#TMNTuesdays

Title: Training Class Mentor Programs Showcase

Date: December 10, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speaker: Texas Master Naturalist Chapters

Description: Many Texas Master Naturalist Chapters have mentor/mentee programs to assist new trainees as they complete their initial certification coursework, advance training, and volunteer hours. Join us as we learn about the different mentor programs conducted by the Alamo Area, Capital Area, and Lost Pines Chapters!

Title: Technical Guidance Projects Showcase

Date: November 12, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speaker: Texas Master Naturalist Blackland Prairie Chapter, El Camino Real Chapter, Hays County Chapter, Hill Country Chapter, Piney Wood Lakes Chapter and South Texas Chapter.

Description: Join Various Texas Master Naturalist Chapters as they present on how they provide landowner and community technical guidance assistance through their specialized service projects —which can be emulated and adopted by other chapters across the state!

Blackland Prairie Chapter: building a strong and productive relationship—”Municipal Mutualism”—with the city of Frisco through TMN member technical guidance for the Urban Forestry municipal board.

El Camino Real Chapter: Building on the Landowner Field Day model established by the El Camino Real Chapter at the Cedar Hill Nature Preserve (presented by TPWD staff).

Hill Country and Hay County Chapters: LMAP and HELM—chapter developed projects providing technical guidance to landowners big and small.

Piney Wood Lakes Chapter: Presenting on the planning and implementation of their first annual East Texas Conservation Expo.

South Texas Chapter: “Blucher Bunch” Technical Guidance with Corpus Christi’s Parks and Recreation and Stormwater departments.

**Due to a technical issue, the recording for the November 2024 TMNTuesday is unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience.**

Title: Chapter Project Fair

Date: October 8, 2024, from 11:30am to 1:30pm CT

Description: Join us as we hear about projects from five Texas Master Naturalist Chapters for our 2024 Annual Meeting Chapter Project Fair: Bluestem Chapter, East Texas Chapter, Galveston Bay Area Chapter, Hays County Chapter and North Texas Chapter. Each chapter will present on their project entry for the Annual Meeting contest. This year, the Bluestem Chapter will present on their, “Denison Public Library Texas Master Naturalist Bluestem Chapter Book Award Project;” the East Texas Chapter will present on their, “Wildscapes and Trail Renovation at the Tyler Nature Center Project;” the Galveston Bay Area Chapter will present on their, “Thunderbirders and Beyond: Youth Birding Clubs Project;” the Hays County Chapter will present on, “Modern Pictographs Project;” and the North Texas Chapter will present on their, “¿Qué tipo de naturalista eres? Project.” Join us from 11:30am to 1:30pm to hear from all of the presenting chapters!

Title: Spanish for Naturalists

Date: September 10, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speaker: Ernesto Garcia-Ortega, Wildlife Biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, and Wendy Anderson, Nature Trackers Biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Description: ¡Español para naturalistas! Join Spanish speaking Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists and learn the Spanish names for common trees, plants, flowers, animals, birds, and insects. Prior knowledge of the Spanish language is great, but everyone is welcome as the course is designed to cater to all levels. By the end of the class, students will have gained a newfound confidence to use the names of flora and fauna in Spanish.

Title: Plastic Free July: A Project Highlight

Date: August 13, 2024 at 12pm

Speaker: John O’Connell, Brazoria County Extension Agent and Cradle of Texas Chapter Advisor, and the Texas Master Naturalist Galveston Bay Area Chapter

Description: Coast into August with a TMNTuesday focused on sustainability projects initiated by some of our coastal Texas Master Naturalist (TMN) chapters focused on plastic clean-up for a belated celebration of Plastic Free July!

Presenting on the Texas Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program, John O’Connell, Brazoria County Extension Agent and Cradle of Texas TMN Advisor, will share how the program got started, how the chapter is involved and where others can get involved in their local waterways with collecting monofilament lines. Monofilament is another name for single-strand, high-density nylon fishing line that is used on fishing reels. Used line can be harmful to marine wildlife and boat motors. Birds and animals cannot see discarded monofilament fishing line, so it is easy for them to become tangled in it and starve, drown or lose a limb.

Galveston Bay Area Chapter will then share with us their process for reestablishing their Beach Cleanup Events. Slowed during COVID-19, these chapter volunteer service and social gatherings are being reignited by the current chapter leadership to create increase comradery and community among members, provide easy outlets for volunteer service in group settings and rebuild the culture of coastal suitability.

Title: Annual Meeting 101

Date: July 9, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speakers: Texas Master Naturalist State Program Office

Description: Join us to learn about all things 2024 Annual Meeting! This webinar will also cover various state program updates.

Title: Volunteer Safety in the Field

Date: June 11, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speaker: Kathy Granillo, Refuge Manager – Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, USFWS

Description: Being outdoors and conducting fieldwork can be a wonderful, satisfying experience. But only if everyone stays safe.  What does that mean? And how can we best accomplish a safe outdoor experience? This presentation and discussion will answer those questions and will be relevant for all experience levels. We will discuss both physical and social safety, resources to help keep us safe, and more. Bring your experiences and questions as we delve into outdoor safety for all.

