2014 Spring Training Class

Registration is open for the 2014 Training Class. Classes begin on March 4 and continue through May 22. Cost for the class is $150 and includes a large handbook of information about the natural world in Texas. Spouses pay a discounted fee of $120. The fee includes a one-year membership to the Good Water Master Naturalist Chapter. Online registration is available.

Each Master Naturalist takes a training class of over 40 hours of expert training about almost every aspect of the natural world – soils, backyard habitats, prairies, rangeland management, forest ecology, birds, mammals, fish, insects, botany, climate, geology and archaeology. To complete the certification process, each volunteer completes 40 hours of service and an additional 8 hours of training. To maintain their certification each year, volunteers are encouraged to take their knowledge and volunteer for 40 hours and take 8 hours of additional training.

Chapter Meetings are on the 4th Thursday of the month at 6:30 at the Williamson County Texas A&M AgriLife Meeting Room at 3151 SE Inner Loop in Georgetown. February speakers will be Brian and Shirley Loflin, a couple who are independent photographers, authors, and naturalists. Their topic will be Native Grasses.

Good Water Chapter members partnered with the Native Plant Society (NPSOT) to create the Pollinator Garden at the Williamson County Landfill just north of Hutto. The garden of native plants and native grasses has been designed to attract wildlife and will be used as an educational tool about the beauty and benefits of using native plants in landscaping projects. Recently members from Good Water and the Native Plant Society updated the landscaping at the Georgetown Library to native plants and grasses. Berry Springs Park & Preserve uses volunteers to maintain the nature trail, to plant and maintain native plant gardens, to monitor the bird populations, and to set up and monitor bluebird boxes.

On Friday nights in the summer, Master Naturalists at the McNeil Bridge educate visitors about the millions of bats that roost in the bridge and fly over eastern Williamson County at night foraging for insects and reducing the insect population for agriculture.

Nature education for children is also an important part of the chapter’s volunteer work. Nature education programs at the Georgetown Rec Center, the Hutto Rec Center, and for home-schooled kids provide knowledge about the natural world and an opportunity to explore the natural wonders of Williamson County.