Community Engagement Booth on Earth Day at University of Texas Dallas

Kathy Boys, Class of 2023

On April 25^th Blackland Prairie Texas Master Naturalists had the pleasure of celebrating all things Earth Day at University of Texas Dallas’s Earthweek event. It was a delight to engage with over 75 inquisitive students and faculty/staff about our program, flowers and pollinators, environmental stewardship, their Bee Campus program and pocket prairies.

We discovered UTD has a stellar sustainability program and all students and staff we met were genuinely interested in our program and engaging in a discussion about a broad range of local ecology topics.  At times the table was so busy we found ourselves engaging in large group discussions about iNaturalist, best local parks to get out in nature (they were excited to hear about Amy Martin’s DFW Wild book), and best gardening practices.  The students shared with us about their studies in environmental sciences, and took notes on everything from what native flowering plants thrive in the shade and how to plant the native seeds we gave out, to where they could learn more about identifying animal tracks (Dwight Wilson’s recent talk at our chapter meeting came up) and about water quality testing (Vicki Sanders name came up).  The event was heavily attended and we thoroughly enjoyed speaking to that age group.  Their future is bright and we hope to see a few join our future chapter classes or attend our chapter meetings!  We promised them that our chapter had diverse interests and a broad age range including college aged students with volunteer activities for all interests.