Last weekend, the All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Cameron held their annual Blessing of the Animals/Fall Festival. Our Master Naturalist Chapter was invited to have a table there this year, and we were thrilled to participate. This was a great educational public outreach opportunity to discuss the importance of pollinators, promote our seed libraries, and recruit members for our upcoming Master Naturalist class to begin in January 2027.
Thank you to our TMN volunteers who helped at this event: Debbi Harris, Scott Berger, Alan Rudd, Terri Brickey, Liz Lewis, and myself. We gave away 100 wildflower seed packets, shared information about fall planting of wildflowers and planting native to promote conservation to create essential pollinator habitat, disseminated brochures about being a friend to pollinators, and also recruited prospective candidates for our upcoming TMN class. It was a great success!
Volunteers of the El Camino Real Master Naturalists and the Little River Basin Master Gardeners met together Tuesday to collaborate and fill the card catalog drawers of the Sow & Grow: Milam Seed Library (located in the Cameron Public Library).
Hard working seed sorters
We meet monthly to provide Milam County residents with free access to native seeds. We also stock a free-standing seed library at the Milam Wildscape. We will be expanding and adding a second seed library at the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library (Rockdale) later this month. This allows Millam County residents the opportunity to support pollinators and create their own natural habitat at home.
With fall approaching, it’s a great time to get your seeds in the ground to produce beautiful blooms in the spring. Just like nature does it, flowers drop their seeds onto the ground at the end of their blooming season. The seeds rest in the soil all winter and use a natural chilling process called cold stratification so the seeds sprout easily once spring arrives and the soil warms up. That’s how we get beautiful wildflowers in the spring!
Come get your seeds today! Planting native maximizes wildlife benefit, conserves water, and creates essential pollinator habitat directly sustaining the food supply and our quality of life.
Cameron Public Library hours are Monday – Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm.
The Texas Master Naturalist, El Camino Real Chapter invites all local lovers of the diverse and fascinating landscape of Texas to join us beginning in January for our next training class.
We have been gathering a selection of Texas plant, animal, water, and land experts to guide students through an in-depth introduction to our surroundings, with a special focus on Milam County and its immediate surroundings. Plus there will be field trips for immersive learning. You’ll never look at the land around you the same way again!
Learn about native plants and insects
As an accredited Texas Master Naturalist, you’ll get to attend monthly meetings, engage in fulfilling community outreach, and work on projects that benefit life around Milam County. Plus there’s a yearly annual meeting for more learning and networking opportunities among Texas Parks and Wildlife staff, AgriLife Extension staff, and nature lovers from all over Texas.
Participate in community projects
To learn more about the training and get on the list for more information, contact Alan Rudd at aerudd@yahoo.com or 979-220-3328.
We are excited to announce our participation in the Pollinators for Texas Initiative! Our chapter’s project was selected to receive financial support to enhance native pollinator conservation in our area! Our project, Sow & Grow: Milam Seed Library, aims to expand by adding two additional locations to provide Milam County residents with free access to native seeds and to teach about the importance of pollinators through educational programming. By providing free access to native seeds in various locations, all residents of Milam County will have the opportunity to support pollinators and create their own natural habitat at home, making a lasting impact on pollinator conservation.
A big thank you to H-E-B for their generous support in this initiative and their continued partnership with the Texas Master Naturalist program. Together, we’re working to safeguard and enhance native pollinator populations across Texas. For more information about the Pollinators for Texas Initiative, visit https://txmn.tamu.edu/pollinators-for-texas/.
Our announcement
The two new locations for expansion will be a seed library inside the Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library (Rockdale, TX) and a free-standing seed library to be placed outside at the El Camino Real City Wildscape ( All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Cameron, TX).
Our project wants to raise awareness of pollinator decline and its threat to one-third of the U.S. food supply, offer educational programs on native pollinators and ecosystem services, and launch a Native Wildscape Yard of the Month (April – September 2027, county-wide) to inspire residents to create beautiful native landscapes, dispel the “messy garden” stigma and encourage seed donation back to our libraries and sustaining our seed stock while building lasting habitat improvements throughout the community.
I’d like to recognize Catherine Johnson and Patsy Coombs for all their knowledge, encouragement and expertise as they supported me. Also, Elena Berkes, the head Librarian at the Cameron Pubic Library, totally embraced our Chapter’s installation of the seed library and has continued to support our efforts. Also, many thanks to the Little River Basin Master Gardeners who have partnered with us in supplying and packaging seeds for our project.
And of course, many thanks to our El Camino Real Chapter members for supporting my idea and continuing to come monthly to package seeds!
