Our mission is to develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide EDUCATION, OUTREACH, and SERVICE dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas.
VOLUNTEER SERVICE IS THE REASON FOR OUR EXISTENCE
Chapter members each contribute 40 hours of volunteer service annually to retain certification in the Texas Master Naturalist program. Our members make a difference in more than 115 chapter-approved volunteer projects across our ten-county service area and contribute thousands of hours each year towards the preservation of our Hill Country environment. For approved projects, please click here.
What is a Texas Master Naturalist?
Check out this three minute video created by the Texas Master Naturalist – Lost Pines Chapter.
Do you love nature? Do you want to make a difference? Click on the link below to go to our form. Fill in the form and be sure to tell us about yourself and what you are passionate about. We’ll be in touch. Click here.
The Hill County Chapter serves Bandera, Edwards, Gillespie, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Mason, Menard, Real, and San Saba Counties. Our ten-county service region covers 10,651.08 square miles.
The Texas Hill Country is located on the eastern portion of the Edwards Plateau, and is bound by the Balcones Escarpment on the east and the Llano Uplift to the west and north. The “Texas Hill Country” is not a precise geographic area but a vernacular term that describes an area of central Texas, characterized by karst topography with clear rivers, dense vegetation, and pure air.
MONTHLY CHAPTER MEETING, WITH SOCIAL TIME
The Texas Master Naturalist, Hill Country Chapter meets monthly in person and online via Zoom. Our next Chapter Meeting and Advanced Training session is open to the public and will be held on Monday, March 24th.
The meeting is at
GUADALUPE BASIN NATURAL RESOURCES CENTER (GBNRC) Building
125 Lehmann Drive, Suite 100
Kerrville, Texas
Pre-registration is required to attend the chapter meeting session via Zoom.
Click the link, shown below, to register.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84850885770
Doors open at 6 pm for socializing. A short business meeting will begin at 6:30 pm and the Advanced Training session is from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. There is no cost to attend. All are welcome.
The Advanced Training topic for the March 24 Chapter Meeting is:
The City Nature Challenge and iNaturalist
Description: The City Nature Challenge is an international collaboration to encourage people to get out into nature and share what they observe. Over 80 thousand people last year submitted 2.4 million photos of 65 thousand species worldwide. This year’s four-day ‘bioblitz’ is scheduled for April 25-28, 2025. Our speakers at this month’s meeting of the Hill Country Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program will share how easy it is to participate in this important event and how to use the iNaturalist app to take photos of what you see, identify them, and share them with others.
Peter Joseph Hernandez has been a City Nature Challenge Coordinator since 2020 and is a member of the Alamo Area chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program, Native Plant Society of Texas-San Antonio, and Guadalupe County Master Gardeners. Since retiring as a Senior Director in the telecommunications industry in 2015, he has devoted himself to advocating for biodiversity through citizen science and iNaturalist.
Suanne Pyle is a Texas Master Naturalist, South Texas Chapter, Class of 2020 graduate, a curator for the Birds of Texas Nature Trackers program, and has participated in the City Nature Challenge since 2019. A retired secondary school teacher, she loves to exercise her teaching talents in nature education.