Members

VH OPPORTUNITY: Docent in Heard Butterfly House May 20 – October 3

BPTMN Members:

Are you interested in volunteering as a docent in the Heard Natural Science Museum and Wildlife Sanctuary Butterfly House?

The Heard is currently looking for people interesting in becoming docents for the Butterfly House for the current season, May 29 to October 3, 2021.

To become a docent in the Butterfly House you need to do the following:

To be a Butterfly House docent, you must be a Heard Volunteer. If you are not currently a Heard Volunteer, complete an online application: Adult General Volunteer Application.
Attend Docent Training at the Heard Butterfly House on Saturday, June 26, 2021, at 9:30 APM. Contact Joyce Wilson to RSVP for the training at thewilsons@tx.rr.com.

Logging AT: Log docent training for Heard Butterfly House as AT: BPTMN: Other Pre-approved Training with “Butterfly House Docent Training” in comments.

Logging VH: Log docent volunteer time in the Butterfly House as Heard: Butterfly House Docent/Pinning.

If you have questions, contact Joyce Wilson at thewilsons@tx.rr.com.

Get more information about the Heard Butterfly House: https://www.heardmuseum.org/native-texas-butterfly-house-garden/

Linda Nixon
BPTMN Communications Director

AT iNaturalist VH

Odolympics 2021 – Dragonfly & Damselfly Surveys

Hello Blackland Prairie Chapter Master Naturalists!

The Dragonfly Society of the Americas, Sociedad de Odonatología Latinoamericana and Odonata Central are partnering to conduct the Odolympics 2021.

BPTMN Odolympics Calendar Entries for 2021

If you participated in Sam Kieschnick’s #TMNTuesday Dragonflies presentation last week, you heard all about the Odolympics!

If you missed it, watch Sam’s presentation recording: https://txmn.tamu.edu/tmntuesdays/

Highlights

Odonate (dragonfly and damselfly) survey of the entire Western Hemisphere
Everyone can participate by entering observations into Odonata Centralor iNaturalist
June and December Survey dates to accommodate participants in the entire Western Hemisphere
The goal is to record as many species from as many places as possible
You can have fun and contribute to citizen science by helping to create a single year snapshot of odonate distribution

Details

Everyone can participate. The goal is to try to record as many species from as many places in the Western Hemisphere as possible in the two census periods to generate a snapshot of odonate distribution.

Dates: June 19-27, 2021, and December 11-19, 2021.

The final repository for the data will be Odonata Central. These data will be critical in filling gaps in the Odonata Central data set. All data on Odonata Central are freely available to everyone to explore or download.

Help make this project a success. Plan to participate.

How to Contribute

Overview: Submit your odonate observations to Odonata Central or join the iNaturalist projects. Enter observations on as many days of the Odolympics as you wish.

All Odolympics participants must be registered users of Odonata Central, even if you plan to join the iNaturalist projects. Registration is free and takes only a few minutes.

If you are planning to join the iNaturalist projects, you only have to regsiter on Odonata Central once. However, you must add your iNatualist ID to your account. (After registering and/or logging in, click the blue My Account button in the top menu.) This ensures your iNat observations will be added to an Odonata Central account when the iNaturalist project spreadsheet is imported. If you do not do this, your iNatualist observations cannot be counted toward the Odolympics total.

There are three ways you can enter observations for the Odolympics

Options 1 and 2 are for users of Odonata Central. Option 3 is really only for people who only use iNaturalist.

Directly into Odonata Central.We encourage participants to enter data directly into Odonata Central. Odonata Central accepts complete checklists of photographed, collected and observed only records for any location and tracks abundance data.

Imported into Odonata Central from iNaturalist.This is the preferred way to get iNaturalist observations into Odonata Central. You can enter observations into iNaturalist and then import them into your Odonata Central account by cutting and pasting the URL of the iNaturalist record. This copies location, date, species, and photographs into Odonata Central so they don’t need to be entered again. See this video tutorial.
Joining the iNaturalist Projects.If you prefer to just use iNaturalist alone, you can join one or both of the projects called Odolympics June 2021 or Odolympics December 2021. Observations reported to iNaturalist by project members during the Odolympics will be automatically collected into these projects. To avoid duplication, do not import these records yourself into Odonata Central. Note that iNaturalist does not track abundance data nor does it allow records of exuviae. It also often obscures coordinates in reports, but you should give us permission to access accurate coordinates when you register.

How to make sure your observations are counted in the Odolympics totals.

If using Method 1 or 2 above.On the first screen of Add Records in Odonata Central, be sure to select Odolympics from the drop-down list as the project for each checklist you enter. The Odolympics project is only available in the drop-down list AFTER you enter a date of observation that falls during the Odolympics.
If using Method 3.Be sure you are a registered user of Odonata Central and have provided your iNaturalist username in your Odonata Central account.

Results

A summary of results and participation will be published in Argia (the newsletter of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas) in 2022.

