How are you using your training?

When I first took the training, I enjoyed teaching and volunteering with children.  Opening up that part of the world for them is great fun and so rewarding.   Currently, as Training Coordinator, I am helping new members-in-training get their start.  Also, I love to travel in the US and abroad.  I take my TMN training with me wherever I go.  It has opened up the natural world to me in so many ways.

Where do you do most of your volunteering and how can the Chapter help you? 

As Training Coordinator, the majority of my volunteer hours are spent with the training committee, training classes and the Board of Directors, although I still find time to volunteer at the Wildlife Center of Texas.  Twice a year, the training committee puts out a call for help with training classes.  We have an awesome training committee that does a great job, but a lot goes into getting the classes up and running.  Having helpers is an important part of keeping things running smoothly.

What has surprised you most about the Master Naturalist program?

First, how much there is to learn.   I have been with GCMN for nearly 7 years, and I am still learning new things ALL the time!  The well of information that we have access to is endless.  Second, the people who come to the chapter for the same reason. I meet people of all ages, from all walks of life, all looking to learn and volunteer to make the world a better place.  It is inspiring to meet and work with them all.

I wish that I could say that becoming a Master Naturalist was a long-range goal for me. Rather, I’ve been a Houston-area gardener for over 40 years. I have always spent a lot of time outdoors planting, pruning and landscaping around the homes that I’ve owned in northwest Houston and, more recently, in the Montrose area.

In 2014, my wife and I built a new house on a Montrose property my mother lived on previously. Somehow, about that time I got the idea to be a Master Gardener, but when Spring 2015 came around, the Master Gardener class was not offered. However, I noticed that there was a Master Naturalist class being offered. Without too much forethought, other than it sounding interesting, I signed up.

The Spring 2015 Master Natural class was really a mind-expanding experience for me. After I got into it, I realized that I had been focused only on my very small personal plot of land armed with my arsenal of exotic (and likely invasive) plants, gas-powered machines, fertilizers, chemicals and lots of water - hardly a natural approach. I had not thought much about the natural state of plants and their relationship with their native surroundings, especially their part in the food web with local wildlife. I had already thought about planting native Texas plants in my yard, but I really didn’t know much about them. 

I was blown away by what I learned in my Master Naturalist class. This includes what was in my self-chosen area of specialty, but by all of the other aspects of the natural environment that so critically interact with it. As a result, I started reading about some of Texas’s first naturalists who saw first hand, and described, the Gulf Coast prairies and prairie plants. I was particularly moved when learning about the interrelationships developed over thousands of years among local native plants and native pollinators, birds and other wildlife.

How are you using your training?

My initial focus was to utilize native Texas plants in the yard at my new Montrose-area house. As best as I knew how at the time, I researched information online and started to buy books on native Texas plants and landscaping with native plants. I also joined the Houston Chapter or the Native Plant Society of Texas.

Applying my naturalist training I’ve learned that many good-minded people in the nursery and landscaping trade know little about Texas native plants. If they do know about Texas natives, they tend to focus on plants that come from dry hill country or west Texas locales rather the local native plants that actually like our rainy, hot and humid conditions.

For the past several months, I’ve been working weekdays, nights and weekends along with Margaret Gnewuch and Nancy Hannan from NPSOT-Houston and Meg Inglis from the NPSOT state organization. We have developed the first-ever Native Landscaping Certification Program (NLCP) class especially designed for the 9-county greater Houston area. We have developed a list of 45 local native Texas plants specific to this region and 5 non-native exotic plants to identify, avoid and remove. This class addresses plant information and preferred growing conditions for the selected local native plants along with information on our region’s particular ecoregions, climate and soil types, and simple and sustainable native-compatible landscaping techniques and contrasts them with conventional development.

During March and April we held these first-time classes at Armand Bayou Nature Center, where we focused on classroom activities and a dedicated plant walk were most of our selected plants can be observed in the wild. My class focus is the benefit of native plants and landscaping aspects while my Houston-based partners in this effort focus on plant knowledge.

A significant result of the effort is that it has produced the first vetted list of local native Texas plants for the Greater Houston area that can be used by home gardeners, nursery tradespeople and landscape architects. As we progress to organizing the Level 2-4 NLCP classes, we will be adding to the plant list until we have 200 local native plants identified.

In addition to my native plant interests, I have been a long-time technical researcher and writer. I hope that I can utilize my writing skills along with the knowledge that I’m gaining through the Master Naturalist program to contribute articles to local and regional publications highlighting the exciting outdoor greenspaces in and around the Houston area. An example is this recent story,  (click here) contributed to Edible Houston now in print in their March 2016 issue.

Where do you do most of your volunteering and how can the Chapter help you? 

Obviously, over the past 4 to 5 months, my efforts have been applied to the Native Plant Society of Texas. My focus has been getting the NLCP Level 1 class off the ground. This has taken up a goodly share of my volunteer time.

