Cover story: Naturalist program creating wave of volunteers

<i>Originally published in the May 16, 2008, print edition.</i>

By Tom Royer

“Cheerio, cheery me, cheery me!” “Poor Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody!” “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!” “Witchity-witchity-witchity!” “Cheer-cheerful-cheerfully!”

Such a cacophony would normally come from flocks of robins, white throated sparrows, blackcapped chickadees, common yellowthroats and eastern bluebirds (in that order) perched in the treetops.

On April 5 at William O’Brien State Park near Marine-on-St. Croix, however, those sounds came from 22 men and women mingling about, squawking out their assigned calls, and trying to find their “mate” among all the racket.

The exercise was intended to show the group — members of the spring 2008 Minnesota Master Naturalist class based at Fort Snelling State Park in St. Paul — just one method of engaging and entertaining an audience while squeezing in a little knowledge when they’re not looking.

What is a naturalist?

“A naturalist is anyone who enjoys seeing, and being in, nature to watch its cycles,” said Linda Radimecky, an interpretive naturalist at Fort Snelling State Park, and primary instructor to this group. “An interpretive naturalist is someone who interprets those natural cycles and events to others.”

Radimecky said she loves that, as an interpreter, she gets to be “outside playing with kids and educating people, and get paid.” Radimecky helped with the planning and instructing of the initial pilot class and reviewed the curriculum. Her park, at Fort Snelling, was chosen as the site for the class due to its proximity to the metro area, home to most of Minnesota’s population and, therefore, most of the likely Master Naturalist Program participants.

No matter where they’re from, however, participants are likely to gain from the experience.

“The slogan of the Master Naturalist program is ‘Explore, Teach, Conserve,’” she said. “It hopes to create a citizenship that has an increased awareness of the environment around them. To that end, everyone should be interested in having people become more educated about our environment.”

Not just about birding

Besides making bird calls, naturalist program participants learn tricks to tracking deer activity (check how the shrubs have been nibbled on), figure out how to identify species in the woods by the shape, size and content of their scat (not often polite dinner conversation) and poke around a carp’s innards to see what makes it tick (their flotation bladders make excellent rear-view mirror ornaments).

A field trip to Interstate State Park near Taylors Falls gives participants a firsthand look at the role glacial activity played in Minnesota’s ancient geological history (it used to look a lot different). Ways to identify the quality of water today are found in the shoreline muck of a Fort Snelling lake (keep an eye out for the bloodworms). Instructors show how to do identify a leafless tree in the middle of winter, just by where it’s located (hint: look for water-loving silver maples down in the flood plains).

Other topics discussed in the program include improving communication skills to best convey the naturalist message, and examining the impact of humanity on our natural world.

Agriculture’s impact on the natural world, and of conservation efforts on ag, are always hot topics. Extension educator and Minnesota Master Naturalist Program Director Amy Rager believes such conflicts are mostly behind us.

“My personal experience in more recent times is that local DNR staff work very hard to be a part of the communities they live and work in,” she said. “They are very interested in helping people to understand the decisions they are making. DNR staff are committed to doing the best job they can to manage the natural resources in our state.”

Program background

The Minnesota Master Naturalist program debuted in the fall of 2005 with the first “Big Woods, Big Rivers” series. The program’s three series — the others are “Prairies and Potholes” and “North Woods, Great Lakes,” with class sites located around the state — correspond to Minnesota’s three major biomes, or ecosystems. Minnesota’s naturalist program is one of more than two dozen such programs across the country. Texas was the first state to introduce a naturalist program.

The program’s goals are to educate participants about Minnesota’s natural resources, show them ways to teach others, and provide them with opportunities to utilize their newfound knowledge. To complete the 10-week (one night per week) program, students complete 40 hours of classroom training and put together a final group “Capstone Project” that focuses on a specific aspect of the class.

To maintain their certification as Master Naturalist Volunteers (described this way to differentiate them from actual paid professional naturalists), each year participants must complete an additional eight hours of advanced training, plus perform 40 hours of volunteer service in areas such as:
• Stewardship, e.g. invasive species removal or restoration projects;
• Education/interpretation, e.g. public presentations, leading hikes or material development;
• Citizen science, e.g. data gathering, or plant and animal counts; or
• Program support, e.g. organizing local naturalist chapters or working in a naturalist office.

What’s in it for you?

While a majority of Master Naturalist participants may be urbanites, Rager and Radimecky made it clear that all Minnesotans would learn from, and contribute to, the program.

“A basic principle of ecology is ‘everything is connected’ and we cannot separate humans from the rest of nature,” Radimecky said. “Farmers and rural land owners are impacted by metro yuppies, just as the yuppies are affected by decisions that farmers and rural land owners make, as the latter often impact large areas of land with their land practices.”

“Rural residents, urban and farmers all have a variety of experiences with the natural world,” Rager said. The Minnesota Master Naturalist program “is designed to share those experiences and learn from each other. I think farmers are a valuable addition to classes; they may have different views about certain topics, and this provides an excellent opportunity to share those opinions.”

The Minnesota Master Naturalist program is sponsored by the University of Minnesota Extension Service, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and a grant from the National Science Foundation. For more information, call (888) 241-4532 or log on to www.MinnesotaMasterNaturalist.org.

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