"The history of any land begins with nature, and all histories must end with nature."
J. Frank Dobie
History of Our Texas Master Naturalist Chapter
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The Important Role of a Naturalist in Texas
The dictionary defines a naturalist as one that advocates or practices naturalism; a student of natural history, especially a field biologist. The Texas Master Naturalist Program defines a naturalist as a person completing a 40-hour multidisciplinary educational program, 40 hours of approved volunteer service and 8 hours of advanced training, as well as the annual completion thereafter of 8 hours of advanced training and a minimum of 40 hours of volunteer service.
If you ask a Texas Master Naturalist the definition of a naturalist, you are more likely to gain the answer from the spark of interest in their eye and the preparatory pause they make, as they begin to elaborate on the important role of the naturalist in our great state of Texas.
The First Annual Report in January 2000 revealed that more than 22,600 hours were volunteered by Master Naturalists statewide. By comparison, the Alamo Area Chapter reported over 19,000 hours of community service at the First Annual State Meeting in October of that year. Like wildflowers on the Texas highways, new chapters have begun to grow around Texas from the seeds sown in the Alamo Area. The significant contribution by our volunteers has been given substance by the receipt of the "Keep San Antonio Beautiful" award and of proclamations by the city of San Antonio and by Bexar County. The need and value of the Texas Master Naturalist Program is more than evident now, but, at one time, it was only an idea.
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Origins of the Texas Master Naturalist
Particular events in the early 1990s provided the catalyst for the creation of the Master Naturalist Program. In the early 1990s, a group of natural resource professionals from the San Antonio Water System, the Bexar Audubon Society, the San Antonio Parks & Recreation Department, and the Bexar County Master Gardeners, working with Rufus Stephens, an urban biologist with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, created the Natural Initiatives Program.
In 1996, Debbie Reid, then the Nature Preserve Coordinator with the San Antonio Parks & Recreation Department, began work as the Nature Preserve Coordinator with Friedrich Wilderness Park. In addition, she toured the National Parks of Washington and witnessed firsthand the effectiveness of their interpretation center and came back to San Antonio with the idea of a Master Park Ranger Program. Patty Leslie Pastzor, an Environmental Botany Consultant, created the training program for the Friends of Friedrich Wilderness Park, another volunteer-based group, during this time period as well.
The creation of these groups began to reveal a need for a supportive volunteer base to assist in current projects, and to make future project goals a reality. The Natural Initiatives Project Group -- Mary Cafferini, Friedrich Wilderness Park Naturalist; Rufus Stevens and Judit Green, Urban Biologists with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department; Debbie Reid and Ron Smudy, both from the San Antonio Parks & Recreation Department -- came together to discuss this need. From this collaboration, the Texas Master Naturalist Program was born. The idea began with a collaboration of the local natural resource community and it stayed that way.
The program is unique in that no one agency or organization is responsible for, or "owns," the program. Furthermore, the Master Naturalist Program is non-political, endorsing no particular group or individual. One of the original goals was to create a "self-administered and sustaining volunteer-based program." The Natural Initiatives Program, the San Antonio Parks & Recreation Department, and the Texas Forest Service acted as the original partners. Sponsorship with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and the Texas Cooperative Extension (Texas AgriLife Extension) enables the program to be "institutionalized" and facilitate the creation of chapters in areas of Texas where county and city agencies are not available. The Bexar County Master Gardener Program provided the model for this unique structure. Seed money came in the form of a Texas Forest Service Grant for educational outreach and urban forestry issues with the help of Mark Peterson.
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Training Texas Master Naturalists for Volunteer Service
Preparation for the training of the first Master Naturalist class again required the effective and dedicated natural resource community to come forward to write the training manual and provide instructors for the courses. The US Geological Survey and the US Department of Agriculture Extension Service were part of this collaboration. Vicki Worthington, a freelance writer and editor, volunteered for the arduous task of editing the original manual comprised of separately-drafted topic chapters from multiple experts into a comprehensive and similar format.
In 2003, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department Master Naturalist Program Coordinator Michelle Haggerty developed the Texas Master Naturalist Statewide Curriculum for the training of Master Naturalist volunteers throughout the state. Serving as a training tool and reference resource, this manual evolved from the original collaboration of providing training materials to the early Master Naturalist students.
Training classes commenced in March 1997 and the students toasted to the future success of the Master Naturalist Program with champagne. Training sessions have proceeded bi-annually since that time with two classes of approximately 25 students graduating each May and November.
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Texas Master Naturalists Are In Demand
Training of the Master Naturalist volunteers prompted a demand for their services. The list of projects is lengthy indeed, and includes educational outreach projects with local schools, and with groups of interested citizens requesting individual lectures and assistance with the development and maintenance of outdoor classrooms and wildscape areas. Volunteers also assist in the maintenance of the River Walk Wildscape Demonstration Garden, and the maintenance and development of the various local parks and natural areas.