At any time, users can view the Odolympics data in Odonata Central by opening the filters and setting the Project filter to “Odolympics” for records, species lists or maps. Records contributed to iNaturalist can be viewed by visiting the Odolympics iNaturalist Project. After the iNatualist data are imported into Odonata Central, the aggregate data can be viewed there.

Logging VH:

This VH opportunity has been approved for BPTMN members with the following rules:

Observations must be made in Collin/Hunt County or sites contiguous to Collin County.
Please use option 2 or 3 to enter observations.
Hours must be logged daily, and site(s) name entered in the service description box. No aggregate weekly total entries will be approved.
No more than 12 hours of any combination of VH/AT may logged per day.
Hours spent in the field making observations should be logged as BPTMN: Blackland Prairie iNaturalist Project: TMN Field Research Hours
Hours spent editing, uploading photos and IDing species should be logged as BPTMN: Blackland Prairie iNaturalist Project: Species ID and Curation (non-field work)
Hours spent editing and uploading photos may not exceed field observation hours.

Linda Nixon
BPTMN Communications Director

Class Current News General

Blackland Prairie TMN Graduation 2021

Photos by Charlise Hill-Larson

Flora and Fauna Members Plants Shaking of the Trees Post Shaking the Trees

Yes, We Can!

Deborah Canterbury, 2014

Over the past several months we have always posted a “if you need anything, let us know.” We have a few opportunities to help our tribe members. For various reasons, a few native gardens and yards are in need of some TLC. The homeowners would love to share the joy and explain their concepts. So, we need several volunteers willing to go chat, pull, plant and learn from these fellow members by helping them spiff up their property and sharing the joy of their gardens. If you would like to become a member of the native brigade contact Deborah Canterbury at canterbury.deborah@gmail.com and we will get ‘er done! We will organize flexible hours and utilize all abilities. This is NOT a Master Naturalist Project, but to assist someone you may know or someone who has influenced you along the way.

Yes, We Can …Si Se Puede!

Chapter Meetings

Brandon Belcher | “Big Challenges and Complex Problems”

Tuesday, June 8, 7PM CST

Brandon will be speaking to us about the big challenges and complex problems currently faced by The Nature Conservancy, the rising opportunities for carbon markets in grasslands, and the soil issues he faces in preserving and restoring prairies.

Brandon Belcher manages five North Texas preserves and more than a dozen conservation easements for The Nature Conservancy. His focus is protecting and maintaining grasslands, including remnant prairielands. Conservation of these rare and fragile ecosystems is accomplished through partnerships with private landowners, other nongovernmental organizations, and local cities and counties, as well as state and federal agencies. Brandon received a BS in wildlife and conservation science and an MS in biology – plant ecology from Texas A&M University-Commerce, where he teaches as an adjunct instructor.

AT Be the Change Current News

Be the Change | Alex Bailey of Black Outside

Tuesday, May 18, 12PM CST

From Awareness to Allyship: An intro to Black Outside, Inc and engaging BIPOC communities.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 and increased awareness of racial injustice, outdoor participation within black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities has increased. What does this increase mean for outdoor education? In what ways can one act in allyship to ensure a more inclusive outdoors in Texas? Learn from TEDxSan Antonio speaker and founder of Black Outside, Inc who will share more about the work of Black Outside, Inc and explore what it means to be in allyship with BIPOC communities in nature.

Prior to the session, Alex invites you to listen to his TED Talk linked here. Want to know more about Black Outside, Inc? Check out their amazing work here.

Event Date	Tuesday May 18th, 2021
Event Time	12:00 PM Central Daylight Time (Chicago, GMT -0:500)
Registration Link	https://tpwdevents3000.webex.com/tpwdevents3000/onstage/g.php?MTID=ed2dfa4c90f68c61a098ab93df571101f

Members

BPTMN Membership Directory – ADD YOUR NAME NOW!

Hello BPTMN Members!

We are establishing a chapter membership directory for the purpose of providing member contact information to other members. The directory will be accessible through the password protected ‘Members Area’ under the ‘Members’ tab of the chapter website.

The directory will include the name, email address and class year for each member who chooses to participate. Only those members who submit their information will be included in directory.

When the directory is finalized, it will work like this: You have a question about a flower you saw and would like to ask Carol Clark about it. You go to the BPTMN website Members Area, put in the ‘secret password,’ and look for Carol Clark in the directory. You find her email and you send her your question. She replies and all is right with the world!

Please complete this form by Friday May 23, 2021.

The finalized directory will be posted on the BPTMN website during the first week in June.

Linda Nixon
Communications Director
Texas Master Naturalist Blackland Prairie Chapter

Fossils Heard Members Shaking of the Trees Post Shaking the Trees

Green River Fish to Feed the Imagination

By Deborah Canterbury, 2014

The Heard Paleo Lab prepared 16 Green River Fish fossils to accompany the latest addition to the Heard Museum, a high quality plesiosaurus. The fish, donated by chapter member Jim Dulian, represent six species of fish from 50 million years ago. Photos are of Mittie McDonald and Patti Tuck as they add finishing touches to a few of the fossils and photos of the fossils as well. The lab team under the watchful eyes of Pat and Margie Kline not only prepped the fossils but also constructed the display cases. Other team members are Karleen Hoffmann, Beverly Carpenter and Deborah Canterbury. These Eocene fossils were preserved in intermountain lake basins in what is now parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming while the Rocky Mountains were still growing. The official opening date is scheduled for late May.

