Name: AT – Trail Guide Training for the Heard Natural Science Museum
Start: 2023-09-22T09:00:00-05:00
End: 2023-09-22T15:00:00-05:00
Location: Heard

“Education, Restoration, Conservation”

Our Mission

The Texas Master Naturalist Program’s mission is 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.

Our Commitment to You

The Blackland Prairie Texas Master Naturalist chapter is strengthened by the diversity of our members. We are committed to providing a welcoming environment where diversity, equity, and inclusion are a core part of everything that we do. We strive to be an organization that reflects the communities we serve and encourages multiple ideas and viewpoints.

The Texas Master Naturalist program is a partnership between the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Parks & Wildlife, and other local partners.

2023 Blackland Prairie Chapter 2nd Annual Mothing Event Kimberlie Sason
Hummingbird and Hummingbird Moth - White Lined Sphinx Moth negotiating rights to the thistle, photo by Balaji Devarajan
Plano Parks Mothing Event with Sam Kieschnick identifying moths with young attendees.
Plano Parks Mothing Event with Sam Kieschnick identifying moths with young attendees.
Banded Tiger Moth Photo by Rick Travis
Eastern Dobsonfly Photo by Rick Travis
Plano Parks Mothing Event with Sam Kieschnick identifying moths.
Buckeye Butterfly on Button Bush at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge Photo By Sam Crowe
Class of 2023 Aquatics class at Connemara pond sampling and learning about macroinvertebrates.
Class of 2023 Aquatics class at Connemara pond sampling and learning about macroinvertebrates.
Plano Heritage Farmstead Prairie Garden with Basketflower, eastern gamagrass, blanket flower, and a redbud tree in the background by Brenda Clark
Plano Heritage Farmstead Prairie Garden Monarch on Centaurea americana by Brenda Clark
Cheryl Lynn Dillon in her Monarch Costume standing at the Community Outreach Booth for Frisco Science Night 2023.
Balaji Devarajan engaging with the students at the Community Outreach Booth for Frisco Science Night 2023.

August 2023 Chapter Meeting on Snakes with TPWD Nathan Rains Photo by Rick Travis

2023 Blackland Prairie Chapter 2nd Annual Mothing Event Kimberlie Sason

Hummingbird and Hummingbird Moth White Lined Sphinx Moth sharing Thistle nectar, photo by Balaji Devarajan

Plano Parks Mothing Event with Sam Kieschnick identifying moths with young attendees.

Plano Parks Mothing Event with Sam Kieschnick

Buckeye Butterfly on Button Bush at Hagerman Wildlife Refuge Photo By Sam Crowe

Class of 2023 Aquatics class at Connemara pond sampling and learning about macroinvertebrates.

Class of 2023 Aquatics class at Connemara pond sampling

Plano Heritage Farmstead Prairie Garden with Basketflower, eastern gamagrass, blanket flower, and a redbud tree in the background

Plano Heritage Farmstead Prairie Garden Monarch on Centaurea americana

Cheryl Lynn Dillon in her Monarch Costume standing at the Community Outreach Booth for Frisco Science Night 2023.

Balaji Devarajan engaging with the students at the Community Outreach Booth for Frisco Science Night 2023.

Monthly Chapter Meetings

2023 October Chapter Meeting with Amy Martin | Wild DFW: A Deep Dive into the North Texas Ecotone & its Natural Wonders

Michelle Connally, Class of 2018

October 10, 2023 – Tuesday, 7:00 PM – IN PERSON and ONLINE MEETING – CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS

RELATED – October 14 – Saturday 12-2:30PM Partial Solar Eclipse & Walk at Parkhill Prairie with Rich Jaynes and Amy Martin

Amy Martin shares the fun yet nerdy naturalist material from Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth. Why is North Texas an epic ecotone? What is the Great Trinity Forest the easternmost example of? How do tilted layers of bedrock shape our three ecoregions, foster a plethora of soil types, and lead to our plant and wildlife diversity? From the ancient inland ocean and melting ice caps that forged North Texas, to the goliath creeks and many forks of the Trinity, get clear on how water shapes our local landscape. Discover places to experience these tenets firsthand. Enjoy astounding photography by skilled naturalists of hardwood bottomland forests and Eastern Cross Timbers, soaring limestone escarpments, lush wetlands, and rare remnants of Blackland and Fort Worth Prairies. Get to know a diverse community of volunteers working for nature.

About our speaker:

A journalist and writer for over 40 years, Amy Martin is the author of Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth (Wild-DFW.com), Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (Itchy.biz), and co-author of Speaking of Mother Earth. She is currently senior features writer for Green Source DFW (GreenSourceDFW.org).

Her current project is Ned Fritz Legacy (NedFritz.com), a biographical website of Ned Fritz, Texas’ most famous environmentalist. Martin sits on the Dallas County Open Space’s Trails and Preserves Program board (DallasCounty.org/parks) and serves as state social media director for Native Prairies Association of Texas (TexasPrairie.org). For twelve years, she managed wildlife habitat rehabilitation on a private nature preserve in northeast Texas, including converting fifteen acres of pasture into tallgrass prairie. She is a certified Texas Master Naturalist with the North Texas chapter (NTMN.org). Find her writings at Moonlady.com.

2023 September ONLINE Deep Dive with Melanie Schuchart | Butterfly Survival Strategies

Michelle Connally, Class of 2018

September 28, 2023 – Thursday, 6:00 PM
CLICK HERE for ZOOM REGISTRATION

Join us for an Online Zoom Deep Dive on Butterfly Survival Strategies. Butterflies already have it hard with disappearing habitat, but even in a pristine or restored habitat, they are at the bottom of the food chain providing food for many creatures such as birds, reptiles, wasps, assassin bugs, spiders, ants and the list goes on. With all that stacked against them, they have to come up with creative and interesting ways to survive. This talk explores various strategies that our local butterflies use to extend their lives so their species can survive.

My fascination with butterflies grew out of my love of native plants when I was younger. Native flowers attracted the native butterflies and from this I grew my passion with butterflies and eventually all insects. I became a Master Naturalist in 2014 and added the Master Entomologist certification in 2017. I’m a longtime volunteer at the Heard Natural Museum and Wildlife Sancturary and created their butterfly docent program in 2014. Today, I train all the Heard Butterfly docents and do the chrysalis pinning as well. I’ve presented on a variety of butterfly topics at the Heard, NPSOT, Master Naturalist State Meeting and various other organizations and events. I’m also heavily involved in the mothing as well since they are just Butterflies of the Night. I use iNaturalist extensively to document my sightings and participate in various bioblitz’s throughout the state. I’m Butterflies4Fun on iNaturalist. I now live in Gunter Texas (2019) where I have my own 1.5 acre prairie to restore and document.