What in the World is a Master Naturalist?

I'm so glad you asked. To my way of thinking, a master naturalist is a person who is endlessly curious about the natural world and interested in sharing that curiosity with others.

I stumbled upon the Arkansas Master Naturalist program about 18 months ago on a family trip to Pinnacle Mountain State Park when I saw one of the group's pamphlets. I learned that the organization's purpose was to enhance and promote nature through a highly educated force of ardent volunteers.

To become an Arkansas Master Naturalist you must acquire at least  40 hours of education during one of the annual January-to-May training periods.  Classes are typically held in two sessions each Saturday, and there are plenty of courses to pick from. You could probably rack up closer to 55 hours if you wanted to. Upon completing the 40 hours you will receive your Arkansas Master Naturalist pin. The mission is then to complete at least 40 hours of nature-related volunteer work in the public interest during the June to May period. If you make that goal, you attain the title of Certified Arkansas Master Naturalist.

There are chapters of the organization now in central Arkansas, the Arkansas River Valley, Northwest Arkansas and North-Central Arkansas. It is an independent, non-political, non-profit organization and I am on its board of directors. For a better understanding of the group and all that we do, go to http://home.arkansasmasternaturalists.org/

The group is packed with diverse and interesting people. Just in my immediate circle, I know a semi-retired Methodist minister, geologist, retired pharmaceutical company manager, professor of physics, lifelong caregiver and research psychiatrist. Long-term members are community-driven people, good-natured and fun to be around. Once you have your naturalist title you can pretty much engage in any type of volunteer work you like. Some of my colleagues like to group together on workdays, where have made tremendous strides in trail-building at places like Burns Park and Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Others, like me, are often drawn to things we can do on our own, like trail-intepreter gigs, or wildlife-habitat creation.

Here's my advice to you, though, if you are considering doing this: Don't get involved  if you just want the education. There are plenty of books you can read if this is what you are after. Instead, join if you want to learn a ton and then put that knowledge and passion to work to help preserve, protect and promote the natural resources of Arkansas. You will find an organization that needs your passion, time and expertise.

My volunteer work has mostly centered around wildlife habitat and helping out the good folks at the Pinnacle visitor's center. With two other master naturalists, I helped build some bluebird house kits and then organized the assemply of those houses by third- and fourth-grade kids at Don Roberts Elementary School in Little Rock. They kids then painted the boxes, and my wife and I hung them up in carefully selected locales around the campus. Every week to 10 days I monitored the boxes to see what was nesting, and in the end. about 5 bluebird nests were built in the boxes.

I have also spent a lot of time at Pinnacle doing such things as helping to clean the alligator and turtle enclosures, leading tours of the Kingfisher Trail and wading through water with kids looking for crawdads. All good fun.

This year I hope to expand what I am doing with wildlife habitat by creating nesting boxes for wood ducks, screech owls, bats, mason bees, bluebirds and the like. I also have a goal of creating a frog-and-toad presentation for elementary kids.

If you are interested in the organization, message me or hit the website. Classes start in January. It would be a treat to see you involved. But if you would like to support the organization financially I can probably give you a few ideas.

Toad Whisperer

I've been hanging out near my small pond lately -- it's not even as big as a VW Beetle. Right now, there are 10 are 12 of an unknown species of frog or toad hopping around in there, moving along the lily pads. They like basking in the sun, and just left tadpole stage in the last few weeks. They were very big tadpoles -- thought they might turn out to be bullfrogs. Got a close-up look this morning and could not identify them yet based on the info I had. They have an interesting streak of yellow and black splots under their chin.

Anyway, they got me thinking about the first pond I ever dug, at a different house: the old place in Hillcrest. If you don't know Little Rock, Hillcrest is an old, very woodsy neighborhood that is kind of overgrown, and, in places, there are some open ditches. For most people, open ditches are ugly. For toads, they are a 1970s water bed and a suitcase of Falstaff.

At our spot on G Street we could hear a lot of croaking at night, especially after heavy periods of rain. One spring, probably about 9-10 years ago, I decided to build a small pond in the backyard and create a stone patio around it. I was not prepared for how hard it would be to dig more than three feet down. It was a project. The process I used was about like what I did out here in my new digs at Kanis Village.

How to Dig a Pond
1. Dig a hole with stairsteps getting more shallow toward the edges.
2. Remove rocks, roots and other sharp things.
3. Put a layer of something over the soil to create a cushion between the rubber liner that was to come and the pebbles and stuff below it. I used newspaper circulars -- tons of them. Created many layers and then moistened them, creating a cushion that hugged the pond bottom.
4. Lay down a flexible pond liner from a home store over the pond hole and push it down as much as possible.
5. Do not trim the liner!!!! Instead, fill the thing with water. The water is so heavy it pushes the liner deeper into the hole and its ledges, until they are snug together. That uses up more of the liner.
6. Check to see if you need to bolster any low places in the pond edge.
7. Now, trim the liner to within about a foot or so of the pond edge.
8. Install rocks over the lip of the liner to disguise it and naturalize the project.
9. Put water plants down in the pond and rest them on the ledges, or down in the center deep section.
10. Finish up the liner trimming and make it look like the pond has always been there.
11. DO NOT PUT ANY FISH IN AT THIS POINT!
12. Purchase some floating plants -- I recommend water lettuce. Don't use water hyacinth. It is an invasive and I think it might actually be illegal.
13. When the floating plans begin to put on new growth, now you can probably put some goldfish -- something small and inexpensive -- down in the pond.

