
DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997                TAG: 9704250627

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   52 lines

GROUPS THAT LIKE NATURE COMING TO VIRGINIA BEACH

When the first permanent English settlers landed at Cape Henry on April 26, 1607, they were amazed at the natural beauty of the New World.

Capt. George Percy wrote passionately in his diary about ``fair meadows and goodly tall trees with such fresh waters running through the woods. . . ''

On Saturday, 390 years later, Virginia Beach's natural resources are the focus once again. All environmental eyes will be on the city as two large meetings of conservationists convene here.

The Virginia chapter of the Nature Conservancy is holding its annual meeting Saturday and Sunday at First Landing/Seashore State Park. More than 250 members from across the state will be in Virginia Beach for the meeting and nature-based field trips.

About 100 participants and 15 exhibitors also are expected at the second annual Southeastern Virginia Ecotourism Symposium on Saturday at the Virginia Marine Science Museum.

The morning programs of both meetings include speakers and panel discussions. William Warner, author of ``Beautiful Swimmers,'' a classic book on the Chesapeake Bay blue crab, and Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf are among the speakers at the Nature Conservancy meeting.

Ecotourism Symposium speakers include Megan Epler Wood, executive director of the Ecotourism Society based in North Bennington, Vt., and Jonathan B. Tourtellot, senior articles editor and ecotourism staff writer with ``National Geographic Traveler'' magazine.

In the afternoon, participants in both meetings will fan out across Virginia Beach to see those ``fair meadows and goodly tall trees'' as well as other natural resources in the area. They will take walks to see migrating songbirds, cypress trees with Spanish moss dripping from their limbs and ospreys nesting on high.

Depending on which meeting they are attending, participants may board a boat to discover what lies beneath the ocean waters or travel to other natural areas like Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore and the Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. ILLUSTRATION: WANT TO GO?

State chapter of Nature Conservancy annual meeting. Register from

7:30 to 9 a.m. Saturday under the tent at the picnic grounds at

First Landing/Seashore State Park. Registration includes a

continental breakfast, lunch and a choice of several field trips

both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Membership is required,

starting at $25, and registration costs an additional $35.

Southeastern Virginia Ecotourism Symposium. Register between 7:30

and 8:30 a.m. in the Virginia Marine Science Museum's Imax Theater

lobby. Cost is $18, which includes a box lunch and a choice of three

field trips in the afternoon.