March 6, 2005
CEU Day, Thursday 4 March 05
The Continuing Education session held at the Extension office on Thursday was a really fun afternoon. We had a team-presentation by Chuck Benedict of AZGFD, and Pam Sponholtz, USFWS on the Fossil Creek Restoration Project and Status, backed up by participating expertise from NAU.
Many Master Naturalists received their certificates, along with fleece vests, and it was interesting to hear people's spontaneous take on their participation in various organizations and how the Master Naturalist program had enhanced the experience. We will probably post a complete list of those "certified" here soon. If you are on the list, you will also show up when your name is "Googled" by anyone in the world!
We had a detailed discussion of the newly-published CEU Policy regarding how to go achieve the necessary hours for certification. Although a printed copy was distributed, some important additions have been made already, based on feedback from you. These are already added (and noted by the date added) to the on-line version in the Archives under the category "Blog & Class Syllabus", which you can read and/or print.
We also heard an appeal for volunteers by Rebecca Garrett, program coordinator,Greg __ ,wildlife ecology volunteer, and Ron Bauman, Project Lead, all from The Nature Conservancy. They use naturalists to lead guests through their Hart Prairie Preserve, and other projects, and using Master Naturalists makes their training job much easier.
We got a short brief from Scott Harger about volunteering for the Black-footed Ferret Reintroduction program, in March in particular.
Brian Cooperider let us know about two workdays in March, sponsored by NAZ Audubon, AZGFD, and Unisource, at Page Springs Hatchery, which is also a delightful bird sanctuary.
More details on these and many other opportunities are here on the blog.