Master Naturalist Group is 200th â€œTeamingâ€? Member

WEST PLAINS, Mo.-Efforts to secure reliable funding for conserving all wildlife got a boost recently when the Missouri Department of Conservation recruited the 200th member of Teaming with Wildlife (TWW).
Making history is nothing new for this group of dedicated conservationists.

The Ozark Chapter of the Missouri Master Naturalists was the first in the state to complete a rigorous training course laid out by the Conservation Department in 2004. With 60 members and 23 more signed up for training, the chapter is a leader in the Master Naturalist movement.

Ozark Chapter members come from diverse backgrounds. Members include nurses, an administrator from a national corporation, a circuit judge, a bee keeper, an artist, teachers, retirees and a commercial ginger root producer.

Like the members themselves, the training Missouri Master Naturalists
(MMNs) receive is diverse. They gain a broad knowledge of plants, animals and the natural communities they make up. They represent a new aspect of conservation activism.

Hunters and anglers were the first wave of American conservation. They founded the movement in response to depletion of the birds, mammals and fish on which their sports depended. Their success is evident in today's thriving populations of deer, turkeys, bass, crappie and other game fish and animals.

The current wave of conservation aims to conserve all wildlife. It places special emphasis on keeping habitat and living communities healthy to support endangered species and prevent other species from becoming endangered.

To pay for all-species conservation, proponents formed Teaming with Wildlife, a coalition that now comprises more than 5,000 conservation and wildlife-related recreation groups and businesses nationwide.
Coalition members work to get funding for state conservation programs.

The MMN Ozark Chapter isn't exactly at a loss for things to do. Since completing their initial training, the group or its individual members have formed a Stream Team, cleaned up a stretch of the North Fork River, participated in the Cornel Lab of Ornithology's Great Backyard Bird County, taken part in the Missouri Department of Conservation's amphibian monitoring program and "gobbleteer" study of wild turkey behavior, stabilized an eroding creek bank, eradicated invasive plants, planted a butterfly garden, created a small native plant prairie, conducted water quality testing and worked with children through Project Head Start. All this is in addition to taking eight additional hours of advanced training annually.

New projects for the Ozark Chapter include taking prescribed burn training and conducting prescribed burns, building a natural playground at Galloway Creek Nature Park in West Plains and developing an after-school program for special needs children in the West Plains R-7 School District.

"We stay busy, said Ozark Chapter President Sue Roberts, demonstrating a gift for understatement.

With so much on its plate, why did the group take on another project?

"Keeping healthy and diverse wildlife populations and healthy and diverse environments for them is very important to us," said Roberts.
"For that to happen for our generation and generations to come is going to take more than just one organization. It's going to take the Master Naturalists and Teaming with Wildlife supporting each other."

She sees her group's role as spreading the word about TWW and all-species conservation.

"We brought it up at one of our chapter meetings and voted on it.
One person thought it might be too political, but the members voted to do it. What we are doing to help is getting their information out. We hand out information at public events."

Other organizations that have joined the Missouri TWW coalition recently include the Missouri Forest Products Association, the Central Missouri Chapter of the Safari Club International, the Missouri Farmland Preservation Trust, the Eleven Point River Conservancy and the Midland Empire Audubon Society. A full list of members is available at teaming.com/states/missouri.html.

TWW was born in the early 1990s to address the challenge of nongame wildlife conservation. Since then the coalition has led efforts to fund wildlife conservation aimed at preventing wildlife from becoming endangered. TWW's main way of achieving this goal is through State Wildlife Grants (SWGs).

In 2000, the TWW coalition convinced Congress to fund state conservation programs. To qualify for the money, each state had to develop a comprehensive wildlife strategy. The focus of these state strategies was on preventing wild species from becoming endangered, instead of the more expensive and less effective approach of trying to rescue species already teetering on the brink of extinction.

SWG funding began reaching states in Fiscal Year 2001. State wildlife agencies use partnerships with local communities, businesses and conservation groups to leverage SWG funds.

To date, Missouri has received $9.7 million in SWG funds. This includes
$1.2 million for the 2008 fiscal year.

SWGs have become a mainstay of many states' conservation programs.
Missouri alone has received more than $7.3 million in SWG money since the program's inception. Examples of how this money is being used
include:
--Helping build a sewage system for the Mark Twain R-VIII Schools in Taney County. This helped the school keep its doors open and protected water that sustains the Tumbling Creek cave snail, an endangered species. Other federal, state and local partners joined in to make the deal work.
--Boosting prairie conservation and tourism around Cole Camp, Mo.
Historically, this area was home to the now state-endangered prairie chicken. SWG money is helping area landowners and tourism businesses restore a more natural balance that benefits wildlife and boosts the local economy through more profitable agriculture and eco-tourism.
--Working with the Kansas City Wildlands Diversity Initiative to enhance the wildlife value of limited green space. Thousands of volunteers clear brush, eradicate exotic plants and restore native plants to refuge areas.

For more information about State Wildlife Grants and Teaming with Wildlife, visit www.teaming.com/, or contact the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, 444 N. Capitol Street, NW Suite 725, Washington, DC 20001, (202) 624-7890, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

For more information about Missouri's Teaming with Wildlife coalition, contact Amy Buechler, Teaming with Wildlife Coordinator, Conservation Federation of Missouri, 728 West Main St., Jefferson City, MO 65101-1559, (573) 634-2322 or (800) 575-2322, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

OUR PARTNERS