Current News VH

ONE YEAR LATER Texas Master Naturalist ‘Nature Reflections’ video diary project

One year ago this month as our state and the world progressed into the full realization of the global pandemic and following lockdowns, the Texas Master Naturalist Program took a moment to ask you, our naturalists, to reflect on the benefits of nature in your lives. The Nature Reflections video diary project took life from an idea of a fellow master naturalist program in Oregon and we received an incredible variety of submissions from videos to poems and even an original song! If you haven’t checked these out, please watch these shared videos. They truly are inspiring! https://txmn.tamu.edu/about-the-texas-master-naturalist-program/nature-reflections/

2020 became the year that no one expected. Society entered lockdown, programs were cancelled, gatherings suspended and we were all forced into isolation in quarantine. In true persevering & innovator fashion however, our Texas Master Naturalists adapted and overcame. Meetings and trainings moved to virtual platforms. New communication tools were engaged. And we all still found our moments in nature.

Pausing again in reflection this year, we’re re-launching the Nature Reflections Video Project In celebration of you and your true perseverance, innovation and grit throughout the past year’s trials and tribulations. We invite you to contribute to our One Year Later Nature Reflections Video Project and contribute your naturalist stories and testimonials about the restorative power of Nature and being a Texas Master Naturalist.

As you consider your video contribution please reflect on the following question:

“Reflect upon how nature and specifically, the Texas Master Naturalist Program, has given you refuge or provided benefits in this past year.”

Here are the logistics:

Record your thoughts in a video on your phone or tablet, laptop or computer webcam. This is a video diary project that will be shared on the Texas Master Naturalist website for people to see, enjoy, relate to, and maybe even take comfort in.
On the video, please tell us your name, chapter and what city you live in. If you don’t feel comfortable including your name, chapter and/or city, you do not have to.
Please wear your TMN name badge, shirt or swag!
Please keep your recordings to no longer than up 1 minute if at all possible. Generally, I won’t be editing your video for content, and short videos are viewed much more than long videos.
If you’d rather write your thoughts and reflections rather than recording a video, feel free to share those words with us below.
Follow all locally mandated health requirements and recommendations. Your backyard, kitchen table or living room is just fine. While it might be tempting to take your thoughts to your favorite trail or natural area, please stay safe and abide by these health and safety restrictions.
Please record and upload your video by Monday June 15th using the form below.
Please remember: This doesn’t have to be a polished video – no one expects you to produce a professional-quality video. You don’t need a script, unless you want to write your thoughts down. Just speak from your heart.
And you can earn a little bit of Volunteer Service Hour credit logged under Chapter Admin – limit up to .5 hours please at maximum.
If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know. While this is a video exercise, if you would rather share your written thoughts, a meaningful poem or quote relevant to this task, and/or a nature photo you took, please share those as well!
Again, stay safe and healthy, and thank you for your participation in this exercise!
NOTE – If you have any issues with uploading your submission or want to submit in a different avenue (i.e Google Drive or Drop Box), please send Mary Pearl an email – mpmeuth@tamu.edu

Click Here to Submit your Video Submission

Blackland Prairie Raptor Center Flora and Fauna Hagerman Members Raptor Center

Our Tribe’s Fortune 500 – Laurie Sheppard

By Laurie Sheppard, 2017

Our Tribe’s Fortune – 500 Hour Pin Recipient (Hard in good times but “Wow” in a pandemic!)

I do most of my volunteering at Hagerman NWR. I began volunteering there in 2009, shortly after I discovered the magic of the refuge. Every day is different and there’s always something new to discover. The Friends of Hagerman gave me an avenue to explore, identify, and report my discoveries. I did this through writing an occasional blog post, creating a handout, or simply posting photos of things I had seen along with a little description of my research. I always wanted to learn more and that led me to become a Master Naturalist in 2017, when I finally had time to devote to it. Unfortunately, that also coincided with some physical challenges, but again, Hagerman gave me several low-impact outlets.I also joined the Butterfly Garden Docents and that allows me to share my knowledge. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has used my abilities in many ways, from driving rescued birds to a rehabber like Blackland Prairie Raptor Center, to monitoring an at-risk butterfly that I discovered three years ago on the refuge. I report on the Frosted Elfin butterfly’s status several times during the spring and my reports are incorporated into a larger six-year study on whether the species needs protections under the Endangered Species Act. I feel like the things I am able to do at Hagerman NWR have value, whether it is protecting the environment and the biosphere or encouraging the public to get out in nature and helping them to enjoy it more.

Green Lynx Spider and Eggs — Photo by Laura Sheppard