The Ice Storm of February 2023 awed us with its undeniable beauty. But its destructive force left thousands of households without power and devastated our Central Texas landscape.

With the fallout (literally) after our ice storm, there was a plethora of cleanup to be done throughout the Hill Country. Here's a snapshot of our HCMN team doing just that at Chaetura Canyon.

Welcome to CoCoRaHS! “Volunteers working together to measure precipitation across the nations.”

I was approached by a friend to join a new book club. As a Master Naturalist and someone whose teaching career started in inner-city Houston, I was intrigued by the first book chosen. That book was Farming While Black by Leah Penniman.

Early bloomers emerged after the ice storm…a photo gallery.

Last week, as I came up on Nestbox 1, I heard the slightest rustle. I looked up, and this fancy fellow was standing there.

Take a walk through San Marcos with Jesse Huth’s Zone 1 birding team to see a few of the bird species that contributed to 2022’s record breaking CBC—127 total species recorded by 7 teams.

“To me sustainability is the most important issue in the world today. It affects every individual, all of us every day, and will affect our next generations.”—Salwa Khan

Trees are our partners in smart land stewardship. So what do we need to know about tree structure and growth, tree rings and roots, about enemies of trees? In fact, what exactly is a tree?

We love those amazing creatures who visit us on our property. But have you ever wondered how they survive cold winter weather? Even some of us with our heated houses, warm clothes, and plenty of blankets struggled through Uri. But we survived, and so did most of our beloved birds and other creatures. But how?

“If you want a good sermon, walk out into this country; that is where things come together.” —Gay Dahlstrom

It took curiosity, focus, intelligence, energy, cooperation, and tenacity to become this year’s remarkable new Hays County Master Naturalists. How appropriate that they had named themselves The Caracaras!

The 2022 Annual Meeting of Texas Master Naturalist was packed with over 100 concurrent technical sessions on a stunning variety of topics…Expertise, experience, insight…all for the taking! Hays County Chapter members were standouts!

Every year in the late fall, bird enthusiasts and citizen scientists across the country start preparing for the spring nesting season, which in Central Texas begins in early February. We never tire of monitoring bird boxes, nest cams, and natural cavities to get an intimate glimpse into the secret lives of birds.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of people building nest box trails all across the US, bluebirds are making a comeback today. Bluebirds will begin checking out nest sites for their first brood of the season in January. Late fall through December is the ideal time to ready existing nest boxes and to replace old ones.

So I set out on an early October teal hunt of my own. Only I didn’t bring my shotgun, but instead my camera. I was to meet two-time Naturescapes winning photographer Mike Davis for a sunrise photo shoot on the Plum Creek Soil and Water Conservation Lakes in Kyle.

The night was right for fun and fright at Boo! Hole Halloween 2022. Hays County Master Naturalists were there!

An October Pollinator Slideshow and Monarch Gallery

Morning on the Blanco. Let’s walk upstream along a little stretch of River Road just west of Wimberley, Texas. Another late September dawn slowly brightens what little water still pools in wide shallows, riffles over corrugated limestone riverbed, and squeezes through a last narrow channel under the far bank.

Pleasant Valley Spring (PVS) is the largest documented spring in the Hill Country's Trinity Aquifer system.