The Texas Master Naturalist Program’s 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.
The Prairie Oaks Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program is made up of people who came to nature from every possible direction and found their way here together.
Some of us grew up on Texas ranches and farms, with a sense of land stewardship baked in from childhood. Others moved here from Montana, Colorado, or Houston and fell in love with the Cross Timbers and Bosque River country along the way. Some arrived through a college program, a chance walk along the Brazos Trail, or a first visit to Nature Fest.
Our members include retired nurses and career educators, environmental biologists and tech professionals, animal keepers and lifelong birders. What unites us isn’t a shared background; it’s a shared belief that this land is worth understanding, protecting, and sharing with others.
We are curious people. We show up to Christmas Bird Counts as beginners and leave having learned from the pros. We take geology field trips and come home passionate about the smallest of fossils. We chase native plants, study rangeland, and debate the finer points of butterfly host species at monthly meetings.
We are rooted here. Many of our members live and work across Palo Pinto, Erath, Hamilton, and Comanche counties, on farms and in small towns where connection to the land isn’t abstract. One member’s family has farmed the same land along the Bosque River since 1872. For members like her, the Master Naturalist program is a way to deepen that connection and pass it on.
We keep growing. Each year, a new training class brings in people from different walks of life – science teachers, first-generation naturalists, Tarleton State University students – all drawn by the same desire to learn more and give back. Our Spring 2025 class was one of our strongest yet.
We do real work. From stewarding the Bosque River Nature Center and organizing Nature Fest, to earning grants for native plants and building community education programs, Prairie Oaks volunteers put in meaningful hours across our four-county region.
If you’ve ever stood at a trailhead and wished you knew the name of the bird in that tree, the wildflower along that path, or the story of the land beneath your feet – you’d fit right in here.
Learn more about our chapter highlights: https://txmn.org/prairieoaks/category/news/
Read about some of our members: https://txmn.org/prairieoaks/category/monthly-newsletter/member-spotlight/
The Texas Master Naturalist Program is coordinated jointly by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will provide equal opportunities in programs and employment to all persons, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, and gender, pursuant to state and federal law.