The local chapter of a statewide organization of volunteer environmentalists hopes to swell its ranks next year, with training classes getting under way in late January.

Sponsored by Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Museum of Natural History and several state departments, Virginia Master Naturalists was inaugurated about 16 years ago, according to Suffolk’s Geoffrey Payne.

Payne helped start the Historic Southside Chapter in 2011. It serves Suffolk as well as Franklin and the counties of Isle of Wight, Southampton, Surry and Sussex.

Chapter members are involved in a range of environmental projects, including nesting boxes for wood ducks and bluebirds, monitoring pollution in local waterways and combating invasive weeds.

Master naturalists also simply observe and document the natural environment, Payne said, adding that anyone can become one, irrespective of age and station in life.

“The important thing for people to realize is even if you are wheelchair-bound, you can look out your window and record things,” he said.

“When did the first dogwood leaf come out? Everybody can have a contribution, if they are interested.”

Tentatively, the chapter’s 2015 class will kick off Jan. 20 with a meet-and-greet at the Isle of Wight Extension Office, where classes will take place the first and third Tuesdays through May 5.

Classes cover a range of topics, including ecology, botany, entomology, ornithology and herpetology.

Field trips take place the second and fourth Saturdays in March and April, taking participants to the Great Dismal Swamp, Chippokes Plantation, Piney Grove Preserve and Blackwater Ecological Preserve.

A $100 fee covers the cost of materials and expenses for the classroom series and field trips; there is no instruction cost.

Payne reports 25 people signed up for the last training. Of those, 20 graduated, he said, which pushed the chapter’s membership to 50.

“It was a big increase, and it really has given us the manpower to take on a lot more projects,” he said.

“Projects are driven by what people are interested in. This year’s group started a variety of projects.”

Volunteers living near Franklin worked with that city and the Department of Forestry on a nature preserve and walk on the banks of the Nottoway River, Payne said. Another group, he added, improved the natural environment at Fort Boykin in Smithfield.

“We have a group working on water quality in Bennett’s Creek,” which is indefinitely off limits to shellfish harvesting due to high bacteria levels, Payne said.

He didn’t invent it, but Payne uses the phrase citizen-scientist. The state uses data collected by master naturalists to steward the commonwealth’s natural resources.

“The state doesn’t have the staffing levels to do some of the things they used to do,” Payne said. “So much of the information needed by the specialists is best gathered by ordinary citizens.”

More information can be found at www.vmnhistoricsouthside.org, or call 365-6262 to register.