Master Naturalist and Master Gardener Bill Blair is spending his retirement helping to create and maintain beautiful, healthy natural environments.
From coordinating the Gloucester Master Gardener program to helping establish a pollinator garden at Peasley Middle School to teaching the public how to prune trees or raise vegetables, Blair stays busy year-around. He participates in annual bird and butterfly counts, leads tours and educational programs at VIMS, and works with herpetologists to identify frog and salamander species in tidal ponds. One of his favorite projects was the now-defunct Rare Quest, an effort to verify the presence of rare plants that were recorded in the region in the 1930s.
“A job’s not worth doing unless you love what you do,” said Blair, “and I’m basically passionate about nature.”Blair’s passion led to his being named Statewide Volunteer of the Year in 2017 by the Virginia Master Naturalists, noted by the organization as someone who “exemplifies the leadership ...