Fatmuckets?
Mimi Cavender
Yes, Fatmuckets. And congratulations to all 28 of them! They are the fall 2024 training class of the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™ (HCMN). They were inducted to full membership and celebrated at the Chapter’s Spring Reunion and Graduation, Saturday afternoon, April 12, 2025, in Wimberley, Texas.
This group of trainees had continued a long tradition of proposing, vigorously campaigning for, and finally electing their official class name and totem—it was to be a Texas species, a noble icon of their class identity. These astute new Master Naturalists shall now and forever be known as Lampsilis bracteata—Fatmuckets!
Fatmuckets are a freshwater mussel, an indicator species—a canary in the coalmine—for stream water quality and, generally, for Texas’ ecological health, and they’re possibly endangered. Read U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s description and see if you don’t go all gooey with metaphor:
[This] Texas-endemic freshwater mussel species is known to occur only in tributaries of the Texas Hill Country's Colorado River. Like many other freshwater mussels, the proposed endangered Texas fatmucket has a unique life cycle that requires the use of a host fish…to transform the immature larva stage into a self-supporting juvenile mussel. The species is small to medium in size and has a yellow shell with broken brown or black rays that broaden near the shell's edge. The Texas fatmucket's distribution has been relegated to five known populations across 11 counties in central Texas. —U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Gala / Graduation Program design by Jill Zipperer
Fatmuckets soon learn that when HCMNs aren’t out saving natural Texas, they love a party.
Hays County Master Naturalists with their first year—or decades—of these celebrations behind them enjoy this opportunity to come together twice a year and welcome the new members.
Our Chapter’s trained HCMNs—who routinely work together throughout the year as “a corps of well-informed volunteers” to push, pull, plant, prune, protect, advise, and educate; who give of their professional life and skills, their weekends, their retirement, their accumulated life experience—serve this mission of Texas Master Naturalist™:
The Texas Master Naturalist Program’s mission is to develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas.
The Reunion is where all these congenial, nature-wise folks enjoy renewing friendships…
…talking a little shop…
…lining up for lunch…
…and looking forward to the start of the afternoon’s joyful business.
AWARDS
Hays County Master Naturalist Chapter president Bob Adkins welcomed the Spring Reunion crowd. The Chapter traditionally presents honorary awards for several categories of service to the Chapter, including individual Chapter members and Community Partners, those individuals and organizations within the Hays County community who often work alongside our members and who share our vision or support our mission. Martha Sanders, chair of the Awards committee, joined Bob onstage to present this spring's awards.
Outstanding Volunteer: Lynne Schaffer
An avid birder, locally and globally, Lynne is a longtime member of the Wimberley Birding Society and the Comal County Birders; she’s been a Master Naturalist since 2019. She has taken care of the feeders and viewing station at the Patsy Glenn Refuge for several years and has been involved for many years in the Christmas Bird Count for San Marcos and other nearby communities.
Significant Contribution to the Chapter: Mimi Cavender
2020 was a tough year to be a Master Naturalist trainee. In March, just as the HCMN class was finding its rhythm, the whole world changed—overnight. In a Hays Humm article, this volunteer from the Corona de Cristo Class of 2020 wrote, “We postponed outdoor volunteering, site visits, and field trips, and longed for them. But it was the camaraderie of those first live meetings that we missed the most.” Despite the disruption, “Two dozen trainees finished a first-time-ever virtual HCMN course.”
In the face of unprecedented challenges, this volunteer leveraged her skill set and quickly found a home on our team. She brought a new level of polish and creativity to our work. Since then, she has authored over 60 articles and has touched, proofed, edited, researched, and contributed to hundreds more. She’s mentored new reporters and shared tools that continue to guide our team. For five years, she’s been a steady, professional presence on the Humm editorial team.
Individual Community Partner: Barbara Mansur
A resident of Dripping Springs, Barbara is well known in that community as the first to help, volunteer, or be of assistance to a good cause in any way she can. It is said she has a heart of gold. She has been donating to HCMN since June of 2019 to purchase seed for birding stations in the Dripping Springs area. On behalf of the birds at Charro Ranch Park and Dripping Springs Ranch Park, Hays County Master Naturalists gratefully acknowledge her generosity.
