Milestones

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Last week marked two ‘milestones’ in my Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) volunteering:

My tree educational trunk capstone project (part of the MMN training) is finished (or at least at a good stopping place). I had intended to leave it at the Springfield Missouri Department of Conservation for storage…and I savored the fall foliage from my car when I got there. The fall has lingered this year without a hard frost to hurry the end. By the end of the morning, I was taking the trunk home along with some additional educational materials since there is a plan to use the trunk for outreach sessions in January and maybe the Osage orange would be dry enough to add to it by then. I’m still thinking about it as ‘finished.’

I also started a new project: creating a collection of soft pith stems in a bucket (suggestion from Wild Bee Lab Facebook Page). I’ll check it periodically to see if any bees use the stems for nests. My initial collection includes pokeweed, forsythia, bush honeysuckle, and goldenrod. Yes – some are non-native but if the bees use them, I’ll be even more vigorous in getting rid of the non-natives around my yard and doing this with the stems rather than burning them in my chiminea.

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 9

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The last session of the Missouri Master Naturalist Training was one lecture followed by graduation and ice cream cake!

The lecture was on invasives. Most of the invasive plants I was familiar with (from Maryland)…except for Sericea Lespedeza which is a warm-season, perennial legume. It is something that was introduced intentionally then escaped and is now widespread – outcompeting native plants. Frustratingly – its seeds are still being sold and attempts to stop that at the state level have failed.

There were some trunk sections of young ash trees killed by Emerald Ash Borer. The widespread death of ashes in Missouri is happening now…just as it did in Maryland several years ago.

The good (so far) news on the invasive insect front is that Missouri does not have Spotted Lanternfly…although it is probably only a matter of time since the insect is in Illinois and Kentucky.

Graduation included a magnetic name badge and a certificate (and some goodies that included milkweed seeds). I splurged and had 2 pieces of ice cream cake!

I am going to miss the rigor of the class but am relaxing a bit – savoring my Identifying Woody Plants class at the university that continues into December!

Ten Little Celebrations – October 2024

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The temperatures were more pleasant in October….I enjoyed the outdoor field trips and classes a lot more.

Pleasant temperature to walk around the Missouri campus during class. We were outdoors longer but it was easy compared to short hikes around campus in August and September!

Field trip to a healthy stream and woodland. Celebrating the water quality and the native species (not overcome by invasives)!

Cut down a Japanese barberry and burned most of it. Celebrated one more non-native (that is sometimes invasive) being gone from my yard.

Geology field trip plans. I celebrated that enough of my Missouri Master Naturalist classmates and chapter are interested in geology field trips to make them a likely late fall/early winter activity.

Getting seeds planted. I got buckeye, Hopi sunflower, common milkweed, and persimmon seeds during the second week of October….and celebrated when I got them planted. Some must go through the cold temps of winter to sprout in the spring.

Volunteering at a fair for homeschoolers…talking about Monarch butterflies. I celebrated by first gig as a Missouri Master Naturalist…and that my iPad-based slideshow of Monarch butterfly pictures was well received.

Owl Pellet. I vaguely remember that I had dissected an owl pellet in some previous training…but I celebrated that I did a more thorough job this time… and found a complete rodent skull…and the backbone…lots of ribs.

First solo Missouri Master Naturalist volunteer gig. I celebrated that the two days spent doing an after-school program with a local school for gift students was positive for them…and for me!

Whataburger. Sometimes I just want to splurge. On the way back from my Dallas trip, I stopped for a Whataburger…celebrated that it tasted just as I remembered - although I won’t do it very often.

Successfully completed my Missouri Master Naturalist training. Hurray! I am celebrating what I learned and that I now have more time to volunteer!

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 8

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Week 7 of Missouri Master Naturalist consisted of two sessions: a lecture on Fungi that was part of the monthly chapter meeting and two lectures in our regular class: Snakes of Missouri and Endangered Species and Conservation. I took notes during all three! I particularly enjoyed the photographs in the fungi lecture, the snake experiences from a place we had visited for a field trip, and the example used for talking about endangered species (freshwater mussels). I still have a lot of materials from the Missouri Department of Conservation that were on the handout table to browse through from the regular class: salamanders, snakes, mushrooms, lizards, crayfish, toads and frogs, caves and karst, Missouri fishes.

During week 8, I also took action to learn more about Missouri geology on my own since it is not a topic that was covered in the training….starting with two books: Roadside Geology of Missouri by Charles G. Spencer and Geology of Missouri State Parks by Max W. Reams and Carol A. Reams. The second book is the most current – copyrighted in 2022; about 25% of the books is an overview of Missouri geology and then there are sections for state parks by physiographic region. I’ll start with the state parks since it seems safer than stopping at road cuts…although I might keep the Roadside Geology in the car for when my husband is driving, and I can observe as we are on the road.

