The next monthly chapter meeting of the Bois d’Arc Texas Master Naturalist Chapter will be held on Tuesday, June 16th, at the Fannin County AgriLife Extension Office at 2505 N. Center Street, Bonham, Texas.
Time: Potluck meal at 5:30, speaker at 6:00, short meeting at 7:00
Topic: Entomology
Speaker: Jessica Townsend, Chapter Member
Come join us and find out what the chapter is all about. All meetings are free and open to the public.
How do I become a member? Start with learning!
The pathway to membership in the Bois d’Arc Chapter, Texas Master Naturalist, starts with an Initial Training Course. This course is a broad overview designed to start you on a lifetime journey of learning and service as a Texas Master Naturalist.
The Initial Training Course for 2026 will begin in mid-September with a 4-week mini-semester followed by a 5-week mini-semester beginning in April of 2027. Each semester combines weekly classroom sessions and field trips to explore the outdoors. All in-person classes are held on Saturday. Monthly Zoom sessions (a 1 hour-class in the evening on the first Tuesday of each month, except December) will help keep us connected between the semesters. This course provides 40 hours of basic instruction on a wide variety of subjects. You may begin accumulating both advanced training and volunteer service hours to work toward the Certtified Master Naturalist level as soon as you begin the course.
This course is in the planning stages and information will be posted here as soon as it is available.
For answers to questions or to receive more information on this course as soon as it is available, please contact the chapter’s Initial Training Director at [email protected].
Check back soon for more details!
Bois d’Arc chapter members of Texas Master Naturalist (“TMN”) are participating in Texas Nature Trackers acoustic bat monitoring project in Fannin County. This project is part of Texas Nature Trackers, a citizen-science program of Texas Parks and Wildlife. Bois d’Arc members are serving as citizen scientists, following project protocols for a nine-week data collection effort. Master Naturalists are trained volunteers through Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife who educate the public about Texas’ native fauna and flora.
The project is a statewide effort where our local chapter is joining over 30 other TMN chapters across the state to provide information on bat populations from the chapter areas to Texas Nature Trackers for statewide conservation efforts and NABat for continent-wide conservation efforts. NABat is the North American Bat Monitoring Program.
In this project, each week two locations receive acoustic monitors installed by Bois d’Arc members with landowner consent. Monitors are installed on Mondays and retrieved Friday mornings. The monitors are provided by Texas Parks and Wildlife. The acoustic monitors capture bat echolocation calls. The project began May 11, 2026 and will conclude July 10, 2026. Data is downloaded, and members will analyze the data using the Kaleidoscope Pro software which is designed to assist in the identification of specific bat species.
“The goal of the program is to collect data that identifies the different types of bats in Fannin County. The information will become part of the North American Bat Monitoring Program,” said Debra Jones, lead coordinator for the local chapter. “We are carefully following the protocols of the study so our data is accurate and usable. Bats eat insects at night totaling one-third to one-half of their weight. Bats are also great pollinators! So as you can see, they play a vital part in our ecosystem.”
This is the first year for the Bois d’Arc chapter to participate in the monitoring program, which began in 2024. The project concludes in 2028. Landowners participating in the project will receive a report each fall containing the types of bats detected on their property. This year’s ‘Data Reveal’ for landowners will be hosted at Bonham State Park on September 18, 2026. The following Saturday, members of the Bois d’Arc chapter will be at the State Park to share information about the study results and bats with the public.
For more information about the acoustic monitoring of bats and or the Bois d’Arc Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists, please email [email protected].
