Our Tribe’s Fortune 500 Hours – Paul Napper, Class of 2015

What inspired you to become a Master Naturalist?

I was thinking about volunteering at the Heard Museum as a trail guide. Something I had done years before and enjoyed. This was part of my plan to keep busy when I retired. The Master Naturalist program kept popping up on my Facebook feed. At the time I didn’t know what a Master Naturalist was. After reading more about it and seeing the classes would be at the Heard Sanctuary I decided to sign up for the classes. The classes were always taught with enthusiasm.
As a hands-on learner I enjoyed that many classes incorporated things to touch and see with your own eyes.

On what type of projects do you typically spend your service hours, or are they varied?

The first few years I would work just about any weekend opportunity I could. I was still working fulltime so the weekends were my only option.
Pulling weeds in the Heards flower garden, cutting out woody vegetation at Wylie Prairie. Lonnie Schuchart and I rebuilt the small tad pole pond by the Heards Butterfly house. That took us several weeks to remove all the rocks and replace the rubber liner in the bottom and replace the rocks.
For about three years I worked with a group at the Allen Senior Center planting native plants around the garden beds behind the center.
Many of those plants are still growing there.

When you were taking the Master Naturalist classes, do you have a favorite lesson that has stuck with you?

Who can forget the Weather Class with David Baker. He gets so excited to teach it that you just get excited to be there.
One thing that he said was related to old farmers and other people who live outside. They can predict the weather just about as well as a weather man.
They have learned the signals in the cloud movement and wind behavior. So next time you want to know how cold it is outside, put down your cell phone and step outside.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your background, and perhaps what you like to do in your spare time?

I’ve lived in Collin County sense 1980. Cindy and I raised two children in the Lovejoy-Allen school district.
Worked about 40 years in the hardware side of the telecom Industry before retiring two years ago.
My main hobby is hunting. I grew up in the South where all my uncles and cousins and my father hunted.
You can only hunt during hunting season so some of my spare time is at the Heard Museum doing trail guiding and assisting
home school and preschool children learn about nature.
We have a small camper and have started using it to explore some of the State Parks.
The grandchildren keep many weekends busy with T-ball softball and volleyball.
Being retired is a game changer for sure!

Is there one thing that you’d like to tell others who are thinking of becoming a Master Naturalist or perhaps current members who might need a little bit of inspiration?

The one thing that will impact most people taking the class is the people.
You just can’t put into words how nice everyone is and how good it feels to find likeminded people.