In 2000, San Antonio approved to protect the quantity and quality of the city's primary water source, the Edwards Aquifer. Representatives from, among others, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, the Edwards Aquifer Authority, the San Antonio Water System, the San Antonio River Authority, and the San Antonio Parks & Recreation Department, along with three not-for-profit land conservation organizations, the Bexar Land Trust, the Texas Nature Conservancy, and the Trust for Public Land, began acquiring over 6,050 acres over the aquifer recharge zone clustered around Friedrich Wilderness Park and around what became the Government Canyon State Natural Area.
Each cluster represented different aspects of the Balcones escarpment of the Texas Hill Country and are rich in native flora and fauna, including many endangered and threatened species such as the Golden-cheeked Warbler, the Black-capped Vireo, and karst invertebrates like the cave beetle Rhadine infernalis infernalis, and perhaps the cave spider, Cicurina madla.
In 2003, San Antonio added the Natural Areas Land Use and Management Plan (NALUMP) to the existing San Antonio Parks & Recreation System Plan. NALUMP mandated a comprehensive gathering of information related to biological, geological, and cultural resources of the acquired acres for determining appropriate public use, locations for improvements allowing public use, and land management. Because a lot of work must be accomplished to meet the requirements of this plan, Master Naturalist volunteers can offer much-needed assistance.
Along with NALUMP, participation in game, fish, and bird counts of all kinds provide volunteers with other chances to serve. Master Naturalists also run booths at annual events such as the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department's Wildlife Expo, and the San Antonio Botanical Garden's Walk Across Texas and Bootanica. These events allow for the contact and education of thousands of people each year. Volunteers have also participated in the annual VIA bus stop tree plantings, and in native landscaping for homes built by Habitat for Humanity.
A banquet is hosted by the Alamo Chapter volunteers each year to honor individuals and groups outside of the Master Naturalist Program who exemplify our goals of protection, preservation, restoration, and education. The first banquet was graced with the presence of San Antonio Mayor Howard Peak, who presented the awards. In addition to the number of major ongoing projects, numerous individual and group projects are ongoing and many new ones appear monthly before the chapter board of directors for review and approval before being put into action.
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From the Alamo Area to Texas and Beyond
After the successful completion of the first ever Master Naturalist class in 1997, a group was established in 1998 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area using the San Antonio model. Soon after, in early 1999, new chapters began in Austin and in Houston. By 2006, there were over 30 chapters in Texas.
The evidence of the future of the Texas Master Naturalist program came in June 2000 with the creation of the permanent, full-time position of a statewide Master Naturalist Program Coordinator, filled by Michelle Haggerty, with the help of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Cooperative Extension (Texas AgriLife Extension), and a grant from the ExxonMobil Corporation. National recognition in the form of the Wildlife Management Institute President's 2000 Award came in March of that year. They chose our program not only for its promotion of "improved public understanding and appreciation of natural resources and the role of management, but also because of the exceptional initiative invested to ensure its widespread adoption and success." The echo of this dedication to the original goal of creating a self-sustaining volunteer base has reverberated beyond the borders of Texas.
In April 2000, over a dozen southeastern states who wished to establish their own Master Naturalist Programs were presented with the Texas Program model, founded by our Alamo Area Chapter. By 2006, Master Naturalist Programs existed in states such as Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, and Virginia.
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The Future of Texas Master Naturalists
"Into the world I would go…" Edward O. Wilson, from Naturalist
The program began here in 1997 and in the following five years had expanded throughout the state. In those first five years, the Texas Master Naturalist Program had already trained over 1,650 volunteers who had dedicated 66,000 service hours a year to various community natural resource projects. Those projects had impacted over 341,000 youth, adults, and private landowners, and some 29,000 acres of habitat. Over 244 local organizations established partnerships with their local Texas Master Naturalist chapters. The efforts of those volunteers had extended the budgets of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Cooperative Extension (Texas AgriLife Extension) by $2.7 million.
By 2006, our Alamo Area Chapter had contributed a total of over 66,500 hours of community service and had trained over 400 volunteers. Our chapter had reached a total of over 10,000 people and had impacted over 9,700 acres of habitat. As Alamo Area Master Naturalists strive to protect, restore, and conserve our native habitat, plants, and animals, and to educate the public to do likewise, the need for more helping hands becomes evident.
San Antonio's recent acquisition of over 6,050 acres of habitat in the Bexar County area resulted in not only an effort to protect our primary source of water, but also in a strong need to preserve our natural heritage. The trail has been mapped and Master Naturalists are ready, as always, to hike it, to identify everything on it, and, in the process, to sow fertile minds, young and old, with visions of not only the beauty, but of the very real necessity of the natural world in our native Texas.
If you have any questions about the program or our chapter, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Acknowledgements:
Sincere thanks to Michelle Haggerty, Anton Hajek, Eric Lautzenheiser, Thea Platz, Debbie Reid, Rufus Stephens, and many others for the much-needed information and insight into the Master Naturalist Program.
