Category: Partners

  • Texas Amphibian Watch Monitoring in 2014

    By Sandie Mayfield, Sue Anderson, Beth Duncan, and Kathy McCormack The Capital Area Master Naturalists (CAMN) had five teams performing TPWD’s Texas Amphibian Watch (TAW) Adopt-A-Frog-Pond monitoring in 2014. Nocturnal frog and toad calls were monitored on a monthly basis at Bauerle Ranch Park (formerly Slaughter Creek Greenbelt) and Mary Moore Searight Park in south…

  • Central Texas Gardener

    In addition to being stewards of natural habitat and resources, Texas Master Naturalists are often gardeners, too. Sometimes they are also a part of the Texas Master Gardeners Association, a parallel program for training volunteers in local horticulture. As such, there is a lot of overlap in our areas of expertise, with a curiosity about all…

  • Trail Building at the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve

    Nine hard-working members of the Central Texas Trail Tamers and Capital Area Master Naturalists had a fun and productive day at the City of Austin’s BCP Reicher Tract Saturday, February 14th (Valentine’s Day). We worked on an old trail originally put in by volunteer groups in the 1990’s. Frequently used for docent-led hikes (many of…

  • Blanco River–Trinity Aquifer-Barton Springs Connection

    Nico Hauwert, CoA’s Watershed Protection Department senior hydrologist and teacher of Geology for the current CAMN trainees, provided us some links concerning the connections between the Hays County instance of the Trinity Aquifer, the Blanco River, and their roles in keeping area springs – including Barton – flowing during times of drought. Previous thinking linked Barton…

  • Volunteer Opportunities

    A question came in from one of the new trainees in the Class of 2015 about whether some work they would do could count toward their 2015 requirements. I didn’t actually know offhand. (I often don’t know the answer to a lot of good questions, but fortunately I’m surrounded by a lot of smart advisors). The…

  • Creekside Story

    Nice little portion of the Austin webpage in a blog format featuring local riparian stories, info and issues, and maintained by Austin Watershed Protection. Nice plant ID photos and simple key in the entry about our species of indigenous holly, the possumhaw and the yaupon. (But not the Buddy. Sorry, couldn’t resist.) http://www.austintexas.gov/creeksidestory  

  • Field Notes from WQPL Biologist Matt McCaw

    Many CAMN volunteers contribute hours to Austin Water Utility’s Water Quality Protection Land preserves. This short reflection by WQPL field biologist Matt McCaw encapsulates a little of why these lands are so special to Central Texas and the City of Austin, and why so many of us work to make a difference there. http://austintexas.gov/article/notes-field-austins-wildland-artifacts

  • Urban Forest Grant Program

      Soaking in the hot springs in far-flung Big Bend, you never know who you’ll run into if you strike up a conversation. This year we met the City of Austin employee responsible for promoting the Urban Forest Grant Program. Essentially, this money is sitting there waiting for a really NICE CAMN project somewhere. He…