For more than 20 years, the Zionsville Nature Center, which is inside Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library, has been expanding its community programming efforts. One such effort is the Indiana Naturalist Program.
Parks and recreation naturalist Rachel Felling gave an update on the program to the Zionsville Board of Parks & Recreation in August.
The Indiana Master Naturalist Program is administered through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The program was started at the Nature Center in 2023, completing two sessions since then.
“We brought 30 people (per session) in all to learn about Indiana’s natural resources,” Felling said. “The program requires that everyone who goes through it has to do at least 24 hours of coursework. We broke it down into eight, three-hour sessions so it took the entire spring season. The folks in the program have to do 24 hours of community service (related to natural resources) to earn their official certification as an Indiana Master Naturalist.”
The sessions included guest speakers Mark Booth, director of Take Flight! Wildlife Education, who discussed birds of prey, and Hoosier Herpetological Society president Jim Horton, who discussed amphibians and reptiles. Staff also taught sessions on aquatic ecology and native plants.
Felling said participants assisted the parks and recreation department with weed wrangles, school field trips, animal care and plantings. Volunteers also spent time in a “bio blitz” in May at Carpenter Nature Preserve before development of the new passive preserve begins. Participants made more than 900 observations of more than 300 species of plants, animals, and fungi in a little more than three hours.
“It was a chance for us to take a moment to try to catalog some of the native and nonnative species that are on that property before construction starts,” Felling said. “We even identified what we believe is a rare and endangered plant which we’ve now got flagged and roped off and the information was sent to the IDNR.”
A second bio blitz event is planned for Sept. 21.
The Nature Center also hosted a Junior Indiana Master Naturalist program for children ages 9-12 over the summer.
Twenty kids participated in the junior program, which included 16 hours of coursework and six hours of volunteer work during a one-week summer camp-style event. The junior program is sponsored by the Zionsville Optimist Club.
“They removed Asian honeysuckle from the Zionsville nature sanctuary. Those kids cut and filled an entire truck in about an hour and a half,” Felling said. “Their other big volunteer project, and we have the library to thank for helping with the technology for this, we split into groups and they worked with laptops (and) created a Zionsville Parks Field Guide.”
The field guide provides examples of local birds of prey, insects, snakes, turtles, fish, habitats and ecosystems. A QR code for the field guide was posted on a sign in Overley-Worman Park for visitors.
Felling said the Nature Center will continue the programs next year. The Nature Center is piloting the first advanced master naturalist program this fall.
The stated mission of the Zionsville Nature Center is to “encourage Zionsville and Central Indiana families to take an active role in their native environment through educational and inquiry-based programs and activities.”
Learn more at zionsville-in.gov/270/Zionsville-Nature-Center.
