For The Naturalist School, walking is a school of thought. So is crouching, stooping, stalking, squinting, muddy knees and peering through binoculars or a hand lens. And we take copious notes; here we know nature by experience, by hand, face to face, skin on skin. There are many nature programs that will line you up in chairs in a dark room to look at slide after slide, make you register on line and pay for parking. TNS meets in small groups* to explore native places and the only power point we use is fingers.
The Naturalist School partners with landowners and agencies to explore and help preserve wild and native communities with biotic surveys, workshops, consulting and volunteer support. We bring experts on wide varieties of taxa into the field to walk and work with us. But the eyes and ears belong to the volunteers that join us in the field. Together we grow in knowledge and intimacy with worlds that pulse with wildness still and commit ourselves to protecting them. If you would like to join us, let us know! The only requirements are quiet curiosity and good boots. And if you are a landowner, conservation agency, or nature center, invite us for a hike!
The data we collect and the species lists we create inform the conservation plans of our program partners and contribute to ongoing ecological research. Our current and recent program partners are Aldo Leopold Foundation, Loess Hills Alliance, Harrison County Conservation, Iowa DNR, Golden Hills RC&D, Pottawattamie County Conservation, Living Prairie Museum (Winnipeg), Papio-Missouri NRD, and Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna Fire Science Consortium. If your agency or nature center would like to host The Naturalist School for workshops, biotic surveys or volunteer-based field studies, contact Jack Phillips at thenaturalistschool@gmail.com.
(Photos by Robert Smith, saw-whet owl by Abbe Richardson.)