Non-Profit Community Partner: The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment
Since 2004, Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™ members have been volunteering at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, part of the San Marcos River Foundation, and in 2024 we provided over 330 hours of volunteer work there.
HCMN’s volunteer activity has included installation and maintenance of the Center's raised beds and the construction of swales and berms in the grassy area behind the ticket kiosk. We planted riparian species along the trails and wetlands and removed invasive species, such as Johnson grass, cattails, and honeysuckle.
HCMN supports the Center’s free programming; we have had a booth every year at their Earth Day Festival and will be leading one of their Eco Sessions in 2025, educating the public about our area’s migratory and resident birds. San Marcos is now a Bird City.
The newest HCMN project is helping with the free field trips that the Center offers to San Marcos elementary schools. Our chapter leads an Education Station and will distribute copies of the Beautiful Hays County Activity and Coloring Book. The Center was able to fund a coloring book for almost every 3rd grader in San Marcos! Christopher Riggins, Wildlife & Fisheries Biologist with the Ecological Research Group and an HCMN, accepted the Award on behalf of the Meadows Center.
Business Community Partner: Wild Birds Unlimited in Dripping Springs
Longtime Dripping Springs residents Manuel and Anna Peña opened the Wild Birds Unlimited Dripping Springs location in September 2017. Just one year later, the City of Dripping Springs proclaimed October 9, 2018, Wild Birds Unlimited of Dripping Springs Day, recognizing the store’s involvement in park programs, community service, and donations benefitting Dripping Springs’ city parks. After retiring, Manny and Anna turned the store over to their daughter Amanda Bustillos and her husband Hector, who have continued the tradition of commitment to community.
The Peñas and Bustillos have been supporters of bird feeding and watering stations in both Charro Ranch Park and Dripping Springs Ranch Park. They helped raise funds for initial construction, installed owl nesting boxes at Charro, and continue their support with seed, feeders, and suet block contributions for both parks. Quite often, Hector himself takes on the job of filling the feeders and loading the storage bins with more seed. And if that weren’t enough, a couple of years ago Manny convinced Austin Subaru on Burnet Road to help fund birdseed purchases with a yearly monetary donation of $5,000, vastly expanding our ability to provide a great bird viewing experience for park visitors.
The Peñas and Bustillos, through Wild Birds Unlimited in Dripping Springs, have been HCMN’s generous partners, dedicated to educating the public, especially our children, instilling appreciation for nature—primarily for birds, their habitats, their future.
A Special Achievement Award was presented to Chapter President Bob Adkins for his vision and leadership during the 2024 Annual Texas Master Naturalist Meeting, hosted by the Hays County Chapter in San Marcos, Texas.
GRADUATION!
For Mary O’Hara, coordinating the Training Class was not enough. She organized this graduation party right down to the catered lunch, and with Carolyn Langlinais’ help she designed and created the table decorations.
Mary O’Hara called for members of the Fall 2024 HCMN Class of Fatmuckets to line up and receive their official graduation honors and membership in the Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™.
FUN AND GAMES!
All the day’s business done, HCMNs old and new regressed to childhood for the Trivia Contest. “It’s only for the glory,” they said, but these normally mild-mannered folk were in it to win. Eyes grew steely, pencils and claws sharpened. Six-member teams grouped up suddenly along the tables… Remember fifth-grade dodgeball? Uh-huh, like that.
Seasoned educators Jill Zipperer and Kristy Daniel had designed sets of increasingly difficult Texas nature trivia questions. Team members out along the tables had only seconds to reach consensus and record answers. Friendly competition. Bloodshed.
Time to tally points and congratulate the winning team: You know who you are. Calm down.
DOOR PRIZES
We’re all winners here. Get out your door prize stubs. There’s a long table over there full of cool stuff.
REUNION’S END
This is who we are, we Hays County Master Naturalists. We’re colleagues and friends, Central Texans born or arrived, young and forever young, curious about and enamored of the natural world. We protect Texas nature and enjoy one another’s company doing it. Read more here, and here, and if it sounds like you too, join us.
Photos courtesy Betsy Cross, Mimi Cavender, Tina Adkins, and Jane Dunham