Next week is graduation week! The time has flown by. I have an evaluation form that I am completing this weekend.

Field Trip to Springfield Wastewater Treatment and Landfill

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The last field trip on the Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training schedule was to the Springfield Wastewater Treatment Plant and Landfill.

The wastewater treatment plant that we toured was the smaller of the two that handle Springfield’s sewage. I was surprised that the smell of the place was not as bad as I expected. Maybe it was not as bad because it was a cool morning, but I expect that it primarily was because of the improvements in technology since I last toured a plant over 50 years ago! Now they have a lot more filters and blowers. There are challenges of materials that shouldn’t be in sewage – small items that get flushed (including wipes) that are still solid when then get to the plant and those are taken out early. There are anaerobic and aerobic basins where microbes do the work of cleaning the water. Sometimes there are enough oils that they must be put back through the process. Once the sludge is taken out, the water is clear and the microbes remaining are killed using UV light before the water leaves the plant for the river; the water released from the plant is about the same water quality as the river and there is monitoring to make sure that is true.   

The landfill is uphill from the wastewater plant; the landfill is a high hill so there are great views of the countryside around it.

It was a learning experience…I took notes. The landfill is 1200 acres of land with 213 acres active (i.e. there is plenty of buffer between the landfill and neighboring properties). We learned about the landfill’s construction that protects groundwater; the liner under each cell of the landfill is 5 foot thick: compressed aggregates, felt, plastic, leachate pipe (to drain of liquids) surrounded by river gravel, and finally felt. Each cell of the landfill is 5-10 acres. The leachate pipes are connected to a sewage line that takes the fluid down the hill to the wastewater treatment plant. The temperature in the landfill is 100-120 degrees and that is monitored via wells that are extended as pile gets higher. There are 16 ground water wells near the landfill that are checked every 6 months. They have increased the number of gas wells from 97 to 148; at present the methane is flared because it is not clean enough to put into natural gas pipelines (and it evidently is expensive to get it clean enough). The landfill had been projected to last 100 years when was expanded to 213 active acres but then the pandemic happened, and the projection is now 50 years (we are sending a lot more to the landfill since the pandemic). The city is more actively trying to divert yard waste away from the landfill and promote composting of food scrapes/waste.

The landfill layers quickly become anaerobic because of the heaps of trash piled and compacted. There is a lot of plastic that does no decompose easily even in aerobic conditions and even things that would decompose in aerobic conditions don’t in anerobic. These hills of trash are going to be where they are built for a very long time.

I am thinking about what further changes I will make after this experience. My family tends to have more recycle than trash. The change for me might be that I take more of my recycle to the recycling center rather than doing my curbside bin. Evidently there are lots of things that can happen during mixed stream recycle processing that can result in materials to the landfill.

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 7

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The 7th week of Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training included one evening class and my first solo volunteer gig.

The class lectures were on

  • Forest Ecology and Management

  • Pondering the Pond as a Wildlife Habitat

Forest Ecology and Management was done by a Missouri Department of Conservation Educator; I would like to have the charts since he went through them very quickly! The last segment of the lecture was hands-on…passing out small branches from the tree to everyone and then using the dichotomous key in the back of the Fifty Common Trees of Missouri booklet to id it….a red maple. I photographed my branch’s buds, branches and leaf imperfections!

Pondering the Pond as a Wildlife Habitat was done by a person that has been a MMN for over a decade…and done a lot of videography at a pond in a hayfield (i.e. not used by cattle…with adequate vegetation around its edge). Her Youtube Channel – Nature in Motion is something I will be viewing over the next month! She showed over 100 species in 17 minutes of her talk…fast paced…prompted me to think later about the richness in the intersection of science and art.

The volunteer experience was an after-school event at a local school for gifted students…15-20 minutes sessions with two groups of about 12 students each…on two days. My theme was getting outdoors in the fall and looking at some things that could be found.

My table was set up with items to look at: pinecones (3 different kinds), acorns (3 different kinds), Osage orange fruit, black walnuts (in a bag complete with emerging caterpillars), goldenrod (in flower and seeds), magnolia pod, maple branches, and a holly branch.

It also included a hands-on experience with pressed leaves/small branches. Each student made observations about their leaf (color on both sides, holes, insect eggs, shape)…and then compared it to other leaves at their table. The leaves were mostly oak or maple although there were some that were unique (river birch, magnolia, oak leaf hydrangea, boxwood).

The time past very quickly!