Title: “Handheld Videographer: Capturing Quality Videos with Your Phone to Promote Your Chapter”

Date: May 21, 2024, at 12pm CT

Speaker: Lee Smith, Wildlife Diversity Information Specialist, TPWD

Description: Lee Smith is soliciting TMN Chapters around the state to shoot video of their members in action, in the field, volunteering their time and knowledge. Lee will provide a training session with guidelines on how to use your cell phone to capture video clips that can be used in future videos to promote TMN. The training will include what settings to use on your phone, along with tips on composition and technique. The videos captured will provided needed visuals to promote TMN at a state and local chapter level.

Title: No Mow Zones

Date: May 14, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speaker: Rachel Richter, Urban Wildlife Biologist, TPWD

Description: Mowing is time consuming. Mowing is expensive. Mowing, in most cases, doesn’t provide any benefit to wildlife. So why are so many of our community greenspaces dominated by mowed fields? This presentation will cover the benefits of reduced mowing programs, best management practices for “no mow” zones, and tips for starting a successful program in your community.

Title: Virtual Volunteer Fair

Date: April 9, 2024 at 10am CT

Description: Our volunteers are ready to volunteer!  Our Texas Master Naturalist Volunteers are dedicated to natural resource conservation work. After the innovations of the pandemic, we’re continuing to hold our ever-popular Virtual Volunteer in 2024 Fair where Texas Master Naturalist volunteers are introduced to virtual and distanced service projects offerings of our partner conservation organizations in their communities. This returning feature of our program easily allows members to remain active during the hottest months of the year and provide service opportunities for any ability throughout the year.

During the hottest months of the year, in-the-field service projects become less desirable and hit a lull until cooler months come around. The TMN Virtual Volunteer Fair (VVF) is an opportunity for our partner conservation organizations to present service projects that need volunteers from a distance or virtually! After five successful TMN VVF events, our members are asking for more virtual and distance-based service projects!

The Virtual Volunteer Fair will be an opportunity for our partner conservation organizations to present volunteer service projects that need volunteers from a distance or virtually! Save the Date and plan to join us on Tuesday, April 9th 2024, for this series of project presentations showcasing opportunities from across the state and across the spectrum of natural resource topics.

Title: Texas Raptor Monitoring Network: a participatory science program to monitor the reproductive biology of raptors across Texas

Date: March 5, 2024 at 12pm CT

Speaker: Dr. Ben Skipper

Co-Author: Dr. Clint Boal

Description: Over the last two decades, citizen science has emerged as a powerful tool to gather data on biological phenomena over wide geographic areas. Through observation-based platforms like iNaturalist and eBird, citizen scientists have helped document shifts in geographic range of both native and invasive species and their work has proved invaluable to scientists and managers. Such platforms are, however, structured for single-observation events and there exists space for novel citizen science projects to use repeated observations of individuals. These repeated observations have the potential to shift observation-based citizen science to a more participatory science whereby individuals collect data additional to just occurrence and location. This workshop will use the monitoring of raptor nests as a model for engaging with the public through participatory science. Raptors are charismatic wildlife with wide public appeal. Since the 1960’s several species of raptor have adapted to urban and suburban environments, yet much remains to be learned about the reproductive ecology of many species in these areas. This participatory science program therefore would serve to fill this data gap and provide relevant information back to participants. Workshop participants will be provided instruction on identification of raptor species, the identification of different stages within the nesting cycle and their associated behaviors, and the balance between gathering data and disturbing nesting birds. Data collection will be made simple via an electronic form with pre-defined fields that can be accessed via any internet-connected device (e.g., smartphone, tablet, desktop computer).

Title: iNaturalist Train the Trainer Workshop

Date: February 6, 2024, 11am – 1pm CT

Speakers: Craig Hensley and Wendy Anderson, Texas Nature Trackers Biologists, TPWD

Description: The Texas Nature Trackers (TNT) program is looking for Master Naturalists interested in becoming TNT certified iNaturalist workshop trainers across Texas. During this workshop we will provide you the training needed to get started as an iNaturalist trainer for your chapter, community and/or region. As a pre-requisite, we are looking for individuals that are already consistent users of iNaturalist, having a good understanding of the platform, and have an interest in teaching others in your community to engage with the platform. We’ll provide a quick overview of the app, provide an in-depth overview of the website and how data are used by TPWD, and finally tips and tricks for teaching it to others. We will provide attendees intending to become workshop trainers with a PowerPoint presentation to take home that will get you started. Should you accept this challenge, you will become an advocate not only for its use as an educational tool within your chapter but also for promoting community science and better understanding of the distribution of the state’s flora and fauna.

Title: State of the Program

Speakers: Michelle Haggerty & Mary Pearl Meuth

Date: January 9, 2024 at 12pm CT

Description: Join us as Program Coordinators, Michelle Haggerty & Mary Pearl Meuth, update us on the state of the program, recap 2023, and touch on 2024 planning and events!