Nebraska Master Naturalist
It was a busy weekend again this past weekend; another “working weekend” at least for a portion of it. I want to tell you about what I did.
Yesterday I taught a couple of topics for Nebraska’s Master Naturalist program. This is a program where folks who are very interested in Nebraska’s natural resources can receive over 60 hours of in-depth training about those resources and Nebraska’s outdoors. Participants in this program receive a well-rounded education about all of Nebraska’s natural resources and outdoor skills. After completing this program, the Master Naturalists can then use their training and knowledge in a variety of ways–habitat restoration, ecotourism, volunteer in nature centers or state parks, teach and mentor anglers, hunters, and other outdoors folks, citizen science, school programs and classes, etc., etc. Honestly, how the graduates use their training is limited only by their imagination. The graduates will possess a wealth of information about Nebraska natural resources and great outdoors and they can share that with others in a variety of ways. Be sure to go to their website and check it out, http://snr.unl.edu/naturalist/index.html .
This weekend the Master Naturalist students had some aquatics training. Herb Angell our boating law administrator (http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/boating.asp) taught them some water safety and kayaking, and then I taught a session on Nebraska aquatics and some basic fishing skills. For those of you who know me and know how I can ramble, would you believe I got all of that done in an afternoon!? It was not easy because to talk about Nebraska aquatics I had to include aquatic ecology, limnology, entomology, biochemistry, physics, ichthyology, biology and physiology, and I am sure there were a few more topics I managed to sneak in there. Anyway, I hope I did not bore the 28 or so students that were there. The folks who are enrolled in this program are there because they very much want to be there and learn; it is always easy to teach folks like that and I do not know about them, but I have fun doing it. I am very impressed with the commitment those students have made!
We had the sessions yesterday at Platte River State Park, http://outdoornebraska.ne.gov/parks/guides/parksearch/showpark.asp?Area_No=224 . Platte River SP is undergoing some changes as that area is going to be used for even more educational programs and events. It was the perfect spot for the Master Naturalist sessions yesterday; I have been there for a lot of events and programs already and I am sure I will be there a lot more in the future.
If any of you are motivated to become even more involved in Nebraska’s natural resources or if you just want to increase your knowledge and appreciation of those natural resources, I would highly recommend the Master Naturalist Program. Check it out, consider it; I will guarantee you will learn a lot and that it will be learning you can share with a lot of other folks!