Missouri Master Naturalist Field Trip (2)

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Continuing the blog about the Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) field trip taken last weekend…

My second rotation was nature journalling. I made a Mindmap on the page of my journal during the intro – and decided to do some leave rubbings first. I had brought a stool for the session (a lesson learned from last time when I stood the whole time…and wore myself out). I quickly discovered that the journal book did not have a hard enough cover to support rubbings. I managed to use my phone to provide a more sold surface for the notebook and did 4 rubbings. I found some leaves with galls and other spots…decided to so some macro photography with my phone. I couldn’t resist documenting what the inside of a spicebush seed looked like.

I walked around taking a few pictures of the surroundings…remembering to look up! All the while I was making notes in the journal about what I was thinking as I took pictures.

Then I noticed a shed with moss and leaves on the top. I took some pictures of it…remembering the concept of intimate landscapes from a book read years ago and decided to so some of that kind of photography.

The black walnuts in various forms of blackness were an obvious subject. I took several different black walnut ‘landscapes.’ The one I liked the most was an empty husk in the moss with a violet and some brown leaves….did a squirrel take the nut? The second favorite was a group of plants that formed an arch…with red fruits. It looked like a good start for a fairy house.

The last rotation was at the stream to look for macro invertebrates. It was my first time in my river boots since we moved to Missouri…they didn’t leak but I need to practice walking in them!

The water was very low and that made it harder to effectively use the seines although we did find a lot of water pennies. The other group found a couple of small hellgrammites…but the big find was right at the end: a dragonfly larva that looked like a leaf! What a great finale for our field trip activities.

Missouri Master Naturalist Field Trip (1)

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Last weekend was probably the best of the Missouri Master Naturalist training field trips. The location was a privately own mixed forest, old fields, a cemetery and a creek: a place with history and almost 30 years of restoration work. It was a scenic drive of about 20 miles from my house…quickly going to 2 lane road…then a road without a center stripe….and then a single lane gravel round with some low vegetation in the center which I heard brushing on the bottom of my car.  

There were three rotations with lunch between the second and third ones. The day started out cool but was close to 80 by the time we ended so I was pleased to do the walking rotation first. It was focused on native trees and plants…and fungi.

There were lots of black walnuts on the ground….and looking up…it was easy to see which tree was producing them since there were still nuts on the trees.

As we walked along the road – there were several fungi to see on rotting logs.

There were familiar leaves and bark….and heart shaped leaves of wild ginger. The leaves on the ground were brown but there was color in the leaves still on the trees.

The millstone from the old mill (broken into two pieces) was near the entrance to the cemetery…brought there when it was found in the creek. Both areas are reminders of the history of the place as much as a place along the creek we were told about over lunch where many arrowheads had been found (a place there they were made over many hundreds of years before Europeans arrived).

Our guide for fungi had brought some other specimens found elsewhere to share with us since the drought had reduced what we would see otherwise on our walk.

The hour past very quickly and we headed back to our next rotation which was journaling…I’ll post about that tomorrow.  

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 6

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Week 6 of Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training was busy because I also did my first MMN volunteering too! I’m counting that ‘first’ as part of the training. The evening class was focused on:

  • plants and their pollinators. This was a great update --- particularly about native pollinators. I’d learned some things from my etymologist son-in-law (i.e. I had seen the video of buzz pollination and had observed nectar robbing behavior when touring a garden) but it was observational rather than an organized lecture. This lecture filled in the holes of what I had learned previously!

  • the educational trunk contents and the kinds of programs we do with them. There are bins (“trunks”) for bison, pelts, skulls, insects, birds, turtles, amphibians…and they are trying to develop a new one about urban pollinator landscaping. I got more ideas for the tree educational trunk I am creating…understanding more about how it will be used. I am not sure how often I will use some of the trunks, but it is good to know that they exist.

My volunteering at the MMN table at a fair of home schoolers was the highlight of my week. The 4-hour fair was held at a local nature center and organizations had tables of activities for the 300 families that had registered for the event. The MMN table was focused on Monarch Butterflies. We had life cycle puzzles for the students to work, 2 chrysalis in a mesh tent (one healthy, another parasitized), seeds for 3 kinds of milkweed, a coloring page, and a vocabulary word/definition matching page, lots of brochures, and a slideshow (I had put together the slideshow from some recent photographs I’d taken to play on my iPad…the charge lasted for 3.5 hours). By the end we had no seeds left and very few brochures. It was a well-attended event!

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 5

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There were 2 training evenings and a Saturday field trip in week 5 of my Missouri Master Naturalist Training.