I have also joined the Board of the NPSOT-Houston Chapter as publicity and social media coordinator. Since taking on this job, I have worked to help upgrade their Facebook and web pages, and created Twitter and Instagram accounts (both with @NPSOT_HOU). I’m particularly excited about using social media to expand the outreach for NPSOT and native plants to different and younger demographic groups than have been attempted previously.

I have also volunteered at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center and worked on their plant identification and sampling activities. This effort provides the native plant samples viewed by visitors to the nature center.  I would urge any of my fellow Master Naturalists with an interest in native plants to join the Houston chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas!

What has surprised you most about the Master Naturalist program?

What most impressed me about the Master Naturalist program is the breadth and diversity of interests of our Gulf Coast Master Naturalists. These interests include all aspects of the natural environment, both organic and inorganic; its various life forms and the magnificent extent of their interactions. As an example, during our last two classes prior to certification, we were all asked to give presentations on something we learned or a topic in which we were interested. Over those two classes, I was particularly fascinated that no two presentations were alike, each illustrating a unique combination of science, passion and call-to-service displayed by each of the graduating Master Naturalists.

I grew up exploring the prairies and bayous in and around what is now Armand Bayou Nature Center.  As kids, we would walk to the end of the street and drop into the seemingly endless prairie to disappear into beds made of tall grasses.  This was before the red fire ants had taken over and only a tiny strip of forest could be seen along the horizon.  I remember Eastern Meadowlarks, a declining prairie bird, were the most common bird in our back yard and in fact, the meadowlark was my first life bird!

I have been a life-long birder and have explored and birded six of the seven continents, including some of the planet’s most unique treasures, such as Manu National Park, which may be the most biodiverse place on Earth.  Returning to Manu several years later, I was shocked at the deforestation both outside and within the Park. I felt somewhat discouraged but hoped that my ecotourism dollars would make a difference. 

I was encouraged to have seen seventeen species of lemurs over six weeks in the Madagascar rainforest, but I was not prepared for the sight of the massive erosion of rust-colored soil bleeding into the sea, turning it red.

In Sapa, North Vietnam, songbirds are food.  My friends and I searched a silent forest for three days without seeing any birds.  Finally, on the third day a mixed flock with almost all of our target birds flew over the ridge and gave us song and bright colors!  This lasted about twenty minutes and then the forest became silent again.

In the face of so much habitat loss and species decline, I am encouraged to see more and more of us realizing the value of our natural history around the world.  For example, I have seen the amazing dance of the Blue bird-of-paradise in Papua New Guinea.  The bird’s territory is in a row of trees not too far from a road.  Chiefs and local leaders have learned the value of ecotourism and now they protect their assets.

Based on my life experiences and values, I was drawn to the Texas Master Naturalist program.  I was so excited to become a Texas Master Naturalist and work to restore and improve our native plants and animals.  I have witnessed the effects of habitat loss, overpopulation and climate change first hand and I am dedicated to making a difference.  Becoming a Master Naturalist is my way to educate and be active locally to improve and restore our Gulf Coast!

2.     How are you using your training?

I am both the Chairman of the Volunteer Board and the Volunteer Stewardship Chairman at Armand Bayou Nature Center.  As Chairman of the Volunteer Board, I am responsible for leading the Volunteer Board meetings and ensuring that our limited funds and resources are well managed.  I am also responsible for ensuring that the needs of our volunteers are met.  My training as a Texas Master Naturalist has been invaluable in helping me to prioritize the needs of the Nature Center and to determine the best way to utilize the many talents of our dedicated group of volunteers.  As Volunteer Stewardship Chairman, I am responsible for coordinating projects to further the mission of the Nature Center.  For example, the Stewardship Saturday group built the platform on which the heron rookery stands.  This rookery is the only one in the area and has provided nesting structures for our birds.  We also maintain trails, remove invasive non-native plants and propagate and plant native species in the prairie.  We have a dedicated team and meet on the first and third Saturday of the month.  We are also responsible for trail maintenance and other projects, such as maintaining our bird blind and feeders.

3.    Where do you do most of your volunteering and what can the chapter do to help you?

In addition to my other responsibilities at Armand Bayou Nature Center, I am one the leaders of the monthly bird counts on the second Saturday of every month.  I have also been very involved with Houston Audubon and am an active volunteer at the High Island Rookery, answering questions and interpreting the natural history of our birds.  But I must say that one of my favorite activities is cutting and burning invasive plants, especially Chinese Privet!  I have recently begun volunteering with the Centennial Forest at the Big Thicket.  The Gulf Coast Chapter could help me by becoming a member of Armand Bayou Nature Center - it’s an amazing place!

4.    What has surprised you most about the Master Naturalist program?

What surprised me the most is the wealth of knowledge and resources I have at my disposal.  For example, when I mentioned that I wanted to plant long-leaf seedlings on my property in the Big Thicket, I was able to tap into our network and discover a presentation on that very topic!  Not only did I find a source of seedlings, but I was able to join a group with a goal of returning long-leaf pines to our region!