Essays

Moseying: Living La Vida Llanero

Master Naturalist program begins in February
January 15, 2012

Do you like to take photographs? Do you like to go hiking, in parks, along ranch roads, or even in wild country far from a town? In that case, the Llano Estacado Master Naturalists might just be the thing for you! This year the program will be a little different; instead of going on 8 field trips to the 8 major habitats of the Llano Estacado and surrounding area, we will investigate just three locations. Before each trip we will review what the group has already photographed, examine google maps and satellite images of the location, and select specific locations to thoroughly examine. We will also create a Facebook page for the class, and before each trip daily post photos from the upcoming trip location as little one minute lessons. We will also meet after each trip and review what was discovered.

Our first meeting for the 2012 class will be February 25th. The morning will be orientation for the new members, and in the afternoon, members of previous classes will join us for review of the organisms we might find on our first trip. We will be investigating header canyons in the Stockton Plateau on March 31st. If you would like to see some of what we have already found, go to www.sibleynaturecenter.org, click on habitats on the home page, select and click breaks and canyons on the index. On that page, scroll down to the photoessays that are in the "Seasons of the Stockton Plateau" collection.

Later in the year we plan on visiting the Mescalero Dunes west of Tatum New Mexico, along the far western escarpment of the Llano Estacado. We also may join a Biobliz event at the ranch near Matador owned by Dr. David Hillis of University of Texas, but the planning is in an early stage. During the summer, guest speakers will give presentations.

The cost of the 11 month course is $75, which covers the cost of the state curriculum and a year's membership to the Sibley Nature Center. To be state certified, you must attend 40 hours of training and 8 hours of advanced training, as well as doing 40 hours of volunteer service, but we allow folks who do not have that much time to be associate members and join us when they can.

The Sibley Nature Center, thanks to the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists, has amassed a photo collection of more than 50,000 images. Volunteers and staff are presently collating these photos to be loaded on to large touch screen monitors in the Llano Estacado room, as well as creating information pages describing local observations of each organism's behavior and natural history.

With modern technology, there is no reason we should not be able to maintain a database of our local flora and fauna. We hope to inspire landowners and residents of the smaller towns of the region to also actively go out and photograph their surroundings in detail. The Sibley Nature Center already receives thousands of requests for information each year (via drop-in visitors, email, facebook page, and phone calls), and often receive referrals from other agencies in the region (NRCS, TPWD, Texas AG extension, and so on). The photo collection is an invaluable tool for us as we provide this service. Eventually we hope to put out the information as smartphone apps that can be accessed in the field.

We feel the project is important, and is one that can only grow in the future. We will never know all that is known about the area. We will discover things new to science (as we already have with new behaviors of arthropods, range extensions of plants and birds, and introductions of possible new aggressively invasive species.) As a class member, you will get to visit private property that few get to see, and meet some fine west Texans and Eastern New Mexicans!

If you are a photographer, you will meet folks that shoot 3D, infrared, underwater, microscopic, and supermacro photographs. If you are a landowner, you will learn more about the organisms of your land. We even have college professors taking the class, as well as professional biologists. If you are a newcomer to west Texas, don't worry – nobody knows everything about our landscape and fresh eyes often see what no other eyes see! The class is great for retired folks, too! One of our most accomplished naturalists is only 18 (and he has been with us for 3 years), so young folks are welcome to join in as well, providing they have an enthusiastic interest in the out of doors and photography.