The Mission: To develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas.

The Need: Many communities and organizations rely on such citizen volunteers for implementing youth education programs; for operating parks, nature centers, and natural areas; and for providing leadership in local natural resource conservation efforts. In fact, a short supply of dedicated and well-informed volunteers is often cited as a limiting factor for community-based conservation efforts.

Upcoming Events

Texas Master Naturalist Trainings

Sixteen chapters of the Texas Master Naturalist program are conducting training classes in the fall and winter months of the year for volunteers wanting to learn about natural resource and conservation management. If you are interested, search for a chapter near you and check below to see where fall trainings will be held.

The main qualification needed to become a certified Texas Master Naturalist is an interest in learning and playing an active part in conservation. VOlunteers will receive a minimum of 40 hours of basic training from educators and specialists from places such as universities, natural resource agencies, nature centers and museums. Training topics include interpretation and management of natural resources, ecological concepts, eco-regions in Texas and natural systems management. Volunteers are then asked to provide enhancement projects in order to maintain certification as a Texas Master Naturalist. They are also expected to pursue a minimum of eight hours of advanced training in areas of personal interest. However, many of the volunteers will go above and beyond their basic requirements once involved, and are encouraged to develop personal projects connecting to the mission of the chapter and statewide program.

To get even more information about reasons to join the Texas Master Naturalist program, we encourage you to watch the winning submission for the 2015 Texas Master Naturalist Annual Meeting’s Video Contest. The video was submitted by the North Texas Chapter, located in Dallas.

The following Texas Master Naturalist chapters are offering volunteer training this fall. Enrollment is limited in most chapters. Some registration deadlines are fast approaching so contact a chapter near you to see if seating is still available.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service co-sponsor the Texas Master Naturalist Program.  Texas Master Naturalist volunteers are required to have a criminal background check to participate in the program. Depending on the chapter applying to, background checks are done through the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department or the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service YPS office.

For more information about existing chapters or forming a new chapter contact Mary Pearl Meuth, Texas Master Naturalist Program Assistant State Coordinator, by email: mpmeuth@tamu.edu or by phone at: (979) 845-7294.

Highlights of chapter’s projects, state-wide initiatives and program achievements can also be found on the Texas Master Naturalist Programs Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/TexasMasterNaturalistProgram

4th Annual Video Contest

Spring has filled the outdoors with new life and activities and summer is underway! Take advantage of this time to Create a New Video, highlighting a

1. Experience as a Trainee
2. Experience as a Master Naturalist, or
3. Chapter Project

You can either upload the video to YouTube or send an .mp4 or YouTube ready video file to: mmhaggerty@tamu.edu. Set your length goal for 1 minute, 30 seconds to 3 minutes max.

The deadline to enter is Friday, September 22nd, 2017. A judging period will take place from September 25th through September 29th, 2017. The top three videos will be announced and receive an award at the 18th Annual Meeting Awards Ceremony and will be posted on the Texas Master Naturalist Playlist on YouTube.

*NEW RULE* There are two categories for video entry this year:

• Texas Master Naturalist Chapter at Work– can highlight chapter projects, new class, recruitment, or partnerships
• 20th Anniversary Project Video-can be composed of oral history interview videos from project

Additional rules and guidelines for this year’s contest can be found on our 4th Annual Video Contest Information Sheet. Find tips and resources in the YouTube Video Creation Guide and on our Texas Master Naturalist Facebook Page.

Previous Annual Video Contest winning submissions can be found on our Texas Master Naturalist YouTube Channel.

2015 Annual Results

As a result of last year’s reports, there have been 398,811 volunteer service hours provided, 51,431 Advanced Training hours obtained, 12,450 new acres impacted, 80.50 new trail miles, and 5,608 outreach events (78% of those events were direct outreach events, reaching 234,000 youth, adults and private landowners) in 2014 alone.

To date, there have been 9,676 TMN volunteers trained, 2,833,064 volunteer service hours logged, 446,850 Advanced Training hours obtained, over 218,000 acres impacted, 1,946 trail miles, and nearly 400 partnerships. 52 volunteers have given over 5,000 service hours, and 9 volunteers have given over 10,000 service hours.

A full-sized PDF can be found here: 2015 Annual Results Infographic

To see how much we’ve grown since 2014, please view our 2014 Annual Results