CAMN Members Honored
The Certification Ceremony was a great success. I wanted to let folks know about the wonderful local establishments which donated the great door prizes given away. If you happen to see any of the managers, employees of these places, please give them a “thank you” from us all.
Door Prize Donors:
Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin
Bat Conservation International
Central Market
Keep Austin Beautiful
Lower Colorado River Authority
Miller Blue Print
Natural Gardener
REI
White Crane Herbal Medicine
Whole Earth Provision
Whole Foods Market
Wild Basin Preserve
Wild Ideas (Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center)
TMN Annual Meeting – Picture bird release at conference
A red-shouldered hawk was released at dusk on the evening of September 12 at Eisenhower Park in San Antonio. For many of us, his flight marked the unofficial beginning of the 8th Annual Statewide Master Naturalists Meeting and Advanced Training. A day of classes had already come and gone, and the hawk (rehabilitated and released by Last Chance Forever) was gone as quickly, flying directly away from the crowd of assembled Master Naturalists.
The bird disappeared over a rise in the park while, back at the picnic area, the crowd was still busy mopping up invasive species barbecue and collecting forest green collapsible chairs, this year’s conference gift. With the bird’s release, the evening’s social event was winding down. It seems that Master Naturalists would rather gather to debate deer control, one of the evening’s Advanced Training topics, than dance the night away.
That Friday, the first day of the conference, had been a bewildering series of encounters: one-way parking decks, the split-level Hilton, Hypnotists and Evangelists (each holding their own conferences at the Hilton that weekend) who were easily mistaken for Master Naturalist attendees, misbehaving audio-visual equipment, and video screens that unexpectedly peeled off the wall. My “Sounds of the Night” class had more students than seats, and it seemed the CD player was on strike, leading to some hilarious imitations of amphibians and unmusical creatures like herons that must have raised the hair on the necks of a few hotel guests. Yet, if that first day had been a little unsettling, then the second day was truly a breath of fresh air.
At 8:30 on Saturday morning, busses took half the Master Naturalists away from the congested area of the Hilton to field trip locations around San Antonio. I soon found myself wearing snake chaps for the first time and snipping privet, nandina, and other little nasty plants at the city’s recently acquired Rancho Diana water protection lands. The snake chaps added an air of adventure to the day, which I spent with other Master Naturalists led by a dedicated all-female staff of San Antonio employees. With Round Up™ and loppers we routed invasive species from the former gardens of Rancho Diana, a once-grand 1930’s estate. In the afternoon we blundered through cedar brakes following a GPS unit to survey random tracts of the property. A coral snake slid purposefully past us in the garden, and in the afternoon a large alligator lizard hid in a crevice as we approached, but let its tail be stroked a few times before retreating entirely. The Hilton and its parking deck were entirely forgotten.
At the banquet that night, the Capital Area Master Naturalists were not the quietest group in attendance when our chapter was called upon to cheer, but with just two all-weekend attendees and a few one-day folks, we were not a major force. Awards were given and lovely displays of chapter work from around Texas lined the walls. A silent auction and raffle kept us in our seats through the whole dinner, even though we were tired from our day away from the Hilton and many among us still smelled of sunscreen and bug repellant. Needless to say, I think most attendees—whether they spent the day doing geological surveys, building birdbaths, or keying out gorge plants—slept well that night.
The last day of the conference was short and as fast as the first. I took in a lecture on the Texas White Wing Dove Conservation Project. Since the bird is classified as a game bird, this is a fabulous way to get hands-on bird banding experience without having to undergo years of certification. I bought a few gifts on my way out at the “store” set up for all of us Nature Nerds, and was relieved to escape the suburbs of San Antonio by way of the Hill Country on my way home to Austin. The conference had been rewarding for this first-year Master Naturalist, but the location, the unforgiving parking deck, and the Hypnotists had not been what I expected… little did I know that past conferences were held on an idyllic ranch! Perhaps this is the in-joke of the previous classes on us ambitious 2007-ers. Still, the San Antonio chapter did a marvelous job playing host to us. I am proud to say I have seen a coral snake and gotten stuck in heavy construction traffic on the same day. It just goes to show we can be Master Naturalists even in the most urban settings, and that not even Evangelical Hypnotists can keep us from attempting to imitate barred owls in the middle of hotel lobbies.
The Texas Master Naturalist statewide meeting was held on the 12-14 October, 2007 in San Antonio.
Nature and Naturalists in the News
Recent CAMN grads recognized by City of Austin
June 2007 City of Austin Green Gardens Award
Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine
Masters of Nature by Eileen Mattei
Community Wildlife Habitat Volunteer Opportunities
Most of us are familiar with the Backyard Habitat certification program of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Many of us may even have a sign at our house identifying it as a habitat providing wildlife with food, water, cover, and place to raise young. However, you may not be aware that the NWF also has a program for identifying Community Wildlife Habitats. These are communities that have made a collective commitment to taking the steps necessary to help wildlife survive, partly because that is just the right thing to do and partly because the same factors make a community more habitable for human beings. Native wildscapes and sustainable gardening practices are not only friendly to animals, but also promote water conservation, limit chemical pollution, and offset global warming.
To receive certification by NWF, a community must meet minimum requirements including the certification of a certain number of residential, commercial, and public areas as habitats, and the provision of educational and administrative programs promoting sustainable practices in both the private and government sectors. In addition, the community must hold community events such as stream or trail cleanups to remove trash and invasive plants. Organizing or participating in an effort to certify our local communities could provide almost endless volunteer opportunities for Master Naturalists.
CAMN members living in or around the City of Austin have a step up, since Austin has already registered with the Community Wildlife Habitat program and is seeking to become the largest city in the United States to certify as a community habitat. They are calling their effort Wildlife Austin! Austin residents can help out by meeting the requirements for certification of their own backyard habitats. As of late November, about 519 of the required 600 homes had certified. In addition, the City will need help in meeting the other requirements of the program. Although they have added a paid staff member to coordinate the program and are trying to institutionalize its objectives within the Parks and Recreation Department, they will still be relying heavily on volunteers.
