumn Olive saplings in our shrublands, burned 10 acres of shrublands to promote native species, and planted 850 native grass and wildflower seedlings in degraded fields.

Since 2018 we have been collecting seeds from local ecotype native plant species, which we have been using in our own restoration projects and selling in our biannnual plant sales. In 2022 we started a project with collaborators at the Department of Conservation and Recreation and Virginia State University to launch the native seed industry in Virginia.