Volunteer Ops

Here’s your opportunity to help with two very important projects at Welder. We will be building a grass demonstration garden for education of school groups and the public about the grasses that grow at Welder. This project will be watered using a rainwater harvesting system provided by Karen Ivy, San Patricio Municipal Water District. The rainwater system will also serve as an educational demonstration.

A second garden of native plants for birds and butterflies will be built at the CONE site to attract more wildlife to the area as well as to serve educational purposes. These projects are supported by Aransas-San Patricio Master Gardeners, Mid-Coast Chapter TMN, and the Welder volunteers. If you don’t know about CONE, register and log on at http://cone.berkeley.edu/ and use the camera to look around the site at Welder.

If you would like to help, please contact Russ & Marilee Bell at rmbell4042@charter.net or 361-729-0227. Further information will be provided to those who express an interest in helping with the projects.

Goose Island Invasives Removal

Bill Wilson needs help getting rid of invasive species at Goose Island State Park. For more information, or to volunteer, contact him at bill.wilson@tpwd.state.tx.us or 361-729-7515.

Volunteer Opportunities at ANWR

See the ANWR page.

Birding Guide Resource Persons Needed

Middle school students at Port Lavaca are developing a birding guide for the Myrtle Whitmire unit of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. As part of their effort, they need to be able to interview local-area birders. If you can help, please contact Sherri Krause at 361-552-5023 or krauses@calcoisd.org.

Phytoplankton Monitoring Network (PMN) Project

Volunteers take water samples from a site two to four times monthly, analyze the samples for phytoplankton that may cause Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB), and then upload the information into an Internet database. If you did not receive the training, you can do on-the-job training with a PMN team member. For more information contact TJ Fox, who is coordinating the Chapter effort, at 361-729-2992 or tj.fox@charter.net to volunteer and arrange for OJT.

For more information about the program, see the PMN website.

Mid-Coast Chapter Speakers Bureau

If you are already making presentations to local groups as a Master Naturalist, or would like to, we would like know about you and be able to contact you if a group requests a speaker. Even if you are not interested in speaking to the public, if you would be interested in helping develop the program, please contact Paul at 361-570-3679 or paulmary0211@sbcglobal.net.

Victoria Advocate Guest Columnist

Paul and Mary Meredith, as Texas Master Naturalists, write a nature column for the Victoria Advocate. This activity relates directly to our TMN mission, "To develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities." If you would like to write a guest column to appear in the paper, contact Paul or Mary at paulmary0211@sbcglobal.net.

Mid-Coast Website Writer

Know something that other Chapter members would like to know about? Write it up and send it to us at kris_kirkwood@wildblue.net. Don't think you can write? List what happened in chronological order, and we'll write it up for you and get your okay before publishing.

Texas Invaders Volunteer Opportunity

Do you want to help slow the spread of harmful invasive plant species and reduce their ecological and economic damage? The first step is to locate where invaders have arrived and get that information to those who can do something about it.

Check out the Texas Invaders website:

Home page: http://www.texasinvasives.org/
Why do we care? http://www.texasinvasives.org/About/invasives.html
About the Citizen Science Program: http://www.texasinvasives.org/Citizen_Science/citizen.html
Database being built: http://www.texasinvasives.org/Invasives_Database/invaders/Invaders.html

If you did not attend the training session, you can still volunteer for this effort. Contact Kris Kirkwood at 361-729-5901 or by email to kris_kirkwood@wildblue.net for OJT.

Coastal Birding Trails—Improvement and Maintenance

Ray Little mows trails, clears unwanted brush, maintains water drips and feeders, and performs other tasks at Aransas Woods, Fred Jones Nature Sanctuary, Rockport Demonstration Bird Garden and Wetlands Pond, and others. He can always use help. Contact Ray Little at 361-729-8816 or by e-mail to rlittle@pyramid3.net. .

Bird Rescue & Rehabilitation

Volunteers gather bait fish for food, transport birds, administer medications, and other tasks:

Victoria—Contact Janene Adamson at 361-576-3806 or by e-mail to rrosspaull@cox-internet.com. Janene is also certified to do raptor rehabilition.

Bay City Area—Contact Cherie Allen at 979-245-4392 or by e-mail to cherie_iluvbirds@sbcglobal.net

Other Possibilities

Riparian Study—Chapter Project

Mid-Coast TMN Library Education and Outreach

Like to make posters? Talk to your local library and then go for it. Buy a science-project display board and create a static display to help with our TMN mission: "...provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within our communities." The topic is up to you: teach about an environmental subject, display photos of TMN activities such as Matagorda Island Turtle Patrol; the sky is the limit. An additional benefit is the opportunity to publicize what we do and recruit for our Chapter. Contact John O'Connell at 361-920-5312 or by email to j-oconnell@tamu.edu if you have questions, or want suggestions, or need photo contacts.

Insect/Plant CD Development

We want to develop a fund-raiser CD containing photos and narrative descriptions of insects, plants, and grasses in easy-to-access format. Watch this space for details, or contact John O'Connell by e-mail or at 979-245-4100.

Make Your Own Volunteer Opportunity

Check out the Volunteer Contacts page, and contact the person at a place you'd like to volunteer.
Keep an eye out for new opportunities in your community, check the Volunteering Guidelines to see if they fit our TMN mission, and contact Paul Meredith, Projects Chairman at 361-570-3679 or phm8871@louisiana.edu for approval.

New Partnership

If you know of an organization in our Mid-Coast area we could work with to further our TMN mission, complete the Partnership Request form.

Volunteering Guidelines

Forms Downloads (Word Documents)

Monthly Activity Report form—Use this form to report both approved volunteer hours and advanced training
Request for Approval of an Individual Volunteer Activity
Chapter Project Plan Approval Form

Click a link to download a form. Once it is open in your browser, choose Save As... from the File menu to save a copy to your computer. You can then open that copy and complete the form electronically or print it and complete it manually. If you do not have MS Word and need electronic forms in a different format, contact Kris Kirkwood.

Individual Opportunities

Other Information

Welder Wildlife Refuge Gardens Projects