AT: TMN Tuesday – Chapter Project Fair

Mission Statement: Raise awareness across the Rio Grande Valley of pollinators and their need for sustainable, native-plant food sources and ecosystems so they can thrive and multiply.

Brazos River Cleanup/Campout and Educational Extravaganza: The Rio Brazos, known for recreation, electrical generation, irrigation, and home to countless animals, has also been used as a tire and trash dumping ground for over 100 years. In 2017 the Texas Master Naturalist, Rio Brazos Chapter, created a project to cleanse our namesake of tires, trash, and other debris that has accumulated over the decades. The project has morphed from a simple 4-mile section with 13 chapter members participating in 2017 to a 17-mile stretch worked by four crews and over 60 participants this year. Our goal is to continue bringing other groups into the project as we expand our footprint (or should I say erase footprints) up and down the Brazos. We utilize canoes, kayaks, and foot patrols to clean the river, sandbars, and banks. In 2018 we added a weekend campout to the cleanup as a way for chapter members to have the time to visit and really get to know each other. In 2019 we began utilizing chapter members to give advanced training classes on Sundays. This multiple-event weekend of cleaning the river on Saturday and engaging in classes on Sunday quickly became a successful template to draw volunteers from the community as well as a tool for recruiting new members. We have had several non-profit groups join the project as we gained experience each year handling volunteers on the river and want-to-be naturalists attending weekend lectures. This year we invited five other chapters to join us for the weekend event. We now set up tents and campers on Friday and start the festivities with a welcome dinner that night. Saturday is reserved for our river cleanup, and Sunday is a full day of advanced training classes. The 2023 classes were taught not only by our educators but also those from other chapters, as well as individuals from TPWD, NRCS, the Brazos River Authority, and the Lower Brazos Riverwatch. On Monday, we have a long bird walk followed by a final brunch, break down, and goodbyes. With measurable results of over 20,000 pounds of tires and trash collected, new members recruited, and new friends and chapters participating, we would like to invite all Texas Master Naturalist members to join us in 2024.

Bayside Regional Park: From Fish Farm to Natives: Bayside Regional Park is in a diverse, under- served community in Bacliff, Texas. When GBAC members learned that Galveston County had purchased a 64-acre fish farm and intended to convert it to a park, they began working with the Galveston County Parks Department for approval via a Memorandum of Understanding, to install native plants in a 1-acre area of the park. A Steering Committee of the GBAC was formed to plan the project. Volunteers collected seeds, propagated, purchased, and planted plants, developed soil amendments, created an iNaturalist project, installed a water feature for wildlife, built and installed Bluebird nesting boxes, applied for grants, conducted outreach activities for Seniors and the public, and planted native trees along a planned pathway. Using only native plants found on the Floyd Waller 1974 Plant Survey, a Native Plant Exhibit was planted, including a demonstration Pollinator Garden, and a demonstration Prairie Garden. A native prairie re-creation is underway. Future plans include forming a youth birding and/or junior naturalist group.