Ok, back to the point. I put this pond together on a warm April day or two. On the night I finished, I filled it with water and put a pond light down in the water (ground-fault interrupter circuit, please). I then heard, for the first time, toads croaking through the bedroom window, right out there near the pond. I looked out there and two toads were, um, conjoined, and hanging on for dear life to one of the plants. I could not believe it.

They knew the water was there and just went for it. They next day, there was a long, transparent tube of toad eggs wrapped around the plant in several circles. Soon there were tadpoles, and more toads, and more toads, and more.

Seriously, on any given night there could be 15 toads out there. And all of them would be singing at the same time. Later, after becoming an Arkansas Master Naturalist and nerding out on things like the Herps of Arkansas website, I figured out that they were Fowler's Toads. They make a sound like "Roaaaarrrrrrrrk!" They will call back and forth with that song, with slight variations in pitch and tone. I want you to hear this song right now. So click on http://www.herpsofarkansas.com/wiki/uploads/Frog/AnaxyrusFowleri/DS300037.mp3

Imagine 15 of those? This went on through all of the spring, and just about all of the summer. In summer, we were the only water in town. Every toad in a square-mile area seemed to know our place. In early to mid springs, I would see literally hundreds of small toads hopping around the yard. I could barely step without nudging one. On February when I started my gardening, I would dig one up -- alive.

This went on for years. I kept a nature journal of the Hillcrest home, and I recorded the first time I would hear a toad on the pond each year. About four years later, I noticed that the toads were late by about 10 days. I was...concerned? So, that night about 10 o'clock, I went out, and, to the best of my ability, did the toad mating call. I sort of surprised myself. "Damn, I'm good at this," I thought. "If this job doesn't work out I could always-"

No time for that nonsense. From 30 feet away, my plaintiff call was answered. "Roaaarrrrrrrk!" I called back, and my love song was reciprocated as the toad hopped a few feet closer. Again, with feeling, and now the toad was steadily moving in. And again. And again. And now another toad is coming, and now, they two of them are presumably forging a love connection. And here comes a third. It's an embarrassment of croaking riches.

Many nights, I would sit out and sing to the toads. I doubt the neighbors ever divined that one of the toads went about 190 pounds and six feet, wartless, clean-shaven and smelling of Safari and citronella.

A year or so later, we had a theater cast party themed completely around the toads. We made party posters with little toads. I highlighted my calling skills. Predictably and sadly, no one was impressed.

When I left that house, I left that little pond behind, but I knew there would be other toads, other ponds. When I built my new pond at Kanis Village, my ex-wife was kind enough to let me dig up some iris from the yard to use around my little body of water. She moved a couple of years later, and, in an act of treason, the people who bought the house filled in the pond.

***

Honestly, the old pond was kind of a pain. It had a waterfall and a pump, and a light under the water. The electrical stuff would short out during heavy rains somehow, and the pump would go out once a year. At the new house, I went simple: no pump, no light, no waterfall. This one would be a pure frog pond. A little algae, some lilly pads, some native plants, and the azaleas I transplanted from the front yard.

The simple approach has been marvelous. Last year, among other critters, I hosted a green frog -- a big green sucker with a call like a loose banjo string: http://www.herpsofarkansas.com/wiki/uploads/Frog/LithobatesClamitans/DS300036.mp3

This year, the so-far-unknown frog/toads are not yet telling me their calls.

A few nights ago, off in the distance, I heard the lonely call of the Fowler's Toad. Something stirred within me. I looked back at my family in the living room, and across the yard to my neighbor's deck. Ah, heck.  "Roaaarrrrrk!" I called back. "Roaaaaarrrrrrrrkkkkk!!"  Not this time. Too many trees between us. Safe travels, I thought. Perhaps another pond and time.

Welcome to Arkansas Nature Boy

Ever sat out in your back yard at night wondering what kind of frog was making that noise? Followed a bumblebee to its nest? Dug up a native plant to put by your homemade pond? Built a trail for the kids? Or even dreamed of doing these kinds of things? This blog is for you.

I'm creating a place to go for information about providing habitat for wildlife, nature education for adults and children, preservation of our natural heritage, and education about organic gardening. There will be brief posts about bugs, plants, frogs or birds I have found, articles about pond-making, composting, gardening on a slope, etc.

 If you would like to see something about how to build a certain bird house, or want me to help you identify a critter, bring it on. Tell me about the kinds of nature topics you want to learn about; I'll share what I know and we will learn the rest together. I'd be especially grateful if my Arkansas Master Naturalist colleagues would contribute ideas or articles.

My plan is for Nature Boy to be a great one-stop resource for nature information, and eventually, a platform from which I can promote nature appreciation at elementary schools. Yes, wait til you see my Nature Boy costume. :-)