COLUMBIA, Mo.– Across the state, volunteer master naturalists are monitoring water quality in streams, performing wildlife inventories, helping with prairie-restoration efforts and facilitating activities and educational programs at wildlife refuges, parks and conservation areas.

The Missouri Master Naturalist program, a collaboration of University of Missouri Extension, MU’s School of Natural Resources and the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), began in 2004 with two pilot chapters, said Bob Pierce, program co-coordinator and MU Extension fish and wildlife specialist.

“The program’s mission is to engage Missourians in the stewardship of the state’s natural resources through science-based educational and community service,” Pierce said.

The program has expanded to 11 chapters across the state, with more than 500 volunteers participating in the educational program. “These highly motivated individuals have performed more than 30,000 hours of service to local communities across the state,” he said.

To become a certified master naturalist, volunteers receive at least 40 hours of classroom and field instruction, perform 40 hours of volunteer service and complete eight hours of advanced training, said Syd Hime, Master Naturalist program co-coordinator with MDC.

To retain certification, each year master naturalists complete another eight hours of advanced training and 40 hours of service.

To create service opportunities, chapters work with organizations such as municipal, county and state agencies, businesses, nonprofits and other volunteer associations.

“Each chapter creates its own unique educational experience and selects service projects on which members will work,” said certified master naturalist Suzanne Wright, a past president of Columbia’s Boone’s Lick chapter.

For example, volunteers from Wright’s chapter collected seeds for an MDC prairie-restoration project, conducted a butterfly census for the Overton Bottoms unit of the Big Muddy National Wildlife Refuge and built a shelter for chimney swifts at the Wild Haven Nature Area, a 103-acre Audubon Society wildlife sanctuary near Columbia.

Projects by other chapters include:

-Building a native-plant rain garden at the Lewis and Clark Boathouse in St. Charles.

-Creating a Braille nature trail at a campground for disabled and disadvantaged children in Phelps County.

-Helping with prairie chicken restoration efforts on MDC prairies near Warsaw.

-Forming a citizens group to address water-quality issues in the Spring River watershed in southeast Missouri.

-Conducting lichen surveys at the Missouri State University’s Bull Shoals Field Station.

-Holding educational programs at the Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center near Joplin.

“You learn and do amazing things,” Wright said. This spring she will begin her fourth season of banding migrant songbirds under the guidance of MDC ornithologist Andy Forbes. It’s an opportunity she doubts would have happened except through the Missouri Master Naturalist program.

“A lot of what we do is education,” Wright said. “When a little kid can hold a live bird and release it after banding, that opens up a world of possibilities.”

Missouri’s master naturalists commit a lot of time and effort for no pay, but certified master naturalist Vanessa Melton of the Boone’s Lick chapter says it’s worth it. “The program gives you the opportunity to learn a little about a lot of things,” she said. “And if you choose a certain area to focus on, you can learn more about it through advanced training. You can learn a lot about things like mammals, habitats, ecosystems, invertebrates and plants that you never even thought to ask about.”

While environmental and conservation issues can seem vast and overwhelming, Wright says that the program empowers volunteers to make a genuine contribution.

“There’s not a lot you can do as an individual about the rain forest in the Amazon or drilling in the Arctic, but you can do something right here in your community that really can make a difference,” she said.

Chapters will soon conduct training for the Missouri Master Naturalist class of 2009. More information about the program is online at www.monaturalist.org. Click on the “News” link to learn about upcoming training opportunities.

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