The first evening was about Lions (mountain lions), Tigers (tiger swallowtail butterflies), and bears (black bears) native to Missouri. The tigers and bears have established populations in the state whereas the lions are wandering males from other states (so far). The bears segment included a pelt, skull…and some videos of black bears enjoying a good back scratch (using a tree trunk) and a slides about how the research on the Missouri bear population is done/what has been learned. The largest concentration of black bears in Missouri is close to Springfield!

The second evening was about prairies, which was a good follow up to our field trip to La Petite Gemme a few weeks ago, and animal skulls. The animal skulls session was probably the one with the most new-to-me content; there as a collection of skulls that we were told to organize in a continuum from herbivore to omnivore to carnivore…what a great hands on experience. The most unusual skull was the one from the armadillo!

The field trip was to the Springfield Botanical Gardens. It was in two segments:

  • Focusing on the Roston Native Butterfly House and Caterpillar Buffet garden next to it…with the butterfly garden nearby where there were quite a few migrating Monarch butterflies (one of them that we watched being tagged).

  • Then a general walk around the garden with some commentary on the features of the garden, the challenge of vandalism, and lots of evidence of fall. I picked up a few leaves and a black walnut to add to my tree educational trunk. The sky was clear…so an excellent day for looking up at trees!

The day also included a presentation about the value of dark sky (also learning that St. Louis’ Stacy Park is an Urban Dark Sky Place) and dissection of a Barn Owl pellet. I found a complete mouse skull and backbone in my pellet (and pieces of an insect’s exoskeleton) along with a lot of smaller bones; I was one of the last students to leave because I was finding so many bones in my pellet!

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 4

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There were 2 Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) training evenings during week 4. The topics for the first one were migratory birds and wildlife management. Both lectures were informative, and I read 3 publications from the Missouri Department of Conservation afterward:

 Missouri Bird Conservation Plan Technical Section

Missouri Bird Conservation Plan Outreach Plan

Missouri Wildlife Management Plan

The topics for the second evening were Birds of Missouri (also Project Feederwatch), capstone projects and Botany. I took a bowl of show-and-tell materials that is the beginning of some collecting for my MMN capstone project (an educational trunk for trees). The red seeds of the magnolia that look a lot like red M&Ms and the size comparison between acorns (pin and white oak) and cones (hemlock and shortleaf) were the biggest hits…fun to share.

The follow-up from this class is to be ready to participate in Project Feederwatch at my house beginning in November; it will be something my husband and I will do together.

One of the handouts was a booklet Fifty Common Trees of Missouri (from the Missouri Department of Conservation) which I promptly looked at and checked the trees I’ve seen in the field in my Identifying Woody Plants class (30 of the 50 although the introductory lectures we have before going into the field have covered more of the 50).

I still need to browse the handouts from the two sessions.

There are also some things I can do to move along my capstone project…and I need to remember to keep track of the hours I am spending doing that.

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 3

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Week 3 of my Missouri Master Naturalist Training included my first Springfield Plateau Chapter monthly meeting. There is not an equivalent to it in Maryland, so it was a new experience. The first part of the evening was networking over a potluck light dinner. I met a Master Naturalist that teaches high school biology and got some tips on my capstone project that is part of the training.

Then there was a lecture on prairie reconstruction/restoration on private land that started in the mid-1980s. The target was established by a land survey done in 1835 that noted the types and sizes of trees at ½ mile intervals. Most of the area around Springfield tended toward savannah (prairie with some trees). Most of the trees noted in the survey were oaks and hickories. There are 385 plant species now growing on the reconstructed prairie…that has a Floristic Quality Assessment score of 4.2 which compares favorably with other restored/reconstructed prairies in the area. But maybe the greatest joy is from seeing red-headed woodpeckers returned to some of the snags!

There was a short break before the business meeting (more networking). I learned a lot about the chapter from the business meeting…the committee reports were enlightening and I talked with 3 of the committee leads after the meeting. I already have my first Missouri Master Naturalist volunteer gig scheduled…and have ideas on the committees most relevant to the type of volunteering I want to do. There are hours to support the chapter too that I need to think about since that type of volunteer hours is not something I did in Maryland.

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 2

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During last week’s class, we headed out to Kickapoo Edge Prairie which is a small area of the Springfield Botanical Gardens that is being managed as a reconstructed prairie.

Along the way we stopped at the rain garden and I got the last good light to photograph some seed pods there.

