KPC & Other Prairie Works — VSP Info for Members
Katy Prairie Conservancy Volunteering
KPC Native Plant Nursery
Educational Outreach:
Prairie Discovery Tours —– Summer Science Nights —– Other KPC Opportunities
Other Prairie Works
Great Seed Grow-Out
KPC Native Plant Nursery — KPC Prairie Works
Sponsor: Katy Prairie Conservancy
Sponsor Contact: To volunteer email to Volunteer Information
TMNCPC Contact: TBD, volunteer needed
Regular Work days are Tuesdays from 9am to 3pm and
Location: KPC Native Plant Nursery, Demonstration and Rescue Gardens located at the KPC Field Office (Indiangrass Preserve) Directions.
Description: KPC Native Plant Nursery is being developed as a source of seeds and plants for prairie restoration. Activities include, but are not limited to, seed collection, invasive plant destruction or removal, seed/plant propagation, nursery and garden maintenance, and creating seed balls.
The Williams Prairie Preserve is a KPC property containing native prairie plants; volunteers work there to keep invasives in check and occasional seed-collecting outings.
# of Volunteers Needed: As many as wish to participate.
Supplies Needed: Depending on the scheduled tasks, may include clothes and gear appropriate for weather and gardening, such as rubber boots or closed-toe garden shoes, work gloves, hat, sunscreen, insect repellent, drinking water, appropriate apparel, especially closed-toe shoes and long pants, for walking through a tall grass prairie – including dewberries.
Difficulty Rating: Easy, slow walking through level ground is required, sometimes lifting of bags of soils, compost.
Maximum VSP hours: Time spent.
Sponsor: Katy Prairie Conservancy
Sponsor Contact: To volunteer email to Volunteer Information.
TMNCPC Contact: TBD, volunteer needed
Time: Prairie Discovery Tours are roughly 2-hour guided hikes scheduled bimonthly on Saturday morning or evenings.
Location: Various KPC properties (directions).
Description: Prairie Discovery Tours are themed tours for groups of 5 to 15 on a pre-determined route
Training: Tour guides are expected to be trained by KPC. This involves having/getting a basic knowledge about prairie ecology, history, and the KPC, attending training classes at KPC, and shadowing trained, experienced guides. For more information visit the KPC website.
# of Volunteers Needed: One tour guide per tour. (The more guides KPC can train the more tours can be given to inform the public about KPC and prairies in general.)
Supplies Needed: Depending on the scheduled tasks, may include clothes and gear appropriate for weather and gardening, such as rubber boots or closed-toe garden shoes, work gloves, hat, sunscreen, insect repellant, drinking water, appropriate apparel, especially closed-toe shoes and long pants, for walking through a tall grass prairie – including dewberries.
Difficulty Rating: Easy, slow walking through level ground is required.
Maximum VSP hours: Time spent.
Summer Science Nights — A Summer Camp Activity for Kids
Sponsor: Katy Prairie Conservancy
Sponsor Contact: To volunteer email to Volunteer Information.
TMNCPC Contact: TBD, volunteer needed
Status: Active, annual event during the summer.
Dates: To Be Determined (June & July)
Location: Various Katy Prairie Conservancy Properties
Description: Summer Science Nights is a series of children’s classes. Classed cover a wide range of topics related to prairie ecosystems. For instance, the 2009 classes covered four distinct topics: Frogs, the Night Sky, Nocturnal Mammals, and Birds of Prey. Each class includes a number of educational activities and a walk. Class size is limited to 25 children, divided into three groups, with two volunteers per group. So, two volunteers might be working with about eight children.
Help Needed: Volunteers may lead a walk or help to run educational activities. This is a good opportunity to share your knowledge on a topic, or to learn more about a topic, as you prepare for your volunteer role. Jaime knows that volunteers want to be well acquainted with the subject matter, activities, and surroundings to feel comfortable in their roles. He also knows from experience how hard it sometimes is to get volunteers to make the long trip to the prairie for training meetings. In response, he has designed a web site for each class that volunteers will be able to access to acquaint themselves with the educational activities and the hikes beforehand. The website will utilize video clips as training tools. KPC staff will also meet with volunteers about 30 minutes prior to the start of each class to review the educational activity materials.
# of Volunteers Needed: Up to 6 per class
Supplies Needed: All will be provided
Difficulty Rating: Easy, slow walking through level ground is required.
VSP hours: Time spent preparing for a class, at the class, and travel to and from the class (reported separately).
Other VSP Opportunities at KPC
There are plenty of other opportunities to volunteer at the Katy Prairie Conservancy. All are pre-approved as Coastal Prairie Master Naturalist VSP. Please visit the KPC’s Volunteer page for further information on these other projects. They include such things as outreach (KPC booth) volunteering and Open Trails greeter.
Maybe you have a great idea for a project that CPC could do for KPC. If so, contact KPC and our VSP Chairman to develop a project plan.
Seed Grow-Out for KPC & Project Blazingstar (& Seabourne)
Sponsor: Katy Prairie Conservancy, Coastal Prairie Partnership Sponsor
Contact: KPC Education Co-ordinator
TMNCPC Contact: TBD, volunteer needed
Status: Active, Ongoing
Location: Your Property
Description: The Katy Prairie Conservancy and the Coastal Prairie Partnership has embarked on a program whereby persons interested in the restoration of local prairies can volunteer to grow out native grasses and forbs from seed. These seeds are collected during the summer and fall months, and then distributed to volunteers in January and February. Volunteers sow their seeds and grow them out to the 1-gallon stage. For information on how to grow these plants you may download the “Coastal Prairie Plant Growers’ Handbook” from the web at http://www.coastalprairiepartnership.org/page/cp-plant-growers-hb. Plants grown out will be returned to the KPC for planting on Conservancy restoration areas and to CPP for Project BlazingStar, a series of pocket prairie restorations at Hermann Park in Houston. For 2010, if a CPC grower is successful in growing out many plants, 1 or 2 may be kept for planting in our prairie demonstration garden at Seabourne Creek Park.
# of Volunteers Needed: As many as want to participate. Let’s have the whole Chapter involved!
Supplies Needed: Seeds are available from Jaime Gonzalez, contact him at jgonzalez@katyprairie.org. Also will need soil & growing containers (seed flats, 4″ pots, and 1 gallon containers)
Difficulty Rating: Easy, slow walking through level ground is required. Sometimes lifting of soils, plants or compost.
Maximum VSP hours: 4.0 hours/month