Student finds her calling in conservation
Abby Marino’s passion for nature grew from a family devoted to conservation who taught her not just to enjoy the outdoors but to protect it for others.
CNRE senior Abby Marino worked in the Leopold Preserve in Prince William County, where 68 acres were recently discovered to be old-growth forest, documenting its structure and species composition. Photo courtesy of Abby Marino.
Abby Marino’s interest in wildlife conservation and forestry took root long before she arrived at Virginia Tech.
Now a senior majoring in wildlife conservation and minoring in forestry, both in the College of Natural Resources and Environment, Marino's passion for nature was nurtured by a family deeply involved in environmental advocacy for two generations. On hikes and trips to scenic spots, family members emphasized more than just enjoying nature: They taught her to protect and preserve it for others.
“I have always had an interest in conservation, as my parents and grandparents have instilled in me the importance of protecting nature and the love for being outdoors,” she said.
Her grandparents, Rich and Grace Marino, taught her to respect and appreciate nature. They have been active Virginia Master Naturalists for more than 15 years and let Abby join them in the field.
“From the time our grandchildren were very young, we have done our best to introduce them to nature and the outdoors,” Grace Marino said.
Earlier this year, Abby Marino worked with her grandparents on a project to enhance the visitor experience at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield County. They refurbished the tree identification signs Rich and Grace installed nine years ago along trails through picnic areas and forest. The signs — 40 of them identify 21 types of trees — now include QR codes that link to more information about each species.
Grace Marino said Abby used her dendrology coursework to identify several hickory species.
The Marinos launched the project after seeing similar signs on a nature trail at James Madison's Montpelier in Orange County, Virginia. Over the years, they’ve maintained trails, monitored bluebirds, built benches, cleared invasive species, and refreshed park spaces with paint as needed.
Inspired by their example, Abby Marino developed a passion for hands-on conservation work and as a student, has contributed to research projects that highlight her commitment to protecting natural ecosystems.
At ThunderCroft Farm near Blacksburg, she helped create BioBlitz sites, selecting points of interest from the larger acreage and counting all the species around those sites. The bat detectors and trail cams were left on site and operational for weeks. That biodiversity data was used to create public-facing StoryMaps, an online interactive map that uses pictures and text to list and describe the species found at each location and has historic data of previous projects conducted at ThunderCroft.
In 2024, during a 10-day field course in Smyth County, she and seven classmates monitored the demographics of eight types of small mammals.
During an internship at Leopold’s Preserve in Prince William County, she led a project documenting old-growth oak and hickory forests, research that underscored the urgency of protecting rare ecosystems in a rapidly developing region.
“I really enjoy projects like these, not just because they let me learn in the field, but because they help others learn, too,” she said. “Research and education are both so important in protecting the natural world and being part of that is one of the greatest joys in my life.”
Preserving an old-growth forest
Abby Marino's internship at Leopold's Preserve is notable because it's the first comprehensive study of a recently discovered old-growth forest. Once the 68-acre section was identified as being old-growth, a better understanding of the trees within it was needed.
She completed the first baseline inventory of the oak and hickory forest, documenting its structure and species composition to support long-term monitoring of growth, regeneration, mortality, and invasive species. She established four quarter-acre plots in the forest’s most mature areas, identified using historical aerial imagery. Within these plots, trees over 5 inches in diameter were tagged and measured and seedlings and saplings were counted by species and condition.
In one acre, Marino recorded 4,595 trees, extrapolated to more than 313,000 across the full old-growth area. Oaks and hickories were dominant at all growth stages, followed by maples, ashes, hornbeams, and dogwoods. Species such as American beech and pawpaw were found outside the plots, indicating broader forest diversity.
The survey also documented invasive plants and widespread death of mature ash trees caused by the emerald ash borer. Despite these threats, the forest remains a rare and ecologically important system that supports biodiversity, stores carbon, and contributes essential ecosystem services in a fast-developing region.