A paved walk runs through the prairie making it easy to see many native species of grasses and prairie flowers. This time of year, the goldenrods are blooming, and the milkweed pods are fat – not popped open yet. The prairie is surrounded by trees of the garden so keeping woody growth out is challenging; they clip and drip (herbicide on the cut stem) plus do burns periodically. One woody plant they are letting stay so far is Smooth Sumac. They have two sizes of ragweed – a regular sized plant and some giant plants; I was surprised that I did not have any allergy problems after the walk. On a more positive note:  there is a passionflower native to Missouri (Passiflora incarnata) and there was a plant blooming in this prairie!

The class included a discussion of native plants…focusing on plants that do well in yards around our homes.

Our field trip to La Petite Gemme Prairie was last weekend. It is about 40 miles north of the Springfield Botanical Gardens. I took a few pictures at the gardens where we met before heading to the prairies for carpool organization  since parking is limited at the prairie location: a playground silver maple and a nearby yellow poplar…both displaying some fall color. There were also leaves on the ground with interesting nodules (insects?). It was a great day for a field trip – in the 70s, a little breezy, cloudy but getting sunny later.

At the prairie before we started our session I noticed a path mowed through it and took a few pictures before the program started.

We were divided into groups. My first session was about the nature photography. We walked through the tall grass and up a hill (i.e. not the mowed path). I was glad I had my jeans tucked into my socks and some gaiters over that. It was my first experience walking through a prairie!

My favorite flowers of the day were the Prairie Gentians (Gentiana puberulenta)

But several different kinds of goldenrods and blazing stars were great to photograph too.

Our second session was to id as many plants as we could encircled by a hula-hoop. Most of us used the SEEK app although we quickly learned that it is hard to get good focus on the plant to id with all the other plants crowded close together…and the breeze moving everything.

Of course, there are small creatures about too…I managed to photography a grasshopper and a yellow spider.

The third session was an intro to nature journalling. We spred out along the mowed path. I thought about the layering of the prairie…the shortest to tallest plants; the plants are very dense closer to the ground; usually the grasses are the highest although some sunflowers get tall. I noticed a barbed wire fence (probably the boundary of the prairie) and how tall the plants were on the other side…including some woody plants; it takes work to maintain the prairie as it is.

On the way to our fourth session, I photographed a wasp (Great golden digger wasp, Sphex ichneumoneous?) on a goldenrod.

The fourth session was about seed dispersal. The ones that stuck to my clothes mainly during the hike in the first session were champion hitchhikers, but I managed to get most of them off before we headed home. So far, I don’t think I was bitten by anything!

A wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning!

Missouri Master Naturalist Training – Week 1

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The training to become a Missouri Master Naturalist (MMN) started last week. Some weeks there is only one session…sometimes there are more sessions or field trips or chapter meetings. September and October are going to be busy months this year! The first class was at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center starting at 6 PM. I went a little early do some late afternoon photography in the garden areas near the building. I always enjoy the rain garden area with the duck sculpture almost covered with vegetation this time of year. There were goldenrod soldier beetles on the asters and golden rods….skippers on the asters. A mallow was beginning to fade nearby.

On my way from the rain garden to the build I noted what looked like a large basket beside the sidewalk; I didn’t try to open it.

In the raised bed near the door there were several interesting plants…including some chard and an oak leaf hydrangea in bloom.

Inside I met the rest of the people that will be in the class with me. There were handouts that included a Missouri Master Naturalist tote bag. Since we all got one, I am thinking about making some Zentangle patterns on the back so that I can easily identify my bag!

The lecture topics were History of Conservation and Insects. I appreciated that we had a break to walk around between lectures since my back starts hurting if I sit for longer than an hour!

I am using a blank book my daughter picked up at a recent conference for note taking since the activity is part of my learning strategy (forces me to pay closer attention). The charts are evidently not going to be posted or sent to us so my notes will be what I will have from the class.

I find myself comparing this class with the one for Maryland Master Naturalist 9 years ago; but realizing that whatever they do here in Missouri for training is geared for the type of volunteer opportunities available here….and the volunteer work is why I am in the training!

Missouri Master Naturalist Orientation

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I went to an orientation session about becoming a Missouri Master Naturalist last week. The meeting was held at the Springfield-Greene County Botanical Center (the building in the Botanical Gardens). I spent a few minutes photographing some flowers (one with a bumblebee) in the Master Gardeners area before I went into the building.

The session was an overview of the process to become a Missouri Master Naturalist and then an informal time to talk to people that were already Missouri Master Naturalists. It was a learning experience….confirmed my decision to start the training and participate as soon as I can in volunteer opportunities. I’ve already noticed some differences between the way Maryland and Missouri implemented their Master Naturalist program…but the idea at the core is same and there are a lot of commonalities in the types of training and volunteering – which is the motivation for me! I’m excited to get started in September. It is the same type feeling I had toward the end of summer during my school years.